Altitude for the turbos

René Arnoux won the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix in his Renault RE20 turbo (pictured above) at the Interlagos circuit. It was Arnoux’s first Grand Prix victory, and only the second for the Renault team and for a turbocharged car.

The Interlagos circuit, located at an altitude of 850 metres, gave the turbocharged single-seaters an advantage and the Renault drivers, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux, dominated the race and drove in concert until Jabouille’s turbo, which had started from pole position, gave up the ghost.

René Arnoux won the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami a fortnight later, also at altitude, after his teammate Jabouille, who still was very unlucky, retired again.

Unfortunately for the two French drivers, the 1980 season was punctuated by a terrible lack of reliability of the turbocharged Renault V6, and apart from a second place at Zandvoort for Arnoux, and a victory at the Austrian Grand Prix for Jabouille, the harvest for the men in yellow was meager and the title went to Alan Jones and his Williams powered by the good old Cosworth V8.