Speedrun Through F1 - 1981 Round 1: US West GP at Long Beach

The beginning of the 1981 Season starts. Alan Jones is the reigning World Champion. Skirts, which assist in providing the ground effect that sucks the car to the ground are now banned, due to the unsafe speeds at which they are able to take turns. Vehicles now must have a 6cm gap from the lowest point on the underside of the car to the ground. Front wings were now as large as rear wings in attempts to compensate for this lack of downforce, as well.

Turbos, originally developed by Renault in 1977 took a couple years to be effective. and were Hampered by reliability issues until 1979 when Renault took their first turbo win with Jean-Pierre Jabouille. (Pronounce by commentators “Jhab-wee”) Ferrari were second on-board to start developing turbos, however, Renault and Ferrari were the only ones using it at the start of the 1981 season. Most everyone else had Ford-Cosworth’s V8 with the exception of Alfa Romeos and Ligier’s V12s.

This is the 2nd year since Niki Lauda has retired and 7 years ago Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi finished trading world championships. This would be Nigel Mansell’s 4th GP, although burdened by Lotus’s constant disqualification of their new car the Lotus 88 for the first few races, and then had to use the 1980 car, the Lotus 81, instead.

It is March 15, 1981, and the F1 circus is now gathered in sunny Long Beach, CA for what is now the first round after the original first round in South Africa fell through due to internal political disputes. U.S.’s attempt to capture the magic of Monaco, this 2 mile street-circuit was encased with concrete barriers and ran by the waterfront.

Major players in this time included Carlos Reutemann, (Commentators pronounce as “Roy'-Tuh-Men”) the most experienced driver on the grid with 11 wins and this being his 130th race start. He is paired with reigning champion Alan Jones in Williams, the team known as “the team to beat.” Mario ANdretti, World Champion of 1978, Now with Marlboro Alfa Romeo after parting ways with Lotus and their dismal 1980 season. Ricardo Patrese, (pronounced by commentators Puh-tray-zee”) driver for arrows-ford, was starting his 5th year of Formula 1, had been seen as over-aggressive by James hunt and Ronnie Peterson previously as newcomers sometimes are. Gilles Villanueve, (Pronounced by commentators: Vee-ya-noov) is becoming very popular. Originally contracted by McLaren for 3 races in 1977, he was picked up full time by Ferrari in 1978 and now starting his 4th season in red with 4 wins despite Ferrari’s recent struggles with reliabilty of their new turbo engine. Murray Walker, full time F1 commentator for 3 years, will also start his 4th, and starting his 2nd year partnered with 1976 World Champion James Hunt.

Patrese was on his first pole with last year’s Arrows-Ford, with a time about 1.5 seconds slower than Piquet’s time last year with skirts. Next to Patrese in 2nd was Australian Alan Jones, leading Reutemann and Nelson Piquet, last year’s winner, in 4th. Guidlines for placement during starts were apparently casual as depicted in the vague lines the cars created at startup. Despite this, and Patrese’s rolling start, all seemed to get off cleanly enough. As Patrese pulls first, Reutemann overtakes Alan Jones for 2nd while Villaneuve who started in 5th makes an incredible start. Going outside everyone on the left to the upcoming right hairpin, Villaneuve momentarily overtakes everyone for 1st but had too much speed, locking his brakes and losing any progress plus some. Meanwhile, newcomer Prost in his first race for Renault is spun out at the back of the grid by another car, and stalling his vehicle, forcing his retirement. In those days if engine power was lost, they had no recourse but to retire.

Once everyone lines up and steadies out, Patrese leads Reutemann, Jones, Villanueve, Piquet, and american Eddie Cheever in midfield team Tyrrell, who finished 6 of 11 in the 1980 Constructor standings. At these time only the top 6 finishers scored point with the following valuations: 1st 9 points, 2nd 6 points, 3rd 4 points, 4th 3 points, 5th 2 points, and 6th place with 1 point.

The timing process seemed to be largely manual with timings coming much later than they occurred indicating compiling of info or visual preparation for tv presentation. It also seems Murray was reacting to the live TV feed just as the audience were with little support. At times, Murray Walker mentions how he himself is using a timer to time specific drivers as they pass him. updates, pictures and references shown on screen often times takes murray by surprise, causing to interrupt himself to address this new on-screen change.

After 10 laps have elapsed, on screen timings indicate top 6 drivers as being, from first: Patrese, reutemann, Jones, Pironi (2nd Ferrari and Villanueve’s teammate,) Piquet, and Villanueve in 6th. While Piquet pressures Pironi for 4th, Argentnian Reutemann pressures Patrese for the lead.

Murray suspects Alan Jones is biding his time in 3rd, allowing others to wear themselves and their tires out and will slowly work his way through to the lead. Named as more of a cerebral driver and tactician by Murray, he’s also the son of Stan Jones, previous winner of the 1959 Austrailian GP. Personally, he vaguely reminds me of a stocky Norm McDonald.

Once Brazilian Nelson Piquet passes the Ferrari of Frenchman Didier Pironi, known among the paddock as consummate professional and gentleman, Piquet takes 4th and proceeds to build the gap behind him.

On lap 26, (of 80 and 1/2. That’s right… 80 and a 1/2) Reutemann finally manages to pass patrese for first. As Reutemann starts pulling away in the proceeding lap, ALan jones now Passes Patrese for 2nd, pushing the italian down to 3rd and directly into the pits for a long while while they take the engine cover off for investigation.

Now that Reutemann and Jones lead, Murray points out that as Williams team leader, Alan Jones’s contract stipulates that if in the last 10 laps of a race, if Reutemann leads while Alan is in 2nd, Reutemann is obligated to allow Jones to pass for the win. Clauses like this were apparently common place at the time, and may even be in use to some extent today.

After lap 26 top 6 lineup is Reutemann, Jones, Piquet, Pironi, Cheever and Andretti. Murray indicates he’s been timing Alan Jones with his stopwatch, and is currently the fastest on the field and now caught up to Reutemann.

As if on command, Murray states that, “while the interest may not be on the lead…” Reutemann fails to make a turn correctly to allow 2nd place Alan Jones to take over for 1st.

Murray refers to critics of F1 who state that the racing is processional without any overtakes, and offers this race as counter-evidence to that claim. A critique that is still echoed today, 40+ years later, funny enough.

At the “halfway point,” lap 41, the top 15 times are briefly displayed with only 1 change to the top 6: Jones, Reutemann, Piquet, Pironi, Cheever, and Jacques Lafitte (pronounced by Murray: “Lah-feet”) in the Ligier, (Pronounced “Leige-ee-yay”) who had overtaken the ALfa Romeo of Andretti.

Spectators can be seen sitting on the concrete walls at the edge of the track, something never seen nowadays.

While Alan Jones just starts running away in the front, Andretti Manages to pass Eddie Cheever for 5th, and is now at the rear of Pironi in 4th. After a couple back and forths, Andretti was able to finaly pass Pironi, shortly before Cheever took advantage of whatever issue seemed to ail the Ferrari of Pironi, with a pass himself. Within a few laps, Pironi would also be overtaken by Frenchman Patrick Tambay in his 3rd GP with a Ligier.

Murray anticipates the excitement of Team Principal Frank Williams and Designer Patrick Head (Since dubbed, Sir Patrick Head in 2012 for his contributions to engineering and motorsports) as the stocky Alan Jones edges closer to the end of the race.

Without further difficulties, the flagman waves the checkered flag enthusiastically and flamboyantly with ninja-like flourishes, signaling the end of the 1981 US West GP at Long Beach. Flag-waving: 9/10.

Final Scoring:

1 Alan Jones - Williams

2 Carlos reutemann - Williams

3 Nelson Piquet - brabham

4 Mario Andretti - Alfa Romeo

5 Eddie Cheever - Tyrrell

6 Patrick Tambay - Ligier

The next race would occur 2 weeks later on March 29, 1981, Round 2, the Brazilian GP.