1983 French Grand Prix

March 2019 June 2024 F1 France French Paul Ricard 1970.png 17 April 1983 3 15 Circuit Paul RicardLe Castellet, Var, France Permanent racing facility 3.610 5.810https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-1983/30/french-grand-prix The French Grand Prix MotorSport May 1983 29 August 2018 54 194.949 313.740 Dry, grey and cool Alain Prost Renault 1:36.672 France Alain Prost Renault 1:42.695 34 France Alain Prost Renault France Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW Brazil 1968 Eddie Cheever Renault USA FRA The 1983 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on 17 April 1983. It was the third race of the 1983 Formula One World Championship. French driver Alain Prost won the race for the Renault team, and this was the French marque's 3rd French Grand Prix win in a row and the 4th in 5 seasons. Second was the Brabham-BMW of 1981 World Champion Nelson Piquet, with Prost's Renault teammate Eddie Cheever finishing third. Rounding out the points finishers were Patrick Tambay in his Ferrari, and the non-turbo Williamses of Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite. This was the final time that both Renault cars started on the front row until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix, when young Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli started on the front row. Summary Qualifying On home soil, Renault dominated the French Grand Prix. Alain Prost took pole position 2.3 seconds faster than second placed teammate Eddie Cheever. It would be Cheever's best ever qualifying position in Formula One. On the fast Circuit Paul Ricard with its 1.8 km long Mistral Straight, the turbo engines with their greater power had a large advantage. The fastest normally-aspirated car was the 12th placed McLaren-Ford of Long Beach runner up Niki Lauda, qualifying some 4.3 seconds slower than pole-sitter Prost. After occupying the front row of the grid at Long Beach, Ferrari had difficulty with René Arnoux qualifying 4th and Tambay faring worse, only qualifying 11th. Chico Serra returned to the grid in the No.30 Arrows-Ford after the expected sponsorship that would have kept Australia's 1980 World Champion Alan Jones in the seat for the remainder of the season fell through at the last minute. Serra, who qualified 26th in France, would only last this and the next two races in Imola and Monaco before Arrows team boss Jackie Oliver replaced him for good with Belgian rookie Thierry Boutsen (who had finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 1981 and 1982 European Formula Two Championships) at the Belgian Grand Prix. Failing to qualify for the race were the RAM-Fords of Eliseo Salazar and debutante Jean-Louis Schlesser, and the Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani. Race As he had done in qualifying, Prost dominated the race for his first win in over 12 months, only losing the lead during the mid-race pit stops. Piquet finished second in the Brabham-BMW while Eddie Cheever finished 3rd in his Renault. Tambay managed to salvage what had been a tough weekend by finishing 4th with the Williams pair of Rosberg and Laffite finishing a lap down in 5th and 6th respectively. Before the race, Lotus driver Nigel Mansell had his toes accidentally run over by his own team pushing his car in the pits which caused him to need a pain killing injection. He started the race but retired after just 6 laps when the pain of pushing the pedals became unbearable. Long Beach winner John Watson was the races first retirement on lap 3 with engine failure in his McLaren. Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 15 France Alain Prost Renault1:38.3581:36.672 — 2 16 USA Eddie Cheever Renault1:38.9801:39.785 +2.308 3 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW1:41.0951:39.104 +2.432 4 28 France René Arnoux Ferrari1:40.0271:39.115 +2.443 5 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault1:39.5121:39.312 +2.640 6 5 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW1:39.6011:39.746 +2.929 7 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo1:38.099†1:39.611 +2.939 8 23 Italy Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo1:41.2151:39.618 +2.946 9 35 UK Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart1:43.0381:39.881 +3.209 10 9 FRG Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW1:40.2331:44.997 +3.561 11 27 France Patrick Tambay Ferrari1:40.3931:40.488 +3.721 12 8 Austria Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford1:41.0651:41.492 +4.393 13 36 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart1:42.2191:41.775 +5.103 14 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford1:41.8381:42.448 +5.166 15 3 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford1:42.1771:43.317 +5.505 16 1 Finland Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford1:42.4501:42.551 +5.778 17 34 Venezuela 1930 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford1:43.5521:42.615 +5.943 18 12 UK Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford1:43.3201:42.650 +5.978 19 2 France Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford1:43.2951:42.678 +6.006 20 25 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford1:42.8081:42.737 +6.065 21 29 Switzerland Marc Surer Arrows-Ford1:42.9621:44.346 +6.290 22 33 Colombia Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford1:43.3671:43.602 +6.695 23 31 Italy Corrado Fabi Osella-Ford1:45.6381:43.411 +6.739 24 4 USA Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford1:44.3171:43.654 +6.982 25 26 Brazil 1968 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford1:44.4701:44.905 +7.798 26 30 Brazil 1968 Chico Serra Arrows-Ford1:44.7781:45.859 +8.106 27 17 Chile Eliseo Salazar RAM-Ford1:45.0732:02.335 +8.401 28 32 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford1:46.5411:45.812 +9.140 29 18 France Jean-Louis Schlesser RAM-Ford1:45.8661:46.102 +9.194Source:https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1983/races/454/france/qualifying-1.html 69e Grand Prix de France de Formule 1 - QUALIFYING 1 formula1.com 12 September 2019https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1983/races/454/france/qualifying-2.html 69e Grand Prix de France de Formule 1 - QUALIFYING 2 formula1.com 12 September 2019https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1983/races/454/france/qualifying-0.html 69e Grand Prix de France de Formule 1 - OVERALL QUALIFYING formula1.com 12 September 2019Hamilton Maurice AUTOCOURSE 1983–84 Hazleton Publishing Ltd 1983 116 0-905138-25-2 † — Time disallowed Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 15 France Alain Prost Renault Michelin 54 1:34:13.913 1 9 2 5 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW Michelin 54 + 29.720 6 6 3 16 USA Eddie Cheever Renault Michelin 54 + 40.232 2 4 4 27 France Patrick Tambay Ferrari Goodyear 54 + 1:06.880 11 3 5 1 Finland Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford Goodyear 53 + 1 Lap 16 2 6 2 France Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford Goodyear 53 + 1 Lap 19 1 7 28 France René Arnoux Ferrari Goodyear 53 + 1 Lap 4   8 3 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 53 + 1 Lap 15   9 25 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford Michelin 53 + 1 Lap 20   10 29 Switzerland Marc Surer Arrows-Ford Goodyear 53 + 1 Lap 21   11 34 Venezuela 1930 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford Goodyear 52 + 2 Laps 17   12 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo Michelin 50 + 4 Laps 7   13 36 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart Pirelli 49 Gearbox 13   Ret Retired 26 Brazil 1968 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford Michelin 47 Engine 25   Ret Retired 31 Italy Corrado Fabi Osella-Ford Michelin 36 Engine 23   Ret Retired 9 FRG Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW Goodyear 36 Turbo 10   Ret Retired 8 Austria Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford Michelin 29 Wheel bearing 12   Ret Retired 23 Italy Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo Michelin 28 Spun Off 8   Ret Retired 30 Brazil 1968 Chico Serra Arrows-Ford Goodyear 26 Gearbox 26   Ret Retired 33 Colombia Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford Goodyear 23 Engine 22   Ret Retired 4 USA Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 21 Clutch 24   Ret Retired 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault Pirelli 20 Electrical 5   Ret Retired 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW Michelin 19 Water Leak 3   Ret Retired 35 UK Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart Pirelli 14 Engine 9   Ret Retired 12 UK Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford Pirelli 6 Physical 18   Ret Retired 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford Michelin 3 Engine 14   DNQ Did not qualify 17 Chile Eliseo Salazar RAM-Ford Pirelli   DNQ Did not qualify 32 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford Michelin     DNQ Did not qualify 18 France Jean-Louis Schlesser RAM-Ford Pirelli        Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1983/329/ 1983 French Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20141017060940/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1983/329/ 17 October 2014https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1983-french-grand-prix/ 1983 French Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 17 April 1983 23 October 2021 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 15 2 AUT Niki Lauda 10 3 FRA Alain Prost 9 4 UK John Watson 9 5 FRA Jacques Laffite 7Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1983/france/championnat.aspx France 1983 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 17 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 UK McLaren-Ford 19 2 UK Brabham-BMW 15 3 FRA Renault 13 4 ITA Ferrari 9 5 UK Williams-Ford 9Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References 30em French Grand Prix 1983 1983 United States Grand Prix West 1983 San Marino Grand Prix 1982 French Grand Prix 1984 French Grand Prix French Grand Prix Category:French Grand Prix Grand Prix