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What to do when you aren’t a F1 driver anymore? You have made money, enough to never have to worry about it, that’s not the problem. But in stead of going somewhere in this big world every 2 weeks, you have plenty of time to spare. You aren’t in the middle of attention anymore. Lot’s of drivers miss the feeling of racing that much that they start in other formula’s. Like Jean Alesi in the prestigious Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. Others try to make it on the other side of the pit wall. With changing success. Alain Prost, Niki Lauda and Jackie Stewart weren’t as successful as team managers as they were in the cockpit. Keke Rosberg on the other hand has got a DTM and a German F3 team for many years.

Riccardo Patrese never thought about becoming a team manager. Once a year you can see him in the paddock, that’s at the Grand Prix of Monaco. That’s more then enough for him. The days before the Grand Prix he organises football matches for Formula One drivers. Michael Schumacher has stayed a good friend to him, ever since they drove together for Benetton and football is a hobby they have in common.

Racing in a lower class? Patrese did it twice. One year in Germany in touring cars and a trip to Le Mans driving for a Japanese team. "Everything after Formula One is worse, especially the safety. Formula One is the safest racing class in the whole world. At every field: cars, circuits, medical supplies, etc. In my 17 years in Formula One I never spend one night in the hospital. I didn’t feel the urge to risk my life, just because I couldn’t stop racing, like Michele" He’s referring to his fellow countryman Michele Alboreto, who died in one of his Le Mans test-drives after his Formula One career.

No, Patrese has enough with one horse power. He’s became a fanatical jockey due to his daughters. The 17 years old twins Beatrice and Maddalena are in horses since they were born. Beatrice is even in the national team. "When I finally found the time for it, I started driving horses myself, now I own 9. Every morning I’m busy with them for an hour or two". As a hobby, but whoever is used to competition doesn’t do things just for fun. Patrese won a prize here and there. With the veterans though.

 The adventure of Arrows starts in 1977. Under the personnel of another team, Shadow, where Patrese made his Formula One debut. Patrese recalls it like it was yesterday. "I made my debut in Monaco for Shadow. Alan Jones was my team-mate. My performance was equal to Alan’s, while he was the man with experience. Therefore team manager Jackie Oliver asked me to help them make a new team, Arrows. Well, it was the whole Shadow team participating, except the team owner of Shadow. Jackie Oliver had already contacted another driver, Gunnar Nilsson, so the spot was for me or Alan. Oliver wanted me as second man. Frank Williams also contacted me. He had made a new start in 1977 and asked me to be his only driver in 1978. He also offered Alan a contract. Now we know how it went, the choose would have been easy. But back then Williams was nothing. I talked about it with Alan. The situation was, that he would take the place I didn’t wanted. Okay, Alan said, if you go to Arrows, I’ll sign for Williams. If only Arrows had chosen for Jones, then maybe I would have been World Champion in 1980. Back then it seemed like a miracle, that Arrows was a complete Formula One team and even could build a car. It wasn’t that special, because everything was Shadow’s: the personnel and the design of the car. Don Nichols, the owner of the Shadow factory, only had an empty workshop. He was the one that needed to start from zero. The first race in Argentina came a bit too early for us. We were at the second race in Brazil. I was the only driver, because Gunnar Nilsson was too sick (Nilsson died that year due to cancer, red.) The car hadn’t been tested yet, well it had been at the roll-out on Silverstone, while there was 20 cm snow  and it was freezing! In Brazil it was 40 degrees in the shadow. The car had a problem with the fuel supply. If there was less then 80 litres in the tank the engine would stop. I had to qualify with a full tank, and make a pitstop half way through to tank. Now that’s normal, back then it wasn’t!  It made it impossible for a good result.
The next race in South-Africa was preceded by a week of testing on the circuit. That gave us the possibility to solve the problem with the fuel supply and get a good set-up for the car. We competed with the best. I was 6^th in the first lap, and caught up with Hunt, Lauda, Andretti and Scheckter without a problem. I was leading the race!! It was easy and I built a big lead, without pushing the car to the limit. I kept my concentration. Of course I was excited but wasn’t nervous. Until right in front of the finish the engine broke down without a warning. Of course I was upset, but what could I do about it? Everybody was saying that I had the best car of the field and that I would win a race quickly, my reaction was that I wanted to win that one! The confidence in the team had grown a lot. The first half of the season wasn’t bad at all. The next race I scored one point and in Sweden I finished second. Normally I would win the race because Niki Lauda had driven an illegal car. The fan at the back of the Braham was banned after the race, but for some bizarre reason. Maybe that first victory would have come if Arrows wasn’t forced to build a new car. When Don Nichols saw the Arrows FA1 he was furious. He immediately saw that the design was taken by Tony Southgate and Dave Wass, the designers who were transferred to Arrows. Everybody could see that, when the new Shadow finally was finished. That took a couple of races, since Nicholas had to build a whole new team. He went to the judge and won the case. We had to build a new car and that new car wasn’t so good. Then the Grand Prix of Italy came along. The starter let the cars go too early, the last cars were still moving. I hadn’t been able to qualify very well so that way I had a great start. In Monza the circuit gets narrower after the starting grid, so everybody had to make a bit of room. I did that too, but behind me it went wrong. Hunt and Peterson collided and Peterson’s car caught fire. The accident didn’t affected me since I was two car lengths ahead of them. Besides that there wasn’t that much to do. Ronnie broke his legs that’s all. He shouldn’t have died.

James Hunt blamed me for the incident. I still don’t know why. He didn’t like me and I didn’t like him. Two days after the accident pictures were published and I clearly had nothing to do with it. I didn’t get any punishments or even a warning, like happens now. The relationship between drivers was different. You had a club seniors, who was very close. Newbies always were intimidated by them, on the track. Besides the track they didn’t even know them. In those days Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Mario Andrettie, Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Ronnie Peterson were those seniors. Ironically enough the only one I had a little bit of contact was Peterson.

When I arrived in Watkins Glen, Bernie Ecclestone told me that the “big five” wanted a chat with me. 'Shut up and listen' was his advice. I got massive critics: I drove too dangerously, too aggressive, too wild… I should learn a lesson. Not that I got the blame for the Monza incident, they never said that literally. I should skip a race. I thought fuck off , I wanted to race. I went to the court. I was right, the judge decided. But Arrows cancelled my registration under pressure. Otherwise Lauda and co. would boycott the race. I was furious. The public thought I was punished for the Monza crash, and that was undeserved. Later on I talked about it to them, but they never apologised, except Fittipaldi.  In 1985 I had an argument with Lauda about it. In Monaco I collided with Piquet and Lauda started to talk about the incident again: 'It’s always something with that guy'. Accidentally we stayed at the same hotel. I immediately stepped to him and told him something like: 'You can talk about your father or your mother, but don’t ever dare to talk about me again! Did you understand?' You should have seem him, he almost whipped his pants!