1983 Italian Grand Prix

The 1983 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 11 September 1983. It was the thirteenth race of the 1983 Formula One World Championship.

Qualifying

During qualifying, Nelson Piquet pushed his Brabham BMW turbo to 305.7 km/h (190 mph) through the Monza speed trap just before the Vairante de Retiffilo chicane, though even this only resulted in 4th place on the grid. Only his Brabham team mate and pole winner Riccardo Patrese, and the McLaren TAG-Porsche turbo's of Niki Lauda (12th) and John Watson (15th) joined him above the 300 km/h (186 mph) mark. Next up through the speed trap came (in order) the Ferrari's of Patrick Tambay (2nd) and René Arnoux (3rd), the Renault's of Alain Prost (5th) and Eddie Cheever (7th), the Renault turbo powered Lotus of Elio de Angelis (8th) and the Spirit Honda turbo of Stefan Johansson (17th)

Completing the top 10 were Andrea de Cesaris 6th in his Alfa Romeo, Manfred Winkelhock 9th in his ATS BMW and Mauro Baldi 10th in the second of the Alfa Romeo V8 turbo's.

At this power circuit, the fastest of the 3.0L, naturally aspirated V8 Cosworth DFY runners was reigning World Champion Keke Rosberg in his Williams who could only manage 16th on the 26 car grid. Rosberg's time was 6.169 seconds slower than Patrese's pole time in his Brabham who's turbo BMW engine which was putting out approximately 850 hp (630 kW) in qualifying compared to about 540 hp (400 kW) for the non-turbocharged Ford-Cosworth. ISSN 0158-4138

Race

The 52-lap race was won by Nelson Piquet, with René Arnoux second in his Ferrari and Eddie Cheever third in his factory Renault. Drivers' Championship leader Alain Prost retired with turbo failure while on his 27th lap, allowing Piquet and Arnoux to close to within five and two points of him respectively in the championship.

The race saw the occurrence of an unusual incident in the pit lane. After completing a pit stop, Lauda's McLaren stalled in front of the Brabham garage. The Brabham crew, who were preparing for Piquet's mid-race fuel and tyre stop, were joined by Brabham team owner and FOCA chief executive Bernie Ecclestone in giving Lauda a push start, to get him back into the race and to clear the area for Piquet.^[1] However, the Austrian driver retired shortly after with an electrical failure.

Another incident occurred at the end of the race, when the tifosi ran onto the track to celebrate Arnoux's second place with the cars still going round. Nigel Mansell, running seventh in his Lotus-Renault, slowed down to avoid running over any of the spectators, only to be overtaken by Bruno Giacomelli's Toleman-Hart. Infuriated, Mansell drove the wrong way into the pit lane.^[1]

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. ^ "Formula One: The Italian Grand Prix". Motor Sport. October 1983. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
2. ^ "Italian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
3. ^ "Italian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
4. ^ "Italian Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
5. ^ Hamilton, Maurice (ed.) (1983). AUTOCOURSE 1983–84. Hazleton Publishing Ltd. p. 202. ISBN 0-905138-25-2.
6. ^ "1983 Italian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived 21 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
7. ^ "1983 Italian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 11 September 1983. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
8. ^ "Italy 1983 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.