Patrick Tambay's 1983 San Marino GP win was the last Formula One victory Enzo Ferrari witnessed in person, and the last podium with all three drivers sharing a nationality.
Key Facts
- Race date
- 1 May 1983
- Championship round
- 4th race of the 1983 F1 World Championship
- Winner
- Patrick Tambay (Ferrari #27)
- Pole position
- René Arnoux (Ferrari)
- Enzo Ferrari's age at race
- 85 years old
- Tambay's F1 wins
- 2nd and last career F1 victory
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1983 San Marino Grand Prix took place at Imola, a circuit within Italy and one of the few venues Enzo Ferrari, then 85, could still attend. Ferrari had strong motivation: Tambay was driving in honour of the late Gilles Villeneuve, whose #27 car he had inherited, while René Arnoux had secured pole position for the team.
Patrick Tambay led the race for much of its duration, briefly losing the lead to Brabham's Riccardo Patrese with six laps remaining. Patrese crashed at the Acque Minerali chicane after half a lap in front, handing the lead back to Tambay. Alain Prost (Renault) passed Arnoux's spinning Ferrari late on to finish second, with Arnoux third.
Tambay's victory proved to be the last Formula One win Enzo Ferrari witnessed in person; Ferrari would not win on Italian soil again until a month after Enzo's death in August 1988, and not at Imola again until Michael Schumacher in 1999. The race also stands, as of 2025, as the last in which all three podium finishers shared the same nationality — all three being French.