Riccardo Paletti - Formula One Career

Formula One Career

Although not having achieved much in the lower class racings, Paletti joined the uncompetitive team Osella in 1982. He admitted that Formula One struck him with a little bit of fear, but his sponsor wanted him to move up and Riccardo did not want to miss his opportunity. The sponsor was his father, Arietto Paletti, a rich Milanese businessman, who had made his fortune with a building company and importing Pioneer Hi-Fi equipment to Italy. Securing the second seat in the team had cost $1,000,000 and his teammate was the more experienced Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier. At least in one aspect Paletti was ahead of his time in F1 because he travelled with a personal medical adviser who was monitoring his blood pressure and heartbeat with small sensors attached to his body during testing and practice sessions. His diet was constantly adapted to the results. Few people took this professional approach seriously at the time.

Making his first attempt during the South African Grand Prix in January 1982, Jean-Pierre Jarier managed to haul his Osella unit to qualify in the last position on the grid but Paletti was almost two seconds slower, failing to qualify.

For the second round of the season, at the Jacarepagua circuit near Rio De Janeiro, the venue for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Paletti had to prequalify on Friday morning, but a wheel fell off the Osella after a suspension failure and again he didn't make the grid.

The next round of the championship was the US GP West at the street circuit of Long Beach. Jarier found the right set-up for the Osella and managed to put the car in the top ten during qualifying. Paletti was a massive three and a half seconds slower than his experienced team mate and failed to qualify again.

For the fourth Grand Prix of the season, at Imola on April 25, amidst a war between the FISA and FOCA, only 14 cars loyal to the organisation started the race. Paletti had managed to beat the ATS cars of Eliseo Salazar and Manfred Winkelhock and was supposed to start from the back of the grid. However, on Sunday afternoon Paletti failed to fire up the Osella for the warm-up lap and by the time he had left the pits the other cars were already lining up for the start. As a result, the moment he crossed the starting line he was already 49 seconds behind. He never even got close to the rest of the field and after seven laps he had to park his car due to another suspension failure. His Grand Prix debut had lasted a mere twelve minutes.

At Zolder Paletti failed to prequalify on Friday, getting more and more disappointed with the Osella, and he was feeling intense rivalry with Jarier, who was more experienced and quicker behind the wheel. The new chassis, which was to be introduced at Monaco, gave some promise, but still Paletti knew that qualifying for Monaco was virtually impossible with only twenty entries allowed to start in the narrow streets of the principality. There was only one new monocoque for Jarier and the new rear suspension was delayed. Once again, Paletti failed to prequalify.

On his seventh Grand Prix, in Detroit, Paletti was suddenly much closer to Jarier's pace and, although the gap was still over a second, he qualified right behind his team mate. However, during the warm-up session Paletti lost a wheel at the beginning. The mechanics tried to repair the car in time for the race and, while there still was the possibility of starting the race in the spare car, that option went up in smoke as well, after Jarier's fire extinguisher had gone off accidentally. So it was Jarier who took the spare car, which was set up for him anyway. This meant it would be a race against time for Paletti's mechanics to set up the car and they were still busy when the rest of the field progressed to the grid. But just as the work was finished, with Paletti ready to get in the car, news broke that Jarier had hit the wall, damaged his car and was on his way back to the pits. So Paletti's car was ready for Jarier to jump in and start the race from the pit lane, leaving Paletti behind as a frustrated spectator once more.