Who won the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship?
1983 Formula One World Championship
The 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 37th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1983 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1983 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a fifteen-race series that commenced on 13 March and ended on 15 October. Nelson Piquet won the Drivers' Championship, his second Formula One title and the first to be won by a driver using a turbocharged engine, while Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The Drivers' Championship developed into a four-way battle between Brabham-BMW driver Piquet, Renault driver Alain Prost and Ferrari duo René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay. Prost led the championship from the Belgian Grand Prix in May until the final race in South Africa in October, where a turbo problem forced him to retire and thus enabled Piquet to snatch the title. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship despite its better driver, Arnoux, finishing only third overall – a unique feat in Formula One history.
1983 Formula One World Championship
As the F1 circus headed to Europe, Lauda led the championship despite not having yet won a race. The two winners, Piquet and Watson, were joint second, just one point behind. This meant that McLaren held a commanding lead in the Constructors' Championship, ten points ahead of Brabham.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Williams retained defending world champion Keke Rosberg, but their number two seat, which had been occupied on a temporary basis by both Mario Andretti and Derek Daly in after the departure of Carlos Reutemann, was filled for 1983 by Ligier's Jacques Laffite. During the season Frank Williams signed an exclusive deal to use the turbocharged Honda V6 engines in his cars to replace the Cosworth DFV. Honda engines first appeared in the back of a Williams at the season ending South African Grand Prix.
Inline-four engine
A notable inline 4 engine would be the BMW Megatron M12 1.5-litre Formula 1 straight-4 engine, which won the 1983 World Drivers Championship installed in the Brabham BT52 chassis driven by Nelson Piquet. In the second half of the 1983 Formula 1 season, the BMW was capable of over 800 BHP in qualifying, while in race trim usually had an output of between 640 BHP to 700 BHP depending on how much boost the drivers used.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The historic Monaco Grand Prix was the scene of an ultra-exciting race – as Piquet led for most of the race distance, and crashed out at Tabac. Jones took the lead, but had fuel feed problems, and Gilles Villeneuve in a poor-handling Ferrari took the lead and won.
Freddie Spencer
The 1983 season would be remembered as one of the most dramatic title chases in the history of Grand Prix racing; Honda's Spencer and Yamaha's Kenny Roberts fought back and forth for the points lead with each of them earning six victories. The season culminated at the penultimate round in Sweden when the two riders collided on the last lap. Roberts ran off the track leaving Spencer to sprint to the finish line and victory. Roberts won the last race but Spencer finished second, securing his first world title by two points.
In 1984, Honda developed a radically new V4 NSR500 that featured the fuel tank under the engine and the expansion chambers under a false tank above the engine. Teething problems and injuries from crashes hindered Spencer's defense of his crown and he was relegated to fourth place in the championship. In spite of this, he still managed to win three times with the NSR500, and twice more on the NS500 three cylinder machine.
Formula Mondial
The FIA World Cup Commission issued regulations for the staging of various zone competitions throughout the world with competitors intended to come together for a World Cup final. The Southern Pacific Zone series was staged in New Zealand and Australia in early 1983 and was won by Australian Charlie O’Brien and the Formula Mondial North American Cup series was won by American Michael Andretti. However the World Cup finals series, which was to have been contested over four races in Quebec, Canada in September 1983 was cancelled the month before it was due to be run.
1983 Dutch Grand Prix
The 72-lap race was won by René Arnoux, driving a Ferrari, with team-mate Patrick Tambay second and John Watson third in a McLaren-Ford. Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet collided midway through the race while challenging for the lead, allowing Arnoux to move into second in the Drivers' Championship, eight points behind Prost. However, this would turn out to be Arnoux's last Formula One victory.
1983 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1983 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 1 May 1983. It was the fourth race of the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The high-altitude and fast Österreichring enabled turbo-powered cars to take the first three places in qualifying, with René Arnoux on pole from Renault teammate Alain Prost, and Gilles Villeneuve third in the Ferrari. Villeneuve made a fast start to lead briefly, but went off on the second lap, leaving Prost and Arnoux to pull away while Didier Pironi in the second Ferrari held up the rest of the pack. Eventually, Jacques Laffite got past Pironi and closed up to the Renaults. Prost led until his suspension failed; Arnoux then led until Laffite overtook him with 15 laps remaining. Laffite thus took the win with Arnoux second and Piquet third; Reutemann was fifth, meaning that his lead in the Drivers' Championship was now down to six points.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The following teams and drivers contested the 1981 FIA Formula One World Championship:
1984 Formula One World Championship
Toleman driver and multiple motorcycle Grand Prix champion Johnny Cecotto crashed heavily at the fast Westfield corner hitting the barriers there head-on; the Venezuelan broke both his legs and never raced in Formula One again. Piquet again qualified on pole position, with Prost and Lauda 2nd and 3rd. This race was run as two parts: the first race saw a massive accident at the Bottom Bend left hand sweeping corner (otherwise known as Graham Hill corner); Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo) tried to pass Jacques Laffite's Williams-Honda, but spun attempting to do so. This caused his teammate Eddie Cheever to lift off, and behind him Johansson did the same but Philippe Alliot in the RAM-Hart did not have time to react and went into the back of the Tyrrell and then flew over it, landing on the rear of Cheever's car. Also involved was Gartner who tried to avoid the crash and ended up in the tire barrier. The race went on, with Prost passing Piquet at the fearsome Paddock Hill bend; but this ended up not mattering because before the end of the lap, Jonathan Palmer had crashed the second RAM heavily at Clearways when the suspension failed. The car was parked beside the track and it was then decided that if it was left there, it could become a launch pad if another car went off the circuit. The race was stopped, and this meant that at the restart Piquet was on pole again as the order was based on the end of the 11th lap- much to the annoyance of Prost.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Osella filled Jarier's seat with Corrado Fabi, the younger brother of Teo Fabi, who had raced for Toleman in 1982. Fabi was joined by fellow Italian debutante Piercarlo Ghinzani, who filled the seat which had been vacant since Riccardo Paletti's death in Canada.
1983 Formula One World Championship
For the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille, the RAM team entered a second car for local driver Jean-Louis Schlesser, who failed to qualify.
1983 British Grand Prix
The 1983 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXVI Marlboro British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 16 July 1983. It was the ninth race of the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 67-lap race was won by Renault driver Alain Prost after he started from third position. Nelson Piquet finished second for the Brabham team and Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay came in third.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The next race was the German Grand Prix at the very fast Hockenheim circuit near Stuttgart, and Tambay secured Ferrari's fourth consecutive pole position. He lost the lead to Arnoux early on however, and later suffered an engine failure to promote Piquet to second. The Brazilian inherited the lead briefly during Arnoux's pit stop, but the Frenchman could not be stopped and recorded his second victory of the year. A fire three laps from home prevented Piquet from picking up second, which instead went to Andrea de Cesaris, collecting some points for Alfa Romeo. Patrese was third, scoring his first points of the year ahead of Prost, Lauda and Watson.
1984 Formula One World Championship
Most of the Formula One seasons in the 1980s started at the sweltering tropical heat and humidity of the Jacarepagua Riocentro Autodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A 10-day test followed by the Grand Prix often was the case. In addition to a frantic start, drivers had to deal with people running across the track with the cars bearing down on those people; Briton Derek Warwick in the French factory Renault led until an incident with Niki Lauda led to suspension failure; Frenchman Alain Prost won his first Grand Prix with McLaren at the flat and rough but fast Rio circuit. This was also Ayrton Senna's first Formula One race, he was driving for the Toleman team. Senna would prove to be the first retirement of the season when the turbo on his 4 cyl Hart engine failed on lap 8.
Porsche 935
In 1982 Alan Jones, the Formula One World Champion, drove a 935 to victory in the 1982 Australian GT Championship. Jones was unbeaten for the whole season. The 1983 Australian GT Championship was won by the same 935 which Jones drove to the 1982 title, this time in the hands of touring car driver Rusty French. As a reward for his win in the 1983 championship, French was given a drive with Kremer Racing at the 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans where he finished 9th outright with Tiff Needell and David Sutherland in a Porsche 956. At the end of the year in the Sports Car/GT Challenge support races for the 1983 Australian Grand Prix, Jones, driving a 935 K4 imported to Australia from America by John Fitzpatrick racing especially for the meeting, easily won both 15 lap races. Italian driver Gianpiero Moretti, founder of Momo Wheels, finished 4th in each race driving the Moby Dick version of the 935.
1980 British Formula One Championship
The 1980 British Formula One Championship (formally the 1980 Aurora AFX F1 Championship) was the third season of the British Formula One Championship. It commenced on 4 April 1980 and ended on 5 October after twelve races. The Drivers' Championship was won by the Spaniard Emilio de Villota who drove a Williams FW07 entered by RAM Racing.
1983 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1983 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 12 June 1983. The race, contested over 70 laps, was the eighth race of the 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship and was won from pole position by René Arnoux, driving a Ferrari. Eddie Cheever finished second in a Renault, with Arnoux's teammate Patrick Tambay third.
1983 Race of Champions
There were two drivers present who did not take part in that year's championship: Brian Henton, who drove a Theodore, and Héctor Rebaque, who drove a Brabham. The Spirit team also made its F1 debut at the event with Swedish driver Stefan Johansson and Honda's first turbo-charged F1 engine, which BBC commentator Murray Walker claimed had completed thousands of miles of trouble free testing. Tyrrell fronted with only one driver. Michele Alboreto was scheduled to race, but it clashed with his drive for Lancia in the opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Monza. Instead his rookie team mate, 32-year-old American Danny Sullivan, was given the opportunity to get more miles under race conditions having only completed in the previous two Grands Prix in Brazil and Long Beach. McLaren fronted with a car for John Watson, fresh from his victory in Long Beach just two weeks earlier. Arrows fronted with two cars, one for 1980 World Champion Alan Jones in his second (and final) drive for the team after making a comeback to F1 at Long Beach, and team driver Chico Serra.
1982 Formula One World Championship
When qualifying finally commenced, Arnoux took pole position from Piquet, with Villeneuve and Patrese on the second row of the grid. At the start, Arnoux led while Piquet did not get away well and was overtaken by several cars, including Prost, who jumped from fifth to second. Piquet and Villeneuve retired early, while Prost took the lead from his teammate Arnoux on lap 14. He would lead until lap 41, when he punctured his left rear tyre, forcing him to come into the pitlane for new tyres. He emerged in eighth place, but with this fresh set, Prost was the quickest driver on the course, allowing him to overtake relatively easily. On lap 68, he once again took the leading position from Arnoux and went on to win the race. Reutemann also overtook Arnoux late in the race and finished second, with Lauda in fourth place on his return to Formula One racing.
1983 San Marino Grand Prix
This would be the last time that Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari saw his Formula One team score a victory in person. Enzo never attended races outside Italy at the time, and Ferrari would not win on Italian soil again until after Enzo died in 1988.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The 1981 championship was the inaugural FIA Formula One World Championship, replacing both the original World Championship of Drivers and the International Cup for Constructors. Teams were now required to lodge entries for the entire championship, and a standardised set of rules would be in place at every championship race, while the FIA would also set the prize monies.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The 1983 season also included a single race which did not count towards the World Championship, the 1983 Race of Champions. This was to be the last non-Championship Formula One race.
1983 Formula One World Championship
This was to be the last United States Grand Prix West, as race organiser Chris Pook had decided that Formula One was too expensive. From 1984 onwards, the race would instead be part of the CART IndyCar series.
1982 Formula One World Championship
Motorsport journalist Nigel Roebuck stated that the next race, the Monaco Grand Prix, "was a sombre, edgy place [...] the sense of [Villeneuve's] absence was overwhelming": the Canadian had lived in the principality and had won the previous year's race. In the race itself Arnoux led early on from pole position, before spinning off, handing the lead to his Renault teammate Prost. Prost built up a massive lead, but a light rain shower in the closing laps triggered a chaotic finish. Prost crashed out, handing the lead to Patrese. Patrese spun on the penultimate lap and stalled, allowing Pironi into the lead, followed by Andrea de Cesaris. On the final lap, Pironi, de Cesaris, and Derek Daly all dropped out because they ran out of fuel while in potential race winning positions. Meanwhile, Patrese bump-started his car by coasting down a hill, completed the final two laps, and took his first career victory. Pironi was classified second, despite running out of fuel and stopping on the last lap. After the race, Prost, who had scored no points since the Brazilian Grand Prix in March, led the championship by one point from Watson and two points from Pironi.
John Watson (racing driver)
At the end of the 1983 season however, Watson was dropped by McLaren and subsequently retired from Formula One. Negotiations with team boss Ron Dennis reportedly broke down when Watson asked for more money than dual World Champion Lauda was earning, citing having won a GP in 1983 where Lauda did not. Dennis instead signed Renault refugee Alain Prost for comparatively nothing (since he was already under contract to Renault but was fired for 1984). He did return for one further race two years later, driving for McLaren in place of an injured Niki Lauda at the 1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, in which he qualified 21st and placed seventh in the race (Lauda had injured his wrist in qualifying for the previous race at Spa, forcing him to miss that race also). Watson raced with Lauda's race number of "1" (the Austrian having won the World Championship). This was only the second occasion since that a driver other than the reigning World Champion has raced car number 1 in a World Championship race, the other being Ronnie Peterson when the system first began, as reigning World Champion Jackie Stewart had retired upon the conclusion of the 1973 season.
1987 Formula One World Championship
The following drivers and constructors competed in the 1987 season.
The dramatic end to the 1986 season in Australia, with Alain Prost winning the World Championship at the last gasp created tension between Williams/Nigel Mansell and Honda/Nelson Piquet but the combination was still potent and with the British Mansell and the Brazilian Piquet staying with the team it was still a powerful challenger. McLaren was without John Barnard but had gained the services of Gordon Murray and Neil Oatley and had retained Alain Prost while Keke Rosberg's retirement had opened the way for Swede Stefan Johansson to join the team, having been dropped by Ferrari in favor of Gerhard Berger. Benetton had hired Thierry Boutsen to replace Berger as Teo Fabi's partner and with the Haas Lola team having closed down the team took over the factory Ford turbo engines, which had improved considerably over their rushed development time. Team Lotus changed color with JPS being replaced by Camel and landed a Honda engine deal for drivers Ayrton Senna and Satoru Nakajima. Martin Brundle left Tyrrell to join Christian Danner at Zakspeed while Zakspeed's Jonathan Palmer joined Philippe Streiff at Tyrrell, which had gone back to using Cosworth DFZ engines. The only BMW engines left were the factory supply to Brabham, these being the units which the cylinders angled to create a low profile for the BT55. Derek Warwick left Brabham to join F1 returnee Eddie Cheever at Arrows with rebadged upright BMW engines which were now known as Megatrons. The team also got a new technical director Ross Brawn joining from the Haas Lola team. Riccardo Patrese was joined at Brabham by Andrea de Cesaris while his place alongside Sandro Nannini at Minardi was taken by wealthy Spanish newcomer Adrian Campos. Osella had only one Alfa Romeo-engined car in Brazil for Alex Caffi. Ligier was due to run new Alfa Romeo four-cylinder turbo engines for Rene Arnoux and Piercarlo Ghinzani but things went badly wrong: Arnoux made disparaging remarks about the Italian company's new four-cylinder turbo engine, referring to them as "used food". Alfa Romeo had only recently been acquired by FIAT which was not keen on the Alfa name being in F1. As a result, Alfa Romeo cited a clause in the Ligier contract stating that Ligier should not do anything to damage the image of Alfa Romeo and quit the team. The news was disastrous for Ligier and the team had to miss Brazil while modifying its cars to run Megatron engines. With the rules restricting turbo engines more and more and fewer turbo engines available several teams went back to Cosworth power and the FIA decided to introduce a separate competition for the normally-aspirated cars, introducing a Jim Clark Trophy for drivers and a Colin Chapman Trophy for teams. Four teams would be eligible: Tyrrell, AGS, March and the new Larrousse Lola team, which did not appear in Brazil. March had backing from Leyton House and Ivan Capelli driving an uprated Formula 3000 car while AGS had hired Pascal Fabre to drive. The overall entry was down to 23 cars and with Pirelli having withdrawn there was only one tire supplier, Goodyear.
1982 Formula One World Championship
At the last race of the season, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Prost took pole position ahead of Arnoux. While Arnoux retired, Prost was hampered by blistering tyres to finish fourth. Michele Alboreto took a surprising victory for Tyrrell. Watson finished second, meaning that Rosberg's fifth-place finish was enough to secure the title. He became the first driver since Mike Hawthorn in to clinch the championship having won just one Grand Prix. The 1982 season was the last for Lotus team owner Colin Chapman, who passed away on 16 December 1982 having suffered a heart attack. Following "a season touched by tragedy, clouded in controversy and enveloped in excitement", FISA announced that the "ground effect" would be banned for to make the cars safer. Overall, the 1982 season saw eleven different winners in 16 races, with no driver scoring more than two victories. This included nine different winners in the same number of consecutive races. Five drivers scored their first ever Grand Prix victory: Patrese, Tambay, de Angelis, Rosberg, and Alboreto.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Championship points were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis to the top six finishers in each race.
BMW M12
The BMW M12/13 turbo 1500 cc 4-cylinder turbocharged Formula One engine, based on the standard BMW M10 engine introduced in 1961, powered the F1 cars of Brabham, Arrows and Benetton. Nelson Piquet won the FIA Formula One Drivers' Championship in 1983 driving a Brabham powered by the BMW M12/13 turbo. It was the first Drivers' Championship to be won using a turbocharged engine. The engine also powered the BMW GTP and in the 2.0 litre naturally aspirated form, the successful March Engineering Formula Two cars.
1985 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1985 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 19 May 1985. It was the fourth round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was won by Alain Prost driving a McLaren. As usual for the time the FIA allowed only 20 cars on the grid due to the tight confines of the Monaco circuit meaning a total of 6 cars would fail to qualify.
There was a big accident on the pit straight involving Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese, this accident was to affect the outcome of the race. The accident happened right after Piquet and Patrese crossed the start/finish line, Piquet attempted to pass Patrese, the two cars touched and Patrese crashed violently and collected Piquet, whose Brabham's rear suspension broke during the collision before Patrese collected Piquet. The cars then spun into the run-off at the first corner at Sainte Devote; both drivers were unhurt. Patrese's gearbox dropped oil onto the track which took out Niki Lauda who while sliding off on the oil managed to avoid hitting anything, he stalled his engine and was out on the spot. The crash also nearly took out the closely following Jacques Laffite and Teo Fabi, while race leader Michele Alboreto also slid wide on the oil; Alboreto's off handed the lead to Alain Prost. Alboreto drove a hard race; he eventually caught and passed Prost 3 laps later, but was re-passed by Prost after he punctured his left rear tyre at the first corner where Piquet and Patrese crashed. This dropped him to 4th behind Andrea De Cesaris, Elio de Angelis and Prost; he caught and passed his compatriots but could not catch Prost; who despite a leaking turbo wastegate, had kept the gap wide enough for Alboreto to be unable to catch him in the remaining laps.
Renault in Formula One
Prost was fired two days after the 1983 season following his public comments about the team's lack of development of the Renault RE40 which resulted in his loss to Piquet and the team's loss to Ferrari in the 1983 championship. He subsequently joined McLaren, while Cheever left to join Alfa Romeo. The team turned to Frenchman Patrick Tambay (who had left Ferrari) and Englishman Derek Warwick (formerly of Toleman) to bring them back to prominence. Despite a few good results, including Tambay giving the team its last pole position at the 1984 French Grand Prix at Dijon, the team was not as competitive in and as in the past, with other teams doing a better job with turbo engines, or more specifically Lotus and to a lesser extent Ligier. provided another F1 first, as the team ran a third car in Germany at the new Nürburgring that featured the first in-car camera which could be viewed live by a television audience. Driven by Frenchman François Hesnault, the car only lasted 8 laps before a clutch problem forced it to retire. In 1985, major financial problems emerged at Renault and the company could no longer justify the large expenses needed to maintain the racing team's competitiveness. CEO Georges Besse pared down the company's involvement in F1 from full-fledged racing team to engine supplier for the season before taking it entirely out of F1 at the end of that year.
1987 Formula One World Championship
The 1987 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 41st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 12 April and ended on 15 November. The World Championship for Drivers was won by Nelson Piquet, and the World Championship for Constructors by Williams-Honda. The season also encompassed the Jim Clark Trophy and the Colin Chapman Trophy, which were respectively contested by drivers and constructors of Formula One cars powered by naturally aspirated engines.
1984 Formula One World Championship
As the race went on, there was an accident at the start involving Senna and Rosberg; both were out at the first corner; and Prost won this race unchallenged from Alboreto, pole-sitter Piquet and Lauda, who qualified 15th. This meant that Prost's victory meant that he still stood a chance to win his first Drivers' Championship; Lauda led the points tally with 3.5 points.
1987 Formula One World Championship
At first, the 1987 championship was a four-way battle between Williams drivers Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, Lotus driver Ayrton Senna, and McLaren driver and defending two-time champion Alain Prost. Eventually, it became a straight fight between Piquet and Mansell, who between them finished with nine wins from the season's sixteen races. Mansell took six wins to Piquet's three; however, he only recorded three other points finishes while Piquet recorded nine (including seven second places). The duel was settled in Piquet's favour at the penultimate race of the season in Japan, when Mansell crashed heavily in practice and injured his back, ending his season and handing Piquet his third Drivers' Championship.
1982 Formula One World Championship
At the Austrian Grand Prix on the Österreichring, most turbocharged runners retired early, leaving Prost in the lead, only to retire with fuel injection issues five laps from the finish. This left Elio de Angelis and Rosberg to fight out the race victory, with de Angelis reaching the finish line 0.050 seconds ahead to win his first ever Grand Prix. The Grand Prix also saw the Brabham drivers make it to their mid-race pit stops for the first time, only for both to retire later on.
1991 Formula One World Championship
Nothing then changed afterwards, and Senna kept McLaren's agreement with Berger, by letting Berger through to win on the last lap. Berger won ahead of the new world champion Senna, Patrese, Prost, Martin Brundle and Modena. The McLaren Honda 1–2 also meant that they were now 11 points ahead of Williams Renault and had a grip on the Constructors' Championship.
1986 Formula One World Championship
The following competitors contested the 1986 Formula One World Championship.
The 1986 Formula One World Championship was contested over a sixteen race series.
Most of the major teams changed at least one driver aside from Ferrari, who retained both Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson. McLaren hired Keke Rosberg from Williams to replace the retired Niki Lauda alongside Alain Prost, while Nelson Piquet left Brabham to take Rosberg's place alongside Nigel Mansell at Williams. Ayrton Senna stayed at Lotus but blocked the recruitment of Derek Warwick, the team signing Johnny Dumfries instead. Riccardo Patrese returned to Brabham, where he was joined by Elio de Angelis; Gordon Murray produced for the team the unusual BT55, which had the BMW engine tilted over to make the car very low to reduce aerodynamic drag. The Haas-Lola team expanded to two cars with Alan Jones joined by Patrick Tambay. Toleman was taken over by the Benetton clothing company and renamed accordingly; Teo Fabi was joined by Gerhard Berger, while the team also secured a supply of BMW engines. Marc Surer returned to Arrows to take Berger's place alongside Thierry Boutsen. The factory Renault team having closed, many of its staff moved to Ligier, where Jacques Laffite was joined by fellow French veteran René Arnoux. Tyrrell had landed backing from Data General and Courtaulds, and ran Martin Brundle and Philippe Streiff. Minardi expanded to two cars for Andrea de Cesaris and newcomer Alessandro Nannini, while Osella also ran two cars for Piercarlo Ghinzani and Christian Danner. Zakspeed continued to run one car for Jonathan Palmer.
1984 Formula One World Championship
Nelson Piquet won again on a circuit where engine power was not as important as other things, and Martin Brundle compounded this with his naturally aspirated engined Tyrrell: Detroit was one of the few circuits where his underpowered car could actually finish in the points and be competitive. Thanks to the immediate power response of the naturally aspirated Ford-Cosworth V8 DFY in the Tyrrell, compared to the delayed power response of the turbocharged engines (all of which had more than 200 more horsepower than the DFY in 1984), Brundle passed de Angelis in a Lotus for second, and was closing on Piquet on the last lap. The British driver finished some 2 seconds behind the Brazilian.
Monaco Grand Prix
In 1983 the ACM became entangled in the disagreements between Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and FOCA. The ACM, with the agreement of Bernie Ecclestone, negotiated an individual television rights deal with ABC in the United States. This broke an agreement enforced by FISA for a single central negotiation of television rights. Jean-Marie Balestre, president of FISA, announced that the Monaco Grand Prix would not form part of the Formula One world championship in 1985. The ACM fought their case in the French courts. They won the case and the race was eventually reinstated.
Formula One
After a hiatus in European motor racing brought about by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the first World Championship for Drivers was won by Italian Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo in , narrowly defeating his Argentine teammate Juan Manuel Fangio. However, Fangio won the title in , , , , and (His record of five World Championship titles stood for 45 years until German driver Michael Schumacher took his sixth title in 2003), his streak interrupted (after an injury) by two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Ferrari. Although the UK's Stirling Moss was able to compete regularly, he was never able to win the world championship, and is now widely considered to be the greatest driver never to have won the title. Fangio, however, is remembered for dominating Formula One's first decade and has long been considered the "Grand Master" of Formula One.
1983 Australian Endurance Championship
Fury, who won the opening two rounds of the series, and the Holden Dealer Team's star driver Peter Brock, who won the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst and the final round in Adelaide, were the only multiple winners in the 1983 AEC (though Brock received no points from his Bathurst win due to it being in the teams second car and not his nominated one, also surprisingly one of his co-drivers, Larry Perkins, did receive points for the win). The other winners were 1983 ATCC winner Allan Moffat who drove his Mazda RX-7 to victory in the Castrol 400, and Allan Grice who drove his Roadways Commodore to victory at Surfers Paradise.
1983 World Sportscar Championship
The 1983 World Sports Championship season was the 31st season of FIA "World Sportscar Championship" motor racing. It featured the 1983 FIA World Endurance Championship which was contested by Group C Sports Cars, Group C Junior Sports Cars and Group B GT Cars in a seven race series which ran from 10 April to 10 December 1983. The Drivers Championship was won by Jacky Ickx, the Manufacturers Championship by Porsche, the Group C Junior Cup by Alba Giannini and the Grand Touring Cup by Porsche.
1983 Italian Grand Prix
The 1983 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 11 September 1983. It was the thirteenth race of the 1983 Formula One World Championship.
1987 Formula One World Championship
The last race of the year was at the demanding and punishing Adelaide street circuit in Australia. With Nigel Mansell out of action with injury after the Japanese GP, Williams did a deal with Brabham to use 1988 signing Riccardo Patrese for the final race of 1987 and Brabham took on youngster Stefano Modena as Patrese's replacement. Otherwise the field was as before. Japanese GP winner Gerhard Berger was on pole position in his Ferrari from Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG/Porsche, Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda and the Lotus-Honda of Ayrton Senna. Thierry Boutsen was fifth quickest in his Benetton-Ford ahead of Michele Alboreto's Ferrari, Patrese's Williams, Stefan Johansson's McLaren, Teo Fabi's Benetton and Andrea de Cesaris's Brabham. Berger did as he had done in Japan, leading from flag to flag. He was chased initially by Piquet and Senna but the Lotus soon fell behind Prost. After the midrace pit stops Senna moved to second with Alboreto third. The final World Championship points went to Jonathan Palmer (Tyrrell) in fourth place, Yannick Dalmas (Larrousse Lola) in fifth and Roberto Moreno (AGS) in sixth. Senna was then disqualified for a weight infringement in his last race for Lotus.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The Brabham, McLaren and Lotus teams all retained both of their 1982 drivers – Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese for Brabham, John Watson and Niki Lauda with McLaren and Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell at Lotus. Late in the season McLaren would abandon the Cosworth DFV engine in favor of a 1.5 Litre, turbocharged V6 TAG engine. Brabham also went the turbo route, though unlike McLaren they exclusively used the powerful BMW M12 engine throughout the season and completely abandoned the Cosworth V8.
Williams FW08
The car was updated for the 1983 Formula One season to become the FW08C. Under new regulations all ground effect was out and flat bottom cars were in, meaning nearly all the cars in Formula One had to be heavily modified or replaced and the FW08 was no different. Against the turbo cars of Renault, Brabham and Ferrari, Williams were not expected to do as well as they did. Rosberg opened the season with pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix (the last for a Ford-Cosworth DFV powered car) and scored the car's last win, at the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix. He would eventually finish fifth in the Drivers' Championship, while Williams finished 1983 in fourth place, the best of the Cosworth-powered cars.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The race left both championships in the balance with just one race left. Prost still led, but now by only two points above Piquet. Arnoux could also be champion, but it would require him to win with Prost not scoring and Piquet no higher than fifth. Renault were still 11 points behind Ferrari.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The alternating French Grand Prix moved from the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille to the fast, sweeping Prenois circuit near Dijon, located in the Burgundy countryside. This race was run as two races: it was interrupted by heavy rain, so the organizers decided to stop the race to wait for the rain to pass, which it did – and Alain Prost, who was to become one of the greatest drivers in Formula One history, won his first of 51 championship Grands Prix at home in a Renault.
1983 British Formula Three Championship
Other notable drivers from the year included future Le Mans winner Davy Jones, BTCC star David Leslie and Senna's future Lotus teammate Johnny Dumfries. 1983 was also the final season before 'Class B' was established, offering a separate prize for those competing in older cars.
1985 Formula One World Championship
The 1985 Formula One season saw continued success for the McLaren-TAG team. After losing the Drivers' Championship by two points to Nelson Piquet in , and by just half a point the previous year to teammate Niki Lauda, Alain Prost would ultimately secure his first of four titles by a 23-point margin. The Formula One writer Koen Vergeer remarked that "It was about time, everyone knew he was the best", reflecting a general feeling that Prost had been unlucky to finish runner-up in the previous two years, even though he had won more races than Piquet in 1983 and Lauda in 1984.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Piquet now led the championship by five points from Lauda, with Watson and Prost just one further point behind. McLaren's lead in the Constructors' Championship had been severely narrowed by their failure to score, and Brabham were now just four points behind, with Renault also in close attendance.
1983 Formula One World Championship
With three races left to run, the teams headed to Italy in early September. The Monza Autodrome near Milan, saw the Ferrari lose pole to Patrese, placing second and third. Piquet jumped both Ferraris to run second behind his teammate in the opening laps, but it did not last long, as electric problems forced Patrese to retire on lap 3. Piquet was then unchallenged for the rest of the race, and came home to record his first victory since the opening race in Brazil, some six months before. Arnoux took second with Cheever third and Tambay fourth. Elio de Angelis scored his first points of the year with fifth, with Derek Warwick scoring points for the second time in a row in sixth. The performances of Piquet and Arnoux, coupled with Prost's failure to score, left the championship in an uncertain position with two races left. Prost still led with 51, Arnoux had 49, Piquet 46 and Tambay 40 with 18 points left on the board. Ferrari maintained their lead, now with 17 points back to Renault.
1984 Formula One World Championship
McLaren dominated the season, with Prost winning 7 races to equal the season wins record set by Jim Clark in , and Lauda winning 5, making the McLaren MP4/2 the most dominant single season car in the sports history to that point. The team also scored four 1–2 results during the season to easily win the Constructors' Championship with a then-record 143.5 points, some 86 points in front of second-placed Ferrari. McLaren won 12 of the season's 16 races, with Brabham's reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet scoring two wins. Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda) were the only other winners in the season with each winning a single race.
1980 Formula One season
Alan Jones, driving a Williams-Ford, became the first Australian to win the World Championship since Jack Brabham in . The season saw a major change of guard in Formula One with the Williams team's first Drivers' and Constructors' titles, the emergence of Nelson Piquet as a championship contender and the debut of Alain Prost, while reigning champions Jody Scheckter and Ferrari suffered a terrible season that resulted in Scheckter retiring from the sport at the end of the year. In addition, Frenchman Patrick Depailler lost his life while testing at Hockenheim.
2003 Formula One World Championship
The 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 57th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It began on 9 March 2003 and ended on 12 October after sixteen races. World Championship titles were awarded for both drivers and constructors with Michael Schumacher winning the former and Ferrari awarded the latter.
1984 Formula One World Championship
Austrian Niki Lauda, the and World Champion when driving for Ferrari, had returned to F1 in after his early retirement towards the end of and soon showed he had lost nothing of his earlier determination and guile. He regularly matched the pace of his 1982–1983 McLaren teammate John Watson, but Alain Prost (himself never the absolute fastest in F1) was a different kettle of fish. Lauda quickly realized he could not beat his young teammate on speed, therefore the wily Austrian often ignored qualifying and concentrated on his race strategies. By winning races when Prost ran into trouble and scoring relentlessly when Prost proved quicker, Lauda was able to win the title by just half a point. He also became only the second driver after New Zealand's Denny Hulme in to have ever won the title without achieving a single pole position in the season.
Dieter Stappert
In 1980 Stappert took the role of Sporting Director and became responsible for BMW F1 programme, resulting in Nelson Piquet winning the 1983 F1 World Championship with the BMW-powered Brabham.
1983 Austrian Grand Prix
The 53-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a factory Renault, with Drivers' Championship rivals René Arnoux and Nelson Piquet second and third in a Ferrari and a Brabham-BMW respectively. With the win, Prost extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 14 points with four races remaining. However, this would turn out to be the final victory for the original factory Renault team.
1983 European Grand Prix
The 1983 European Grand Prix (formally the John Player Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 25 September 1983. It was the fourteenth race of the 1983 Formula One World Championship.
1984 South African Grand Prix
From there, Lauda controlled the race and went on to win easily, with Prost over a minute behind in second and the only other driver on the lead lap. Warwick gained his first Formula One podium by finishing third, while completing the top six were Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo), Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) and, gaining his first ever World Championship point, Ayrton Senna in his Toleman-Hart.
1986 Formula One World Championship
The 1986 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 40th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1986 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1986 Formula One World Championship for Manufacturers, both of which commenced on 23 March and ended on 26 October after sixteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Alain Prost, and the Manufacturers' Championship was won by Williams. Prost was the first driver to win back-to-back Drivers' Championships since Jack Brabham in 1959 and 1960.
1983 German Formula Three Championship
Scuderia Teutonia driver Franz Konrad became a champion. He took wins Nürburgring and [Kaufbeuren Air Base|Kaufbeuren]]. His title rival Hans-Peter Pandur, who lost just by two points won races at Erding and Diepholz Airfield Circuit. Volker Weidler won race at Wunstorf and completed the top-three in the drivers' standings. Harald Brutschin, Rudi Seher and Marc Duez were the only other drivers who were able to win a race in the season.
1983 British Formula Three Championship
The season saw a head-to-head title battle between future Formula One stars Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle - both driving Toyota-powered Ralt chassis, prepared by West Surrey Racing and Eddie Jordan Racing respectively. Senna built up a commanding advantage by winning the first nine races in succession, but a series of retirements for the Brazilian later in the year allowed Brundle to close the gap. The Brit took the points lead heading into the series finale, but Senna dominated the race to secure the title.
1982 Formula One World Championship
And the end of the 1981 season, both Williams drivers, world champion Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann, had announced their retirement from racing. Reutemann did in fact return for 1982, competing in the first two races, before retiring unexpectedly at the end of March. Jones was replaced by Keke Rosberg, who had previously entered 36 Grands Prix, but won none with only one podium finish to his name.
The off season saw rumours of several former champions returning to the sport, but in the end only double world champion Niki Lauda returned to Formula One after an absence of two years to partner John Watson at McLaren. Ferrari and Renault retained their race-winning line ups of Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi and Alain Prost and René Arnoux, respectively. At Brabham, defending world champion Nelson Piquet remained with the team, now partnered by Riccardo Patrese, who moved from Arrows to replace Héctor Rebaque. The Osella team gave Riccardo Paletti his Grand Prix début, while Toleman replaced Brian Henton with Teo Fabi, also a newcomer to Formula One. Marc Surer was hired by Arrows, but broke both his feet in pre-season testing at Kyalami. He was set to be replaced by Patrick Tambay, who was then removed from the squad after taking part in the drivers' strike at that race and the car went to Henton. Eliseo Salazar transferred from Ensign Racing to the ATS team.
Following Reutemann's retirement, Williams hired world champion Mario Andretti as a one-off replacement for the United States Grand Prix West. Derek Daly then became the permanent second driver at the team, as Andretti had racing obligations in the United States to fulfill. Andretti returned with Ferrari for the last two races of the season, replacing Pironi, who had suffered career-ending injuries at the German Grand Prix. Villeneuve, who died following a crash in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, was replaced by Tambay starting from the Dutch Grand Prix. At Team Lotus, Nigel Mansell missed two races due to injuries from a crash in Canada. His substitute at the Dutch Grand Prix was Roberto Moreno, who failed to qualify. Mansell attempted a comeback at Brands Hatch, but was again replaced at the French Grand Prix, this time by Geoff Lees. An accident at the race in France led Jochen Mass, already deeply shaken by the fatal crash of Villeneuve, in which he was involved, to walk away from Grand Prix racing. He was replaced at March by Rupert Keegan. Swedish driver Slim Borgudd had moved from ATS to Tyrrell, but was forced to leave the team when his sponsorship money ran out. Henton took his place from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards, as Surer returned to Arrows after his injuries had healed.
1984 Formula One World Championship
After the race restarted, Prost retired with gearbox failure, Piquet pitted and lost a lap on the leaders. So victory went to Niki Lauda. Warwick finished 2nd and Ayrton Senna finished 3rd in the Toleman, which was better suited to faster tracks with long corners like Brands Hatch than it was to slow and tight circuits.
1983 Formula One World Championship
A third Grand Prix in the United States, supposed to be held at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens was canceled at short notice due to local protests. The British Brands Hatch circuit, just outside London, was able to organise a European Grand Prix in the same year, to make up for this failed US event, in 9 weeks. Theodore travelled to Brands Hatch with just one car, with their funds not stretching far enough to allow Johnny Cecotto to race in the last two races. After the race, the team folded completely, and did not appear at all at the last race. The Spirit team also announced they would not travel to the last race, in preparation for their first full season in 1984. Williams had run a third car in the Brands Hatch race, for Jonathan Palmer. The local driver finished 13th, the only Williams to finish after Rosberg retired with an engine failure and Laffite failed to qualify.
1983 World Series
The 1983 World Series matched the American League champion Baltimore Orioles against the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies, with the Orioles winning four games to one. "The I-95 Series", like the World Series two years later, also took its nickname from the interstate that the teams and fans traveled on, Interstate 95 in this case. This was the last World Series that Bowie Kuhn presided over as commissioner.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The South African Grand Prix which had started the 1982 season had been moved to the end of the year, and so the season began in Brazil. At the Jacarepagua Riocentro Autodrome in Rio de Janeiro, defending champion Keke Rosberg did something he had done only once in 1982 and took pole position for the race. However, his race gradually deteriorated from there as he lost the lead early on to Nelson Piquet and then caught fire during his pitstop. With the fire extinguished, the Finn valiantly fought his way back from ninth to finish second behind Piquet, but was subsequently disqualified for receiving a push start in the pits. This left an unprecedented situation, as the organisers decided not to award second to Niki Lauda, who finished third, as was convention, but to leave the position vacant. As such, only five drivers scored points, and other than Piquet and Lauda, these were Rosberg's teammate Jacques Laffite, whose presence in fourth was a surprise given his 18th place grid slot. Ferrari had a difficult race and had a best finish of only fifth with Patrick Tambay, who had started a promising third. The final point went to Marc Surer, whose charge from 20th was equally as impressive as Laffite's, and could well be attributed to his magnificent start, which left him 14th at the end of the first lap.
1985 Formula One World Championship
The reigning Drivers' Champion Lauda competed in his final season of Formula One, but he was unable to match Prost for results; despite maintaining a close pace with his teammate, Lauda only won once at Zandvoort. Seated next to an unhappy McLaren team boss, Ron Dennis, who had unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to continue driving, Lauda announced his decision to retire for good at the season's end in a press conference before practice for his home Grand Prix in Austria.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The teams returned to Europe for the British Grand Prix at the fastest circuit of the year: the Silverstone circuit between London and Birmingham, England. Although Salazar had been expected to return to the RAM in place of Villeneuve, it was actually Brit Kenny Acheson who made his debut in the car. He performed well enough to retain the seat for the rest of the season. The race also saw the debut of the Honda-funded Spirit team. The team would run a limited programme in 1983 with a view to running a full season in 1984. Stefan Johansson would drive the car. For qualifying Arnoux took his third successive pole position in the brand new Ferrari 126C3. He lost the lead to teammate Tambay at the start, and with Prost in third all the top three were French. Although the Ferraris had a straight line speed advantage over the Renault, overall Prost was the fastest of the three and had passed both Arnoux and Tambay by lap 20. But for pit stops, he remained in the lead until the finish. Piquet also overcame the Ferraris before the end to finish second, with Tambay in third. Mansell, with Renault turbo power for the first time in his Lotus, took his best result of the year to be the highest home driver in fourth ahead of Arnoux and Lauda. This allowed both Prost and Renault to extend their championship leads. Piquet was now six points behind, with Tambay two points further back. Rosberg was now more than a victory behind and it was becoming increasingly obvious that without turbo power, teams like Williams, McLaren, Tyrrell and Ligier were simply making up the numbers. The Constructors' Championship was becoming a two-horse race, with Renault leading Ferrari by three points.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Prost took pole yet again at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix, although his qualifying performances were not reflected in his points tally at that point in the season. Andrea de Cesaris leapt into the lead from the second row of the grid, and spent the first twenty laps pulling away from Prost. The Italian looked set for a maiden victory before engine trouble slowed and finally stopped his Alfa Romeo. This left Prost free to record a victory only briefly challenged by Piquet, who slipped away at the end to fourth. Tambay was second with Cheever third, making it two Renaults on the podium again, while Rosberg and Laffite rounded out the points, their Cosworth powered cars proving no match for the turbo's on the fast Spa layout.
1983 Formula One World Championship
It was another pole for Tambay and Ferrari in Austria, but at this spectacularly fast Österreichring circuit near Graz, this time he did manage to hold on to the lead, at least until around the time of the first pit stops, when low oil pressure brought his race to a premature end. This should have allowed teammate Arnoux to pick up the victory, but he was passed by Prost in the closing stages, giving the Renault man a crucial boost in the standings. Piquet came home third with Cheever fourth, Mansell sixth and Lauda rounding out the points. Prost now held a 14-point lead over Piquet, 51 points to 37, with Arnoux on 34 and Tambay on 31. Renault went back into the lead of the Constructors' Championship, three points ahead of Ferrari.
1984 Formula One World Championship
The first Portuguese Grand Prix since 1960 was held at the updated Estoril circuit near the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. McLaren had claimed the Constructors' Championship in Italy, after winning 11 of the 15 races in the season, including the last 6 Grands Prix. Prost qualified 2nd alongside Piquet, who collected his 9th pole of the season, while Lauda was 11th on the grid. Lauda climbed up to 3rd after passing Ayrton Senna, who had qualified 3rd in a Toleman. Piquet had fallen away, so Prost was leading, with Nigel Mansell second in his last race for Lotus before moving to Williams. Mansell retired due to persistent brake problems, and Lauda moved up to second, ensuring his third World Championship. Prost won McLaren's 7th consecutive victory and 12th of 16 races, whilst Lauda finished second, a mere half point in front of Prost in the championship, a record margin that has not been matched since. Senna completed the podium. As of 1984, Prost (future winner of four World Championships) had lost his 3rd consecutive F1 championship: he had been beaten by 2 points in 1983, and 7 points in 1982.Points towards the 1984 Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis to the first six finishers in each race.
Newman/Haas Racing
Michael Andretti left the team to pursue an opportunity in Formula One for 1993 and was replaced by English driver Nigel Mansell, who arrived on the CART circuit with much fanfare. In his rookie season, Mansell, the Formula One World Champion, won five races and had ten top-3 finishes, clinching the 1993 CART title to become the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and Champ Car titles at the same time. Mario Andretti also returned to victory lane, winning what would be his final Indy car victory at Phoenix. Both Mansell and Andretti were strong contenders at Indy, but Andretti slipped to 5th due to a penalty, and Mansell, still largely unfamiliar with rolling re-starts after a safety car period (safety cars would not be introduced into F1 until ), was passed for the lead on a restart with only 16 laps to go and would ultimately finish 3rd behind winner Emerson Fittipaldi and second placed Arie Luyendyk.
1981 Formula One World Championship
The first of two rounds in the United States of America started a trilogy of F1 races in the Americas on March 15 at the Long Beach street circuit in southern California, just outside the metropolis of Los Angeles. The cars were now running in new 1981-specification cars, with the sliding skirts now banned and cars required to have a 6 cm ground clearance, in order to reduce downforce. Australian Alan Jones won this race in a Williams-Ford after pole-sitter Riccardo Patrese in an Arrows-Ford fell out and Jones's teammate Carlos Reutemann made a costly error that Jones took advantage of.
Ron Dennis
In just four years Dennis had turned McLaren from an also-ran team into a front-runner and in 1984, with Barnard's revolutionary MP4/2 car his work was rewarded with 12 wins from 16 races and both drivers' and constructors' titles. Lauda took the drivers' crown by a half point from his McLaren teammate Prost, with both drivers scoring more than double the tally of third-placed Elio de Angelis. While neither Lauda nor Prost were the fastest combination of the year, that title going to reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet in his BMW powered Brabham BT53 who claimed 9 pole positions, the McLaren-TAG's reliability was unmatched. As said by Clive James in commentary on the official video review of the Formula One season produced by FOCA: "Anything as fast as the McLarens fell apart, anything as reliable finished later". The following year the situation was reversed and Prost won his first World Championship while Lauda suffered multiple failures and only won one race. At his home race in Austria Lauda announced his permanent retirement from Formula One at the end of the season. McLaren finished eight points ahead of second placed Ferrari that year but the pack was closing and in , McLaren lost out to Williams, although the consistent Prost won the drivers' title. Lauda's replacement was the 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, who also retired from Formula One at the end of the 1986 season.
1984 Formula One World Championship
The 1984 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 38th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1984 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1984 Formula One World Championship for Manufacturers, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 25 March and ended on 21 October.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Lotus would be without team founder Colin Chapman in 1983 after the legendary team boss's sudden death from a heart attack on 16 December 1982 at the age of 54. Chapman's right-hand man Peter Warr took over as team manager. Lotus would also change from using the Cosworth DFV engine to the turbocharged Renault engine during the season after Chapman had secured use of the French engines in late 1982. Although Chapman had given both de Angelis and Mansell equal number one status in the team, Warr, who was never a fan of Mansell, installed the Italian as the number one driver based on the results of 1982 where he had out-performed Mansell.
BMW M12
In , Brazilian driver Piquet won his second Formula One World Championship driving a Brabham BT52 powered exclusively by the turbocharged BMW M12 engine, which in 1983 was producing approximately in qualifying trim and for the races. Piquet, who won the Brazilian, Italian and European Grands Prix in 1983, won the championship by just two points in front of Renault's Alain Prost (Renault had pioneered turbocharging in F1 in , but would be destined never to win the World Championship in the original turbo era (1977-1988)). Piquet's win was the first time a car powered by a turbocharged engine had won the World Championship.
1983 South African Grand Prix
Before the race, three drivers were still in a position to win the World Drivers' Championship: Alain Prost (Renault) led the championship with 57 points, followed by Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) with 55 and René Arnoux (Ferrari) with 49. Piquet qualified second, behind Patrick Tambay (Ferrari) in pole position and ahead of Riccardo Patrese (Brabham), Arnoux and Prost in third, fourth and fifth. At the start Piquet passed Tambay to take the lead, with Patrese moving into second place. Arnoux retired with engine failure on lap 9. Prost fought his way up to third place, but he also retired on lap 35 with turbo failure. Needing only to finish fourth or higher, Piquet slowed and was overtaken by Patrese, Niki Lauda (McLaren) and Andrea de Cesaris (Alfa Romeo). Lauda's engine failed on lap 71. The race finished with Patrese in first place, de Cesaris in second and Piquet in third, and Piquet won the championship by two points. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship despite not finishing in the points in the last race for the second consecutive year. John Watson, completing his last full Formula One season, was disqualified for overtaking other cars on the parade lap.
South African Grand Prix
Going into the 1980s, turbo-charged cars began to dominate the Grand Prix. Because of the high altitude of the fast Kyalami circuit (approximately 6,000 feet above sea level) the forced induction turbo engines could regulate how much air went into the engine whereas the normally aspirated engines could not, the turbo-charged engines had a horsepower advantage in 1982 of 150 hp over the normally aspirated engines, and often qualified on the front row of the grid considerably faster than the normally aspirated engined cars; and the Renault team dominated both the 1980 and 1982 races; Frenchman Alain Prost won the 1982 race after he lost a wheel around mid-distance; he charged through the field and took victory from Carlos Reutemann. The 1981 event was a victim of the FISA–FOCA war. As agreement could not be reached with FISA for the Grand Prix to be run as a round of the Formula One World Championship or as a non-championship Formula One race, it was officially staged as a Formula Libre event. Consequently, it was contested only by the FOCA-aligned teams, with cars which did not strictly comply with the 1981 Formula One regulations. The 1983 event was the last race of that season, and it saw a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship between Prost, Brazilian Nelson Piquet and Frenchman Rene Arnoux. Prost and Arnoux both went out with engine problems and Piquet took 3rd place and the Drivers' Championship; Prost made scathing comments about Renault's conservative approach to developing the car, and he was fired from the team. Piquet's Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese won the race. 1984 saw the event take place early in the season, and Prost (now driving for McLaren) started from the pit lane in the spare car after his race car didn't start. This was made legal when the first start was aborted after Briton Nigel Mansell stalled on the grid. Prost drove through the field to finish 2nd behind his teammate Niki Lauda. Briton Derek Warwick completed the podium in a Renault and Brazilian future world champion Ayrton Senna scored his first point in a Toleman, finishing 6th.
1983 World Rally Championship
The 1983 World Rally Championship was the 11th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 12 rallies. By this time, the schedule format had become generally stable, with only one or two changes to venues year to year. 1983 brought the return of Argentina to the schedule in place of Brazil. Audi's Hannu Mikkola beat the defending world champion Walter Röhrl and his Lancia teammate Markku Alén to the drivers' title. Lancia captured the manufacturers' title from Audi by just two points.
1984 Formula One World Championship
The spectacular beach-side Zandvoort circuit half an hour west of Amsterdam was the traditionally long-time host of the Dutch Grand Prix. This race was a McLaren 1–2 with Prost winning in front of Lauda with the Lotus duo Mansell and de Angelis finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively. It was at this race where McLaren secured the Manufacturers' Championship. The result also saw that only de Angelis had a mathematical chance of beating either Lauda or Prost to the Drivers' Championship.
Honda
Honda returned to Formula One in 1983, initially with another Formula Two partner, the Spirit team, before switching abruptly to Williams in 1984. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Honda powered cars won six consecutive Formula One Constructors Championships. WilliamsF1 won the crown in 1986 and 1987. Honda switched allegiance again in 1988. New partners McLaren won the title in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. Honda withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1992, although the related Mugen-Honda company maintained a presence up to the end of 1999, winning four races with Ligier and Jordan Grand Prix.
Honda in Formula One
As an engine supplier, Honda made its World Championship debut with Spirit's Swedish driver Stefan Johansson at the 1983 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Johansson qualified in an encouraging 14th place (although some 4.5 seconds slower than pole), though he would retire after just 5 laps with fuel problems. Johansson had given the Honda its on track debut earlier in the year at the non-championship 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch (the last non-championship race in F1 history) where despite unreliability, the 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 engine dubbed the RA163-E had impressed with its speed. By the final race of the 1983 season in South Africa, Honda had begun its association with Williams where reigning (and outgoing) World Champion Keke Rosberg served notice that the Honda was on the pace by qualifying 6th, only 7/10's slower than the Ferrari of pole winner Patrick Tambay.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Toleman, meanwhile, retained Derek Warwick as their lead driver, but replaced Teo Fabi who was racing IndyCars in 1983 with ex-McLaren and Alfa Romeo driver Bruno Giacomelli.
1983 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
The 1983 battle for 500 cc supremacy between Honda's Freddie Spencer and Yamaha's Kenny Roberts would be one of the most dramatic seasons since the 1967 duel between Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood. As was the case in 1967, the battle for the 500 cc crown would pit a former world champion riding a powerful but, ill-handling four cylinder motorcycle against a young upstart riding a less powerful but better handling three cylinder motorcycle. Also as in 1967, the title chase wouldn't be decided until the final race of the season.
1983 Australian GT Championship
The 1983 Australian GT Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title for cars complying with Group D regulations for GT cars, with Group B Sports Sedans competing by invitation. It was the sixth Australian GT Championship. The championship was won by Rusty French, driving a Porsche 935.
1983 Formula One World Championship
The March team united with RAM Racing and became RAM March. As well as Boesel, Rupert Keegan was also replaced by the team, who shrunk to just one car, for Eliseo Salazar of ATS. The German team were also reduced to one car, run for Manfred Winkelhock who had driven alongside Salazar in 1982.
1983 Italian Grand Prix
The 52-lap race was won by Nelson Piquet, driving a Brabham-BMW, with René Arnoux second in a Ferrari and Eddie Cheever third in a Renault. Drivers' Championship leader Alain Prost retired with a turbo failure midway through the race, allowing Piquet and Arnoux to close to within five and two points of him respectively in the championship.
1983 United States Grand Prix West
Semi-retired World Champion, Australian Alan Jones replaced regular Arrows driver Chico Serra for the race in what was to prove to be a short-lived comeback to Formula One. After qualifying a credible 12th on the grid in the Cosworth powered Arrows A6, Jones ran in the top 10 until retiring on lap 58 with fatigue. Jones, who had only raced at home in Australia since retiring from F1 following the season, was still suffering the effects of a fall from a horse on his farm a couple of months earlier where he had broken his hip.
1982 Formula One World Championship
Next up was the inaugural Detroit Grand Prix, which was marred by lack of track preparation, delaying the practice session on a circuit that had never seen a motor race before. During the shortened qualifying, Prost took pole position ahead of de Cesaris, with Rosberg in third. The big surprise of the day was defending World Champion Piquet, who failed to qualify as his Brabham BT50 had engine problems and the spare car was not performing well either. In the race, Prost led comfortably until an accident between Roberto Guerrero, Elio de Angelis and Patrese led to the race being suspended. De Cesaris had retired at this point and at the restart, Prost led Rosberg and Pironi. A problem with the fuel injection slowed Prost down, handing the lead to Rosberg. John Watson, who qualified just 17th on the grid, had his Michelin tyres perform very well and overtook one driver after another until, on lap 37, he went into the lead, as Rosberg had gearbox issues. Watson won the race from Eddie Cheever and Pironi, taking the lead in the World Championship.
1985 Detroit Grand Prix
For the first time in ten years, the United States hosted only one Grand Prix. Finland's Keke Rosberg (Williams FW10) took the lead from pole-sitter Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T) on lap eight, avoided the tire and brake problems that plagued the other front-runners and held off the Ferrari 156/85s of Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto to win. Stefan Bellof earned a scintillating fourth place in his Tyrrell 012, scoring the last points for the legendary Cosworth-Ford V8 engine until 1988. It was the fourth Formula One Grand Prix victory for the 1982 World Champion. Alboreto's third place allowed him to expand his points lead over Lotus driver Elio de Angelis to seven points. Eventual 1985 World Champion Alain Prost was now nine points behind Alboreto and as far from the championship as he would get all year.
1982 Formula One World Championship
The Renaults were dominant at their home race, the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard. Arnoux qualified ahead of Prost, and with Prost being better positioned in the championship, the team decided that if the cars should run first and second, he should win. Arnoux did not honour the agreement and took the victory ahead of his teammate, much to Prost's dismay. Another heavy accident marred the race, as Mass ran into the back of Mauro Baldi at Signes corner. As Mass's car slid towards the barrier, it was catapulted into the grandstands full of spectators. Although several people had minor injures, the accident left no one dead or even seriously injured. At this stage, Pironi led the championship by nine points ahead of Watson and was seen as the likely favourite to win the title.
1983 Formula One World Championship
Prost had a four-point lead over Piquet, with Tambay only one further point behind. Renault also assumed the lead in the Constructors' Championship by five points from Ferrari, with Brabham, Williams and McLaren slipping farther behind. Arrows, seemingly determined to get rid of Chico Serra, replaced him for a second time, this time with local rookie Thierry Boutsen. The Belgian, more known at that point for driving sportscars, kept his drive for the rest of the season.
1983 Individual Speedway World Championship
With both Sanders and former champion Lee in good form, and with the winner of the previous two World Finals Bruce Penhall having retired from speedway while on the podium at the 1982 World Final, the 1983 final was expected to be one of the most open in years. Others including Kenny Carter (England), Dennis Sigalos (United States), and Danes Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen and Erik Gundersen, were all expected to challenge. Like surprise winner Jerzy Szczakiel who won at home in Poland in 1973, Egon Müller was expected to do well in front of his home crowd, but wasn't among the pre-meeting favourites.
1983 Formula One World Championship
This race was being held in mid-April instead of its usual late June/early July date, in order to avoid the southern French summer heat. The race was dominated by another home driver, Alain Prost. He took pole position, victory and fastest lap and led all but three laps of the race. These three were led by Piquet during the pit stops; the Brazilian eventually finished second to reclaim his championship lead. Eddie Cheever came home third in the second Renault. Tambay was fourth in front of his home crowd, with the two Williams of Rosberg and Laffite fifth and sixth respectively.