Patrick Depailler

The archetypal wiry little Frenchman, a cigarette perpetually hanging from the corner of his mouth, Depailler was something of a free spirit - a throwback to an earlier age, who lived for the moment and raced accordingly.

Schooled in the French F3 championship, Patrick spent three seasons between 1967 and 1969 driving a works Alpine-Renault, but also had occasional races in the Alpine sports-prototype, taking a third place in the Monza 1000 Km of 1968. A switch to Formula 2 with the Elf-Pygmée team for 1970 proved something of a disaster, the final straw being a practice crash at the Salzburgring from which he was lucky to escape with slight burns. Luckily he still had the faith of Elf, who backed him again the following year but this time in a Tecno. Apart from a sixth place at Pau little went right for Depailler at this level, but he was more than happy to race the works Alpine-Renault once more, becoming the 1971 French F3 champion.

By 1972 he was already 28 years of age and had left it quite late in motor racing terms if he was going to make the leap up into the big time. After winning the Monaco F3 race, it was third time lucky in his attempts to crack Formula 2, Patrick taking second places in the races at Pau, Enna and Albi. His performances in the Elf/John Coombs March 722 put him in the frame for a couple of rides with his old chum Ken Tyrrell. It was more of the same in 1973, when once again a win in F2 just seemed to elude him, poor Patrick having to settle for no fewer than four second places this time around, and even worse was to follow. A motor cycle accident left him with a broken leg and he was forced to miss the two drives in North America that Tyrrell had lined up for him.

Fortunately his leg was soon to mend, and he was in the Tyrrell team full-time in 1974 with Jody Scheckter as his team-mate. In a highly competitive year, he brought the Tyrrell home in the points on six occasions and took a pole in Sweden, the first time a Frenchman had achieved this feat in a World Championship race, while in Formula 2 he finally broke his long dry spell, winning four rounds, at Pau, Mugello, Hockenheim and Vallelunga.

Patrick stuck with Tyrrell to become Formula 1 racing's 'nearly-man' over the next three seasons, taking seven second places in Grands Prix (and another in the 1975 non-title Swiss GP) before an emotional triumph at Monaco in 1978. Lured to Ligier for the 1979 season, when the team were at their zenith, if only for a short spell, Patrick won the Spanish GP and lay equal third in the championship when a mid-season hang-gliding accident sidelined him with serious leg injuries.

Struggling back to fitness, he joined Alfa Romeo in 1980, shrugging aside the frustrations of developing the unreliable car. He was beginning to make real progress when, in a solitary test session at Hockenheim, something went wrong with the car, probably a suspension breakage, depositing the helpless driver into the Armco at massive speed. He stood no chance of survival. Depailler had lived life to the full, and even in darker moments, as he fought the pain of his injuries, it would not be long before a broad smile would emerge, crinkling his face with laughter lines. A fitting way to remember him.