1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix

 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix

Racing data
15th of 15 races in the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	I Caesars Palace Grand Prix
Date:	17th October 1981
Place:	Las Vegas
Course:	Caesars Palace Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	273.75 km in 75 laps of 3.65 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Spectator:	~ 38,000
Pole position
Driver:	Carlos Reutemann	Williams
Time:	1: 17.821 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Didier Pironi	Ferrari
Time:	1: 20.156 min
Podium
First:	Alan Jones	Williams
Second:	Alain Prost	Renault
Third:	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo

The 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix took place on October 17th as the 15th and final race of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship in Las Vegas .

Reports

background

After the US West Grand Prix had taken place in Long Beach at the beginning of the season, a US East Grand Prix in Watkins Glen was planned for the season finale, as in previous years . However, since this route no longer met the current safety requirements at the time, an alternative was sought. This was found in the form of a street circuit in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Since the city was not in the east of the United States, but rather to the west like Long Beach, a new name had to be chosen. The decision was made for Caesars Palace Grand Prix or the name of the city in which the race took place. This had only happened once before, at the 1957 Pescara Grand Prix .

The rumors that Niki Lauda would return to Formula 1 after a two-year hiatus in 1982 had meanwhile become a certainty.

There were no changes in the field of drivers compared to the Canadian Grand Prix three weeks earlier. Before the race, Carlos Reutemann led the drivers' standings with 49 points. Of the pursuers, Nelson Piquet (48 points) and Jacques Laffite (43 points) had chances for the title. In the constructors' championship, however, Williams had an unassailable lead with 86 points over Brabham , whose drivers Piquet and Hector Rebaque had only collected 59 points.

training

Carlos Reutemann, who had only one point left in the World Championship table, qualified for pole position, making him the best starting point to win the World Championship title, especially since his opponent Nelson Piquet only finished fourth. The reigning world champion Alan Jones , who intended to contest his last Grand Prix this weekend, stood next to his team-mate in the front row. However, he refused to support this in the fight for the World Cup, as he still saw himself as the number one of the team and only pursued his own ambitions to win. Gilles Villeneuve qualified for third place on the grid . Alain Prost and John Watson formed the third row ahead of Patrick Tambay and Bruno Giacomelli .

run

While Jones took the lead, Reutemann fell back to fifth place behind Villeneuve, Prost and Giacomelli before the first corner. Since Villeneuve initially held up the pursuers noticeably, Jones was able to build up a lead that led to an undisputed victory for the Australian in his last race for the time being.

On the third lap Villeneuve was overtaken by Prost, on the fourth lap John Watson by Jacques Laffite. The two duelists for the world title were at this point in seventh and eighth place outside of the points. This situation would have been enough for Reutemann to win the title. Villeneuve retired on lap 23 with a defective fuel injection. At this point, however, he had already been disqualified by the race management because he had run over his start marker at the start.

From the 17th lap, however, Piquet started a race to catch up, which initially pushed him past his opponent and finally up to third place by the 33rd lap. In the meantime, Reutemann only moved up to fifth place and was relegated to sixth place shortly afterwards by Nigel Mansell . On lap 46, Giacomelli, who had meanwhile dropped to ninth place, pushed him out of the points again. On the same lap, Prost, who had dropped to sixth place after a pit stop, took second place again, displacing Piquet from third place. Giacomelli and Mansell also overtook the title contender, so that he crossed the finish line in fifth and thus received two championship points. Since Reutemann, who had headed the World Cup table for much of the season, ended up with no points in eighth place, one lap behind the winner, Nelson Piquet finally won his first World Championship title by one point.

Not least the problems within the Williams team led to the loss of the driver's title. Since Alan Jones had refused to support Carlos Reutemann and the majority of the team agreed with him, no change of position of the two in Austria and Italy were ordered. In retrospect, this stable order , which was allowed at the time, would probably have led to the Argentine's title win.

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 011		A.
	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
	12	Nigel Mansell
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		P
	21st	Chico Serra
Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	22nd	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo 179D	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	M.
	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo 179C
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	Jacques Villeneuve
Osella Squadra Corse	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella FA1B		M.
	32	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella FA1C
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

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training 1		Qualification training 2		begin
			time	Ø speed	time	Ø speed
01	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1: 17.821	168.849 km / h	1: 18.343	167.724 km / h	01
02	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 18.236	167.953 km / h	1: 17.995	168.472 km / h	02
03	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 18.457	167.480 km / h	1: 18.060	168.332 km / h	03
04th	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1: 18,954	166.426 km / h	1: 18.161	168.115 km / h	04th
05	Alain Prost	Renault	1: 18.433	167.532 km / h	1: 18.760	166.836 km / h	05
06th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 19.975	164.301 km / h	1: 18.617	167.139 km / h	06th
07th	Patrick Tambay	Ligier-Matra	1: 19.874	164.509 km / h	1: 18.681	167.003 km / h	07th
08th	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1: 20.570	163.088 km / h	1: 18.792	166.768 km / h	08th
09	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	1: 19.044	166.237 km / h	1: 19.623	165.028 km / h	09
10	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	1: 19.594	165.088 km / h	1: 19.068	166.186 km / h	10
11	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 20.132	163.979 km / h	1: 19,152	166.010 km / h	11
12	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 19.878	164.501 km / h	1: 19.167	165.978 km / h	12
13	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 19.966	164.320 km / h	1: 19.197	165.915 km / h	13
14th	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	1: 19.338	165.621 km / h	1: 19.217	165.873 km / h	14th
15th	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	1: 20.337	163.561 km / h	1: 19.562	165.154 km / h	15th
16	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	1: 20.555	163.118 km / h	1: 19.571	165.136 km / h	16
17th	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 21.964	160.314 km / h	1: 19.774	164.715 km / h	17th
18th	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1: 19.899	164.458 km / h	1: 21.347	161.530 km / h	18th
19th	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 21.116	161.990 km / h	1: 20.475	163.281 km / h	19th
20th	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 21.299	161.626 km / h	1: 20.729	162.767 km / h	20th
21st	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	no time	-	1: 20.781	162.662 km / h	21st
22nd	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1: 22.491	159.290 km / h	1: 21.294	161.636 km / h	22nd
23	Marc Surer	Theodore Ford	1: 21.889	160.461 km / h	1: 21.430	161.366 km / h	23
24	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	1: 22.616	159.049 km / h	1: 21.629	160.972 km / h	24
DNQ	Slim Borgudd	ATS Ford	1: 21.665	160.901 km / h	1: 21.731	160.771 km / h	-
DNQ	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 22.612	159.057 km / h	1: 21.672	160.887 km / h	-
DNQ	Derek Daly	March-Ford	1: 21.846	160.545 km / h	1: 21.824	160.589 km / h	-
DNQ	Jacques Villeneuve	Arrows Ford	1: 22.977	158.357 km / h	1: 22.822	158.653 km / h	-
DNQ	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart	1: 23.857	156.695 km / h	1: 22.960	158.390 km / h	-
DNQ	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	1: 26.634	151.673 km / h	no time	-	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	75	0	1: 44: 09,077	02	1: 21.642
02	Alain Prost	Renault	75	1	+ 20.048	05	1: 21.249
03	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	75	0	+ 20,428	08th	1: 21.748
04th	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	75	0	+ 47.473	09	1: 22.477
05	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	75	0	+1: 16.438	04th	1: 22.679
06th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	75	1	+1: 18.175	12	1: 21.337
07th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	75	1	+1: 18.497	06th	1: 21.178
08th	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	74	0	+ 1 lap	01	1: 22.916
09	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	73	2	+ 2 rounds	18th	1: 20.156
10	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	73	0	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 24.370
11	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	71	2	+ 4 rounds	11	1: 21.969
12	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	69	2	+ 6 rounds	14th	1: 20,302
13	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	67	0	DNF	17th	1: 23.231	Engine failure
-	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	61	2	NC	24	1: 24.606	Unrated
-	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	42	0	DNF	22nd	1: 25.104	Gearbox damage
-	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	29	0	DNF	10	1: 21.883	Suspension damage
-	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	22nd	0	DSQ	03	1: 23.267	defective injection pump
-	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	20th	0	DNF	16	1: 23.012	stuck throttle valve
-	Marc Surer	Theodore Ford	19th	2	DNF	23	1: 26.133	Suspension damage
-	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	10	0	DNF	19th	1: 24.619	Engine failure
-	René Arnoux	Renault	10	0	DNF	13	1: 23.473	Engine failure
-	Patrick Tambay	Ligier-Matra	02	0	DNF	07th	2: 02.696	accident
-	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	02	0	DNF	15th	2: 22.696	defective water cooler
-	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	00	0	DNF	21st	-	broken PTO shaft

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  Nelson Piquet Brabham 50 02  Carlos Reutemann Williams 49 03  Alan Jones Williams 46 04th  Jacques Laffite Ligier 44 05  Alain Prost Renault 43 06th  John Watson McLaren 27 07th  Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 25th 08th  Elio de Angelis lotus 14th 09  René Arnoux Renault 11 10  Hector Rebaque Brabham 11 11  Eddie Cheever Tyrrell 10

Item driver constructor Points 12  Riccardo Patrese Arrows 10 13  Didier Pironi Ferrari 9 14th  Nigel Mansell lotus 8th 15th  Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 7th 16  Marc Surer Ensign 4th 17th  Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 3 18th  Eliseo Salazar Ensign 1 19th  Andrea de Cesaris McLaren 1 20th  Slim Borgudd ATS 1 21st  Patrick Tambay Theodore 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams 95 02  Brabham 61 03  Renault 54 04th  Ligier 44 05  Ferrari 34 06th  McLaren 28 07th  lotus 22nd

Item constructor Points 08th  Arrows 10 09  Tyrrell 10 10  Alfa Romeo 10 11  Ensign 5 12  Theodore 1 13  ATS 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 23, 2012)  
2. ^ Ulrich Schwab: Grand Prix 1981. The races for the automobile championship . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-87943-821-8 , p. 78 .
3. ^ "Report" (accessed on October 23, 2012)
4. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Publisher: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , pp. 225-226
5. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from July 19, 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 23, 2012)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website