1979 Italian Grand Prix

F1 Italy Italian 9 September 1979 13 15 50º Gran Premio d'ItaliaMotor Racing Programme Covers: 1979 http://www.progcovers.com/motor/monza79.jpg The Programme Covers Project 10 November 2017 Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza Monza 1976-1993.png Permanent racing facility 3.60 5.800 50 180.20 290.000 Dry and sunny Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:34.580 France Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford 1:35.60 Switzerland 46 Jody Scheckter South Africa 1928 Ferrari Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Canada Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford Switzerland ITA The 1979 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 9 September 1979 at Monza. It was the thirteenth race of the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors. The 50-lap race was won by South African Jody Scheckter, driving a Ferrari, with Canadian team-mate Gilles Villeneuve second and Swiss Clay Regazzoni third in a Williams-Ford. Scheckter claimed the Drivers' Championship in the process and became the first and only South African thus far to win the championship, while Ferrari clinched the Constructors' Championship. The race also marked Scheckter's final race win and podium; he retired after the following season. As of 2025, this is the last Grand Prix to be won by a driver from the continent of Africa. Two day after the race, Scheckter signed a one-year contract for Ferrari until 1980. This race marked Scuderia Ferrari's 300th start in a World Championship event as a team.Scuderia Ferrari did not participate in the 1950 French Grand Prix; Peter Whitehead's privateer entry in this race does not count towards the team's participation tally. Report Background Monza was revamped for 1979, with the track re-surfaced and run-off areas added to the Curva Grande and the Lesmo curves. The entry list was enlarged by the return of the Alfa Romeo team, which had participated in the Belgian and French Grands Prix earlier in the season. Alfa Romeo fielded two cars: a new 179 chassis for Bruno Giacomelli, and the old 177 for Vittorio Brambilla, back in action for the first time since the crash in the previous year's race at Monza that had claimed the life of Ronnie Peterson. Meanwhile, Mexican Héctor Rebaque had his HR100 chassis ready for the first time, while Switzerland's Marc Surer, having won the Formula Two championship the previous month, made his first Formula One appearance as Ensign took him on in place of Patrick Gaillard. Qualifying The turbo-powered Renaults were quick in qualifying and filled the front row of the grid, with Jean-Pierre Jabouille ahead of René Arnoux. It was Jabouille's fourth pole position of the season, and Renault's sixth. Scheckter and Alan Jones in the Williams made up the second row, while on the third were their respective teammates, Gilles Villeneuve and Clay Regazzoni. The top ten was completed by Jacques Laffite in the Ligier, the Brabhams of Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda, and Mario Andretti in the Lotus. Race The Renaults were slow off the start line and so Scheckter took the lead, with Arnoux holding on to second. Jones also made a poor start and dropped to the back of the field, putting Villeneuve third and the fast-starting Laffite fourth. On lap 2, Arnoux passed Scheckter for the lead, while Piquet crashed out after tangling with Regazzoni. Regazzoni was slow out of Curva Grande and Piquet took an outside line to keep his speed. Regazzoni moved across, possibly unaware Piquet was there, and sent the Brazilian heavily into the barriers, with the Brabham ending in two halves either side of the track. Fortunately Piquet was unhurt, and Regazzoni continued in the race. For the next eleven laps Arnoux, Scheckter, Villeneuve, Laffite and Jabouille ran nose-to-tail, with Regazzoni a distant sixth. Then, on lap 13, Arnoux's engine began to misfire, leading to his retirement. Scheckter thus regained the lead, with Villeneuve dutifully following him. Later in the race, Laffite and Jabouille also suffered engine failures, promoting Regazzoni to third. Scheckter eventually took the chequered flag half a second ahead of Villeneuve and, with it, the Drivers' Championship. This one-two finish for Ferrari in their home race also secured them the Constructors' Championship. Regazzoni finished four seconds behind Villeneuve and 50 ahead of Lauda, with the final points going to Andretti and Jean-Pierre Jarier in the Tyrrell. Qualifying Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeNo1Jean-Pierre JabouilleRenault1:34.58012René ArnouxRenault1:34.70423Jody ScheckterFerrari1:34.83034Alan JonesWilliams-Ford1:34.91445Gilles VilleneuveFerrari1:34.98956Clay RegazzoniWilliams-Ford1:35.33367Jacques LaffiteLigier-Ford1:35.44378Nelson PiquetBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:35.58789Niki LaudaBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:36.219910Mario AndrettiLotus-Ford1:36.6551011Jacky IckxLigier-Ford1:37.1141112Didier PironiTyrrell-Ford1:37.1811213Carlos ReutemannLotus-Ford1:37.2021314Patrick TambayMcLaren-Ford1:37.2311415Hans-Joachim StuckATS-Ford1:37.2971516Jean-Pierre JarierTyrrell-Ford1:37.5811617Riccardo PatreseArrows-Ford1:37.6741718Bruno GiacomelliAlfa Romeo1:38.0531819John WatsonMcLaren-Ford1:38.0931920Emerson FittipaldiFittipaldi-Ford1:38.1362021Jochen MassArrows-Ford1:38.1632122Vittorio BrambillaAlfa Romeo1:38.6012223Keke RosbergWolf-Ford1:38.8542324Elio de AngelisShadow-Ford1:39.14924DNQ Did not qualifyJan LammersShadow-Ford1:39.313—DNQ Did not qualifyMarc SurerEnsign-Ford1:40.821—DNQ Did not qualifyArturo MerzarioMerzario-Ford1:42.002—DNQ Did not qualifyHéctor RebaqueRebaque-Ford1:42.769— Race Classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Ferrari Michelin 50 1:22:00.22 3 9 2 12 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Michelin 50 + 0.46 5 6 3 28 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford Goodyear 50 + 4.78 6 4 4 5 Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 50 + 54.40 9 3 5 1 US Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford Goodyear 50 + 59.70 10 2 6 4 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 50 + 1:01.55 16 1 7 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Lotus-Ford Goodyear 50 + 1:24.14 13 8 14 Brazil 1968 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford Goodyear 49 + 1 Lap 20 9 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford Goodyear 49 + 1 Lap 4 10 3 France Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 49 + 1 Lap 12 11 9 FRG Hans-Joachim Stuck ATS-Ford Goodyear 49 + 1 Lap 15 12 36 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Alfa Romeo Goodyear 49 + 1 Lap 22 13 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford Goodyear 47 + 3 Laps 17 14 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Michelin 45 Engine 1 Ret Retired 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford Goodyear 41 Engine 7 Ret Retired 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Wolf-Ford Goodyear 41 Engine 23 Ret Retired 25 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ligier-Ford Goodyear 40 Engine 11 Ret Retired 18 Italy Elio de Angelis Shadow-Ford Goodyear 33 Clutch 24 Ret Retired 35 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo Goodyear 28 Spun Off 18 Ret Retired 16 France René Arnoux Renault Michelin 13 Engine 2 Ret Retired 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford Goodyear 13 Accident 19 Ret Retired 8 France Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford Goodyear 3 Engine 14 Ret Retired 30 FRG Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford Goodyear 3 Suspension 21 Ret Retired 6 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 1 Accident 8 DNQ Did not qualify 17 Netherlands Jan Lammers Shadow-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 22 Switzerland Marc Surer Ensign-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 24 Italy Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 31 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Rebaque-Ford GoodyearSource:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1979/406/ 1979 Italian Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20140209064507/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1979/406/ 9 February 2014https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1979-italian-grand-prix/ 1979 Italian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 9 September 1979 6 November 2021 Notes This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Swiss driver Marc Surer. This race marked the 10th Grand Prix win for a South African driver. This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Mexican constructor Rebaque - the first from the North American country. This was the 300th Grand Prix start for Ferrari. In those 300 races, Ferrari had won 78 Grands Prix, achieved 255 podium finishes, 89 pole positions, 88 fastest laps, 23 Grand Slams and had won 9 Driver's and 6 Constructor's Championships. Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 10px 1 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter 51 (57) 10px 2 2 CAN Gilles Villeneuve 38 10px 1 3 FRA Jacques Laffite 36 10px 1 4 AUS Alan Jones 34 10px 5 SUI Clay Regazzoni 27 (28)Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1979/italie/championnat.aspx Italy 1979 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 18 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 10px 1 ITA Ferrari 95 10px 1 2 UK Williams-Ford 62 10px 1 3 FRA Ligier-Ford 61 10px 4 UK Lotus-Ford 39 10px 5 UK Tyrrell-Ford 22Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 4 results from the first 7 races and the best 4 results from the last 8 races counted towards the Drivers' Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Bold text indicates the 1979 World Champions. References 30em Italian Grand Prix 1979 1979 Dutch Grand Prix 1979 Canadian Grand Prix 1978 Italian Grand Prix 1980 Italian Grand Prix 1978 British Grand Prix 1980 Italian Grand Prix Italian Grand Prix Category:Italian Grand Prix Italian Grand Prix Italian Grand Prix