Part 7 : Flying at Ligier

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The end of 1978 saw Depailler for the first time behind the wheel of a Ligier in tests for his new team. The French press was looking forward to the new season and was expecting a colossal battle for supremacy in the team between Patrick and Jacques Laffite. A dual without mercy, as it was also referred to. Guy Ligier made it clear that there would be no team orders whatsoever and that each driver would receive equal treatment during the new season. Patrick also expected this from his new team and this was made clear before he signed for Ligier. Under no circumstances he would be treated as a number two driver in the team.

The team's new ground effects car, the Ligier JS11, was for the first time fitted with a Cosworth engine. In previous years they relied on the Matra V12 engines. Gerard Ducarouge and Michel Beaujon designed the car. Depailler was extremely impressed with the car when he drove it for the first time at Paul Ricard. He could not believe the good times that he were setting after only a few laps in the car and according to him the car was just perfect.

Patrick couldn't have hoped for a better debut in the Ligier when the teams arrived at the end of January in Argentina for the first race of 1979. During Thursday's unofficial practice he set the fastest time - more than 0,5 seconds quicker than the second fastest man. He held on to this spot in Friday morning's official practice. In the afternoon a sticking skirt saw him being almost a second slower than what he had been in the morning. Patrick said that the car was fantastic and even minor adjustments produced immediate results - the first time that he had ever driven a car that felt like that. Laffite improved on Depailler's time on Saturday. Skirt problems, traffic and oil on the circuit prevented Patrick from improving his time.

Depailler made a great start and was leading the race for the first 10 laps. Laffite then passed him. The two Ligiers ran in tandem for the next 34 laps. Patrick gradually began to fall back and with his engine misfiring he decided to make a pit stop on lap 46. His team sent him out immediately again, but he had by then fallen back to 4th place. He held on to this position until the chequered flag came out 7 laps later.

The Ligiers were yet again on top form two weeks later in Brazil and continued their excellent performances of the previous race. Patrick, though, was not too happy with his car and could do nothing to improve the times that were set by his teammate during practice. His times were good enough to ensure a place on the front row of the grid, next to Laffite. It was also Laffite that made the best getaway in the race, when Depailler lost time with too much wheelspin at the start. He still managed to slot in behind Laffite at the first corner and from then on the Ligiers began to pull away from the rest of the field. Any chances that Patrick had in passing Laffite came to nought in the race, when he was first held up by back markers and then later on due to worsening oversteer.

With their two convincing wins in the opening races of the season, the Ligier team was suddenly a top contender for the 1979 title. Laffite was in terrific form and set a benchmark for his new teammate that was going to be difficult to improve on. Patrick was still finding his feet at Ligier, but he also knew in the back of his mind that it could easily have been himself that won the South American Grands Prix, if it was not for the mechanical problems that he suffered during these races.

Depailler out qualified Laffite for the first time at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, but the Ligiers were not as fast as in the South American races. The Ferraris of Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter dominated practice this time around. Patrick would start the race from 5th position - a time he set up during a very hot Friday practice session. The race was somewhat of a catastrophe and was stop on only the second lap due to heavy rains. Patrick was one of only a handful of drivers that began the race on slick tyres and when the red flag came out he had dropped back to 10th place. The circuit was still very damp at the restart sometime later. Depailler dropped back even further, due to the lack of adhesion of his dry weather tyres. Only two laps after the restart he was out of the race, when he spun his car into the catch-fences at Barbeque corner.

The Ferrari's were again faster than the Ligiers in practice at the next Grand Prix in Long Beach and Patrick found himself in fourth place on the grid. His time was also slower than that of Carlos Reutemann (Lotus) who occupied the front row next to pole-sitter, Gilles Villeneuve.

Depailler made a great get away and was in second position after the start and first corner dash. While the leader, Villeneuve, was pulling away from the rest, Depailler and Scheckter had a good scrap going. By lap 8, though, both of them were passed by Jarier in a Tyrrell. Scheckter also eventually got by the Ligier, which meant that Patrick was back in fourth place. The Ligier was running into brake problems by now. Later in the race he got involved in a battle with Mario Andretti, who eventually also got pass him. With Jarier retiring and Jones also getting past, Patrick had to be satisfied with fifth position at the completion of the 80 lap race.

The first Grand Prix of the European season was at Jarama in Spain. The Ligiers were fitted with revised oil pumps and new brake ducts for this race.
The Ferraris were at first dominating the practice session, but in the final session on Saturday afternoon, both the Ligiers once again showed their speed, with Laffite and Depailler taking the front row grid positions for the race. Patrick's time was just a fraction slower than his teammate, this in spite of having to pass two slower cars on his fastest timed lap.

From the start of the race, the two French cars pulled away from the rest at an alarming rate. Patrick immediately took the lead and gave it everything in the early laps. In his efforts to stay with Depailler, Laffite missed a gear change on lap 16, which led to a blown engine. Patrick immediately slowed his pace and was never troubled again during the race. He took the chequered flag to clinch his second F1 victory. It was a very proud and happy Depailler that received his cup and the winner's laurels from King Juan Carlos. He said afterwards that it was a very easy win. Patrick and Gilles Villeneuve were now leading the Drivers' World Championship on 20 points each.

The Ligiers were also on the front row for the next Grand Prix, the Belgian GP at Zolder, although practice did not go as smoothly for Patrick as what it appeared. The first practice session saw him loosing a lot of time when new ratios were fitted to his gearbox. He also experienced some tyre problems. In the next session he badly damaged the sidepods of his car when he went off the circuit. A week prior, during a test for the race, he had an accident at the same spot. He was confident, though, that he would outrace Laffite again, like in Spain.

He made a great start and was leading the race, closely followed by Alan Jones (Williams) and Jacques Laffite. On lap 19 Laffite passed Depailler and 3 laps later it was Jones that did the same. Depailler was now third. Jones took the lead on lap 24 and a fierce tussle for second place developed between the Ligier drivers. When Jones dropped out on lap 39, Patrick was again in the lead, but on lap 46 he threw away his chances of winning, by missing the apex into a corner. The car under steered through some catch fences and into a barrier. The reason for this was perhaps the front tyres that had variable grip throughout the race on both the Ligiers. Some people thought that Patrick was pushing too hard and Patrick Tambay made the comment that Depailler threw away the 1979 World Championship at that specific point.

Before the Monaco weekend, the next race on the calendar, it was uncertain whether Patrick would compete in the race, due to an injured wrist. This was the result of his accident at the Belgian Grand Prix. He was eager to race, though, and set third fastest time in the final practice session, improving from being 7th fastest after the Thursday's session.

For the second round of the '79 Procar Championship, that was held the day before the Grand Prix, Patrick was amongst a few other Grand Prix drivers that were allocated with a BMW M1 to boost the number of drivers in this race. It took some time for him to get use to the performance of the bulky car on the twisting and narrow circuit. The race was contested over 15 laps. As the pack of 18 cars came around to complete the first lap, Patrick was in fifth place. Regazzoni and Lauda were leading comfortably, while Jarier, Fittipaldi, Depailler, Hezemans and Surer were fighting it out in one great bunch. Patrick moved up to fourth place and was putting much pressure on Fittipaldi for third position. On lap 11, though, he spun the car and was struck by Marc Surer in the process. That led to his retirement.

On the Sunday's Grand Prix the Ferraris were leading away from the front row, while Lauda managed to pass Depailler for third spot. He then successfully managed to hold up the Ligiers, albeit under extreme pressure from Depailler for most of the time. On lap 19, Pironi tried an optimistic passing manoeuvre on Patrick at the Station Hairpin. The Tyrrells right front wheel touched the left rear of the Ligier, which sent Patrick's car into a spin. In the processed he also stalled the cars engine. By the time he got going again Depailler had fallen back to 14th position. Although he fought back nicely, he got stuck behind John Watson's Mclaren for almost the rest of the race. Eight laps from the end he finally got by Watson and immediately set the fastest lap of the race. He was running in 4th position when his engine blew up on the penultimate lap. This dropped him backed to 5th position in the final classification.

With the season reaching its halfway mark it appeared that the title honours would go to either Ferrari or Ligier. Patrick was confident that minor improvements on the Ligier would lead to more success in the final half of the year, but then disaster struck…

Just a couple of days after the Monaco Grand Prix, Patrick was at home in Clermont-Ferrand. He took up the challenge of hang gliding shortly before and saw the break between the Monaco and French Grands Prix as an ideal opportunity to improve his skills. Depailler and a few friends set off to conquer the skies above the Puy de Dome. What turned out to be a happy, carefree summers day, ended in a tragic catastrophe. During one of his flights, Patrick flew too close to the mountain. His hang glider was caught by some turbulence and thrown into the rockface at well over 50km/h.

Patrick received dreadful injuries to both his legs. His legs and ankles were fractured at numerous places and if this was not enough, there were also injuries to his arms and wrists. Not only did he face several months in hospital, but his 1979 season was also over and his future participation in the sport was in jeopardy. Depailler was the first to admit that he was too inexperienced with hang gliding and that the accident could have been avoided if he had more training. He was first hospitalised in Clermont-Ferrand where a series of operations were done to reconstruct his legs and ankles. Shortly afterwards there was a set back when his wounds became infected. This was a time of agony and big worries for poor Patrick. Doctors were discussing the option of amputation due to the severity of the situation.

Depailler was soon transferred to a hospital in Paris where he began treatment under Dr. Letournel, one of France's top orthopaedic surgeons. One operation after another followed in the hope of mending his broken bones so that he can regain full use of them again. Patrick was responding well to Letournel's expertise, but he still faced many weeks in hospital, many days without sleep and most of all the uncertainty if he'll regain the use of his legs so that it will allow him to race again. The psychological suffering caused by the accident and also the response of some people was something that made Patrick very dejected.

Immediately after the accident some people openly criticised Patrick for the accident. According to them he was foolish and irresponsible in the way he behaved. The motorcycle accident of 1973 again surfaced and his critics could just not understand why he had to risk life and limb with dangerous hobbies like hang gliding, motorcycling, skiing and scuba diving. Guy Ligier in particular was extremely upset. He blamed Depailler for brake of contract, since he said that his drivers were not allowed to practise dangerous pastimes. This made Patrick very angry. He said that both Jacques Laffite and himself had no restrictions in their contracts. At Tyrrell he was not allowed to do certain things, but at Ligier it was not the case. Rather then getting some support from his team boss, he was unfortunately completely rejected.

As the weeks drag it was clear that Depailler's place within the Ligier team was sorely missed, even though Guy Ligier would never have admitted this. Patrick was replaced by Jacky Ickx, but it was clear that the Belgian's best F1 days were long over. Gerard Doucarouge and his staff needed the expert technical feedback that only Depailler could supply. Jacques Laffite was just not on par in this department. At the start of the season Laffite complained bitterly about the fact that there was no team orders within the team and that this was the reason that he and Patrick had to push their cars to the limit to outrace each other. He let the world know that he didn't need a teammate with the speed and skills of Depailler. As the year drew to an end, Laffite was the first to admit, though, that Patrick's expertise was now desperately needed. It was at the time that the Ferrari and Williams teams very much had the edge on the Ligiers.

During his weeks in hospital Patrick had only one wish and that was to race again. At times it seems that he would never reach his dream and that made him very morbid. Racing was his life and that was all that mattered. Luckily he received wonderful medical care and both friends and supporters urged him on to reach his goal of racing again. His one sister was particularly concerned about her brother's mental health and suggested that he find some kind of hobby to occupy his mind, while recuperating. Patrick took an interest in art works, especially the paintings of some well-known contemporary artists. The idea was to buy some of their works and later to sell it again. This was a far cry from anything related to motor racing, but that was the general idea.

It was an almost impossible task to take his mind away from racing, since there were the frequent calls of people within the sport that wanted to learn more of his progress. Guy Ligier also dropped a bomb when he made it clear that Patrick would not race again for his team. If he somehow had changed his mind in this respect, Depailler would receive the status of number two driver within the team. Ligier, though, was not keen to gamble with the fortunes of a driver that was not even sure if he would be able to race again.

Patrick thus found himself without a team and a job. When the other teams in F1 heard this news, there was some interest shown by some of them. Two teams that showed particular interest in the Frenchman's services were Renault and Williams. Depailler was unfortunately in no physical state to sign any contracts. Doing just that would mean a major risk. The offers he received were also that of second driver within the respective teams - another factor that prevented him from signing any contract. He had no ambitions to play second fiddle to any other driver.

Alfa Romeo also had their eyes on Depailler and was following his progress with much interest. By September 1979 they had made him an offer to lead their team in the following season. Carlo Chiti wanted a driver in his team with expert technical skills and someone that could set up a car for race conditions. It was a most tempting offer for Patrick and he decided to take the risk of signing for Alfa. At that time he also underwent yet another operation, but this one was critical in the sense that it might have enabled or prevented him from driving a racing car again. The operation was to reconnect a muscle that was severed during the accident. This particular muscle was needed for optimal manoeuvring of his ankle. If the operation failed he would never have been able to move the ankle again. Luckily it was a success in the end.

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