Sports Cars and Formula Two
Depailler finished .9 seconds behind Peter Gethin in the 1972 Formula Two Pau Grand Prix. He battled Gethin closely in a March 922 over the 70-lap course which curved through the French city. Both drivers lapped the field twice. Depailler came in 3rd with a time of 1:31:40.5 in an April 1973 Formula Two race at the Nürburgring. He was driving a Ford Alpine. In May 1974 Depailler qualified his March to 1st position in qualifying for the Formula Two Pau Grand Prix. He recorded a time of 1 minute 16.17 seconds for an average speed of 80.8 miles per hour. In June he crashed his March 742 through a guard rail during time trials for a Formula Two race in Salzburgring. Depailler was uninjured but qualifying was stopped so that workman could replace a section of railing which was torn off in the accident.
In April 1976 the Renault sports car team suspended Depailler for three races after he was involved in a crash which knocked out both his car and the Renault of teammate Jean-Pierre Jabouille. The incident occurred on the second turn, slightly more than a mile after the beginning of a 180-mile (290 km) race at the Nürburgring. Depailler lost control and wrecked, after which Jabouille crashed while attempting to avoid his teammate. The drivers had been instructed not to contest the lead with each other. Depailler placed 2nd in the 1976 Swedish Formula J Grand Prix. He was 19 seconds behind winner Jody Scheckter. Depailler recorded a time of 1:47:17 over 72 laps. Depailler drove in the International Race of Champions event at Riverside International Raceway in September 1978. He was behind the wheel of the Paul Newman entered Spyder-Chevy in the October 1978 California Grand Prix.
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Famous quotes containing the words sports, cars and/or formula:
“In the end, I think you really only get as far as you’re allowed to get.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
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—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
“Ideals possess the strange quality that if they were completely realized they would turn into nonsense. One could easily follow a commandment such as “Thou shalt not kill” to the point of dying of starvation; and I might establish the formula that for the proper functioning of the mesh of our ideals, as in the case of a strainer, the holes are just as important as the mesh.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)