US Grand Prix West 1981
Racing data | ||
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1st of 15 races in the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
Surname: | VII Grand Prix of Long Beach | |
Date: | March 15, 1981 | |
Place: | Long Beach | |
Course: | Long Beach Grand Prix Circuit | |
Length: | 261.705 km in 80 laps of 3.251 km
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Weather: | sunny and warm | |
Spectator: | ~ 82,000 | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows |
Time: | 1: 19.399 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: | Alan Jones | Williams |
Time: | 1: 20.901 min | |
Podium | ||
First: | Alan Jones | Williams |
Second: | Carlos Reutemann | Williams |
Third: | Nelson Piquet | Brabham |
The 1981 USA Grand Prix took place on March 15 in Long Beach and was the first world championship round of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship .
Reports
background
The dispute between FISA and FOCA , which had already resulted in the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix not being recognized as a World Cup run, had intensified in the winter of 1980/81 to such an extent that the grand one planned for February 7th Price of South Africa also had to be held as a Formula 1 race that was not part of the World Championship. Carlos Reutemann won the race in which the FISA-related teams did not take part. The official start of the 1981 season took place on March 15th in Long Beach.
Only the Williams and Brabham teams started the new year with the same driver line-up with which they ended the 1980 season. However, many other teams each retained one of the previous year's pilots. McLaren , for example, stuck to John Watson and signed Andrea de Cesaris as the new second regular driver. This became necessary because Alain Prost, despite a valid two-year contract, moved to Renault early , where he replaced Jean-Pierre Jabouille and thus became René Arnoux's new team-mate . Jabouille was meanwhile under contract as Jacques Laffite's new teammate at Ligier . However, since he had still not recovered from his leg injuries, which he sustained in an accident during the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix , Jean-Pierre Jarier initially took over as his representative. His place as well as that of his former teammate Derek Daly in the financially troubled Team Tyrrell went to the two Americans Eddie Cheever and Kevin Cogan . Daly found a new job with Team March , which returned to Formula 1 after a three-year hiatus. The Chilean debutant Eliseo Salazar became his teammate there.
With Ferrari , another team with turbo engines joined Renault. Jody Scheckter , who had ended his career at the season finale in 1980, was replaced by Didier Pironi . From then on, he formed a legendary driver pairing with Gilles Villeneuve .
Mario Andretti switched to Alfa Romeo and became the second regular driver alongside Bruno Giacomelli . Thereupon Nigel Mansell , who had made three guest appearances in the previous year, received a regular driver contract with Lotus at the side of Elio de Angelis .
Alongside Jody Scheckter, Emerson Fittipaldi was the second former world champion to end his career as a Formula 1 driver after the 1980 season. He stuck to Keke Rosberg as a driver for his team and also signed the newcomer Chico Serra . From then on, Osella competed as a two-car team for the first time. Beppe Gabbiani and the Argentinian debutant Miguel Ángel Guerra were signed up as drivers. Arrows kept Riccardo Patrese and hired the debutant Siegfried Stohr to succeed Jochen Mass . Marc Surer and Jan Lammers swapped places between the ATS and Ensign teams .
Theodore Racing competed for the first time as a works team with its own car. This was called TY01 and was piloted by Patrick Tambay . The other teams mostly used models that were further developed from the previous year.
Since the tire manufacturer Goodyear had decided to withdraw from Grand Prix racing for a while, all teams with Michelin tires competed .
training
To the surprise of the professional world, Patrese secured pole position in the Arrows A3B ahead of the two Williams drivers Jones and Reutemann. Piquet followed ahead of Villeneuve and Andretti. Almost all drivers achieved their fastest lap during the second qualifying session. The only exception was Siegfried Stohr, who did not take part.
run
After a very good start, Villeneuve reached the first corner as the leader, but braked and had to give up the top position to Patrese. The two Williams drivers also returned to the positions from which they had started. Prost and de Cesaris collided further in the field. Both were eliminated. Pironi, who started the race from eleventh place, was in sixth place behind Piquet at the end of the first lap. Three laps later, he finished fourth.
On the 17th lap, Villeneuve, who had dropped to sixth place, retired due to damage to the drive train. His position was then taken by Cheever.
Due to problems with the fuel pressure, Patrese initially lost the lead to Reutemann on lap 25 and second place to Jones one lap later. On the 17th lap, an unavoidable pit stop threw him back to the bottom of the field.
In the 32nd lap, Reutemann made a mistake in the course of a lapping maneuver against Surer. His team-mate Jones took advantage of this to take the lead. Meanwhile, Laffite overtook sixth-placed Andretti and collided ten laps later with fifth-placed Cheever. The Frenchman had to stop repairs on the pits and Cheever's car also slowed down due to slight damage. Andretti took advantage of this, as well as the fact that Pironi slowed down due to an oil leak, to move up to fourth place.
The season started with a one-two victory for the reigning world champions Williams.
Registration list
Classifications
Qualifying
Item | driver | constructor | Qualification training 1 | Qualification training 2 | begin | ||
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time | Ø speed | time | Ø speed | ||||
1 | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows Ford | 1: 21.983 | 142.756 km / h | 1: 19.399 | 147.402 km / h | 1 |
2 | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 1: 20.911 | 144.648 km / h | 1: 19.408 | 147.386 km / h | 2 |
3 | Carlos Reutemann | Williams-Ford | 1: 21.739 | 143.183 km / h | 1: 20.149 | 146.023 km / h | 3 |
4th | Nelson Piquet | Brabham-Ford | 1: 22.675 | 141.562 km / h | 1: 20.289 | 145.768 km / h | 4th |
5 | Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 1: 21.723 | 143.211 km / h | 1: 20.462 | 145.455 km / h | 5 |
6th | Mario Andretti | Alfa Romeo | 1: 22.020 | 142.692 km / h | 1: 20.476 | 145.430 km / h | 6th |
7th | Nigel Mansell | Lotus Ford | 1: 22.461 | 141.929 km / h | 1: 20.573 | 145.255 km / h | 7th |
8th | Eddie Cheever | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 22.992 | 141.021 km / h | 1: 20.643 | 145.129 km / h | 8th |
9 | Bruno Giacomelli | Alfa Romeo | 1: 22.592 | 141.704 km / h | 1: 20.664 | 145.091 km / h | 9 |
10 | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Ligier-Matra | 1: 21.722 | 143.212 km / h | 1: 20.787 | 144.870 km / h | 10 |
11 | Didier Pironi | Ferrari | 1: 21.828 | 143.027 km / h | 1: 20.909 | 144.651 km / h | 11 |
12 | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 1: 23.140 | 140.770 km / h | 1: 20.925 | 144.623 km / h | 12 |
13 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus Ford | 1: 22.380 | 142.068 km / h | 1: 20.928 | 144.617 km / h | 13 |
14th | Alain Prost | Renault | 1: 23.049 | 140.924 km / h | 1: 20.980 | 144.525 km / h | 14th |
15th | Hector Rebaque | Brabham-Ford | 1: 23.298 | 140.503 km / h | 1: 21,000 | 144.489 km / h | 15th |
16 | Keke Rosberg | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1: 23.356 | 140.405 km / h | 1: 21.001 | 144.487 km / h | 16 |
17th | Patrick Tambay | Theodore Ford | 1: 23.373 | 140.376 km / h | 1: 21.298 | 143.959 km / h | 17th |
18th | Chico Serra | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1: 26.730 | 134.943 km / h | 1: 21.409 | 143.763 km / h | 18th |
19th | Marc Surer | Ensign-Ford | 1: 28.045 | 132.927 km / h | 1: 21.522 | 143.564 km / h | 19th |
20th | René Arnoux | Renault | 1: 23.363 | 140.393 km / h | 1: 21.540 | 143.532 km / h | 20th |
21st | Jan Lammers | ATS Ford | 1: 23.802 | 139.658 km / h | 1: 21.758 | 143.149 km / h | 21st |
22nd | Andrea de Cesaris | McLaren-Ford | 1: 23.728 | 139.781 km / h | 1: 22.028 | 142.678 km / h | 22nd |
23 | John Watson | McLaren-Ford | 1: 26.419 | 135.429 km / h | 1: 22.183 | 142.409 km / h | 23 |
24 | Beppe Gabbiani | Osella-Ford | 1: 24.032 | 139.276 km / h | 1: 22.213 | 142.357 km / h | 24 |
DNQ | Kevin Cogan | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 25.164 | 137.424 km / h | 1: 22.284 | 142.234 km / h | - |
DNQ | Derek Daly | March-Ford | 1: 26.074 | 135.971 km / h | 1: 22.356 | 142.110 km / h | - |
DNQ | Miguel Ángel Guerra | Osella-Ford | 1: 25.190 | 137.382 km / h | 1: 22.673 | 141.565 km / h | - |
DNQ | Siegfried Stohr | Arrows Ford | 1: 23.504 | 140.156 km / h | no time | - | - |
DNQ | Eliseo Salazar | March-Ford | 1: 25.017 | 137.662 km / h | 1: 24.383 | 138.696 km / h | - |
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 80 | 0 | 1: 50: 41.33 | 2 | 1: 20.901 | |
2 | Carlos Reutemann | Williams-Ford | 80 | 0 | + 9.19 | 3 | 1: 20.91 | |
3 | Nelson Piquet | Brabham-Ford | 80 | 0 | + 34.92 | 4th | 1: 21.83 | |
4th | Mario Andretti | Alfa Romeo | 80 | 0 | + 49.31 | 6th | 1: 21.79 | |
5 | Eddie Cheever | Tyrrell-Ford | 80 | 0 | +1: 06.70 | 8th | 1: 22.23 | |
6th | Patrick Tambay | Theodore Ford | 79 | 0 | + 1 lap | 17th | 1: 21.75 | |
7th | Chico Serra | Fittipaldi-Ford | 78 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 18th | 1: 23.09 | |
8th | René Arnoux | Renault | 77 | 1 | + 3 rounds | 20th | 1: 22.54 | |
- | Marc Surer | Ensign-Ford | 70 | 0 | DNF | 19th | 1: 22.77 | defective ignition |
- | Didier Pironi | Ferrari | 67 | 0 | DNF | 11 | 1: 22.23 | Oil loss |
- | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Ligier-Matra | 64 | 0 | DNF | 10 | 1: 22.90 | defective ignition |
- | Hector Rebaque | Brabham-Ford | 49 | 1 | DNF | 15th | 1: 22.68 | accident |
- | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 41 | 0 | DNF | 12 | 1: 22.08 | collision |
- | Bruno Giacomelli | Alfa Romeo | 41 | 0 | DNF | 9 | 1: 22.41 | collision |
- | Keke Rosberg | Fittipaldi-Ford | 41 | 0 | DNF | 16 | 1: 22.88 | Engine failure |
- | Jan Lammers | ATS Ford | 41 | 0 | DNF | 21st | 1: 22.33 | collision |
- | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows Ford | 33 | 2 | DNF | 1 | 1: 21.42 | defective fuel supply |
- | Beppe Gabbiani | Osella-Ford | 26th | 0 | DNF | 24 | 1: 25.19 | accident |
- | Nigel Mansell | Lotus Ford | 25th | 0 | DNF | 7th | 1: 22.75 | accident |
- | Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 17th | 0 | DNF | 5 | 1: 22.54 | broken PTO shaft |
- | John Watson | McLaren-Ford | 16 | 1 | DNF | 23 | 1: 24.55 | Engine failure |
- | Elio de Angelis | Lotus Ford | 13 | 0 | DNF | 13 | 1: 23.32 | accident |
- | Alain Prost | Renault | 0 | 0 | DNF | 14th | - | collision |
- | Andrea de Cesaris | McLaren-Ford | 0 | 0 | DNF | 22nd | - | collision |
World Cup stands after the race
The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.
Driver ranking
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Publishing house: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , pp. 222-223
- ↑ "Background" (accessed October 14, 2012)
- ↑ "Training" ( memento of the original from August 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 14, 2012)
- ^ "Report" (accessed on October 14, 2012)
- ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 14, 2012)