1983 United States Grand Prix West

1983 United States Grand Prix West

The 1983 United States Grand Prix West is the 2nd race of the 1983 F1 Season. It was won by Piquet with Patrese 2nd and Mansell 3rd.

Pre-Race

Semi-retired 1980 World Champion, Australian Alan Jones replaced regular Arrows driver Chico Serra for the race

Qualifiying

Arnoux took pole ahead of Tambay and Piquet whilst both Osella's failed to qualify.

Race

Tambay took the lead at the first corner. Piquet, immediately behind him, tried to squeeze through the middle of the all-Ferrari front row. He touched Arnoux's right front with his left rear as he swung wide, but both continued, with Piquet in second, followed by Laffite and Arnoux. Rosberg spun in the lap while attempting to overtake, but continued without damage.

After one lap, Sullivan was up to sixth, behind Arnoux, and Cheever was ninth, immediately behind Prost. Sullivan was passed by Patrese on the second lap, and then by Prost and Cheever on lap three. Before long, however, Prost began dropping back with a misfire that had been plaguing him recurrently all weekend, and he finally pitted on lap 8. Cheever was able to get by Arnoux and Patrese when Arnoux began to lose grip from his Goodyears, and was up into fifth place. When Cheever entered the Renault pit for a new set of tires, however, he found the crew still working on Prost's car; he was forced to continue. Prost's problem was eventually solved and he continued, albeit three laps down.

Meanwhile, Rosberg had found himself in second place behind Tambay and, by lap 14, was again looking for a way by. The top six cars were all running very close together, and Rosberg soon found himself under increasing pressure from Laffite, who was in turn being hounded by Jean-Pierre Jarier's Ligier and Patrese's Brabham.

On lap 15, Rosberg attempted to take the lead again, but collided with Tambay, who spun and stalled. Rosberg continued again, driving around the outside of the disabled car. As he entered the chicane before the start/finish line, he found his teammate Laffite alongside and Jarier almost touching his gearbox behind. The two Williams cars touched briefly, and Jarier ran into the back of Rosberg, who hit the wall, bounced off, and hit it again before sliding to a stop. Jarier continued, but only briefly, as a damaged front wing had spoiled his handling, and he retired in the pits.

Laffite was now in the lead, with Patrese in second. By lap 18, the McLarens and Piquet were lying third, fourth and fifth, having passed Marc Surer, Sullivan and Johnny Cecotto. When Watson got by Lauda at the end of Shoreline Drive, he was 20 seconds behind the two leaders. With Watson closing the gap to the front and Laffite's tires going off quickly, Patrese challenged Laffite for the lead. He slid wide, and Watson and Lauda both passed before he rejoined the track. Soon after, Piquet passed both the McLarens and Laffite as well.

With Laffite still struggling with his tires, Patrese was able to catch him up again and took fourth on lap 21. Arnoux was coming back through the field after a second tire stop, and was waging battle with Cheever for fifth place when they came upon Laffite on lap 22, again at the end of Shoreline Drive. At the hairpin, the Williams and Ferrari swapped places around Cheever, as Arnoux went from sixth to fourth in one corner. On the next lap, however, Cheever lost fifth place when he pulled off with a broken gearbox. With just three laps to go, Watson retired from third place when his distributor broke.

Patrese, suffering from a worsening cramp in his right leg, could not challenge Watson in the later stages, and the Brazilian came home nearly half a minute ahead for his second victory. Mansell came through for third, and Giacomelli hung on for fourth, ahead of Warwick and Winkelhock, who both scored their first ever World Championship Points.

Rumors persisted all weekend that race organizer Chris Pook, the main figure in the attempt to create a "Monte Carlo of the United States" in Long Beach, had decided that Formula One was too expensive and risky, and, indeed, after the race, he announced that he planned to run a CART race at Long Beach in 1984 instead of F1. Despite tremendous success since the race's inception in 1976, and the observable impact of the global exposure it brought to the city and to the Los Angeles area in general, the organizers believed that the less expensive and more popular (in the United States at least) CART championship, dominated by American drivers, would be a more promising investment.