Seventies Formula One fans will almost certainly have seen this clip before. If you haven’t, where have you been? In the days before safety cars, traction control and sequential shifts, never mind GoPros, this is Patrick Depailler getting right onto it from the pit lane in a soaking wet Montreal, Canada circuit.
We love the way he’s not waiting to get dialled in for a lap, or even waiting for the end of the pit lane. His view on finding the limit is, quite clearly, to get straight onto it. The track looks like it could be made from a frozen lake, with added Teflon for good measure. Wind up the volume and listen to the man keeping his foot hard down through the standing water, with some pretty big heel toes on the downshifts to prevent the rears from locking up.
The video was actually created by the French petrochemical company Elf in the late seventies as a marketing tool. They recorded a whole series of these, in the days before GoPros and other tiny cameras, the filming was probably done with a camera roughly the size of a microwave oven.
A few puddles didn’t deter Patrick Depailler….
People often view this online and are critical of the voice of Murray Walker chiming in mid way through. While you may prefer to hear that Cosworth DFV being excerised, personally I find the voiceover reminds me of my youth and sitting in front of that huge cathode tube TV on a Sunday watching grainy F1 races from far away.
The series can still be purchased via Duke Marketing, who released a two DVD set entitled Laps of The Gods a while ago. I always thought Patrick was as mad as a box of frogs. This does nothing to change my mind. A great bloke.
