Argentine GP 1980

JANUARY 13, 1980

Argentine GP, 1980

Although the team won the 1979 World Championship, Ferrari could not afford to be complacent because it was very clear by the end of the year that the Williams chassis was a great deal better than the Ferrari 312T4. And so Mauro Forghieri designed a new 312T5. Realizing that the future was in turbocharging the team began development work on a turbo engine. The flat-12 engine made ground-effect aerodynamics difficult but the team decided that there was no choice but to continue with it until the turbocharged engine was ready.

Williams refined the FW07 in B specification and Carlos Reutemann was taken on to partner Alan Jones. Clay Regazzoni moved to Ensign which had found sponsorship from Unipart and had built a new car. Ligier revamped the JS11 and hired Didier Pironi to partner Jacques Laffite, while the team's former driver Patrick Depailler was recruited to drive alongside Bruno Giacomelli in the new Alfa Romeo team. Renault revamped its chassis but kept Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Rene Arnoux. Brabham retained Nelson Piquet and Ricardo Zunino but had a new white and blue color scheme after several season running in Alfa Romeo red. Team Lotus had lost some of its 1979 sponsorship but Essex petroleum became the title sponsor and the team produced a brand new 81 chassis and as Carlos Reutemann had departed to Williams recruited Elio de Angelis to be Mario Andretti's partner. This resulted in a law suit between de Angelis and his former employer Shadow. Shadow was running out of steam but produced the new DN11 for new boys Stefan Johansson and David Kennedy. Arrows was in rather better shape with the new A3 chassis for Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass.

McLaren was trying to rebuild after an awful season in 1979 and while John Watson was retained the team hired a new youngster called Alain Prost in place of Patrick Tambay. Walter Wolf decided that he had enough of F1 and sold the remains of his team to Emerson Fittipaldi who landed backing from Skol Brasil from himself and Keke Rosberg. A new Harvey Postlethwaite car was planned but the season began with a hybrid F7.

Tyrrell hired Derek Daly to partner Jean-Pierre Jarier and the new 010 was designed by Maurice Philippe. The Merzario and Rebaque team disappeared but there was a new addition to the grid in the form of the Osella FA1, sponsored by Denim and MS and driven by Eddie Cheever. ATS expanded to two cars with Marc Surer joining Jan Lammers and so there were a total of 28 cars with 13 two-car teams and two one-car teams.

In qualifying in Buenos Aires Jones was fastest with Laffite and Pironi second and third, Piquet fourth and de Angelis an impressive fifth ahead of Andretti, Patrese, Villeneuve and Jabouille. Prost did a very good job to qualify 12th several places ahead of his team leader Watson.

Both Shadows, the ATS and the Osella failed to qualify.

At the start Jones went into the lead chased by Piquet, Laffite, Reutemann with Pironi is sixth position although his engine blew soon afterwards. De Angelis and Patrese had collided and dropped back through the order while Jabouille ran into technical trouble and drop down the order.

Jones's lead did not last long however as he picked up a large plastic bag in one of his radiators and the car overheated. He had to pit and dropped to fourth place behind Laffite, Piquet and Villeneuve. The Canadian soon came under pressure from the Williams driver and went wide, which enabled Jones to get ahead. He then overtake Piquet (Villeneuve following him through soon afterwards) and on lap 30 took the lead again from Laffite.

Laffite's engine failed soon afterwards and Villeneuve disappeared with a steering failure and so Jones won easily with Piquet second and Keke Rosberg third in the Fittipaldi. Daly was fourth, Giacomelli fifth and Prost sixth on his F1 debut.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
27 Alan Jones Williams-Cosworth  53 1h43m24.380s  
Nelson Piquet Brabham-Cosworth  53 1h43m48.970s  
21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Cosworth  53 1h44m43.020s  13 
Derek Daly Tyrrell-Cosworth  53 1h44m47.860s  22 
23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo  52  20 
Alain Prost McLaren-Cosworth  52  12 
Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Cosworth  51  16 
22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo  46 Engine 23 
Jody Scheckter Ferrari  45 Engine 11 
nc 14 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Cosworth  44  15 
nc 20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Cosworth  37  24 
Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  36 Steering/ Accident 
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Cosworth  30 Engine 
Marc Surer ATS-Cosworth  27 Brake Fluid On Disc/ Fire 21 
29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Cosworth  27 Engine 
30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Cosworth  20 Gearbox 14 
11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  20 Fuel Metering Unit 
28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Cosworth  12 Engine 10 
12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  Suspension 
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  Gearbox Oil Leak 17 
15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault  Clutch/ Gearbox 
16 Rene Arnoux Renault  Suspension 19 
25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Cosworth  Engine 
Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Cosworth  Accident 18 
nq 18 David Kennedy Shadow-Cosworth    25 
nq 10 Jan Lammers ATS-Cosworth    26 
nq 17 Stefan Johansson Shadow-Cosworth    27 
nq 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Cosworth    28