Patrick Marie Ghislain Pierre Simon Stanislas Nève de Mévergnies (13 October 1949 – 12 March 2017) was a Belgian racing driver.
He participated in 14 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 16 May 1976. He was notable for being the very first driver for Williams Grand Prix Engineering. He scored no championship points. His younger brother, Guy, was also a racing driver. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Patrick Neve (Marie Ghislain Pierre Simon Stanislas Neve de Mevergnies) competed in the World Championship between 1976 and 1978 with three different teams and holds the distinction of being the first ever driver of a Williams GP car, in Spain in 1977.
He was born on the 13th October 1949 in Liege, Belgium, and his younger brother Guy also became a race driver but sadly was killed in an accident in 1992. Eager to forge a career in motor racing, Patrick worked at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers’ School in Britain, where his duties included sweeping up though he soon became an instructor. He finished sixth in a Merlyn Mk20A at Brands Hatch’s FFord Festival in 1972 and occasional outings in one of the school’s Merlyn FFord cars eventually led to a full race season in 1974. During this period he contested two rounds of 1973’s European Touring Car Championship with Opel Gulf Racing Team’s Commodore GS, finishing seventh at the Spa 24 Hours with Christine Beckers and Huub Vermeulen then fourteenth at Zandvoort with Rene Tricot.
In 1974 he secured a works Lola drive and went on to take the FFord 1600 title plus, participating in several British F3 rounds with a privately entered Brabham BT41, he was sixth at Mallory Park and eighth at Thruxton. He contested a full season in 1975’s BARC F3 Championship with Safir Engineering and despite the other frontrunners using Toyota power, he had an older Ford powerplant but impressed with his handling of the RJ03. He finished fourth in the championship, along the way taking victory at Knockhill, second at Silverstone and Thruxton (twice), third at Brands Hatch and Thruxton, fourth at Thruxton plus fifth at Snetterton, Thruxton and Silverstone. Entering some European F3 races with the Safir he was second at Monaco and fourth at Croix-en-Ternois (plus recorded pole position and fastest lap) though did not qualify for the Monza Lottery race with Ehrlich’s Lotus JPS 3B and finished fourth in the Championship. During this period there were two outings with an Opel Commodore at the Spa 24 Hours and he, Dany Wauters and Francis Polak finished eighth in 1974’s event though in the following year he and Rene Tricot retied due to mechanical problems.
Then came a move up to F1 the following year with RAM Racing’s Brabham BT44 where he was seventh in his first outing at Brand Hatch’s Race of Champions and then eleventh in the International Trophy at Silverstone. He debuted in the World Championship at the Belgian GP at Zolder but retired after 26 laps due to a broken halfshaft and at the beginning of July he was called up to replace an injured Chris Amon at Ensign for the French GP and finished eighteenth. There were also two ETCC outings and at Salzburgring, he and Hughes de Fierlant took victory with Luigi Racing’s BMW 3.0 CSL, after starting on pole and Patrick recorded the fastest lap. In July he was teamed with Brian Muir and Jeremy Nightingale in the Spa 24 Hours with Norman Reeves Ltd’s Ford Capri II 3.0 though they were disqualified after receiving outside assistance. During the year, he also drove a Brabham BT45 around the streets of Birmingham as a promotional event to try to bring racing to the city. There had been a number of motoring festivals there during the 1970s, plus two in the 1980s and drivers who appeared included Derek Bell, Jack Brabham, Tony Brooks, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hailwood, Phil Hill, Alan Jones and Roy Salvadori. Motor racing would eventually come to the city but it was ten years after Patrick’s run that a race took place with the Birmingham Superprix F3000 round.
1977 saw his debut with Williams though the year started with a European F2 outing at Silverstone’s International Trophy. In a spirited drive in the BMW powered March 772P, after racing away from the pack (which included drivers such as Arnoux, Pironi, Rosberg, Cheever, Patrese and Giacomelli), he recorded the fastest lap before a pitstop caused by a loose wheel eventually dropped him back and he finished third. Supported by sponsorship from the Belle Vue brewery company, he was recruited by Frank Williams to race for the team at the Spanish GP. Williams had split with Walter Wolf after their venture in 1976 and established Williams Grand Prix Engineering, purchasing a one-year-old March 761 and four used Cosworth DFVs. He was the team’s sole entry at Jarama and after qualifying twenty second he finished the race in twelfth place. The team skipped the following round at Monaco and chose to test at Zolder but Patrick crashed the car and a huge effort was required to repair it. Williams had been told he had bought a 1976 chassis but Patrick Head later recalled “when it went back to March to be repaired, the fabricators did a great job, but when they stripped off the paint they said it was a Vittorio Brambilla car from 1974. It had been in for a major re-skinning several times before!” He contested the rest of the season’s races though the team were operating with limited finances and would even resort to renting a small caravan as their motorhome at each circuit. He did not qualify at the French, German and Dutch races and retired in Canada while finishes included seventh at Monza, ninth in Austria, tenth at Belgium and Great Britain, fifteenth in Sweden and eighteenth in the USA. In the ETCC, though he did not qualify at Spa, he and Dieter Quester took victory at Zolder, after starting on pole, with BMW Alpina’s 3.0 CSL.
For 1978, Patrick Head and Neil Oatley had designed their Williams FW06 and the team acquired Saudia sponsorship. The year held great promise, with the team looking a serious operation but Patrick was not with them and Alan Jones was on the grid at Argentina’s opening race. However, he returned to F1 in May to contest his home race at Spa with a privately entered March but failed to qualify. He continued in touring cars and raced BMW Belgium’s 320 in the German Racing Championship and World Championship for Makes and he and Harald Grohs took fourth at Misano, ninth at Nurburgring, tenth at Zolder and Mugello plus thirteenth at Dijon and his best result came with third place alongside Alain Peltier at the Spa 24 Hours in a BMW 530i. There was one F2 drive in a March-BMW in the opening race at Thruxton but he didn’t finish and during the later part of the year he was also involved with the Kauhsen F1 team project. Sports car racer Willie Kauhsen had been competing in F2 with his own team before deciding to enter F1 in 1979. However, after failing to secure a deal to run Kojima cars used in 1977’s Japanese GP, the team designed their own chassis and the first prototype, the WK-001, was built in September 1978 and tested several times in November. Gianfranco Brancatelli undertook a private test at Paul Ricard though the car later sustained considerable damage in an accident when driven by Harald Ertl. The team took part in the official FOCA tests in Le Castellet, with Patrick at the wheel, but it was six seconds behind the fastest cars and he eventually left the team, declaring the car undriveable. Three more cars were built and Gianfranco Brancatelli debuted the WK004 at the opening round of 1979’s British F1 season in Zolder though retired early in the race due to engine issues. Unfortunately, it failed to qualify on its World Championship debut in Spain and despite being substantially reworked, the car was never competitive. It failed to qualify in Belgium and Monaco and due to lack of funds Willi Kauhsen withdrew from F1 and closed the team.
In the following two seasons there were retirements in consecutive Spa 24 Hour races with a Ford Capri, in a Nashua entered car in 1981 with Guy Neve and Roger Dorcy and the next year with Romain Feitler and Roman Wolff in an IRS Euromotor car. He rejoined March for 1982’s World Endurance Championship, driving a March 82G-Chevrolet though did not start at Silverstone after the car was withdrawn and retired after 78 laps due to electrics at Le Mans with Eje Elgh and Jeff Wood.
1983 saw a return to F2 and single seaters with a drive at the Gran Premio de Madrid and he was fourteenth with Onyx’s BMW powered March 832. He was back in the ETCC at the wheel of a Volvo 240 Turbo, with Jean-Marie Pirnay as co-driver for 1984 and they retired a privately entered car at the first two rounds at Monza and Enna Pergusa though finishes in the remaining races with GTM Engineering’s car saw eighth at Osterreichring, tenth at Nurburgring and Zolder, twelfth at Silverstone and twenty fourth in the Spa 24 Hours. They finished ninth at the final round at Mugello and at the same event he and Pierre Vaillant raced a privately entered VW Golf GTi.
After this he took a step back from regular competition though he returned to compete in Belgian Procar in 1990 and he and Thierry van Dalen finished second in the Championship with an RAS Sport Porsche 911 Carrera 2. He entered the Spa 24 Hours in the two following years, both times alongside Claude Bourgoigne and Thierry van Dalen in a Porsche 964 Carrera, and they were sixth in 1991 though retired in the latter event. Sadly, in 1992 his brother Guy was killed while driving a Porsche 911 during practice for a Procar endurance race, on a temporary track in Chimay, Belgium.
