Patrick Tambay, who passed away yesterday at 73 years old after suffering from Parkinsons Disease for many years will, correctly be best remembered for his Formula 1 career which encompassed 144 races, 2 wins (the 1982 German GP and the 1983 San Marino GP – both with Ferrari) and spells with Theodore, McLaren, Ligier, Ferrari, Renault and Team Haas between 1977 and 1986.
Beyond his F1 adventures though there was plenty of sportscar action, and no little success, to remember.
A two-time Can-Am Champion (1977 and 1980) both for Carl Haas Racing, and both in Chevrolet powered Lola machinery, the T333CS in ’77 after Tambay was drafted in as a replacement for the injured Brian Redman, the T530 in 1980 (pictured top).
There were four starts at Le Mans, all in quality machinery: 1976 and 1977 with the factory Renault Alpine squad, both times in an Alpine A442, 1976 with Jean-Pierre Jabouille and José Dolhem (half brother of Didier Pironi), 1977 with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. 1980 saw him drive a Rondeau with Henri Pescarolo but all three efforts saw him fail to finish.
His Le Mans history ended on a relative high though with a fine fourth overall as part of the TWR Jaguar effort in an XJR9 LM shared with Jan Lammers and Andrew Gilbert Scott.
Tambay ran a full season aboard the Jaguar together with Lammers in 1989, a season dominated by Sauber but which also saw the Jaguar challenge wilt at times, a best result of second overall at Jarama for the pair en route to eighth in the Championship.
Tambay also scored a pair of overall podiums in the Paris Dakar Rally, and had ice racing success too!
The final racing adventure on track came in the mid 1990s with a couple of US races aboard the Monaco Racing Team Bugatti EB110 S that failed to pre-qualify for Le Mans in 1996.
His son Adrien continues his racing legacy. All at DSC pass our sincerest condolences to Adrien and to the whole Tambay family.
Pictures copyright to and with thanks to racingsportscars.com
