1981 Brazilian Grand Prix

 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 15 races in the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	X Grande Prêmio do Brasil
Date:	March 29, 1981
Place:	Rio de Janeiro
Course:	Jacarepaguá
Length:	311.922 km in 62 laps of 5.031 km
Weather:	changeable, but warm
Spectator:	~ 70,000
Pole position
Driver:	Nelson Piquet	Brabham
Time:	1: 35.079 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Marc Surer	Ensign
Time:	1: 54.302 min
Podium
First:	Carlos Reutemann	Williams
Second:	Alan Jones	Williams
Third:	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows

The 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix took place on March 29th in Rio de Janeiro and was the second race of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

Two weeks after the season opener in Long Beach , an almost unchanged field of participants traveled to Rio de Janeiro to complete the second World Championship round, which was not held in Interlagos for the second time since 1978 , but on the Jacarepaguá racetrack .

The financially troubled Tyrrell team made the second works car available to pay driver Ricardo Zunino . Kevin Cogan's short Formula 1 career ended after two unsuccessful qualifications.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille , who is a regular Ligier driver, completed the first day of training, including the first qualifying session. However, he found that his leg injuries, which he sustained at the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix , had not yet healed enough to withstand the stresses of a race. Therefore, on the second day of training, he handed his car over to his compatriot Jean-Pierre Jarier , who had already represented him in Long Beach.

In order to avoid the compromise negotiated between FISA and FOCA regarding a minimum ground clearance of the vehicles of six centimeters, several teams experimented with different methods. Lotus had developed the Type 88 with a double chassis and was thus in the test phase. Brabham was rumored to be testing a hydraulic system that could lower the car while it was moving.

training

Local hero Nelson Piquet qualified for pole position in front of the two Williams drivers Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones . Riccardo Patrese confirmed with fourth place that his very good qualifying performance in Long Beach was no coincidence. Renault driver Alain Prost formed the third row on the grid with Bruno Giacomelli in an Alfa Romeo .

Both March pilots, both Osella pilots and Jan Lammers on ATS failed to qualify for one of the 24 starting positions.

run

After a rainy morning, the race started on wet track conditions. With the exception of Nelson Piquet, Didier Pironi and Siegfried Stohr , all drivers used rain tires.

Reutemann took the lead from Jones, Patrese and Giacomelli. Meanwhile, Piquet's tire choice turned out to be wrong. He fell back to 15th place during the first lap.

Alain Prost got off his starting position badly. This forced Gilles Villeneuve to take off the gas. Mario Andretti , following behind, registered this too late and collided with the Ferrari driver. In addition, were René Arnoux , Chico Serra , Siegfried Stohr and Eddie Cheever involved in the accident. Only Villeneueve, Stohr and Cheever were able to continue the race.

Elio de Angelis took fourth place on lap four by overtaking Bruno Giacomelli. When it spun on the seventh lap, Keke Rosberg came in fifth ahead of Gilles Villeneuve.

John Watson , who had struggled steadily from 15th on the grid, came in fifth on lap 14 ahead of Jarier and Rosberg, who had dropped to seventh. This was also overtaken by Marc Surer on the 18th lap . Due to slight driving errors by Jariers and Watsons when light rain started again, Marc Surer and Jacques Laffite came in fifth and sixth on lap 35. On the 49th lap, Surer overtook de Angelis and thus came fourth. Shortly before Jarier had overtaken his teammate Laffite, however, this had three rounds before the end of the race as team orders again let that happen.

At the top, the reigning world champion Alan Jones also hoped for an order from the team to Reutemann to let him pass. This order was also shown to the Argentine on a pit board, but he defied the instruction. When Reutemann crossed the finish line first, both Jones and the Williams team reacted angrily. There was no real joy about the second one-two in the second race. Jones did not step onto the podium and thus demonstratively stayed away from the award ceremony.

Patrese finished in third place ahead of the impressive Surer, who had completed the fastest race lap, and the two Ligier drivers Laffite and Jarier.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Albilad-Williams Racing Team	1	Alan Jones	Williams FW07C	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
	2	Carlos Reutemann
Tyrrell Racing Team	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell 010		M.
	4th	Ricardo Zunino
Parmalat Racing Team	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham BT49C		M.
	6th	Hector Rebaque
Marlboro McLaren International	7th	John Watson	McLaren M29F		M.
	8th	Andrea de Cesaris
Team ATS	9	Jan Lammers	ATS D4		M.
Team Essex Lotus	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus 81B		M.
	12	Nigel Mansell
Ensign Racing	14th	Marc Surer	Ensign N180B		M.
Equipe Renault Elf	15th	Alain Prost	Renault RE20B	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	M.
	16	René Arnoux
March Grand Prix Team	17th	Eliseo Salazar	March 811	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
	18th	Derek Daly
Fittipaldi Automotive	20th	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi F8C		M.
	21st	Chico Serra
Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	22nd	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo 179C	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	M.
	23	Bruno Giacomelli
Equipe Talbot Gitanes	25 1	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier JS17	Matra MS81 3.0 V12	M.
		Jean-Pierre Jarier
	26th	Jacques Laffite
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari 126CK	Ferrari 021 1.5 V6 t	M.
	28	Didier Pironi
Ragno Arrows Beta Racing Team	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows A3B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
	30th	Siegfried Stohr
Osella Squadra Corse	31	Miguel Ángel Guerra	Osella FA1B		M.
	32	Beppe Gabbiani
Theodore Racing Team	33	Patrick Tambay	Theodore TY01		M.

¹ Jean-Pierre Jarier took over the Ligier JS17 with start number 25 during practice from Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training 1		Qualification training 2		begin
			time	Ø speed	time	Ø speed
01	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1: 35.786	189.084 km / h	1: 35.079	190.490 km / h	01
02	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1: 35.390	189.869 km / h	1: 36,000	188.663 km / h	02
03	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 36.337	188.003 km / h	1: 36.390	187.899 km / h	03
04th	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 37.231	186.274 km / h	1: 36.667	187.361 km / h	04th
05	Alain Prost	Renault	1: 37.147	186.435 km / h	1: 36.670	187.355 km / h	05
06th	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1: 38.682	183.535 km / h	1: 37.283	186.174 km / h	06th
07th	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 37.975	184.859 km / h	1: 37.497	185.766 km / h	07th
08th	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 38.985	182.973 km / h	1: 37.561	185.644 km / h	08th
09	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	1: 37.933	184.939 km / h	1: 37.597	185.575 km / h	09
10	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	1: 38.352	184.151 km / h	1: 37.734	185.315 km / h	10
11	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	1: 38.225	184.389 km / h	1: 37.777	185.234 km / h	11
12	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 37.981	184.848 km / h	1: 39.371	182.262 km / h	12
13	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	1: 38.861	183.203 km / h	1: 38.003	184.807 km / h	13
14th	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 38.160	184.511 km / h	1: 38.521	183.835 km / h	14th
15th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 40.057	181.013 km / h	1: 38.263	184.318 km / h	15th
16	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 38.273	184.299 km / h	1: 38.713	183.477 km / h	16
17th	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1: 39.229	182.523 km / h	1: 38.565	183.753 km / h	17th
18th	Marc Surer	Ensign-Ford	1: 39.296	182.400 km / h	1: 38.570	183.744 km / h	18th
19th	Patrick Tambay	Theodore Ford	1: 38.726	183.453 km / h	1: 39.668	181.719 km / h	19th
20th	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	1: 39.409	182.193 km / h	1: 38.780	183.353 km / h	20th
21st	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	1: 40.297	180.580 km / h	1: 39.190	182.595 km / h	21st
22nd	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 39.326	182.345 km / h	1: 39.396	182.217 km / h	22nd
23	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Matra	no time	-	1: 39.398	182.213 km / h	23
24	Ricardo Zunino	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 41.036	179.259 km / h	1: 39.798	181.483 km / h	24
DNQ	Jan Lammers	ATS Ford	1: 40.339	180.504 km / h	1: 39.844	181.399 km / h	-
DNQ	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier-Matra	1: 40.306	180.563 km / h	no time	-	-
DNQ	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	1: 41.954	177.645 km / h	1: 40.709	179.841 km / h	-
DNQ	Miguel Ángel Guerra	Osella-Ford	1: 40.984	179.351 km / h	1: 44.482	173.347 km / h	-
DNQ	Eliseo Salazar	March-Ford	1: 44.730	172.936 km / h	1: 43.267	175.386 km / h	-
DNQ	Derek Daly	March-Ford	no time	-	no time	-	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	62	0	2: 00: 23.66	02	1: 54.78
02	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	62	0	+ 04.44	03	1: 55.21
03	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	62	0	+1: 03.08	04th	1: 56.10
04th	Marc Surer	Ensign-Ford	62	0	+1: 17.03	18th	1: 54.302
05	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	62	0	+1: 26.42	10	1: 56.27
06th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	62	0	+1: 26.83	16	1: 54.50
07th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Matra	62	0	+1: 30.25	23	1: 55.85
08th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	61	0	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 56.95
09	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	61	0	+ 1 lap	12	1: 57.34
10	Patrick Tambay	Theodore Ford	61	0	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 56.71
11	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	61	0	+ 1 lap	13	1: 57.12
12	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	60	0	+ 2 rounds	01	1: 54.67
13	Ricardo Zunino	Tyrrell-Ford	58	0	+ 4 rounds	24	2: 00.35
-	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	49	3	NC	14th	1: 59.19	Unrated
-	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	40	1	NC	06th	1: 56.73	Unrated
-	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	25th	2	DNF	07th	1: 57.42	Turbocharger damage
-	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	22nd	0	DNF	11	1: 57.27	accident
-	Alain Prost	Renault	20th	0	DNF	05	1: 57.12	collision
-	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	20th	0	DNF	21st	2: 03.42	collision
-	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	19th	0	DNF	17th	2: 00.44	collision
-	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	09	0	DNF	20th	1: 58.87	defective fuel pump
-	René Arnoux	Renault	00	0	DNF	08th	-	collision
-	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	00	0	DNF	09	-	collision
-	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	00	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

Item driver constructor Points 01  Carlos Reutemann Williams 15th 02  Alan Jones Williams 15th 03  Nelson Piquet Brabham 4th 04th  Riccardo Patrese Arrows 4th 05  Marc Surer Ensign 3

Item driver constructor Points 06th  Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 3 07th  Elio de Angelis lotus 2 08th  Eddie Cheever Tyrrell 2 09  Patrick Tambay Theodore 1 10  Jacques Laffite Ligier 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams 30th 02  Arrows 4th 03  Brabham 4th 04th  Ensign 3 05  Alfa Romeo 3

Item constructor Points 06th  Tyrrell 2 07th  lotus 2 08th  Theodore 1 09  Ligier 1

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Training" ( Memento from August 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 14, 2012)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on October 14, 2012)
3. ^ "World Championship stands" ( Memento from August 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed October 14, 2012)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website