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Born: 9 August 1944, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Died: 1 August1980 Hockenheim, Germany

GP's contested: 95 (1972 till 1980)
Pole position: 1
Victories: 2
Fastest lap: 4

Patrick Depailler, born in 1944 was among the six drivers who reached the final of the “Volant Shell” which took place on the Magny Courts Circuit in 1967. He narrowly missed the Formula 3 Brabham and Shell sponsorship for one year which rewarded the winner, François Cevert.
Before trying to get his foot into car racing, he had raced motorcycles and had become a fried of Jean-Pierre Beltoise, also a former motorcycle racer who had switched to cars and drove René Bonnet “Djets” in the small car classes of sports car races.
Beltoise recommended Depailler to Mauro Bianchi who raced rival Alpine Berlinettas and was also responsible for chassis development at the Dieppe factory. He, in turn forwarded the suggestion to Alpine boss Jean Redele who had been one of the judges at the “Volant Shell” contest and was not too keen to enrol him as a driver, but accepted Bianchi’s suggestion to take him as a racing mechanic. As Bianchi had faith in Depailler’s potential, he let him practice under his guidance and when Depailler reached the required speed standards, he was eventually taken into the Alpine-Renault Formula 3 team; He then moved to Formula 2 and took 4th place in the F2 championship in 1973, driving a March-Ford.

Even before that, Depailler's polished and efficient driving had been spotted by Ken Tyrrell who entrusted him with a Formula 1 car in the French and U.S. Grand Prix of 1972. Tyre and suspension problems put him out of the French race, but in Watkins Glen, he qualified 11th, only two seconds slower than Jackie Stewart’s pole time with a similar Tyrrell-Ford, and finished 7th, just behind Jacky Ickx’s and Mario Andretti’s Ferraris.

In 1973, he was too busy concentrating on the F2 championship to find time for the odd drive in F1. But in 1974, after Stewart’s retirement and Cevert’s death, Patrick became a full member of the Tyrrell team where his team mate was Jody Scheckter who already had a full F1 season with McLaren behind him. But Depailler never the less managed pole position and 2nd place, just behind Scheckter, in the Swedish GP and was credited with 9th place in the World Championship, a feat he repeated in the following year.

Patrick remained with Tyrrell for five seasons, two of them driving the strange Tyrrell six-wheeler. In 1976 he managed 4th place in the World Championship, driving that car, but in five years he won only one Grand Prix: that was Monaco when Tyrrell-Ford cars were back to four wheels. Of his team mates, only Scheckter did better, winning four GPs in the three years he was with Tyrrell.

For one year, Depailler moved to the Ligier-Ford team to partner Jacques Laffite, but drove only in the first seven races of which he won the Spanish GP. It could have been his best season, but it was curtailed by a Delta plane crash in which he was seriously hurt. Meanwhile Ligier had contacted other drivers and Patrick accepted an offer to lead the Alfa Romeo team in 1980.

This was to be a fatal decision. Not only did he not score a single championship point, but when testing for Alfa Romeo on the Hockenheim circuit, on August 1, he crashed fatally in the north curve of the circuit in circumstances which were never properly explained; That day France lost one of its most polished drivers, but also one of its most likable personalities on the race tracks.