1981 United States Grand Prix West

1981 United States Grand Prix West

The 1981 United Sates Grand Prix West is the 1st race of the 1981 F1 Season. it was won by Nelson Piquet with Arnoux 2nd and Jones 3rd.

Pre-Race

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.

Qualifying

Piquet took pole ahead of Jones and Reutemann whilst Salazar, Strohr, Guerra, Daly and Cogan failed to qualify.

Race

At the start 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, Piquet 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 Piquet, Reutemann, Jones, Villeneuve, Patrese, Didier Pironi, Cheever and Andretti.

For the first part of the race, Piquet 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 Patrese desperately tried to get by.

Lap 7 was a bad one for Ferrari as Patrese finally passed Pironi for fourth, and Villeneuve retired with a broken driveshaft. On lap 10, Reutemann took the lead from Piquet 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 Arnoux up to second with a three-seconds over Jones, who immediately began closing the gap by half a second per lap. On lap 17, while lapping Marc Surer's Ensign, Reutemann slid wide in the esses on Pine Avenue, and Jones passed Arnoux for 2nd . Within 3 laps, the defending World Champion had stretched out ten seconds. At the same time, Piquet was extending his lead to 36 seconds.

On lap 21, 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 23, then traded fourth several times with Pironi, before finally taking the position for good on lap 24. 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 Piquet and Arnoux easing up . Jones, 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 fifth place, just ahead of compatriot Eddie Cheever's Tyrrell in sixth. It was the first time for two Americans to finish in the points since Andretti and Mark Donohue at the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix.