Speedrun Through F1 - 1981 Round 4 San Marino GP Imola

This soggy afternoon on May 3rd, 1981, Gilles Villanueve placed his turbo-charged Ferrari on pole position in this first ever San Marino Grand Prix. The turbo-charged Renaults sat in the 2nd row behind Villanueve. An uncharacteristic placement in these early days of turbo, and an outstanding achievement, nonetheless.

While it was no longer raining as it had been earlier on in the day, the racetrack was still quite damp.

Upon the start, Pironi in the 2nd Ferrari in 6th position appeared to get a rolling start, however, not crossing his gridbox line until after the light had turned green, therefore, no penalty was called. While Reutemann got a decent start off the grid, it was Pironi who forced himself in 2nd place from 6th just after only the first turn, Tamburello. Impressive to see while everyone slowed slightly to negotiate the curving left, Pironi just ripped on by everyone on the outside of the turn, following closely behind his teammate, Villanueve who gripped his lead with an imposing red fist.

Angel Guerra in his Osella had crashed in the first lap and can be seen in the following laps attempting to get out, maneuvering and negotiating his foot out of his wrecked car with the assistance from the Marshalls.

As many crashes back in that day, it was extremely common to see drivers limping or carried out of their vehicles as their feet were damaged by the cars’ noses which were prone to collapse upon impact.

Marshalls wave yellow flags near the ambulance just off track, as the race continues to rip by. ALan Jones can be seen with a skewed front wing indicating an off-camera mis-step. When Alan Jones speeds into the pits to replace his front wing, and amazingly opted for dry tires.

While bold to say, I dare say these events paint a fairly clear picture of Alan Jones’s state of mind at the time. I would imagine, as a driver who, at the start of the season, considered himself to be the number 1 driver, but that has now been taken from him, his teammate now leads the championship after being bested in Reuteman’s home country just the race before, now watches his teammate slip away currently in 3rd, while he himself was in 5th. This panic would likely force him to make more aggressive choices on the track, which could result damaging the vehicle, such as, let’s say, the front wing. It hasn’t rained recently, and it should be drying up soon, but when is “soon?” If you’re the first to capitalize on those gains from running on drys, while everyone else is on wets, as long as it’s dry enough, those gains are almost always huge. A sheer gamble, highlights Alan Jones perception that the championship is running away from him, and what he feels he has to resort to to salvage what he can.

“Hey, Ambulance, move over, we’ve got a race goin’ on here!”

The two Tyrells of Eddie Cheever and new teammate Michele Alboreto (Roughly pronounced “Mick-ay-lee Albo-retto”) safely race each other in Alboreto’s first race of many to come. Alan Prost can be seen retiring due to gearbox issues in his Renault in his pit box.

The leading Ferraris’ maintain that lead while the Brabhams of PIquet and Rebaque breach the top 6. After Villanueve pits, leaving the lead to teammate Pironi, he opts to switch for dry tires. In the background, Keke Rosberg retires off-track, Jean-Pierre Jabouille in his Talbot is also in the pits speaking to his crew in an obvious retirement. Unfortunate, as this is his first race since last year when he broke his leg racing for Renault.

Ferrari mechanics service Villanueve’s car somewhere in that scene Murray Walker described as “Italian pandemonium.”

Co-commentator and 1 time world champion James Hunt estimates Elizio Salazar’s March’s off-track position was due to a spin as Mr. Hunt put it, “I don’t think that anyone would park like that… not even a south American.” (?!)

Surer and Jones return to their wet tires after several unsuccessful laps with their dry tires, an indication of what’s to come for Villanueve in his recent switch. Piquet is slowly working his to way the front, now in 3rd, behind Patrese in his Arrows.

Murray mentions that some teams have taken issue with Brabham’s way of skirting the 6 cm minimum height requirement, but was again seen as legal and sporting by governing bodies. Off screen Piquet manages to pass Patrese for 2nd and sniffs out Pironi in the lead.

Sure enough, after only a lap or two, Villanueve returns to pits to change back to wet tires. After a successful pit stop, Villanueve returns to the track in 13th and proceeds to rapidly advance.

Marlboro McLaren’s John watson, racing in his 111th Grand Prix, was in 10th position, battles American Eddie Cheever of Tyrell, before Eddie and Bruno Giacamelli have a bit of a mechanical feud, resulting in the retirement of both.

Villanueve capitalizes on the collision of Alboreto and Gabiani to advance 2 places before Patrick Tambay in his Theodore, in 2nd place behind Pironi, is finally overtaken by Nelson Piquet in the quickly advancing Brabham.

While Pironi’s Ferrari is faster on the straights, Piquet’s Brabham is faster on the turns. Gilles Villanueve sets new fastest lap while Pironi and Piquet slug it out.

With 4 race wins under his belt so far, Nelson Piquet is now pushing and testing to overtake Pironi for the lead. Finally, on lap 48, while combatting the Ferrari at the end of the back straight, braking later than Pironi and diving to the inside of the right hand turn to snatch the lead.

After killing his tires with his battle with PIquet, Pironi gets eaten up by the following cars. At the time he dropped to 4th, his teammate, Villanueve had climbed his way into the points in 6th, although both would lose out even further by the race end. The flag waver was not visible as the camera tracked Piquet ripped through the finish line. Flag waving: ?/10

Race Results for point scorers:

1 Piquet Brabham-Ford

2 Patrese Arrows-Ford

3 Reutemann Williams-Ford

4 Rebaque Brabham-Ford

5 Pironi Ferrari

6 De Cesaris McLaren-Ford

Top 5 World Champion Standings

1 Carlos Reutemann 25 pts

2 Nelson Piquet 22 pts

3 Alan Jones 18 pts

4 Ricardo Patrese 10 pts