1979 Argentina Grand Prix

 1979 Argentina Grand Prix

Racing data
1st of 15 races of the 1979 automobile world championship
Surname:	XV Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Date:	January 21, 1979
Place:	Buenos Aires
Course:	Autódromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires
Length:	316.304 km in 53 laps of 5.968 km
Weather:	sunny and hot
Spectator:	~ 85,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier
Time:	1: 44.20 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier
Time:	1: 46.91 min
Podium
First:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier
Second:	Carlos Reutemann	lotus
Third:	John Watson	McLaren

The 1979 Argentina Grand Prix took place on January 21 at the Autódromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires and was the first race of the 1979 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

As a result of the dominance of the Lotus 79 in the 1978 season , the competing teams were forced to develop new racing cars for the 1979 season that also implemented the principle of wing cars . This seemed to be the only way to prevent the Lotus team from successfully defending their title . Meanwhile, the reigning designer world champion was working on the new Lotus 80 , which should represent a further improvement on the previous year's model. The new main sponsor Martini provided financial support . The defending champion Mario Andretti stayed in the team. Carlos Reutemann , whose contract had already been signed before Ronnie Peterson's death in Monza in 1978 , drove at his side . This in turn had signed a factory driver contract with McLaren , where he was to replace James Hunt . This place was now taken by John Watson , who had no future at Brabham . For him and his teammate Patrick Tambay , the new McLaren M28 was completed in time for the season opener. Hunt switched to Walter Wolf Racing with the new main sponsor Olympus , where he was to drive the new, innovative Wolf WR7 , which was developed under the leadership of Harvey Postlethwaite . Nelson Piquet , who had already driven a third car of the team at the season finale in 1978 , took Watson's place at Brabham at the side of Niki Lauda .

Jody Scheckter took Reutemann's place at Ferrari at the side of Gilles Villeneuve . As one of the few teams, the Scuderia started the season with the previous year's model 312T3 , as the further development of the 312T4 still had problems with the wing car technology due to the bulky twelve-cylinder engine.

Ligier switched to the Ford-Cosworth standard engines after Matra left Formula 1 . In addition, the commitment was expanded to include two works cars. For this, the former was Tyrrell -Pilot Patrick Depailler as the second driver alongside Jacques Laffite contracted. The Wing Car Ligier JS11 , which had been developed by Gérard Ducarouge , was available in good time. Williams also developed into a two-car team , where Clay Regazzoni took on the role of the second regular driver alongside Alan Jones . Even Renault put a second car, which by René Arnoux was driven, in addition to that of Jean-Pierre Jabouille one. As the new RS10 model was still a long time coming, the two started the season with the RS01 . This team was still the only one to use a turbo engine .

After the loss of the main sponsor Elf , who had decided to work exclusively with Renault from now on, Tyrrell had financial difficulties. Even so, the new Tyrrell 009 was completed on time. Allegedly, the construction plans for the Lotus 79 were obtained from a Japanese model car manufacturer in order to be able to orientate themselves on the most successful wing car to date when designing the new car. Jean-Pierre Jarier has been hired to replace Patrick Depailler at Didier Pironi's side .

The ATS Racing Team reduced its commitment to just one car and signed Hans-Joachim Stuck . His predecessor Jochen Mass found a new job alongside Riccardo Patrese with the Arrows team supported by the Warsteiner Brewery . After the departure of Stuck and Regazzoni, Shadow started the new season with two Formula 1 debutants, namely the Dutchman Jan Lammers and the Italian Elio de Angelis .

As in the previous year, Héctor Rebaque competed as a private driver with a Lotus racing car. The teams Surtees and Theodore , however, did not participate in the 1979 season. Emerson Fittipaldi and Arturo Merzario continued to compete with their own designs.

training

While many expected a renewed Lotus dominance, the new Ligier JS11 already proved to be a successful construction during training, with which Laffite and Depailler qualified for the front row. In third place on the grid followed with Reutemann, the first Lotus next to Jarier and in front of Scheckter and Watson in row three.

With lap times five and six seconds slower than the pole setter, the Brabham drivers Piquet and Lauda only qualified for positions 20 and 23 on the grid.

run

Patrese and Stuck could not compete because their racing cars were not operational due to damage.

From the front row, the two Ligier drivers took the lead, while a few positions behind them there was a collision between Watson and Scheckter. Pironi, Tambay, Piquet and Merzario were involved in the accident that followed. The race was canceled.

In the restart, which was carried out after the cleanup was completed, Piquet and Scheckter no longer took part due to injuries they had suffered. Tambay, Merzario and Pironi could also no longer compete because there were no replacement cars available for them.

This time, Depailler took the lead from Jarier and Watson, who both managed to overtake Laffite. However, he worked his way up to the top by the eleventh lap and defended this position to the finish. At this point in time, Depailler was followed by Watson, followed by Reutemann and Andretti. The local hero got past Watson and Depailler into second place by the 44th lap. Due to misfiring, Depailler dropped to fourth place and had to give Watson the place on the podium. Andretti was fifth ahead of Fittipaldi.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Martini Racing Team Lotus	1	Mario Andretti	Lotus 79	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Carlos Reutemann
Team Tyrrell	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell 009		G
	4th	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Parmalat Racing Team	5	Niki Lauda	Brabham BT48	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	G
	6th	Nelson Piquet	Brabham BT46	Alfa Romeo 115-12 3.0 F12
Marlboro Team McLaren	7th	John Watson	McLaren M28	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	8th	Patrick Tambay
ATS Wheels	9	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS D2		G
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari 312T3	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	M.
	12	Gilles Villeneuve
Fittipaldi Automotive	14th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi F5A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Equipe Renault Elf	15th	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault RS01	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	M.
	16	René Arnoux
Samson Shadow Racing Team	17th	Jan Lammers	Shadow DN9	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Interscope Shadow Racing Team	18th	Elio de Angelis
Olympus Cameras Wolf Racing	20th	James Hunt	Wolf WR7		G
Team Ensign	22nd	Derek Daly	Ensign N177		G
Team Merzario	24	Arturo Merzario	Merzario A1B		G
Ligier Gitanes	25th	Patrick Depailler	Ligier JS11		G
	26th	Jacques Laffite
Albilad-Saudia Racing Team	27	Alan Jones	Williams FW06		G
	28	Clay Regazzoni
Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows A1B		G
	30th	Jochen Mass
Team Rebaque	31	Hector Rebaque	Lotus 79		G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	1: 44.20	206.188 km / h	01
02	Patrick Depailler	Ligier-Ford	1: 45.24	204.151 km / h	02
03	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus Ford	1: 45.34	203.957 km / h	03
04th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 45.36	203.918 km / h	04th
05	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	1: 45.58	203.493 km / h	05
06th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 45.76	203.147 km / h	06th
07th	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 45.96	202.763 km / h	07th
08th	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 46.43	201.868 km / h	08th
09	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	1: 46.56	201.622 km / h	09
10	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 46.88	201.018 km / h	10
11	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 47.15	200.511 km / h	11
12	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	1: 47.46	199.933 km / h	12
13	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 48.33	198.327 km / h	DNS
14th	Jochen Mass	Arrows Ford	1: 48.34	198.309 km / h	13
15th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 48.44	198.126 km / h	14th
16	Elio de Angelis	Shadow Ford	1: 48.51	197.998 km / h	15th
17th	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	1: 48.64	197.761 km / h	16
18th	James Hunt	Wolf-Ford	1: 48.77	197.525 km / h	17th
19th	Hector Rebaque	Lotus Ford	1: 49.36	196.459 km / h	18th
20th	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 49.49	196.226 km / h	19th
21st	Jan Lammers	Shadow Ford	1: 49.51	196.190 km / h	20th
22nd	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	1: 50.26	194.856 km / h	21st
23	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 50.29	194.803 km / h	22nd
24	Derek Daly	Ensign-Ford	1: 51.05	193.470 km / h	23
25th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS Ford	1: 51.28	193.070 km / h	DNS
26th	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 51.52	192.654 km / h	24

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	53	0	1: 36: 03.21	01	1: 46.91
02	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus Ford	53	0	+ 14.94	03	1: 47.44
03	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	53	0	+1: 28.81	06th	1: 48.99
04th	Patrick Depailler	Ligier-Ford	53	1	+1: 41.72	02	1: 47.90
05	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	52	0	+ 1 lap	07th	1: 49.74
06th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	52	0	+ 1 lap	11	1: 50.29
07th	Elio de Angelis	Shadow Ford	52	0	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 50.35
08th	Jochen Mass	Arrows Ford	51	0	+ 2 rounds	13	1: 50.62
09	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	51	0	+ 2 rounds	14th	1: 50.61
10	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	51	0	+ 2 rounds	16	1: 51.13
11	Derek Daly	Ensign-Ford	51	0	+ 2 rounds	23	1: 53.23
-	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	48	1	DNF	10	1: 48.54	Engine failure
-	Hector Rebaque	Lotus Ford	46	0	DNF	18th	1: 49.86	Suspension damage
-	James Hunt	Wolf-Ford	42	0	DNF	17th	1: 51.21	defective electrical box
-	Jan Lammers	Shadow Ford	42	0	DNF	20th	1: 52.13	Suspension damage
-	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	15th	0	DNF	04th	1: 49.73	Engine failure
-	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15th	0	DNF	12	1: 50.79	Engine failure
-	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	08th	0	DNF	22nd	1: 52.65	defective fuel pump
-	René Arnoux	Renault	06th	0	DNF	24	1: 52.30	Engine failure
-	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	00	0	DNF	05	-	collision
-	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	00	0	DNF	08th	-	collision
-	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	00	0	DNF	09	-	collision
-	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	00	0	DNF	19th	-	collision
-	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	00	0	DNF	21st	-	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

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jacques Laffite Ligier 9 02  Carlos Reutemann lotus 6th 03  John Watson McLaren 4th

Item driver constructor Points 04th  Patrick Depailler Ligier 3 05  Mario Andretti lotus 2 06th  Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ligier 12 02  lotus 8th 03  McLaren 4th 04th  Fittipaldi 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Verlag: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 208
2. ↑ "Background" (accessed on August 24, 2012)
3. ↑ "Training" ( memento of the original from December 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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 August 24, 2012) 
4. ^ "Report" (accessed on August 24, 2012)
5. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from December 26, 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 August 24, 2012) 

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website