1981 United States Grand Prix West

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1981 United States Grand Prix West
Race 1 of 15 in the 1981 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date March 15, 1981
Official name Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Location Long Beach, California
Course Temporary street course
Course length 3.251 km (2.02 miles)
Distance 80 laps, 260.08 km (161.60 miles)
Weather Sunny and warm with temperatures reaching up to 71.1 °F (21.7 °C); wind speeds approaching 10.9 miles per hour (17.5 km/h)[1]
Pole position
Driver Arrows-Ford
Time 1:19.399
Fastest lap
Driver Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford
Time 1:20.901 on lap 31
Podium
First Williams-Ford
Second Williams-Ford
Third Brabham-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1981 United States Grand Prix West (officially the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach[2]) was a Formula One motor race held on March 15, 1981, at Long Beach, California. It was the opening race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship.

Summary

Defending World Champion Alan Jones finished nine seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Reutemann, and won his first Long Beach Grand Prix, as the 1981 season finally began after a winter of controversy and legal battles. It was the third consecutive Grand Prix win for Jones, and his second consecutive in the United States, after seizing the 1980 Drivers' title with season-ending wins in Montreal, Canada and Watkins Glen, New York.

The off-season had seen FISA (La Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile) and FOCA (the Formula One Constructors' Association) in conflict, ostensibly over FISA's scheduled ban of aerodynamic skirts on the cars, but also over financial control of the sport. After threatening to institute their own championship, FOCA agreed to the skirt ban on assurance of their continued control of the sport's finances and FISA's commitment to a four-year period of stability in the rules. Just 10 days prior to the season-opening race in Long Beach, the Concorde Agreement was signed in Paris, allowing all of the teams to appear.

In the meantime, the South African race, run in February under FOCA's pre-agreement version of the rules, had been deprived of its World Championship status by the dispute, and the Argentine race, originally scheduled in January, was moved to April.

In addition to the new rules, Goodyear announced in December that it intended to withdraw immediately from all involvement in European racing. So, when the teams arrived in Long Beach for the first Championship race of the season, the Friday morning practice sessions were filled with frantic activity. Larger wings, softer springs and revised sidepods were in evidence for nearly everyone, trying to make up for the absence of the banned skirts. With all teams also using Michelin tires as well, many drivers were struggling to come to grips with a totally new set of challenges.

When the teams arrived in the Los Angeles area town of Long Beach, the demanding and tight street circuit had been slightly modified from the year before- the second left-hander on Pine Avenue had been made a single-apex corner instead of a double-apex.

On Saturday, yet another legal issue arose over the new twin-chassis Lotus 88, designed by Colin Chapman and Martin Ogilvie. A protest was lodged by a majority of the teams, although they did not specify what rules it was breaking. The car was initially approved by the FISA technical staff and passed by the scrutineers, allowing it to take part in Friday practice. Ultimately, however, the teams' appeal was allowed, the car was banned from the rest of the weekend and Lotus had to qualify and race the more conventional Lotus 81.

On the track, in final qualifying, Riccardo Patrese and Alan Jones traded the top spot back and forth several times during the session. Patrese finally managed to take the pole, clinching his first ever and the first (and only) for his Arrows team, by .01 seconds. Jones's Williams teammate Reutemann was third, followed by Nelson Piquet's Brabham, the Ferrari of Gilles Villeneuve and Mario Andretti in his first race for Alfa Romeo. The all-American Tyrrell driver team had Eddie Cheever in eighth place, but Kevin Cogan missed the final qualifying spot by .07 seconds. It was the first time a Tyrrell had ever failed to make the grid.

Sunday's weather, typical of Long Beach was perfect, but the first lap was not. Villeneuve made a wild charge down the outside off the grid and briefly took the lead, but he left his braking for the Queens Hairpin far too late. As he went wide, Patrese and the Williams pair of Reutemann and Jones all went through. Villeneuve was able to gather it in and rejoin in fourth, but Andrea de Cesaris did not, as he ran his McLaren into the back of both Alain Prost and Héctor Rebaque approaching the hairpin. After being hit, Prost's Renault slid across the track and shoved the Brabham of Rebaque into the wall. Prost and de Cesaris were out on the spot, but Rebaque was able to continue after pitting for four new tires. After one lap, the order was Patrese, Reutemann, Jones, Villeneuve, Piquet, Didier Pironi, Cheever and Andretti.

For the first part of the race, Patrese led Reutemann by around one second with Jones another three seconds behind. Then, almost the length of the pit straight back, was Pironi, who had traded places with Villeneuve (fifth and third) but was now holding up a line of cars as Piquet desperately tried to get by.

Lap 17 was a bad one for Ferrari as Piquet finally passed Pironi for fourth, and Villeneuve retired with a broken driveshaft. On lap 25, Reutemann took the lead from Patrese just a lap before Patrese pitted with a misfiring engine. He rejoined the race with a new spark box, but after two more stops for the same problem, finally retired with a broken fuel pickup.

Patrese's retirement left Reutemann with a three-second lead over teammate Jones, who immediately began closing the gap by half a second per lap. Any questions about team orders letting the number one driver through were soon answered. On lap 32, while lapping Marc Surer's Ensign, Reutemann slid wide in the esses on Pine Avenue, and Jones went through for the lead. Within 12 laps, the defending World Champion had stretched out a lead of ten seconds. At the same time, Reutemann was extending his lead over Piquet to 36 seconds.

On lap 41, Jacques Laffite tried to go by Cheever as they entered the right-hander after the pits. Instead, he ran into the back of the Tyrrell, bending the nose of his Ligier and damaging Cheever's gearbox. Laffite had to limp around the entire course, and as he was finally about to enter the pits, Bruno Giacomelli approached, with Jan Lammers between the two of them. Giacomelli started to pass both cars on the inside, but realized he couldn't when Laffite turned to enter the pit lane. Giacomelli tried to go around Lammers on the other side, but it was too late. He ran over Lammers's ATS, pushing him into the wall.

Laffite's retirement interrupted an extended battle with Pironi, Cheever and Andretti for fourth place. Andretti passed Cheever for fifth on lap 43, then traded fourth several times with Pironi, before finally taking the position for good on lap 54. Pironi's Ferrari had developed a fuel feed problem and Cheever was also able to go by to take fifth. In making the pass, however, he lost his damaged second gear, by far the one most used on the tight street circuit.

The positions remained the same for the last quarter of the race with Jones and Reutemann easing up to take the third consecutive one-two for Williams. Piquet, having lost his shot at the leaders while bottled up behind Pironi, finished third, 35 seconds back. Mario Andretti thrilled the American crowd with his fourth place, just ahead of compatriot Eddie Cheever's Tyrrell in fifth. It was the first time for two Americans to finish in the points since Andretti and Mark Donohue at the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:21.983 1:19.399  —
2 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:20.911 1:19.408 +0.009
3 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:21.739 1:20.149 +0.750
4 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:22.675 1:20.289 +0.890
5 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:21.723 1:20.462 +1.063
6 22 United States Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 1:22.020 1:20.476 +1.077
7 12 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:22.461 1:20.573 +1.174
8 3 United States Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 1:22.992 1:20.643 +1.244
9 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:22.592 1:20.664 +1.265
10 25 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Matra 1:21.722 1:20.787 +1.388
11 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari 1:21.828 1:20.909 +1.510
12 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:23.140 1:20.925 +1.526
13 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:22.380 1:20.928 +1.529
14 15 France Alain Prost Renault 1:23.049 1:20.980 +1.581
15 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:23.298 1:21.000 +1.601
16 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:23.356 1:21.001 +1.602
17 33 France Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 1:23.373 1:21.298 +1.899
18 21 Brazil Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:26.730 1:21.409 +2.010
19 14 Switzerland Marc Surer Ensign-Ford 1:28.045 1:21.522 +2.123
20 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:23.363 1:21.540 +2.141
21 9 Netherlands Jan Lammers ATS-Ford 1:23.802 1:21.758 +2.359
22 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 1:23.728 1:22.028 +2.629
23 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:26.419 1:22.183 +2.784
24 32 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford 1:24.032 1:22.213 +2.814
25 4 United States Kevin Cogan Tyrrell-Ford 1:25.164 1:22.284 +2.885
26 17 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford 1:25.017 1:22.356 +2.957
27 31 Argentina Miguel Angel Guerra Osella-Ford 1:25.190 1:22.673 +3.274
28 30 Italy Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford 1:23.504 no time +4.105
29 18 Chile Eliseo Salazar March-Ford 1:26.074 1:24.383 +4.984
Source: [3]

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 80 1:50:41.33 2 9
2 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 80 + 9.19 3 6
3 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 80 + 34.92 4 4
4 22 United States Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 80 + 49.31 6 3
5 3 United States Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 80 + 1:06.70 8 2
6 33 France Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 17 1
7 21 Brazil Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 78 + 2 Laps 18  
8 16 France René Arnoux Renault 77 + 3 Laps 20  
Ret 14 Switzerland Marc Surer Ensign-Ford 70 Fuel System 19  
Ret 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari 67 Fuel System 11  
Ret 25 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Matra 64 Fuel Pump 10  
Ret 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 49 Accident 15  
Ret 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 41 Collision 9  
Ret 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 41 Collision 12  
Ret 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 41 Engine 16  
Ret 9 Netherlands Jan Lammers ATS-Ford 41 Collision 21  
Ret 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 33 Fuel System 1  
Ret 32 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford 26 Accident 24  
Ret 12 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 25 Accident 7  
Ret 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 17 Halfshaft 5  
Ret 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 16 Brakes 23  
Ret 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 13 Accident 13  
Ret 15 France Alain Prost Renault 0 Collision 14  
Ret 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 0 Collision 22  
DNQ 4 United States Kevin Cogan Tyrrell-Ford      
DNQ 17 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford      
DNQ 31 Argentina Miguel Angel Guerra Osella-Ford      
DNQ 30 Italy Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford      
DNQ 18 Chile Eliseo Salazar March-Ford      
Source: [4][5]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1981 United States Grand Prix West"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Archived from the original on May 30, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  2. ^ "1981 Formula 1 World Championship Programmes". The Programme Covers Project.
  3. ^ Hamilton, Maurice, ed. (1981). AUTOCOURSE 1981–82. Hazleton Publishing Ltd. p. 90. ISBN 0-905138-17-1.
  4. ^ "1981 USA West Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  5. ^ Note: the contemporary TV broadcast clearly shows that time-keeping was done up to one-thousandth of a second, but this info has not been properly transcribed into formula1.com results
  6. ^ a b "United States West 1981 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved March 21, 2019.

Further reading

  • Rob Walker (June 1981). "6th United States Grand Prix West: Harmony Restored". Road & Track, 160–165.
  • Mike S. Lang (1992). Grand Prix!: Race-by-race account of Formula 1 World Championship motor racing. Volume 4: 1981 to 1984. Haynes Publishing Group. ISBN 0-85429-733-2
Preceded by FIA Formula One World Championship
1981 season
Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Grand Prix West Succeeded by
Preceded by Grand Prix of Long Beach Succeeded by