1,000 Greatest Drivers: Riccardo Patrese/Paul Tracy
Two drivers whose names unexpectedly sound almost the same.
Since I want to go to sleep right now and had to get two done to almost catch up, I didn’t want to write an intro, so I decided to make both of these free even though I was originally going to paywall them. I will say I think the entries I write for the drivers I am less familiar with tend to be better and have more energy, while with somebody like Paul Tracy, I try to squeeze in so much information into a 500-word box that it ends up boring and mundane and I’m not saying much that has not been said before. My original entry had 1,316 words before I pared it down. I really wanted to get that iconic quote from the definitive Tracy biographical article, “One weekend, Paul would be Jimmy Clark. The next weekend, he’d be Jimmy Spencer.” but I couldn’t find room, so that article ended up more boring than it should have been given all the controversial incidents he was involved with. Still, I’m continuing to insist on a 500-word entry for each driver unless I don’t have 500 words to say about a given driver just so writing in the book will be even, but it does result in the entries for the drivers whose careers I didn’t watch being more colorful in comparison.
RICCARDO PATRESE………………ITALY
Born: April 17, 1954
Best year: 1982
Best drive: 1978 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
While never one of the best Formula One drivers at any point, Patrese was an extremely reliable one for many years, starting a then-record 256 F1 races as a consistently reliable presence. After nosing out his future teammate Eddie Cheever to win the World Karting Championship in 1974, he then won the European Formula 3 and Italian Formula 3 titles simultaneously in 1976. Patrese debuted for Jackie Oliver’s Shadow team in 1977, then followed Oliver to his new team Arrows in 1978. Arrows ran continuously through 2002 but never won. Patrese was actually the team’s most successful driver, earning three of its four second-place finishes and its only pole at Long Beach in 1981. In the team’s second race at Kyalami, he led 37 laps before blowing an engine.
Despite his accomplishments, his early career was overshadowed by controversy. James Hunt believed an aggressive pass Patrese made on him at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix forced him into Ronnie Peterson, triggering Peterson’s fatal crash; he was even tried in court for manslaughter but was acquitted. A cabal of drivers successfully lobbied to keep Patrese out of the next race and Hunt never forgave Patrese, but he gradually won the other drivers’ respect.
Patrese left Arrows to join Nelson Piquet at Brabham in 1982, where he inherited the lead at Monaco when Alain Prost crashed before spinning out on the penultimate lap, then inheriting the win when the top three drivers’ cars all stopped on the last lap. Although Patrese actually beat Piquet in points that year, Piquet utterly steamrolled him in 1983, but he won the season finale after Piquet intentionally slowed down in the Kyalami season finale to avoid a retirement. Patrese’s cars at Benetton, Brabham, and Williams from 1984-1988 were uncompetitive before Williams’s new Renault engines suddenly made them a powerhouse in 1989. Patrese won four races for Williams, but Thierry Boutsen mildly outperformed him before Nigel Mansell set the single-season win record in 1992 as his teammate. That year’s Williams FW14B was so dominant that Patrese finished a career-best second in points, but I generally find his earlier seasons in slower cars more impressive, and I think most of his best runs came in races he lost. Patrese retired after one final season at Benetton in 1993.
I tend to be harsher on drivers whose legacies are based more on longevity than peak performance and that certainly applies to Patrese. Having said that, in addition to earning most of Arrows’s success in only four years, he was an exceptionally strong overtaker with a lead change record of 12-5. I’m also impressed by his versatility. While simultaneously competing in F1, Patrese also earned 5 overall wins and 4 class wins in the World Sportscar Championship, even finishing second in points to Jacky Ickx in 1982. His career had enough flashes of brilliance over a long enough timeframe to justify his inclusion, even though he seldom hit high peaks and his ratings and records in my models are subpar.
Open wheel model: #355 of 931 (.007)
Teammate head-to-heads: 26-40 (4-9 vs. Thierry Boutsen, 3-1 vs. Eddie Cheever, 1-0 vs. Derek Daly, 1-0 vs. Bruno Giacomelli, 0-2 vs. Alan Jones, 1-0 vs. Lamberto Leoni, 1-15 vs. Nigel Mansell, 6-4 vs. Jochen Mass, 1-4 vs. Nelson Piquet, 1-0 vs. Jean-Louis Schlesser, 0-5 vs. Michael Schumacher, 1-0 vs. Siegfried Stohr, 3-0 vs. Rolf Stommelen, 3-0 vs. Derek Warwick)
Touring car model: #1393 of 1676 (-.304)
Teammate head-to-heads: 2-10 (1-0 vs. Michele Alboreto, 0-1 vs. Paolo Barilla, 0-3 vs. Thierry Boutsen, 0-1 vs. Alan Jones, 0-2 vs. Nicola Larini, 1-1 vs. Alessandro Nannini, 0-2 vs. Kris Nissen)
Year-by-year: 1976: C, 1977: C-, 1978: C+, 1979: C, 1980: C+, 1981: C+, 1982: E-, 1983: C+, 1984: C, 1985: C, 1986: C+, 1987: C, 1988: C, 1989: C+, 1990: C, 1991: C, 1992: C-, 1993: C
PAUL TRACY……………………CANADA
Born: December 17, 1968
Best year: 1993
Best drive: 1993 Long Beach Grand Prix
One of IndyCar’s most polarizing drivers, Tracy could’ve been the best driver of his generation but erratic behavior prevented him from truly fulfilling his potential. After becoming the youngest Can-Am winner in 1986, Tracy set a single-season record of nine Indy Lights wins in 1990 en route to the championship. In 1991, Tracy made his debut for Dale Coyne Racing before shortly thereafter signing a five-year development deal for Penske, then became full-time when Rick Mears stepped aside in mid-1992.
Tracy’s prototypical race came at Phoenix in 1993, where he crashed while leading by two laps with 40 laps remaining, but he came back to win at Long Beach despite being injured in a kart crash the previous week, tied Nigel Mansell for the most wins with five, and he actually led almost all my advanced statistical categories. In 1994, Penske added a third car for Al Unser, Jr. Penske’s drivers swept the top three points positions and won 12 of 16 races, but Marlboro wanted to sponsor only two cars in later seasons and Tracy instead switched to Newman-Haas Racing. When Emerson Fittipaldi washed up in 1995, Penske rehired Tracy in 1996, and his three straight oval wins in 1997 were Penske’s only wins between 1996-1999. However, Penske fired Tracy for insubordination after the 1997 season ended.
Team Green added a second car for Tracy in 1998, but he was mildly disappointing as his previously-unheralded teammate Dario Franchitti regularly beat him in points and he became the first CART driver to be suspended for rough driving in 1999. At the 2002 Indy 500, Tracy passed Penske’s Hélio Castroneves on the penultimate lap while a simultaneous crash caused a race-ending caution. IRL officials controversially argued the caution began before the pass, which many observers believed to be political as Green raced in CART while Penske had just switched to the IRL. Michael Andretti subsequently bought Team Green and moved it to the IRL, but Tracy boycotted the IRL, instead signing for CART’s biggest stalwart Gerry Forsythe. He dominated the 2003 season, but after the mass IRL exodus, his only real competition came from rookie Sébastien Bourdais, who eventually overtook and frequently feuded with him. Tracy never found a full-time ride when IndyCar reunited in 2008 because Forsythe had no interest in the IRL and a declining Tracy still demanded a large salary. Instantly retiring after being caught up in Dan Wheldon’s fatal crash, he was an IndyCar color commentator for NBC Sports Network from 2014-2021.
Although Tracy’s teammates typically beat him in points, those teammates were usually all-time greats and he frequently matched them. He and Franchitti are actually tied with 31 wins but Franchitti had more titles and Indy 500 wins against stronger competition. Tracy’s numbers were still great even if his performances wildly diverged between seasons. He led all CART drivers in my model in both 1993 and 1997. While few want to admit it due to his loathsome persona, Tracy is certainly one of his era’s greats.
Open wheel model: #177 of 931 (.126)
Teammate head-to-heads: 91-73 (0-4 vs. A.J. Allmendinger, 11-9 vs. Michael Andretti, 0-1 vs. Ana Beatriz, 0-1 vs. Townsend Bell, 1-0 vs. Ed Carpenter, 10-10 vs. Patrick Carpentier, 10-0 vs. Mario Dominguez, 14-8 vs. Emerson Fittipaldi, 1-0 vs. A.J. Foyt IV, 18-19 vs. Dario Franchitti, 0-1 vs. Davey Hamilton, 7-1 vs. Rodolfo Lavin, 2-1 vs. David Martinez, 1-0 vs. Rick Mears, 0-1 vs. Franck Montagny, 2-0 vs. Mario Moraes, 1-0 vs. Takuma Sato, 3-3 vs. Oriol Servia, 1-0 vs. Al Unser, 7-11 vs. Al Unser, Jr., 2-0 vs. E.J. Viso, 0-3 vs. Justin Wilson)
Year-by-year: 1990: C, 1992: C, 1993: 3, 1994: E, 1995: C+, 1996: C+, 1997: E, 1999: E-, 2000: E-, 2002: C+, 2003: E, 2004: E-, 2005: E, 2007: C-