Argentine GP 1978

JANUARY 15, 1978

Argentine GP, 1978

During the winter of 1977-78 Team Lotus perfected the concept of ground-effect aerodynamics. with the Lotus 79, which would become the most successful racing car of Grand Prix racing up to that point. The year began, however, with the old Lotus 78. The team had hired Ronnie Peterson to replaced Gunnar Nilsson. Nilsson signed to drive for the new Arrows team but during the off season it became clear that he was suffering from cancer and would not be fit enough to drive in 1978. Arrows was a new team, led by a number of staff from Shadow, who had become disenchanted with the team. The new team, which included designers Tony Southgate and Dave Wass, designed the Arrows FA1 and Riccardo Patrese was hired to drive it. The formation of Arrows was a major blow to Shadow but the team had the new DN9 which Southgate and Wass had designed before departing and with Clay Regazzoni and Hans Stuck recruited to drive. Stuck had lost his place at Brabham because Bernie Ecclestone had lured World Champion Niki Lauda from Ferrari to join John Watson. Sponsorship had been found from the Parmalat company and designer Gordon Murray was working on a radical new BT46 new car.

Ferrari produced the new 312T3 for Carlos Reutemann and Gilles Villeneuve and took the decision to switch to Michelin tires, the French company having entered F1 in 1977 with Renault Sport. Ligier continued with one car for Jacques Laffite. McLaren dropped Jochen Mass and chose Patrick Tambay as his replacement, while the German moved to ATS which had bought the assets of the March F1 program and ran a new car called the HS1, designed by Robin Herd.

Having lost Peterson, Tyrrell (with Elf encouragement) hired a new young Frenchman called Didier Pironi. The team gave up the six-wheeler concept and appeared with a much more conventional 008. Wolf Racing retained Jody Scheckter and began the year with the old car while Ensign started the year with Danny Ongais and Lamberto Leoni as drivers. Hesketh struggled on but as Rupert Keegan had taken his British Air Ferries sponsorship to Surtees the team was in more difficulty. The year began with Hesketh running Divina Galica. Alongside Keegan at Surtees was Vittorio Brambilla. There were a variety of new teams in the course of the year, notably Merzario which produced the A1 chassis. Hector Rebaque concluded a deal to run a Lotus 78 while Williams Grand Prix Engineering hired Alan Jones and Patrick Head produced the FW06.

The field was completed by Brett Lunger in the BS Fabrications McLaren M23 and the new Theodore TR1, which had been designed for Teddy Yip by Ron Tauranac. It was driven in Argentina by Eddie Cheever, who had just turned 20.

Qualifying in Buenos Aires resulted in pole position for Mario Andretti (Lotus) with Reutemann second, Peterson third and Watson ahead of Lauda. James Hunt was sixth in his McLaren while Villeneuve continued to show extreme promise with seventh on the grid. The top 10 was completed by Laffite, Tambay and Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell). Rebaque, Cheever and Galica failed to qualify for the 24-car grid.

In the race Andretti took the lead at the start and led from flag to flag while Reutemann's hold on second place lasted only until the seventh lap when he was passed by Watson, who had worked his way up past Lauda and Peterson. Watson stayed second until three-quarter distance when he dropped back with overheating problems and retired. This left Lauda second with Depailler third, after an impressive early charge which took him past Hunt, Laffite, Peterson and Reutemann.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  52 1h37m04.470s  
Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo  52 1h37m17.680s  
Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth  52 1h37m18.110s  10 
James Hunt McLaren-Cosworth  52 1h37m20.520s  
Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Cosworth  52 1h38m19.320s  
Patrick Tambay McLaren-Cosworth  52 1h38m24.370s  
11 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari  52 1h38m27.070s  
12 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  52 1h38m43.350s  
14 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth  52 1h38m45.070s  17 
10 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Cosworth  52 1h38m47.970s  15 
11 Jochen Mass ATS-Cosworth  52 1h38m53.540s  13 
12 10 Jean-Pierre Jarier ATS-Cosworth  51  11 
13 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Cosworth  51  24 
14 Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Cosworth  51  23 
15 17 Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Cosworth  51  16 
16r 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra  50 Engine 
17 16 Hans-Joachim Stuck Shadow-Cosworth  50  18 
18 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Cosworth  50  12 
John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo  41 Engine 
27 Alan Jones Wlliams-Cosworth  36 Fuel Vaporisation 14 
22 Danny Ongais Ensign-Cosworth  35 Distributor Rotor Arm 21 
23 Lamberto Leoni Ensign-Cosworth  28 Engine 22 
37 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Cosworth  Differential 20 
18 Rupert Keegan Surtees-Cosworth  Engine Overheating 19 
nq 25 Hector Rebaque Lotus-Cosworth    25 
nq 32 Eddie Cheever Theodore-Cosworth    26 
nq 24 Divina Galica Hesketh-Cosworth    27