1978 Canadian Grand Prix

F1 Canada Canadian Gilles Villeneuve Circuit Montreal (78-86).svg October 8 1978 16 16 Circuit Île Notre-Dame, Montreal Semi-permanent racing facility 2.796 4.500 70 195.732 315.000 Mostly cloudy5 °C °Fhttp://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/CYUL/1978/10/8/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA Weather History for CYUL - October, 1978 - Sunday, October 8, 1978 Weather Underground 23 December 2015 Jean-Pierre Jarier France Lotus-Ford 1:38.015 Alan Jones Australia Williams-Ford 1:38.072 70 Gilles Villeneuve Canada Ferrari Jody Scheckter South Africa 1928 Wolf-Ford Carlos Reutemann Argentina Ferrari CAN The 1978 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 8 October 1978 at Montreal. This was the 16th and final race of the 1978 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the International Cup for F1 Constructors.https://www.racingsportscars.com/covers/_Montreal-1978-10-08e.jpg 1978 Canadian Grand Prix Entry list It was Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve's and a Canadian driver's first victory in Formula One. Report Background The Canadian Grand Prix had moved from the Mosport Park circuit near Toronto to the newly built Circuit Île Notre-Dame in Montreal. The event had moved because of track safety and organization problems with the hilly and scenic Mosport Park track. This circuit, made up entirely of public roads was located on a man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway which was the location of Expo '67 and rowing at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Before the race, in pre-race interviews Mario Andretti noted that he thought that the circuit had been designed in favour of Gilles Villeneuve, a comment that was picked up by local press. Andretti responded to the comments on race day morning, stating that he was "not critical of the race organizers", but instead "critical of our own FOCA officials who were sent over here to approve the track". Windsor Peter Peter Windsor http://peterwindsor.com/2012/04/25/the-legend-begins/ The legend begins…. 2012-04-25 2012-04-28 Peter Windsor Both championships were already sewn up (in favour of Andretti and Lotus), so this, the final round, was a dead rubber in the 1978 title chase. Before the race, Brabham announced that rising star Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, who had raced earlier in the season with Ensign and BS Fabrications, would be joining them in a third car, alongside regular drivers Niki Lauda and John Watson. The only other change was that Riccardo Patrese returned to the Arrows cockpit after missing the previous race. Practice and qualifying Poor weather and rain on Friday morning meant that the first practice session began 20 minutes later than scheduled. When the session did start, the two Ferrari drivers were fastest, Carlos Reutemann fastest with a lap of 2:02.600, ahead of teammate Villeneuve. The McLarens struggled in the weather, with Peter Windsor noting that neither car was able to find "decent traction". The second practice session held on Friday was in damp weather conditions as the track dried, with Reutemann again fastest, with a lap of 1:57.900. Brabham struggled again, as they did in the first session, with Piquet crashing into the wall. Due to their poor Friday, neither car had qualified for the race by the end of Friday's running. Wet weather greeted the teams again on Saturday morning for a 90-minute practice session, although conditions got better towards the end of that session, allowing Lauda to go fastest with a time of 1:51.700, Keke Rosberg, Andretti and Watson completing the top four. The entry of 28 cars had to be trimmed to 22 before the race, and those who failed to qualify were, unusually, from six different teams. They were Clay Regazzoni of Shadow, Beppe Gabbiani of Surtees, Arturo Merzario in the car bearing his name, Héctor Rebaque in a privately run Lotus, Rolf Stommelen of Arrows and Michael Bleekemolen of ATS. There were uncharacteristically bad performances from Reutemann, who took third in the championship with Ferrari, but could only qualify 11th, and the Tyrrells of Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi, both also regular points scorers but down in 13th and 18th. Piquet was 14th on his debut for Brabham. The top ten was just as interesting as the bottom six, as eight different cars were featured. Jacques Laffite was the lowest ranked of these, putting his Ligier 10th. World champion Andretti was also off the pace for Lotus, qualifying 9th. Hans-Joachim Stuck drove very well to put the other Shadow 8th, beating his more decorated teammate Regazzoni by over two and a half seconds. Brabham, one of only two teams to have two cars in the top 10 (the other was Lotus), had Watson and Lauda 4th and 7th. They were split by Alan Jones's Williams, a sign of continuing improvement for the team and their Australian driver, who had finished 2nd the last time out at Watkins Glen, and Emerson Fittipaldi, who dragged the uncompetitive Copersucar up to 6th. Home favourite Villeneuve put the Ferrari 3rd, a good performance from the Canadian who had been outperformed by teammate Reutemann all season. He was beaten to 2nd by Jody Scheckter of Wolf, who had also been improving of late. However, pole was a surprise. Jean-Pierre Jarier, who had fallen out of favour with ATS earlier in the season and been dropped in favour of drivers such as Alberto Colombo, Hans Binder and Harald Ertl, had last been semi-competitive with Shadow back in 1975 and had been drafted in by Lotus to replace Ronnie Peterson after his tragic death at Monza two races previous, took pole by just 0.011 seconds from Scheckter. This was no surprise after the Frenchman had set the fastest race lap in his first appearance for the team at Watkins Glen, but was classified 15th due to running out of fuel when in 3rd place. Race Jarier kept the lead from the start, but Jones had a magnificent start, jumping up from 5th to 2nd. This meant that Scheckter dropped to 3rd, Villeneuve to 4th and Watson down to 5th. Andretti had jumped up past Lauda and Stuck and was holding 6th. Fittipaldi was a casualty on the first lap, sliding off the track into the mud and retiring. Stuck joined him at the same spot a lap later. There was more drama in the race on lap 6, particularly for the Brabham team. First, Lauda had a brake failure and was out. Shortly afterwards, Andretti attempted to pass Watson in the other Brabham, and the two made contact, dropping almost right to the back of the field. This allowed Patrick Depailler up to 5th and Reutemann in the other Ferrari into 6th. Three laps later, Watson had an accident of his own, and was out for good. The next retirement was on lap 17, when Bobby Rahal in the second Wolf suffered fuel injection problems and reduced the field to 17 runners. Jarier had opened up a lead of 20 seconds at this point, as Jones in second was holding up the faster cars of Scheckter and Villeneuve behind him. However, on lap 18 Scheckter found a way past, and Villeneuve followed him through a lap later. At the same time, Depailler was dropping down the order with technical issues, allowing Reutemann into 5th and Derek Daly in the Ensign up to 6th. Daly was passed by Riccardo Patrese not long afterwards. A good few laps ensued for Ferrari, as on lap 25 the very fast Villeneuve fought his way to 2nd past Scheckter, who everyone knew was to be his teammate at Ferrari in 1979, as Reutemann who had signed for champions Lotus. On lap 27, current teammate Reutemann battled past the slow Jones into fourth. Jones also slipped behind Patrese two laps later. Daly moved back up to 6th on lap 33 when Jones dropped back even further with his own technical problems, but the Irishman was under severe pressure from Didier Pironi in the other Tyrrell. Lap 38 saw another retirement, that of René Arnoux in the Surtees with oil pressure difficulties. The recovering Depailler fought his way past first teammate Pironi and then Derek Daly to take back 6th place on laps 47 and 48, just when trouble was beginning for fellow Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier, leading the race for Lotus, which first became apparent when Jacques Laffite was able to unlap himself in the Ligier. Three laps later, Jarier was out with no oil pressure. This was tragic for the Frenchman, who was looking certain to take his first victory, but fantastic for the Canadian fans, whose hero Villeneuve now looked set to take his. This allowed Daly back into the points in 6th. 1976 World Champion James Hunt crashed out two laps later, an unhappy end to his last race for McLaren, with whom he had had so much success, as it was known that the following year he would move to Wolf to replace Scheckter. He was followed out of the race by Laffite's Ligier a lap later, who had transmission problems. From then on, the order did not change, and Villeneuve came home to take his first Grand Prix victory in front of his own fans. He was followed home by his Ferrari teammate for the following year, Jody Scheckter (scoring the last ever podium and points for Walter Wolf Racing) and his current teammate Carlos Reutemann, 13 and 19 seconds behind respectively. Patrese took 4th in a solid and uneventful race, with Depailler's race to fifth anything but uneventful. Derek Daly came home sixth to secure his and Ensign's first ever points finish. Post-race In a blog to mark 30 years since Villeneuve had died, Windsor noted that this race marked the beginning of a "new era", with the "era of chassis design over" and the era of "ground effect" arriving, despite the fact that the race was won by a car without ground effect (Ferrari 312T3) and that the first win by a ground effect car (Lotus 79) happened six months earlier. Qualifying Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeNo1Jean-Pierre JarierLotus-Ford1:38,01512Jody ScheckterWolf-Ford1:38,02623Gilles VilleneuveFerrari1:38,23034John WatsonBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:38,41745Alan JonesWilliams-Ford1:38,86156Emerson FittipaldiFittipaldi-Ford1:38,93067Niki LaudaBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:39,02078Hans-Joachim StuckShadow-Ford1:39,08189Mario AndrettiLotus-Ford1:39,236910Jacques LaffiteLigier-Matra1:39,3811011Carlos ReutemannFerrari1:39,4551112Riccardo PatreseArrows-Ford1:39,4911213Patrick DepaillerTyrrell-Ford1:39,6191314Nelson PiquetBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:39,6241415Derek DalyEnsign-Ford1:40,0421516René ArnouxSurtees-Ford1:40,5151617Patrick TambayMcLaren-Ford1:40,6691718Didier PironiTyrrell-Ford1:40,9591819James HuntMcLaren-Ford1:40,9701920Bobby RahalWolf-Ford1:40,9832021Keke RosbergATS-Ford1:41,6112122Jean-Pierre JabouilleRenault1:41,68922 23Clay RegazzoniShadow-Ford1:41,739DNQ Did not qualify 24Beppe GabbianiSurtees-Ford1:41,799DNQ Did not qualify 25Arturo MerzarioMerzario-Ford1:41,962DNQ Did not qualify 26Héctor RebaqueLotus-Ford1:42,413DNQ Did not qualify 27Rolf StommelenArrows-Ford1:43,267DNQ Did not qualify 28Michael BleekemolenATS-Ford1:45,553DNQ Did not qualify *Positions in red indicate entries that failed to qualify. Race Classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Michelin 70 1:57:49.196 3 9 2 20 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford Goodyear 70 +13.372 2 6 3 11 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari Michelin 70 +19.408 11 4 4 35 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford Goodyear 70 +24.667 12 3 5 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 70 +28.558 13 2 6 22 Ireland Derek Daly Ensign-Ford Goodyear 70 +54.476 15 1 7 3 France Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 70 +1:21.250 18 8 8 France Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford Goodyear 70 +1:26.560 17 9 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford Goodyear 70 +1:28.942 5 10 5 US Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford Goodyear 69 +1 Lap 9 11 66 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 69 +1 Lap 14 12 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Michelin 65 +5 Laps 22 NC Not classified 10 Finland Keke Rosberg ATS-Ford Goodyear 58 +12 Laps 21 Ret Retired 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra Goodyear 52 Transmission 10 Ret Retired 7 UK James Hunt McLaren-Ford Goodyear 51 Spun Off 19 Ret Retired 55 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Lotus-Ford Goodyear 49 Oil Leak 1 Ret Retired 18 France René Arnoux Surtees-Ford Goodyear 37 Engine 16 Ret Retired 21 US Bobby Rahal Wolf-Ford Goodyear 16 Fuel System 20 Ret Retired 2 UK John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 8 Accident 4 Ret Retired 1 Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 5 Brakes 7 Ret Retired 16 FRG Hans-Joachim Stuck Shadow-Ford Goodyear 1 Accident 8 Ret Retired 14 Brazil 1968 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford Goodyear 0 Accident 6 DNQ Did not qualify 17 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 19 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Surtees-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 37 Italy Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 25 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 36 FRG Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 9 Netherlands Michael Bleekemolen ATS-Ford Goodyear Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1978/424/ 1978 Canadian Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20140903035243/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1978/424/ 3 September 2014https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1978-canadian-grand-prix/ 1978 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 8 October 1978 3 November 2021 Final championship standings Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 10px 1 USA Mario Andretti 64 10px 2 SWE Ronnie Peterson 51 10px 3 ARG Carlos Reutemann 48 10px 4 AUT Niki Lauda 44 10px 5 FRA Patrick Depailler 34Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1978/canada/championnat.aspx Canada 1978 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 14 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 10px 1 UK Lotus-Ford 86 10px 1 2 ITA Ferrari 58 10px 1 3 UK Brabham-Alfa Romeo 53 10px 4 UK Tyrrell-Ford 38 10px 1 5 CAN Wolf-Ford 24Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates 1978 World Champions. References 30em Canadian Grand Prix 1978 1978 United States Grand Prix 1979 Argentine Grand Prix 1977 Canadian Grand Prix 1979 Canadian Grand Prix Canadian Grand Prix Category:Canadian Grand Prix Grand Prix Canadian Grand Prix Grand Prix Category:1978 in Montreal