Long Beach, US Grand Prix West 1982. In Saturday’s qualifying, the cars running on Michelin tires had clearly the edge on the ones in Goodyear. Niki Lauda (picture above), in his third race with McLaren since returning from a self-imposed two-year retirement, had noticed during Friday practice that the harder compound was actually faster than […]
Year Archives:
René Arnoux, from Renault to Ferrari
René Arnoux was paired with Alain Prost at Renault for the 1981 and 1982 seasons. Two fast and ambitious French drivers in a French team, inevitably it would ignite sparkles. Their rivalry on track flared up off the track and relations between the two men deteriorated. Tensions in the team were exacerbated in the French […]
Power and zero grip
Ferrari’s early turbo cars were all about their engines. Then came engineer Harvey Postlethwaite in 1982 who designed a chassis, the 126C2 and C3, able to rein in 1000bhp. And it worked. Between them, Patrick Tambay and René Arnoux (seen here-above battling for the lead at the 1983 British Grand Prix) took nine of the […]
“Mauro Forghieri and me”
Patrick Tambay was offered to join the Scuderia Ferrari, after the death of close friend Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder in May 1982. During his 18 months in red, the French driver won two races, the 1982 German Grand Prix and the 1983 San Marino Grand Prix. He finished fourth in the 1983 Drivers’ Championship and […]
“A race nobody wanted to win”
Riccardo Patrese recalls the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix where he scored his first Formula One win in “a race nobody wanted to win”. Patrese: “On lap 75, I was very cautious when I came to Loews, but I couldn’t control it and I spun. Afterwards someone objected that the marshals had pushed me. I didn’t […]
Gilles Villeneuve
On this day of 1982, Canadian Gilles Villeneuve died in a crash during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. We all remember the prodigious talent and car control he had, the generosity of style, on and off the track… Gilles Villeneuve: “I will drive flat out all the time… I love racing so […]
Drama at Hockenheim
For the 1982 German Grand Prix, the circuit of Hockenheim had been modified with the first chicane being made slower and another chicane (Didier Pironi, picture above) added to slow the cars through the very fast Östkurve. Didier Pironi (Ferrari 126 C2) claimed pole position, but was seriously injured later in the ultimate practice, while testing […]
Spyder or Coupe?
After launching the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Groupe 5 at the end of the 80’s, Cesare Fiorio jumped into an ambitious Groupe 6 programme for Lancia in the World Makes Championship of 1982. The pretty Lancia LC1 was a really nice and fast race car, enabling Riccardo Patrese to fight for the endurance world championship till […]
Keke Rosberg
Keke Rosberg, the 1982 Formula One World Champion. In this 1982 season, the spectacular Finn won one race only, the Swiss Grand Prix held at Dijon-Prenois, and against all odds conquered the World Drivers’ title. Indeed, at the wheel of the agile and reliable Williams FW08-Cosworth designed by Patrick Head, but much less powerful than […]
Eternal alternate
The little Brazilian Roberto Moreno always grabbed the devil by the tail without getting a full-time drive in a top team. Winner of the Formula Ford Festival in 1980 and British Formula 3 champion the following year, he made his F1 debut at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix where he replaced the injured Nigel Mansell […]