Great Britain Grand Prix 1981

 Great Britain Grand Prix 1981

Racing data
9th of 15 races in the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XXXIV British Grand Prix
Date:	July 18, 1981
Place:	Silverstone
Course:	Silverstone Circuit
Length:	320.892 km in 68 laps of 4.719 km
Weather:	dry and warm
Spectator:	~ 88,000
Pole position
Driver:	René Arnoux	Renault
Time:	1: 11,000 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	René Arnoux	Renault
Time:	1: 15.067 min
Podium
First:	John Watson	McLaren
Second:	Carlos Reutemann	Williams
Third:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier

The 1981 British Grand Prix took place in Silverstone on July 18 and was the ninth race of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

Elio de Angelis in the Lotus 87

Before the ninth round of the World Championship of the year, Jean-Pierre Jarier was hired as the second Osella driver. The Lotus team tried one more time to report the controversial, now further developed Lotus 88B with double chassis for the race weekend. During practice, the car was again classified as non-compliant and all lap times achieved with it were canceled.

Several teams changed their tire partners. Lotus competed with Goodyear tires and Arrows chose Pirelli instead of Michelin .

training

The two Renault drivers René Arnoux and Alain Prost qualified for the front row ahead of Nelson Piquet in a Brabham and Didier Pironi in a Ferrari . The two McLaren regular drivers John Watson and Andrea de Cesaris formed the third row in front of the reigning world champion Alan Jones and Gilles Villeneuve .

Due to the withdrawal of their lap times achieved in the first qualifying session on Friday with the Lotus 88B, the two drivers Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell were forced to qualify with the Lotus 87 during the second round on Saturday . Mansell did not succeed. Since the two Toleman pilots Brian Henton and Derek Warwick failed to qualify again, John Watson was the only British participant who was allowed to contest his home Grand Prix this year.

run

Prost finished the first lap in the lead ahead of Pironi, Villeneuve, Arnoux and Piquet. By the third lap, Arnoux fought his way past both Ferrari drivers and restored the original Renault one-two lead that had resulted from training.

Shortly after being overtaken by Piquet, Villeneuve spun in the Woodcote corner. While trying to evade the Ferrari, Jones collided with it and with the McLaren MP4 / 1 from de Cesaris, which consequently crashed violently into the lane. Villeneuve's car initially appeared roadworthy, but the Canadian had to give up the race after just a few meters.

On the fifth lap, Piquet overtook Pironi. However, due to a puncture, he had an accident on the twelfth lap.

Watson, who had also been hampered by the collision between de Cesaris and Jones, had meanwhile worked his way up past Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann to fourth place. Pironi's failure on lap 14 put him in third place behind the two Renaults.

Lotus driver Elio de Angelis, who was sixth at the time, was disqualified on lap 25 for ignoring the yellow flag.

An engine failure of the leading Prost put Arnoux in the lead on lap 18 and Watson in second place. They were followed by Reutemann and Andretti as well as Riccardo Patrese and Héctor Rebaque .

When the second Renault engine began to cause problems from lap 50, Watson was able to catch up with the leader and finally overtake him on lap 60. Ultimately, John Watson achieved his second Grand Prix victory almost five years after his success at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite , Eddie Cheever , Héctor Rebaque and Slim Borgudd .

It was the first Grand Prix victory a carriage having from carbon fiber reinforced plastic gefertigtem monocoque .

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
TAG Williams team	1	Alan Jones	Williams FW07C	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Carlos Reutemann
Tyrrell Racing Team	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell 010		M.
	4th	Michele Alboreto
Parmalat Racing Team	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham BT49C		G
	6th	Hector Rebaque
Marlboro McLaren International	7th	John Watson	McLaren MP4 / 1		M.
	8th	Andrea de Cesaris
Team ATS	9	Slim Borgudd	ATS D5		A.
John Player Team Lotus	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus 87		G
			Lotus 88B 1
	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus 87
			Lotus 88B 1
Ensign Racing	14th	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign N180B		A.
Equipe Renault Elf	15th	Alain Prost	Renault RE30	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	M.
	16	René Arnoux
March Grand Prix Team	17th	Derek Daly	March 811	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	A.
Fittipaldi Automotive	20th	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi F8C		M.
	21st	Chico Serra
Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	22nd	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo 179D	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	M.
	23	Bruno Giacomelli
Equipe Talbot Gitanes	25th	Patrick Tambay	Ligier JS17	Matra MS81 3.0 V12	M.
	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	P
	30th	Siegfried Stohr
Osella Squadra Corse	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella FA1B		M.
	32	Jean-Pierre Jarier
Theodore Racing Team	33	Marc Surer	Theodore TY01		A.
Candy Toleman Motorsport	35	Brian Henton	Toleman TG181	Hart 415T 1.5 L4 t	P
	36	Derek Warwick

¹ The Lotus 88B was only used by both drivers on the first day of training.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training 1		Qualification training 2		begin
			time	Ø speed	time	Ø speed
01	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 12.158	235.433 km / h	1: 11,000	239.273 km / h	01
02	Alain Prost	Renault	1: 12.237	235.176 km / h	1: 11.046	239.118 km / h	02
03	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1: 12.328	234.880 km / h	1: 11,952	236.107 km / h	03
04th	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1: 14.070	229.356 km / h	1: 12.644	233.858 km / h	04th
05	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 13.370	231.544 km / h	1: 12.712	233.640 km / h	05
06th	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	1: 13.976	229.647 km / h	1: 12.728	233.588 km / h	06th
07th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 12.998	232.724 km / h	1: 13.250	231.924 km / h	07th
08th	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 14.182	229.010 km / h	1: 13.311	231.731 km / h	08th
09	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1: 13.467	231.239 km / h	1: 13.371	231.541 km / h	09
10	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 15.217	225.859 km / h	1: 13.762	230.314 km / h	10
11	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	1: 14.440	228.216 km / h	1: 13.928	229.797 km / h	11
12	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1: 14.119	229.204 km / h	1: 14.442	228.210 km / h	12
13	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	1: 14.594	227.745 km / h	1: 14.542	227.904 km / h	13
14th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 15.313	225.571 km / h	1: 14.798	227.124 km / h	14th
15th	Patrick Tambay	Ligier-Matra	1: 15.656	224.548 km / h	1: 14.976	226.585 km / h	15th
16	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 16.695	221.506 km / h	1: 15.165	226.015 km / h	16
17th	Derek Daly	March-Ford	1: 15.189	225.943 km / h	1: 15.303	225.601 km / h	17th
18th	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	1: 17.229	219.974 km / h	1: 15.304	225.598 km / h	18th
19th	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.446	222.227 km / h	1: 15.850	223.974 km / h	19th
20th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	1: 15.943	223.699 km / h	1: 15.898	223.832 km / h	20th
21st	Slim Borgudd	ATS Ford	1: 16.758	221.324 km / h	1: 15,959	223.652 km / h	21st
22nd	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	no time 2	-	1: 15.971	223.617 km / h	22nd
23	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.381	222.417 km / h	1: 16.099	223.241 km / h	23
24	Marc Surer	Theodore Ford	1: 17.124	220.274 km / h	1: 16.155	223.077 km / h	24
DNQ	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 18.173	217.318 km / h	1: 16.360	222.478 km / h	-
DNQ	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart	1: 16.388	222.396 km / h	1: 19.602	213.417 km / h	-
DNQ	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	no time 2	-	1: 16.432	222.268 km / h	-
DNQ	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	1: 17.053	220.477 km / h	1: 16.694	221.509 km / h	-
DNQ	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1: 17.998	217.806 km / h	1: 16.891	220.941 km / h	-
DNQ	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	1: 20.377	211.359 km / h	1: 17.784	218.405 km / h	-

² The lap times from the first qualification training were withdrawn from the two Lotus drivers because they were achieved with the Lotus 88B, which was classified as non-compliant.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	68	0	1: 26: 54.80	05	1: 15.32
02	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	68	0	+ 40.65	09	1: 15.89
03	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	67	0	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 17.03
04th	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	67	0	+ 1 lap	23	1: 17.18
05	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	67	2	+ 1 lap	13	1: 15.84
06th	Slim Borgudd	ATS Ford	67	0	+ 1 lap	21st	1: 17.44
07th	Derek Daly	March-Ford	66	1	+ 2 rounds	17th	1: 16.51
08th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	65	1	+ 3 rounds	20th	1: 17.64
09	René Arnoux	Renault	64	0	DNF	01	1: 15.067	Engine failure
10	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	64	0	DNF	10	1: 16.11	Engine failure
11	Marc Surer	Theodore Ford	61	0	DNF	24	1: 17.07	Lack of fuel
-	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	59	0	DNF	11	1: 17.16	defective throttle linkage
-	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	56	0	DNF	16	1: 18.40	Suspension damage
-	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	25th	0	DSQ	22nd	1: 17.12	disqualified
-	Alain Prost	Renault	17th	0	DNF	02	1: 15.19	Engine failure
-	Patrick Tambay	Ligier-Matra	15th	2	DNF	15th	1: 18.23	Clutch damage
-	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	13	0	DNF	04th	1: 17.44	Engine failure
-	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	11	0	DNF	03	1: 15.33	accident
-	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	05	0	DNF	12	1: 17.79	Gearbox damage
-	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	04th	0	DNF	08th	1: 17.70	Collision damage
-	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	03	0	DNF	07th	1: 17.20	collision
-	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	03	0	DNF	06th	1: 16.88	accident
-	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	01	0	DNF	19th	2: 49.45	Clutch damage
-	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	00	0	DNF	18th	-	accident

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 43 02  Nelson Piquet Brabham 26th 03  Alan Jones Williams 24 04th  Jacques Laffite Ligier 21st 05  Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 21st 06th  John Watson McLaren 19th 07th  Alain Prost Renault 13 08th  Riccardo Patrese Arrows 10 09  Eddie Cheever Tyrrell 8th 10  Elio de Angelis lotus 8th

Item driver constructor Points 11  Didier Pironi Ferrari 7th 12  René Arnoux Renault 5 13  Hector Rebaque Brabham 5 14th  Nigel Mansell lotus 5 15th  Marc Surer Ensign 4th 16  Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 3 17th  Andrea de Cesaris McLaren 1 18th  Slim Borgudd ATS 1 19th  Patrick Tambay Theodore 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams 67 02  Brabham 31 03  Ferrari 28 04th  Ligier 21st 05  McLaren 20th 06th  Renault 18th 07th  lotus 13

Item constructor Points 08th  Arrows 10 09  Tyrrell 8th 10  Ensign 4th 11  Alfa Romeo 3 12  Theodore 1 13  ATS 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original dated August 4, 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)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on October 14, 2012)
3. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from August 4, 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)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website