The 1983 United States Grand Prix West is a Formula One motorcycle race held on March 27, 1983 in Long Beach, California.
Video 1983 United States Grand Prix West
Summary
After a hard fight in qualifying, the McLaren team, as they had done on the occasion in 1982, found their way on race day, as John Watson and Niki Lauda climbed from 22nd and 23rd on the grid to finish first and second in United final. State of the West Grand Prix in Long Beach.
Again, the circuit has been slightly modified, especially to free Ocean Boulevard, one of the city's main streets. Since the alternative routes on the Seaside Way include the tunnel under the Long Beach convention center, the pit is moved to the long, curved section of Shoreline Drive, where the Start and End lines are reunited for the first time since 1977.
As the exercise begins on Friday, two bumps where the circuit joins the old layout at the straight end of the Seaside Way that causes problems. Some teams are worried that the suspension on their cars will not last more than a few laps under race conditions. Renà © Å © Arnoux (Ferrari) is the first to pass a flat mound and 1: 26.935 leads Alain Prost (Renault), Patrick Tambay (Ferrari) and Riccardo Patrese (Brabham) on the time chart of the day, while Nelson Piquet (Brabham) , Lauda and Watson found their Michelin qualifying tires almost useless and set a bad time.
An overnight repair work tidied up the troubled bumps. Tambay earned his first pole with a 1: 26,117 lap, the only round to beat Arnoux's national team on Friday; Keke Rosberg (Williams) took third place with 1: 27.145, ahead of teammate Jacques Laffite. American Danny Sullivan (Tyrrell), in his only season in Formula One, made it to ninth place, while another American in F1, Eddie Cheever (riding the old model Renault RE30C) is 15.7 position behind his Prost teammate RE40 is newer. The McLarens of Watson and Lauda can never arrive at a balanced setting, and they will start at positions 22 and 23.
The race takes place in warm and sunny conditions. Tambay leads at the first corner. Rosberg, right behind him, tried to push through the middle of the front row of all Ferraris. He touched the front right of Arnoux with his left back as he swung wide, but both continued, with Rosberg in second, followed by Laffite and Arnoux. Rosberg spins later in his lap while trying to take over, but proceeds without damage.
After one lap, Sullivan climbed to sixth, behind Arnoux, and Cheever in ninth, just behind Prost. Sullivan was passed by Patrese on the second lap, and then by Prost and Cheever on lap three. However, shortly afterwards, Prost began to resign with a shootout that had plagued him over and over throughout the weekend, and he finally complained on lap 16. Cheever could get Arnoux and Patrese when Arnoux began to lose the hold of Goodyears, fifth. When Cheever entered Renault's hole for a set of new tires, he discovered that the crew was still working on the Prost car; he was forced to continue. The problem of Prost was finally solved and he continued, though three laps down.
Meanwhile, Rosberg has regained second place behind Tambay and, on lap 20, is once again looking for a way. The top six cars all went very close together, and Rosberg soon found himself under increasing pressure from Laffite, who in turn was interred by Jean-Pierre Jarier's Ligier and Patrese's Brabham.
On lap 26, Rosberg attempted to lead again, but collided with Tambay, who spun and halted. Rosberg continued again, walking around outside the defective car. As he enters the chicane before the start/finish line, he finds his Laffite teammate on the side and Jarier almost touches his gearbox in the back. Two Williams cars touched briefly, and Jarier ran behind Rosberg, who hit the wall, bounced, and hit him again before sliding to a stop. Jarier continued, but only briefly, because the damaged front wing had ruined his handling, and he retired in the pits.
Laffite now leads, with Patrese second. On lap 28, McLaren was in third and fourth position, after passing Marc Surer, Sullivan and Johnny Cecotto. When Watson was received by Lauda at the end of Shoreline Drive, he was 20 seconds behind the two leaders. With Watson closing the gap forward and the Laffite tires going quickly, Patrese challenged Laffite to lead. He slid wide, and Watson and Lauda passed before joining the track back. Soon after, McLaren passed Laffite as well, and, from the 22nd and 23rd on the grid, is now first and second.
With Laffite still struggling with his tires, Patrese was able to catch him again and take third on lap 52. Arnoux came back through the field after stopping the second tire, and doing battle with Cheever for fifth place when they arrived at Laffite on lap 67, again at the end of Shoreline Drive. In the hairpin, 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 took off with a broken gearbox. With only three laps to go, Patrese retired from third place when his distributor broke down.
The semi-retired 1980 World champion, Alan Jones Australia replaces regular Arrows Chico Serra rider for the race in what proved to be a short comeback for Formula One. After a credible 12th qualifier on the grid at Cosworth powered A6 Arrows, Jones ran in the top 10 to retire on lap 58 with exhaustion. Jones, who had just raced home in Australia since retiring from F1 after the 1981 season, is still suffering from a fall from a horse in his field a few months earlier where he broke his hip.
Lauda, ​​suffering from a worsening cramp in her right foot, could not challenge Watson in the next stage, and Ulsterman came home almost half a minute ahead for her fifth win. It was the furthest back from which the modern Grand Prix rider ever came to win the race. Arnoux came in for third, and Laffite held on for fourth, ahead of Surer and Cecotto, who scored one point in their second F1 race. This is the first point for the Venezuelan driver, and the last until Pastor Maldonado finished in tenth position at the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix.
Rumors persisted over the weekend that the race organizer Chris Pook, the main character in the effort to create "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 plans to run the CART race at Long Beach in 1984 instead of F1. Despite the remarkable success since the start of the race in 1976, and the observable impact of global exposure brought to the city, the organizers believe that it is cheaper and more popular (in the United States at least) the CART Championship, dominated by American racers, will be an investment more promising.
Maps 1983 United States Grand Prix West
Classification
Qualification
- - disallowed time
Race
Championship standings after race
- Note : Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
Further reading
- Rob Walker (July, 1983). "8 Western United States Grand Prix: Whiz Kids". Street & amp; Track , 144-149.
- Mike S. Lang (1992). Grand Prix!: Account of the Formula 1 World Championship motor racing contest. Volume 4: 1981 to 1984 . Haynes Publishing Group. ISBNÃ, 0-85429-733-2
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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