1982 Belgian Grand Prix

The **1982 Belgian Grand Prix**was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 9th May 1982. It was the fourth race in both the 1982 Drivers' Championship and the 1982 Constructors' Championship.

This race marked Formula One's return to the famed Belgian circuit, having last ran in the 1970 Formula One Season.

## Background

After a difficult start to the season, Ferrari brought an extensive upgrade package to the 126C2 for the Belgian Grand Prix. The upgrade seemed encouraging, with Van Damme and Fabiano Margheriti much closer than they had been in the first three rounds of the season.

The cash-strapped Arrows team managed to return to the grid, albeit only with a single car for Canadian Brett Spiros.

## Qualifying

Once again, the battle for pole was between Chuck Dingley and Vivaldo Margheriti, with the McLaren driver having the early edge. In the closing minutes of the session, Margheriti put together an amazing lap to take his second consecutive pole position, 2 tenths clear of Dingley. Stefan Van Damme qualified in third, but was much closer than the last round in San Marino, showing that Ferrari's upgrades had worked as intended.

Fabiano Margheriti struggled throughout the session, crashing his primary car through Les Combes. Luckily for the Italian, he was able to return to the pits and hop into his spare car in the closing stages of the session, ending up 5th.

Renault driver Strip Weathers was handed a qualifying ban from the FIA after an incident-filled race at Imola, and as such, started last.

## Race Summary

Vivaldo Margheriti maintained his lead off the line and into La Source, with Dingley following closely behind, slipstreaming the Williams down the Kemmel straight. The two entered Les Combes side by side, but Dingley misjudged the braking zone and locked up, running off the track and into the grass, and rejoining in 4th behind the Ferrari duo of Stefan Van Damme and Fabiano Margheriti. Further back, William W-S also outbroke himself, running wide into the McLaren of Santiago Reyes. This forced the McLaren driver wide and sent William W-S into a spin. W-S subsequently stalled and was forced to retire from the race.

On the start of the second lap, Stefan Van Damme took the lead down the Kemmel straight by slipstreaming past Vivaldo Margheriti. Van Damme tried to quickly build a gap, but made a mistake at the exit of Stavelot 2 and was forced to blip the throttle, which gave Margheriti a run down the back straight. The two attempted to go side by side through Blanchimont but made contact. Margheriti span off into the tyre barrier where his car burst into flames moments later. The collision with the tyre barrier had resulted in Vivaldo Margheriti's FW08 being covered by the barrier, which meant Vivaldo was unable to extract himself from the car. Marshals were quickly on the scene, and Vivaldo was extracted from the car in under 2 minutes. Vivaldo was airlifted to hospital in Liege, with widespread third degree burns suspected. Surprisingly, no red flag was thrown for the incident, but luckily Vivaldo had been extracted from his car before the leaders had come around again.

Chuck Dingley found a way past Fabiano Margheriti's Ferrari on the start of lap 4 before setting his sights on race leader Van Damme. The two drivers were evenly matched, and were setting the same laptimes until the pit stop cycle began on lap 9. Van Damme's Ferrari mechanics had a slow stop which visibly angered the Belgian driver, as Dingley was only a second behind when Van Damme pulled into the pitlane. Dingley pitted on the following lap and was expected to merge ahead of Van Damme until his McLaren almost stalled on the pit exit. Dingley's troubles allowed Van Damme to reclaim the race lead which had grown to 3 seconds over Dingley.

Meanwhile, Van Damme's Ferrari teammate Fabiano Margheriti had an incident on his out-lap, with the Italian driver struggling to get his tyres up to temperature and subsequently running wide and getting sent into a lazy spin at Rivage. Fabiano quickly merged back onto the racing line, but ended up losing almost 10 seconds to the leading duo of Van Damme and Dingley. A few laps later Fabiano had another off, this time running wide and into the gravel trap at Pouhon, which allowed fourth place runner Mick Ashcroft to overtake him.

By the end of lap 15, Chuck Dingley had closed the gap to race leader Stefan Van Damme to a few tenths of a second. After a decent run out of La Source, he was able to slipstream alongside the five-time champion down the Kemmel straight. The two went side-by-side through Les Combes, with Dingley able to overtake Van Damme around the outside after the Belgian had a small snap of oversteer which forced him to blip the throttle. Van Damme stayed close behind Dingley for the remainder of the lap, and set himself up to re-overtake the McLaren on the following lap down the Kemmel straight. Van Damme temporarily cleared Dingley, but Dingley entered Van Damme's slipstream and pulled alongside again, likely with the aid of higher boost pressure. The two went wheel-to-wheel into Les Combes for the second consecutive lap, but this time Van Damme appeared to take the normal racing line, subsequently pushing Dingley off the track. Dingley attempted to rejoin the track but made further contact with Van Damme, spinning the McLaren around while Van Damme continued on unaffected.

Van Damme went on to win the race, the 29th of his career and his first for Ferrari, by a margin of 13 seconds over Chuck Dingley. Fabiano Margheriti completed the podium and finished third, overtaking Mick Ashcroft in Rivage in the closing laps. Ashcroft finished fourth, with Santiago Reyes and William O'Conner completing the points.

## Post-Race

Moments after the race had finished, McLaren protested Stefan Van Damme, stating that Van Damme outbroke the corner and didn't give Chuck Dingley sufficient racing room. The stewards, who happened to be family friends of Van Damme, gave the Belgian a 10 second penalty. The penalty didn't effect the final results, much to the displeasure of Dingley, who was seen storming out of the stewards room.

Williams released a statement a few hours after the conclusion of the race, stating that Vivaldo Margheriti was in critical condition, and along with his extensive 3rd degree burns, had suffered severe lung damage and was placed in an artificial coma on 24/7 life support.

## Classification

\*Stefan Van Damme received a 10 second penalty for dangerous driving after an incident with Chuck Dingley.

\*\*Strip Weathers started from the back of the grid after a qualifying ban that he received after multiple incidents in the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix.

## Championship Standings

 2
 3
 4
 5

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Lap Leaders

Vivaldo Margheriti (Lap 1)

Stefan Van Damme (Laps 2-9, 11-15, 17-19)

Chuck Dingley (Laps 10, 16)