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Riccardo heart of... Ice

Riccardo heart of... Ice

Translated by the Webmaster


I think I've followed Riccardo Patrese since his first of F. Italia, but not always on the race fields and I probably had a quite different idea of him from the one I have now. I perfectly remember some of his beautiful races of the '75 season, such as that one... A pursuit that he played at the end of the championship at Imola. A lot of good things was already being said about him, even if some malignant ones put forward hypotheses evidently impossible to prove of a possible superiority of his machine compared to others... However, the championship of F. Italia had another champion who at the beginning of the year was highly anticipated in F. 3 for his placement with an official team. ​


Little was said about Patrese. Riccardo already is a character who makes... Little character, so shy and so Venetian in all his behaviors. And the Venetians do not mind it: I have one of the most gutted sympathies for them, for their simplicity, modesty, but the strong sense of friendship and "camaraderie" intervenes when you have relationships with them. It was only to say that he, world champion of Kart and already on everyone's lips for the, however, very valid performances in F. Italy, was not yet sufficiently chatted, also because he made his facts all quiet, with journalists he had no relationships, and when he had to deal with them, he responded politely and obsequiously greeting them at the first opportunity.


AN UNKNOWN IMMEDIATELY SOLVED


Practically at the beginning of the season it was rumored that he would go racing with the Trivellato, with a new car, the Chevron, of which, however, little was known. The boy had tested at Misano, good times, promising, but nothing more. An unknown factor, in short, even for Trivellato himself, always full of hope, but he too is still waiting for the famous results.


However, these arrived immediately. At the Nürburgring, the first race of the European season (while at Mugello on the same day we had the first race of the Italian championship of the same specialty won by the usual Pesenti Rossi) great exaltation for the twenty-one year old from Padua (he had to turn 22 fifteen days later) who completed an amazing race and did not get the first points only because of the rain, and in any case it only yielded to a specialist of the caliber of Conny Anderson who had probably already raced at least fifty times on the very difficult Nürburgring track.


I still remember the telex sent to us by Jeff Hutchinson, an English journalist who knows about racing, and who did nothing but talk about this young Paduan. From the Nürburgring to Zandvoort, another circuit from F. 1, and this time Patrese, also thanks to the contact that puts Gianfranco Brancatelli out of the race, badly hit by the local idol, Boy Hayje, has no difficulty in winning the first race of the season, and with this to lead the interesting European Formula 3 championship.


After this race I met Riccardo in person, in Varano, where I went animated by great curiosity, and where I had the first disappointment. Let's be clear, not disappointment on the part of the driver, who satisfied me fully even if he did not win the race, but by the man, or rather by the boy, all closed in the Trivellato truck, always alone or at most with dad and mom. I didn't expect him to come up to me and tell me all his European impressions, but I didn't expect him to be so evasive when I tried to find out from the protagonist's voice how things had gone in Germany and Holland.


"Nothing special, at the Nürburgring I felt good... In Holland I won... Goodbye, good morning." ​


I remember talking about it with Brancatelli, already much more extroverted than him, who confirmed these impressions of mine, adding: "yes, he doesn’t talk much, but is very good..."


After this Italian race Riccardo returned to his European calendar, Mantorp Park, the Avus. I remember looking for him after this second German race in the Trivellato workshop. A few lapidary words: “That's not a track. Basically, you go and come back around two rubber cones. One puts all the brands he has and waits to brake, climb, and put them back. I broke the gearbox”.


THE CRY OF LIBERATION


At this point of the season, after four races, Conny Anderson, the thirty-seven-year-old Swede who had recently joined the team with Brancatelli and raced with the semi-official March for the colors of the Speedprint, took the lead in the standings. ​


Only in Pergusa I think I knew the real Patrese. Or maybe only in Sicily we were able to talk long enough, or to have really "cheered" for this shy boy, who went from anger, from the discouragement of the moments before the departure to the boundless joy, to the cry of "liberation" after a race suffered and fought against adverse conditions, very worthy and strong opponents, especially against his panic fear of the wet. ​


"It's crazy to start with this water", he argued with a kind of pout already deployed in a car, while the willing Sicilians worked hard to try to thin out the puddles that made the path of the lake more than insidious. And he had in fact started quite unloaded in the final, demoralized by his intimate conviction of not being competitive like the others in the wet, especially fearing that Conny Anderson who in terms of experience is second to none. He struggled alone, the only Chevron in a sea of March, recovering meter by meter after a departure as usual quite unhappy. ​


Here's another thing I was able to understand. Why Patrese has always given so much to his opponents at the start in the first laps. Why should he only do comeback races, even when he could start from the front row. Maybe it will be a bit the characteristic of the driver, of the car. The fact is that this also happened in Sicily. Even in Pergusa he relentlessly grinded his opponents, and in three quarters of the race he overtook the Swede at the very beginning of the straight of the stands, with the Sicilian public resurfacing after the flood, all on their feet for a race that perhaps he had never seen before. so exciting.


Probably in Pergusa Riccardo Patrese built his success, his portentous season that has carried him so far. He had to beat the rain, he had to gain this new confidence in his abilities, he changed.


Two Sundays later, at the Monza Lottery he was another driver, another confident man, loaded with a snack, now only eager to confirm those skills, those characteristics that had already emerged from the previous race. He never cared about Giacomelli's presence, whom we had all emphasized a little to make this championship that lived on fire even more interesting. His opponent was once again Conny Anderson, once again the Pergusa race was repeated, once again he had to recover and this time thousands of Italians saw him on television, and they realized what this tenacious, taciturn Paduan was capable of. ​


Conny Anderson himself, once again, was unable to say anything other than "the boy had gone very well".


It was done. He had become the man to beat, and they tried. Since the improprieties on Swedish soil, Patrese returned with morale under his feet.


"It's not serious to play a whole championship in one race. There they really did everything to knock me out." And the chorus of complaints was confirmed by the other Italians, who had all paid the price of this strange administration of sports justice at the Ring Knutstorp. The battle of Vallelunga is now a thing of our days. The tension touched with the fingers. And here perhaps the nerves of the icy Chevron driver jumped for a moment, who despite realizing that he had won the title for the penalty imposed on Anderson, wanted at all costs to pass it, making his own the game of the Swede who now played the last card of the trap ... ​


"I couldn't stay behind there all the time; I went with another rhythm. I also wanted to show the Romans that I was the strongest. I couldn't be satisfied with a second place, even in the drums, behind Andersson. And then I also had to think about not starting from the back in the final...”


Therefore, he even pulled out his fists at the end of the race, showing for the first time in his season the over-tightened "rope" of a very hard, hard-fought championship.


But he was able to "recharge" in time for the last round of the season, the final one (one more!) for the Italian championship, which saw him opposed this time to Gianfranco Brancatelli. With a skilful tuning work carried out a few days before the race ("for the first time we went around the shock absorbers") he presented himself relaxed, calm before the last clash, while both Brancatelli and Ghinzani felt a bit the weight of this final. And in the race, even this time, he had no opponents. ​


"Now let's go skiing, you will see that I will teach you something good there!" ​


We became friends. But even now, like a year ago, even after a successful season, which brought him notoriety and esteem, he remained that simple guy, a little out of this world, even that of racing ... ​


"Listen, do you know something new about me? So many people tell me so many things, they tell me about F1. But if you know something tell me. I'm always the last to know..."

© 1976 Autosprint • By Leopoldo Canetoli • Published here for non-profit, entertainment-only purposes

© Patrese Archives • 2002 - 2025

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