1978 Argentina Grand Prix

 1978 Argentina Grand Prix

Racing data
1st of 16 races in the 1978 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XIII Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Date:	15th January 1978
Place:	Buenos Aires
Course:	Autódromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires
Length:	310.336 km in 52 laps of 5.968 km
Planned:	316.304 km in 53 laps of 5.968 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Spectator:	~ 100,000
Pole position
Driver:	Mario Andretti	lotus
Time:	1: 47.75 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Time:	1: 49.76 min
Podium
First:	Mario Andretti	lotus
Second:	Niki Lauda	Brabham
Third:	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell

The 1978 Argentina Grand Prix took place on January 15th at the Autódromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires and was the first race of the 1978 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

Before the race

Before the start of the 1978 season , there were significant changes in the teams and the technical specifications of the vehicles. With the Lotus 78 , the Lotus team achieved a turning point in Formula 1 vehicle construction in 1977. The Lotus 78 was the first real wing car in Formula 1 history and groundbreaking for many racing cars that were subsequently built according to this concept. This vehicle was also used in early 1978, as the new Lotus 79 was not yet ready at that time. The Swede Ronnie Peterson returned to Lotus to join Mario Andretti , who won four Grand Prix races with the 78 in 1977 . Peterson, who had already driven for Lotus in the early 1970s, came back from Tyrrell to Colin Chapman's team and replaced his critically ill compatriot Gunnar Nilsson , who had signed independently with Arrows .

The most discussed driver change, however, took place at Ferrari . Niki Lauda , who had won his second driver's world championship at Scuderia in 1977, moved to Brabham , the racing team of Bernie Ecclestone . Since Brabham used 12-cylinder engines from Alfa Romeo , the Italian motorsport press argued heavily about the change. Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari accused the Austrian of having sold himself to the competition for a few sticks of salami . The second driver in the team was the Northern Irishman John Watson . An adapted model from the previous year, the 45C, was also used at Brabham .

Ferrari started the new season with the same driver pairing that ended the old one. Gilles Villeneuve , who had already replaced Lauda in the last two races in 1977, was signed in full. Carlos Reutemann stayed with Scuderia. At Ferrari, too, the first race of the season was contested with the previous year's model, the 312T2 . The successor model, the 312T3 , was then used for the first time at the Grand Prix of South Africa . However, they switched from Goodyear to Michelin at the beginning of the season , with which the French tire manufacturer had to equip another team alongside Renault this season .

The German Jochen Mass had switched from McLaren to ATS . To James Hunt instead the Frenchman came Patrick Tambay the team. ATS had taken over the technical equipment, the factory buildings in Great Britain and the designer Robin Herd , who played a key role in the development of the first self-made ATS HS1 , from the March factory team, which no longer appeared as such .

Hans-Joachim Stuck , who had to leave the Brabham team in favor of Niki Lauda, ​​received a contract with Shadow at the side of Clay Regazzoni , whose place at Ensign was taken by Danny Ongais . The team also used a second car for Lamberto Leoni .

At Tyrrell had abandoned the six-wheel project and was with the 008 returned to the conventional racing car. Instead of Peterson who switched to Lotus, the French debutant Didier Pironi was hired for the second car alongside Patrick Depailler .

The financially troubled Hesketh team started the season with the British Divina Galica , while Rupert Keegan , who was endowed with extensive sponsorship money, moved to the Surtees team .

The racing teams, ATS, Williams , Merzario and Theodore , which were competing as factory teams for the first time , started the season with new cars, while the other teams used modified models from the previous year.

Mario Andretti achieved pole position in training ahead of Reutemann, Peterson, Watson and Lauda.

The race

The missing Reutemann

When Carlos Reutemann's father-in-law had a search call for Reutemann and his family read out on Argentine television a week before the race, the public reacted first with confusion and then with concern. where was the Ferrari driver, his wife and his two children? What had happened: Reutemann, his wife Mimicha and his two daughters were caught on a boat trip on the Río Paraná near Santa Fe in a storm that completely destroyed the small motorboat. Reutemann was able to save his family and himself on a small island. After the search call, a large-scale rescue operation was launched; the family was discovered by helicopter and taken to safety by a rescue team.

The course of the race

Mario Andretti started the race from pole position , initially only Carlos Reutemann could follow. But the Argentine had problems with the tires and was soon left behind. After a collision with Jacques Laffite in the Ligier and a pit stop to change tires, he fell far behind and finished the race in seventh place, one place ahead of his team mate Villeneuve. Andretti’s closest pursuer was John Watson, who created considerable pressure and tried three times without success to slow down the Lotus pilot. Watson lost all of its cooling water after two thirds of the race, which caused the engine to overheat and seize. As a result, Niki Lauda moved up to second place, who had to defend it hard after a wheel-to-wheel duel in the last lap against Tyrrell driver Patrick Depailler.

Five-time Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio made an embarrassing mistake as race director on the last lap. Instead of the leader Andretti, he waved off Ronnie Peterson, who was in fifth place, as the first, causing utter confusion for the following pilots. Since the first four drove one lap more, the race management decided to shorten the race by one lap and to rate the result after 52 laps as the final result.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Parmalat Racing Team	1	Niki Lauda	Brabham BT45C	Alfa Romeo 3.0 B12	G
	2	John Watson
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell 008	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	4th	Patrick Depailler
John Player Team Lotus	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus 78		G
	6th	Ronnie Peterson
Marlboro Team McLaren	7th	James Hunt	McLaren M26		G
	8th	Patrick Tambay
ATS Racing Team	9	Jochen Mass	ATS HS1		G
	10	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari 312T2	Ferrari 3.0 B12	M.
	12	Gilles Villeneuve
Fittipaldi Automotive	14th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar F5A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Shadow Racing Team	16	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow DN8		G
	17th	Clay Regazzoni
Durex Team Surtees	18th	Rupert Keegan	Surtees TS19		G
Beta Team Surtees	19th	Vittorio Brambilla
Walter Wolf Racing	20th	Jody Scheckter	Wolf WR4		G
Team Tissot Ensign	22nd	Danny Ongais	Ensign N177		G
	23	Lamberto Leoni
Olympus Cameras Hesketh Racing	24	Divina Galica	Hesketh 308E		G
Team Rebaque	25th	Hector Rebaque	Lotus 78		G
Ligier Gitanes	26th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier JS7	Matra 3.0V12	G
Williams Grand Prix Engineering	27	Alan Jones	Williams FW06	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Liggett Group B&S Fabrications	30th	Brett Lunger	McLaren M23		G
Theodore Racing	32	Eddie Cheever	Theodore TR1		G
Team Merzario	37	Arturo Merzario	Merzario A1		G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 47.75	199.395 km / h	01
02	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	1: 47.84	199.228 km / h	02
03	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	1: 48.39	198.218 km / h	03
04th	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 48.42	198.163 km / h	04th
05	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 48.70	197.652 km / h	05
06th	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	1: 48.72	197.616 km / h	06th
07th	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 48.97	197.163 km / h	07th
08th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 49.13	196.873 km / h	08th
09	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	1: 49.74	195.779 km / h	09
10	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 49.69	195.868 km / h	10
11	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS Ford	1: 49.77	195.726 km / h	11
12	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	1: 49.91	195.476 km / h	12
13	Jochen Mass	ATS Ford	1: 50.06	195.210 km / h	13
14th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 50.11	195.121 km / h	14th
15th	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	1: 50.35	194.697 km / h	15th
16	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow Ford	1: 50.45	194.521 km / h	16
17th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 50.82	193.871 km / h	17th
18th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow Ford	1: 51.16	193.278 km / h	18th
19th	Rupert Keegan	Surtees-Ford	1: 51.42	192.827 km / h	19th
20th	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	1: 51.68	192.378 km / h	20th
21st	Danny Ongais	Ensign-Ford	1: 51.71	192.327 km / h	21st
22nd	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign-Ford	1: 51.94	191.931 km / h	22nd
23	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 51.99	191.846 km / h	23
24	Brett Lunger	McLaren-Ford	1: 52.27	191.367 km / h	24
DNQ	Hector Rebaque	Lotus Ford	1: 52.52	190.942 km / h	-
DNQ	Eddie Cheever	Theodore Ford	1: 53.25	189.711 km / h	-
DNQ	Divina Galica	Hesketh-Ford	1: 56.69	184.119 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	52	0	1: 37: 04.47	01
02	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	52	0	+ 13.210	05
03	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	52	0	+ 13,640	10
04th	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	52	0	+ 16,050	06th
05	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	52	0	+1: 14.850	03
06th	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	52	0	+1: 19.900	09
07th	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	52	1	+1: 22,600	02
08th	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	52	0	+1: 38.880	07th	1: 49.760
09	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	52	0	+1: 40,600	17th
10	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	52	0	+1: 43,500	15th
11	Jochen Mass	ATS Ford	52	0	+1: 49.070	13
12	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS Ford	51	0	+ 1 lap	11
13	Brett Lunger	McLaren-Ford	51	0	+ 1 lap	24
14th	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	51	0	+ 1 lap	23
15th	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow Ford	51	1	+ 1 lap	16
16	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	50	0	+ 2 rounds	8th		Engine failure
17th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow Ford	51	0	+ 2 rounds	18th
18th	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	50	0	+ 2 rounds	12
-	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	41	0	DNF	04th	'	Engine failure
-	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	36	1	DNF	14th		Fuel system
-	Danny Ongais	Ensign-Ford	35	0	DNF	21st		Ignition distributor
-	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign-Ford	29	0	DNF	22nd		Engine failure
-	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	9	0	DNF	20th		differential
-	Rupert Keegan	Surtees-Ford	4th	0	DNF	19th		Motor overheated

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

Item driver constructor Points 01  Mario Andretti lotus 9 02  Niki Lauda Brabham 6th 03  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 4th 04th  James Hunt McLaren 3 05  Ronnie Peterson lotus 2 06th  Patrick Tambay McLaren 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 9 02  Brabham 6th 03  Tyrrell 4th 04th  McLaren 3

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinz Prüller : Grand Prix Story 1977 ; Publishing house ORAC Vienna (1977)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on August 5, 2012)
3. ^ ^{A b} Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 1978 ; Publishing house ORAC Vienna (1978)
4. ↑ World Cup stands after the Argentina Grand Prix in 1978

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website