Patrick André Eugène Joseph Depailler (9 August 1944 - 1 August 1980) was a racing driver from France. He participated in 95 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 2 July 1972. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races. Depailler was born in Clermont-Ferrand. As a child, he was inspired by Jean Behra. Talented and charismatic, Depailler never quite drove the kind of machinery his talent deserved, joining a Tyrrell team that was beginning a long, slow decline, eventually moving to the erratic Ligier team before finally ending up with the revived Alfa Romeo squad in 1980. It was for this final team, which Depailler was helping to advance up the grid, for which he was driving at a private test session at Hockenheim on 1 August 1980, when a suspension failure pitched his car into the armco at the high-speed Ostkurve, inflicting fatal head