1981 Formula One Season

The **1981 Formula One season** was the 32nd season of Formula One motor racing. The championship was contested concurrently over a twelve race series that commenced on 7th February and ended on 17th October.

Chuck Dingley and McLaren were the reigning Drivers' and Constructors' champions respectively. Dingley was ultimately unable to defend his championship and win a fourth consecutive Drivers' Championship, being outpaced by Stefan Van Damme for the majority of the season.

Van Damme went on to win a record-breaking 5th Drivers' Championship, while Lotus won the Constructors' Championship.

## Season Review

Coming off of his third consecutive championship, Chuck Dingley entered the 1981 season as a heavy favourite. Shortly after the end of the 1980 season though, the FIA discovered that Dingley's McLaren was hiding a weight jacker deep inside the spine of the chassis following an extensive tear-down of his MP4/1. The device was subsequently banned for the 1981 season, and McLaren took a noticeable step back in performance at tracks with high tyre wear.

While Dingley was able to challenge Stefan Van Damme in the early stages of the season even after McLaren's weight jacker had been discovered, Van Damme and the Lotus team were extremely consistent throughout the season, finishing on the podium in 8 out of 12 races. Van Damme's consistency led him to his record-breaking 5th Drivers' Championship, 17 points clear of runner-up Dingley, while Van Damme's Lotus team were able to easily take the Constructors' crown.

### **Round 1: South Africa**

Despite an extensive redesign of the McLaren MP4/1 due to the banning of it's weight jacker, Chuck Dingley dominated the opening weekend of the season, taking pole and pulling away from the start to remain unchallenged for the remainder of the race. Stefan Van Damme finished in 2nd, 16 seconds behind Dingley, whilst Ferrari's Richard Jockey finished in 3rd after having to avoid a pileup at the start of the race. Stanley Robson finished just tenths behind Jockey after a late push in the closing stages of the race.

### **Round 2: United States**

Dingley took pole at the first of his home races in Watkin Glen but relinquished the lead to Van Damme after a poor start. Van Damme and Dingley were closely matched throughout the first laps until the rear-left suspension of Dingley's car failed after he hit a kerb, taking him out of the race in the process. Dingley's teammate Stanley Robson eventually finished 2nd behind Van Damme, wtih Fabiano Margheriti taking his first podium of the year, despite having a car that struggled at cornering.

### **Round 3: San Marino**

There was tight battle for pole position between Nino Tempestini, Van Damme, Fabiano Margheriti, and Chuck Dingley, with Tempestini eventually taking the top spot. The start of the race was clean until Dingley came together with Tempestini at Tosa. Tempestini's suspension was damaged in the incident and he span out of the race later on the lap. Dingley went on to win the race ahead of Van Damme, with Fabiano Margheriti finishing 3rd. Margheriti had taken full use of Ferrari's powerful engine to stay ahead of arguably faster cars throughout the race.

### **Round 4: Belgium**

Dingley took his third pole position in four races at Zolder, with the two Margheriti brothers lining up behind him on the grid. After starting on the soft tyre, Fabiano Margheriti had a blistering start and took the lead. Dingley and Van Damme started on the hard tyre and were attempting to complete the full race with only one pit stop. Dingley's gearbox started faltering and he dropped several positions but continued. After the first round of stops, Van Damme found himself in the lead of his home race but was being caught by Fabiano on fresher and softer tyres in the closing stages of the race. Under intense pressure in front of his home fans, Van Damme span with just three laps to go, gifting the lead and race win to Margheriti. Ligier's Reinaldo Molina took an unlikely podium, with Fabiano's brother Vivaldo Margheriti finishing 3rd.

### **Round 5: Monaco**

Most of Saturday was completely rained out and qualifying had to be delayed until later in the day. The Smythe team, who were taking part in their first season in the sport, found themselves to be extremely competitive in the wet conditions of the street circuit. They found a gap in the rain to have William Worchestershire-Smythe take pole position in the car that bore his name.

The rain continued on Sunday as W-S led the field away. Despite having an under-powered engine, the Smythe chassis suited the track and conditions and W-S went on to take an unlikely win ahead of Van Damme and Vivaldo Margheriti. W-S' teammate Jeremy Spocinklass struggled to find the same pace in the race and finished 5th.

### **Round 6: Detroit**

Williams brought a substantial upgrade to their FW07C car as the paddock travelled to Detroit for the first of two races in North America. The upgrade worked well and Vivaldo Margheriti took his first pole position of the season.

Vivaldo had a good start but was caught and passed by Chuck Dingley and Nino Tempestini as they approached the pit stop window. Opting for an alternate strategy, Vivaldo switched to the hard tyre whilst Dingley and Tempestini both switched to the medium tyre. With higher-than-expected tyre wear, Vivaldo closed on Dingley and Tempestini before overtaking them in the final laps of the race. Vivaldo took his first race win of the year, with Tempestini finishing 2nd and taking his first points finish of the season. Dingley finished in 3rd, whilst championship leader Stefan Van Damme retired from the race after his gearbox jammed. Lotus were running an experimental gearbox on the Belgian driver's car for the weekend.

### **Round 7: Canada**

Stefan Van Damme took his first pole of the season after further upgrades for his Lotus 87 arrived just in time for Canada, narrowly beating Vivaldo Margheriti.

Van Damme had an excellent start and immediately started to build a gap, but as the race went on the Belgian started to have troubles with his gearbox, which was the same experimental unit used at the previous round in Detroit. Van Damme's gearbox issues would get worse, and he was forced to retire around the halfway point of the race, gifting the lead to Vivaldo Margheriti behind. Dingley attempted to close Margheriti in during the closing laps of the race but was unable to, and Vivaldo went on to take his second consecutive victory.

### **Round 8: Britain**

Van Damme took a comfortable second consecutive pole position, beating teammate Tempestini by over half of a second. Contrary to the dry qualifying session ran on the previous day, Sunday saw heavy rain, as the race was ran in soaking wet conditions.

While most teams assumed the race would be dry, the Smythe team brought their Monaco package to the British round in the hope of rain, and after qualifying in the lower half of the grid, their gamble quickly paid dividends for W-S as he scythed his way through traffic and found his way to the lead by lap 14. Spocinklass however got caught up in an incident with Dingley whilst trying to overtake the McLaren for 6th, and was forced to pit for a new front wing while Dingley retired due to a broken suspension. W-S went on to win comfortably, almost half a minute ahead of the Lotus duo of Van Damme and Tempestini.

### **Round 9: France**

Nino Tempestini got the better of his more experienced teammate for the first time all season at Dijon, but after a poor start immediately relinquished the lead to Van Damme. The Italian attempted to find a way past the Belgian for the remainder of the race, but in the end was unable to find a way past and was forced to settle for second place, while Van Damme won and extended his points lead over third place finisher Chuck Dingley to nine.

### **Round 10: Germany**

Lotus continued its dominant run of qualifying form, with Van Damme taking his 3rd pole of the season, ahead of Fabiano Margheriti. Renault's Strip Weathers qualified 3rd after the team brought an experimental low downforce package to the track.

Van Damme maintained his lead over Fabiano off the line, but Weathers' low downforce allowed him to overtake both Fabiano and Van Damme on the run to the first Bremsschikane. Weathers' gamble for low downforce appeared to pay off as he ran away from Van Damme and Fabiano in the first two sectors of the lap, but was caught in the final sector. Neither could find a way past the Renault though, and as the race went on Weathers slowly built a gap and broke the slipstream to the two behind.

Weathers went on to take his first victory since 1977, and Renault's first win in Formula One.

### **Round 11: Austria**

Alfa Romeo brought their planned 1982 car to Austria, but the car was only available to Joao Coutinho as they only had one chassis ready. The car instantly proved to be much quicker than its predecessor, as Coutinho managed 3rd on the grid, only behind polesitter Stefan Van Damme and Chuck Dingley.

After Van Damme and Dingley were forced to pit earlier than expected due to excessive wear on their soft tyres, Coutinho inherited a lead which he didn't relinquish for the rest of the race. Coutinho took his first victory and points of the season for Alfa Romeo, while Van Damme recovered to second after having to make an extra stop. Fabiano Margheriti narrowly held off Dingley in the closing laps, but was able to hold onto the final podium position.

Van Damme's second place finish clinched the championship for him, making the Belgian the first five time World Champion in Formula One history.

### **Round 12: Italy**

Fabiano Margheriti scored pole position in front of an adoring home crowd in Monza, narrowly beating countryman Nino Tempestini and brother Vivaldo. The all-Italian top three got away well off the line, with Tempestini beating Fabiano to the first chicane and taking the lead after getting a slightly better start.

The top three remained consistent after the first lap, although Vivaldo was under heavy pressure from champion-elect Van Damme behind. On lap 15 the two made slight contact into the second chicane, which sent both wide into the grass and allowed the Smythe of Spocinklass and Alfa Romeo's Coutinho past. The two continued their battle after rejoining the track, but slight damage on each of their cars meant that the top four slowly pulled away from them.

After pit-stops on lap 19, Spocinklass found extra pace in his Smythe, and was able to sneak past Fabiano into the Parabolica and move up to second. Time ran out before Spocinklass could catch Tempestini though, and the American was forced to settle for second in what ended up being his final Formula One race.

## Results and Standings

### **1981** **Constructors' Championship - Final Standings**

Points were awarded to the top six finishers: **9-6-4-3-2-1.**

The best ten results were retained.