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Part
9 : The Final Sortie
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Early
on the morning of Friday, 1 August 1980 Patrick arrived at Hockenheim
by car after a night trip from Paris. Alfa Romeo had booked the
circuit from 08h00 until midday in preparation for the German
Grand Prix that would take place on the following weekend. Depailler
and Bruno Giacomelli were both present together with several of
the team's technical personnel. It was a warm and windless summer
day and Patrick was in high spirit after his holidays and was
looking forward to post a good time on the German circuit.
There
were some minor mechanical hiccups right from the start, though,
and Patrick also asked for some alterations to be made to his
car's gearbox after he had done a couple of laps. At 11h20 Depailler
climbed into his Alfa to post another few laps. After completing
a few warm-up laps he stopped at his pits to report back to the
team. He returned to the track and did another warming-up lap,
followed by a fast lap. On his second fast lap disaster struck.
The stadium clocked indicated that it was 11h35.
Depailler
entered the very fast Ostkurve, a right hand corner, at nearly
270km/h on its normal line. All of a sudden the car shot off its
line as it approached the second tightening part of the corner.
It crossed the run-off area, a grass and tarmac section, and crashed
almost head on into an Armco barrier. The violent impact turned
the car around and it then carried on sliding along the barrier
for another 50 meters or so. The car was smashed to pieces with
Depailler still inside.
Medical
rescuers and members of the Alfa Romeo team were very quickly
on the scene of the accident. They removed Patrick from the wreck
and tried to stabilise him, but it was immediately clear that
he was in a deep coma and gravely injured. Apart from a skull
fracture, both his legs were also broken and he was in a severe
state of shock, which indicated towards massive internal injuries
and blood loss. He was taken by helicopter to the Heidelberg University
Hospital a couple of kilometres from Hockenheim. At about 12h10
the helicopter arrived at the hospital, but at the same moment,
the medical people on board discovered that the pupils of Patrick's
eyes were not responding to light senses anymore. Shortly before
13h00, doctors at the hospital announced that Patrick Depailler
had passed away. His injuries were so severe that he stood no
change of survival.
The
news was received with great shock and disbelief when it was made
public shortly afterwards. Grand Prix racing had lost one of its
most popular and competent drivers. While Patrick's family and
friends were grieving their lost, questions were immediately being
asked and speculations began to float about the circumstances
of the accident. At first it was suggested that no catch fencing
were in place at the Ostkurve and that it could have saved Patrick
if it was in place. The fences were apparently rolled up and kept
behind a barrier. Later it became clear that there was never catch
fences before on the particular spot where he crashed into the
barrier. At the beginning of the Ostkurve and also at the exit
of this corner there was fencing, these being the two most likely
accident spots. Patrick went off between these two sections. The
catch fences that were seen lying behind the barriers, was actually
spare ones, for use in the event of the original fencing been
knocked down.
Then
there were the suggestions by Alfa Romeo that the accident was
the result of driver error. Rather than accepting that it was
mechanical failure on the car, they thought out far fetch stories
to take the blame away from them. It was said that Patrick was
suffering from flu and that he could have blacked out or that
he even suffered a heart attack. Another outrageous comment suggested
suicide. It was thus disturbing to hear these views from senior
Alfa personnel and it is still difficult to understand why they
adopted this particular attitude.
Patrick's
accidents at Paul Ricard and Brands Hatch surely were early warnings
that there was something drastically wrong with the Alfa's cornering
capabilities at high speed. Suspension failure and poor aerodynamics
were the main suspects. It is believed that it was either one
of these that lead to the Ostkurve disaster. Skid marks on the
tarmac proofed that something broke on the car. This and the fact
that the car ran straight on indicated towards suspension failure
or a broken skirt. Alfa never accepted responsibility for the
accident, although all the blame pointed towards them.
On
Thursday, 7 August Patrick's funeral was held in Clermont-Ferrand.
More than 2000 people were present, amongst them all the French
Grand Prix drivers of the time and also Gilles Villeneuve, Jody
Scheckter and Emerson Fittipaldi. His body was laid to rest in
a family grave near the village of Crevant Lavaine. The world
said farewell to a humble man that offered his life to a sport
that was his greatest passion in life.
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