United States GP 1983

MARCH 27, 1983

United States GP, 1983

The Long Beach had been altered considerably since the 1982 event but the field was as it had been in Brazil except that Arrows had lured Alan Jones out of retirement in an effort to find sponsorship for the all-white cars. Alain Prost also had a brand new Renault RE40. It was clear in qualifying that tires were going to be important with the Michelin runners off the pace of the Goodyear men. Pole position went to Patrick Tambay in his Ferrari with his team mate Rene Arnoux alongside. The two Williams's of Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite shared the second row while the Pirelli-shod Elio de Angelis (Lotus) was fifth, just ahead of another Pirelli man Derek Warwick (Toleman-Hart). The top 10 was completed by Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell), Prost (the fastest Michelin runner), Danny Sullivan (Tyrrell) and Jean-Pierre Jarier (Ligier). Roberto Guerrero impressed everyone by qualifying his Theodore eighth but the car was later excluded for having rear bodywork which was slightly too wide. Jones did well to qualify 12th.

At the start of the race Tambay took the lead while Rosberg elbowed Arnoux out of the way to grab second place. He then spun but managed to rejoin having lost only one place to his team mate Laffite. Alboreto was fourth with Arnoux down in fifth. Rosberg quickly repassed Laffite and then the top four ran together, leaving behind the fifth-placed Patrese. Prost had disappeared to the pits early on with a misfire. Jarier moved up to battle with Alboreto and on lap 22 he ran into the back of the Italian. Alboreto had to pit for repairs. On lap 26 Rosberg tried to grab the lead, misjudged it and rammed Tambay. Rosberg got going again but was then rammed by Jarier. This left Laffite in the lead with Patrese second and then a big gap back to Surer in the Arrows. He was soon swallowed up by the two McLarens, Lauda leading Watson. They had found that the Michelin rubber was much better in race conditions are had worked their way through the field from 22nd (Watson) and 23rd (Lauda) on the grid. On lap 33 Watson decided he wanted to be ahead and overtook Lauda. The two then chased and overtook Patrese on lap 44 (when the Italian went up an escape road) and Laffite on lap 45. They then pulled away to score a remarkable 1-2 finish for McLaren. Patrese moved ahead of Laffite on lap 52 but he then suffered a turbo failure and had to trundle round for the final laps and dropped out of the points. Laffite was unable to hold off Arnoux and so the Ferrari took third with Laffite fourth, Surer fifth and Cecotto sixth in only his second F1 race.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  75 1h53m34.899s  22 
Niki Lauda McLaren-Cosworth  75 1h54m02.882s  23 
28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  75 1h54m48.527s  
Jacques Laffite Williams-Cosworth  74  
29 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  74  16 
34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Cosworth  74  17 
26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Cosworth  73  26 
Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Cosworth  73  
Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth  73  
10r Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  72 Distributor 11 
11 15 Alain Prost Renault  72  
12 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Cosworth  72  13 
13r 16 Eddie Cheever Renault  67 Gearbox 15 
30 Chico Serra Arrows-Cosworth  58 Driver Discomfort 12 
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  51 Throttle Jammed 20 
22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo  48 Gearbox 19 
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  29 Tires 
33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Cosworth  27 Gearbox 18 
25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Cosworth  26 Accident 10 
36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart  26 Battery 14 
23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo  26 Accident 21 
27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari  25 Accident 
Keke Rosberg Williams-Cosworth  25 Accident 
17 Eliseo Salazar RAM March-Cosworth  25 Gear Linkage 25 
35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart  11 Tire Burst/accident 
Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW  Accident 24 
nq 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Cosworth    27 
nq 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Cosworth    28