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championship class. His father's sponsorship had secured the second driving position in the Osella Formula 1 team for Paletti. Osella was entering its third year in Formula 1 and its previous two years had shown a marked lack of success. Their experienced number one driver, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier, was having problems getting the car to qualify in every race. It was going to be a difficult job for the rookie driver, Paletti, as he was required to prequalify on the Friday morning for each race.

The opening meeting of the 1982 Formula 1 season took place at the Kyalami circuit. Jarier managed to qualify in last position on the grid. Paletti was three and a half seconds slower than is teammate and failed to qualify. He also failed to qualify at the next two meetings at the Jacarepagua circuit in Brazil and the Long Beach Street circuit.

At the San Marino Grand Prix, held at the Imola circuit in Italy, he got his first competitive drive. At the time, there was a dispute between FOCA and FISA. This dispute led to all the British Formula 1 teams boycotting the Imola meetin. With only 14 teams fielding drivers there was no necessity for the prequalifying session. Paletti's first Formula 1 race lasted only twelve minutes before a suspension failure forced him to pull of the circuit and park.

The Belgian Gran Prix at Zolder saw the return of the prequalifying session and Riccardo again failed to make the cut. Tragedy struck the Saturday Practice session when the Canadian driver Gilles Villeneuve died in an accident.

The chance of qualifying for the next Grand Prix was remote as it was taking place in Monaco. The tight street circuit meant that only twenty cars could take part in the Grand Prix. A rookie in a non-competitive vehicle had little chance of qualifying. As it was neither of the Osella drivers succeeded in qualifying for the race.

Paletti was beginning to feel the frustrations common to many second drivers in Formula 1 teams. The first, more experienced, driver would get the better vehicle and if there were, a problem with both vehicles more work would go into getting the first drivers vehicle ready. This problem was borne out at the Detroit Grand Prix. Both the Osella drivers had managed to qualify and Paletti was immediately behind his teammate on the grid. At the start of the Sunday morning warm-up session Paletti's car lost a wheel. While the mechanic worked at trying to repair the car, it was possible that Riccardo could drive the spare car.

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