1979 United States Grand Prix West

August 2023 December 2007 F1 United States United States Grand Prix West Lubri Lon Long Beach Grand Prix Long Beach 1978-1981.png April 8 1979 4 15 Long Beach Street Circuit Temporary street course 2.02 3.251 80 161.60 260.08 Sunny and warm with temperatures reaching up to 66 F C; winds gusting up to 8 mph km/h http://www.almanac.com/weather/history/CA/Long%20Beach/1979-04-08 Weather information for the 1979 United States Grand Prix West The Old Farmers' Almanac 2015-05-20 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:18.825 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:21.20 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Ferrari Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford USW The 1979 United States Grand Prix West, formally titled the Lubri Lon Long Beach Grand Prix, http://www.progcovers.com/motor/longbeach79.jpg Lubri Lon Long Beach Grand Prix: Official Program 8 April 1979 was a Formula One motor race held on April 8, 1979, at Long Beach Street Circuit. Canadian Gilles Villeneuve captured pole, fastest lap and the win for Scuderia Ferrari, followed by his teammate Jody Scheckter, as the Prancing Horses took a big step toward reclaiming the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships from Team Lotus. Villeneuve's win came by almost half a minute over Scheckter, and Alan Jones joined them on the podium for Williams. It was the third win of Villeneuve's career, his second in succession, and the third United States Grand Prix win in a row for Ferrari. Summary Qualifying was a battle between Ferrari, Lotus and Ligier, and, as is usually the case at Long Beach, the circuit was littered with broken cars by the end of each session. Carlos Reutemann, in the second Lotus, held the pole until the very end of the final session, when Villeneuve bumped him. With only Ferrari and Renault on Michelin tires, Villeneuve was able to use seven sets of qualifiers in the final session, while the Goodyear runners had only two sets per car. On his final charge, Villeneuve switched off his rev limiter at the end of the straight, raising the revs by 200 to 12,600 and giving him enough extra speed to pip Reutemann by six hundredths of a second. Scheckter was third, ahead of the two Ligiers of Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite, then Mario Andretti in sixth. On Saturday morning, Jean-Pierre Jabouille had a driveshaft on his Renault break on the curving back straight, flinging him into the wall at 180 mph. A badly sprained arm would keep him out of the race. Then, in the Sunday morning warmup, a stronger version of the driveshaft, produced by the team in the garage, broke on teammate René Arnoux's car. Rather than taking a chance on duplicating Jabouille's incident, the team withdrew their remaining car from the race, allowing Derek Daly's Ensign onto the starting grid. 100,000 fans gathered on Sunday, which turned sunny and warm just in time for the race. As with the previous year, the start would be on the Shoreline Drive straight, rather than in front of the pits, giving the drivers more of a run down to the first corner. On the warmup lap preceding the drive around to the grid, Reutemann's engine cut out, and he had to be helped back to the pits. The problem was quickly solved, and, while the organizers ruled that he must start from the back of the grid, Reutemann ignored the officials and went back out. The cars made their way around for the start on Shoreline Drive, and as they approached the grid markings, pole-sitter Villeneuve drove past his starting position. This confused the entire field, who were taking their cue from Villeneuve. Some actually thought the race had started, and everyone ended up back at the pits. On the way to the grid, Laffite's Ligier had suddenly slid across the track when car's rear end seized. He was allowed to switch to his spare car and start the race from the pits with Reutemann. Villeneuve could have been penalized for missing his start position and botching the race start, but was not. A bemused James Hunt was interviewed by American television and offered his opinion on the favoritism he felt was consistently shown to the Ferrari team. When the race finally started, Villeneuve led the field into the Queen's Hairpin. At the end of one full lap, Villeneuve led Depailler, Scheckter, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Andretti, Riccardo Patrese, Jones and Nelson Piquet. Villeneuve got to the first corner ahead of Scheckter and quickly began to draw away. Scheckter lost a position to Depailler on the first half lap, but began pushing hard to take back second place. When Depailler missed a gear, Scheckter nearly hit him in the back, and Jarier slipped his Tyrrell past both of them. On the next lap, Scheckter also got around Depailler, whose troubles with fourth gear would last the entire race. Villeneuve continued to run untroubled in the lead, expanding his margin whenever he chose and setting the race's fastest lap before half-distance. The battle for second, however, was fierce as Jarier, Scheckter, Depailler, Andretti and Jones formed a massive train. Jarier was fighting a wheel vibration and holding everyone up, but no one could pass him on the straight. On lap 28, Scheckter got by the struggling Tyrrell, but it was not until laps 45 and 46, respectively, that Depailler and Jones could follow. By that time, Scheckter had a cushion of nearly twenty seconds back to Depailler in third. With the Ligier still struggling, Jones moved into third place on lap 63. This left Andretti behind Depailler and the two traded positions several times, the Lotus able to go through in the curvy sections, while the Ligier continually repassed on the straight. Finally, as Depailler attempted to lap Jarier, now in sixth spot, he bent his front wing against Jarier's wheel, and Andretti was able to take hold of fourth place for good. Depailler's persistence was rewarded with a hard-earned fifth place, and Jarier inherited sixth when Héctor Rebaque, having come from twenty-third to the points, collided with Daly while trying to lap him in the esses. It was the second win of the season for Villeneuve and put him on top of the Driver's standings. Classification Qualifying Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:20.186 1:18.825 — 2 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Lotus-Ford 1:20.126 1:18.886 +0.041 3 11 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 1:20.291 1:18.911 +0.086 4 25 France Patrick Depailler Ligier-Ford 1:20.867 1:19.025 +0.200 5 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 1:20.225 1:19.032 +0.207 6 1 US Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:20.574 1:19.454 +0.629 7 4 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 1:20.916 1:19.580 +0.755 8 20 UK James Hunt Wolf-Ford 1:20.913 1:19.643 +0.818 9 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:21.831 1:19.727 +0.902 10 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:22.532 1:19.910 +1.085 11 5 Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:21.436 1:20.041 +1.216 12 6 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:21.565 1:20.456 +1.631 13 30 FRG Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 1:22.350 1:20.608 +1.783 14 17 Netherlands Jan Lammers Shadow-Ford 1:23.161 1:20.740 +1.915 15 28 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford 1:21.767 1:20.768 +1.943 16 14 Brazil 1968 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:22.498 1:21.033 +2.208 17 3 France Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 1:22.000 1:21.192 +2.367 18 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:23.725 1:21.304 +2.479 19 8 France Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford 1:22.569 1:21.411 +2.586 20 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:21.635 - +2.810 21 18 Italy Elio de Angelis Shadow-Ford 1:23.433 1:21.961 +3.136 22 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:22.088 - +3.263 23 9 FRG Hans-Joachim Stuck ATS-Ford 1:23.724 1:22.828 +4.003 24 24 Italy Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford - 1:22.938 +4.113 25 31 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford 1:24.808 1:22.990 +4.165 26 22 Ireland Derek Daly Ensign-Ford 1:25.076 1:23.888 +5.063Source:https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1979-usa-west-grand-prix/ 1979 USA West Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 8 April 1979 23 February 2021 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 80 1:50:25.40 1 9 2 11 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 80 +29.38 3 6 3 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 80 +59.69 10 4 4 1 US Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 80 +1:04.33 6 3 5 25 France Patrick Depailler Ligier-Ford 80 +1:23.52 4 2 6 4 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 79 +1 lap 7 1 7 18 Italy Elio de Angelis Shadow-Ford 78 +2 laps 20 8 6 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo 78 +2 laps 12 9 30 FRG Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 78 +2 laps 13 DSQ Disqualified 3 France Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 72 Push start 17 Ret Retired 31 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford 71 Accident 23 Ret Retired 22 Ireland Derek Daly Ensign-Ford 69 Accident 24 Ret Retired 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford 62 Injection 18 DSQ Disqualified 9 FRG Hans-Joachim Stuck ATS-Ford 49 Push start 21 Ret Retired 28 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford 48 Engine 15 Ret Retired 17 Netherlands Jan Lammers Shadow-Ford 47 Suspension 14 Ret Retired 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 40 Brakes 9 Ret Retired 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Lotus-Ford 21 Transmission 2 Ret Retired 14 Brazil 1968 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 19 Transmission 16 Ret Retired 24 Italy Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford 13 Engine 22 Ret Retired 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 8 Brakes 5 Ret Retired 20 UK James Hunt Wolf-Ford 0 Transmission 8 Ret Retired 5 Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 0 Accident 11 Ret Retired 8 France Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford 0 Collision 19 WD Withdrawn 16 France René Arnoux Renault Withdrawn DNS Did not start 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Injury in practiceSource:https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1979/races/410/usa-west/race-result.html 1979 USA West Grand Prix formula1.com 23 October 2017 Notes This was the 1st pole position set by and first Grand Slam for a Canadian driver. This was the 10th Grand Prix start for Italian constructor Merzario. This race marked the 88th pole position for Ferrari. It broke the previous record set by Lotus at the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix. Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 10px 2 1 CAN Gilles Villeneuve 20 10px 1 2 FRA Jacques Laffite 18 10px 2 3 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter 13 10px 2 4 ARG Carlos Reutemann 12 10px 1 5 FRA Patrick Depailler 11Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1979/etats-unis-ouest/championnat.aspx United States West 1979 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 21 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 10px 1 1 ITA Ferrari 33 10px 1 2 FRA Ligier-Ford 29 10px 3 UK Lotus-Ford 20 10px 4 UK Tyrrell-Ford 8 10px 5 UK McLaren-Ford 4Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References 30em Further reading Rob Walker (July, 1979). "4th United States Grand Prix West: Runaway Horses". Road & Track, 82-87. United States Grand Prix West 1979 1979 South African Grand Prix 1979 Spanish Grand Prix 1978 United States Grand Prix West 1980 United States Grand Prix West 1978 United States Grand Prix West 1980 United States Grand Prix West Grand Prix of Long Beach United States Grand Prix West United States Grand Prix West Category:United States Grand Prix West Grand Prix West Grand Prix West