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1981 Canadian Grand Prix

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1981 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 14 of 15 in the 1981 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 27 September 1981
Official name XX Grand Prix du Canada
Location Circuit Île Notre-Dame
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 4.410 km (2.740 miles)
Distance 63 laps, 277.830 km (172.636 miles)
Scheduled distance 70 laps, 308.700 km (191.817 miles)
Weather Wet and cold with temperatures up to 20 °C (68 °F); wind speeds up to 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver Brabham-Ford
Time 1:29.211
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford
Time 1:49.475 on lap 43
Podium
First Talbot Ligier-Matra
Second McLaren-Ford
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1981 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Île Notre-Dame, Montreal on 27 September 1981. It was the fourteenth race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship.

The race was run in wet conditions, and ended after 63 of the scheduled 70 laps due to the two-hour time limit.[2] Frenchman Jacques Laffite won in a Talbot Ligier-Matra, with Northern Ireland's John Watson second in a McLaren-Ford and local hero Gilles Villeneuve third in a Ferrari. Brazilian Nelson Piquet finished fifth in his Brabham-Ford, having started from pole position, while Drivers' Championship rival, Argentine Carlos Reutemann, could only manage tenth in his Williams-Ford. Piquet thus moved within one point of Reutemann with one race to go, while the win gave Laffite an outside chance of the title. Despite both Reutemann and Australian teammate Alan Jones failing to score, Williams clinched the Constructors' Championship.

This would turn out to be Laffite's final F1 victory, as well as the last for the Ligier team for fifteen years, until the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. It was also the last time the Canadian Grand Prix was held in the fall, as the race would move to June the following year.

Pre-race

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Prior to the race, Alan Jones announced that he was retiring from the sport after clinching the title the previous year. Rumors were also spreading around in paddock that Niki Lauda had tested for McLaren at Donington Park and that he was planning a comeback.

Qualifying

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Nelson Piquet clinched pole with a time of 1:29.221, with rival Carlos Reutemann alongside him on the front row. The top ten were completed by: Jones, Prost, Mansell, Rebaque, de Angelis, Arnoux, Watson and Laffite respectively.

Race

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The race start was marred with bad weather. Immediately after the start, Jones took the lead after a minor collision with Reutemann which left Reutemann behind. Toward the middle of the pack, Arnoux and Pironi had a collision which resulted in Arnoux spinning out of the race. On lap 7, Jones spun and Piquet had to take evasive action, resulting in both drivers dropping down the pecking order. Prost took the lead with Laffite, who had climbed from tenth, second. Prost's lead did not last long, as Laffite overtook him on lap 13, and kept the lead to the end of the race.

Villeneuve had a minor accident that damaged his front wing. The wing flew up only to be stuck up in the air, blocking Villeneuve's race-line vision. With his forward vision impaired, he used his peripheral vision to navigate using the yellow track markers as reference. After racing this way for minutes he used vibration on the ribbed curbing, to the point it flew off the car. This way he managed to keep control until the end of the race, without a front wing and under the rain.[3]

Mansell pitted for slicks, convinced the weather would turn. It did not. Within minutes he spun, heavily damaging his rear wing, and was pushed by marshals back onto the circuit. Driving slowly toward the L'Epingle at the northern end, he placed his JPS Lotus in the middle of the track but slowly edging to his left onto the racing line, at the braking area. Prost, on the racing line and much faster, tried unsuccessfully to avoid colliding but could not, resulting in both drivers retiring from the race.[4]

Watson was able to catch and pass Villeneuve a few laps later and the two finished second and third respectively, with Villeneuve clinching his third and last podium of the year on home soil. Bruno Giacomelli of Alfa Romeo, who had started fifteenth, came home fourth, with pole-man Piquet coming in behind him.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:29.211 1:29.537  —
2 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:29.601 1:29.359 +0.148
3 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:29.728 1:29.781 +0.517
4 15 France Alain Prost Renault 1:31.629 1:29.908 +0.697
5 12 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:32.233 1:29.997 +0.786
6 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:31.545 1:30.182 +0.971
7 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:31.212 1:30.231 +1.020
8 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:34.151 1:30.232 +1.021
9 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:31.617 1:30.566 +1.355
10 26 France Jacques Laffite Talbot Ligier-Matra 1:31.593 1:30.705 +1.494
11 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:32.077 1:31.115 +1.904
12 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari 1:31.976 1:31.350 +2.139
13 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 1:32.281 1:31.507 +2.296
14 3 United States Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 1:32.652 1:31.547 +2.336
15 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:34.995 1:31.600 +2.389
16 22 United States Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 1:32.648 1:31.740 +2.529
17 25 France Patrick Tambay Talbot Ligier-Matra 1:31.747 1:31.817 +2.536
18 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:31.969 1:32.277 +2.758
19 33 Switzerland Marc Surer Theodore-Ford 1:34.424 1:32.253 +3.042
20 17 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford 1:35.552 1:32.305 +3.094
21 9 Sweden Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford 1:34.002 1:32.652 +3.441
22 4 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.245 1:32.709 +3.498
23 32 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Ford 1:33.432 1:33.643 +4.221
24 14 Chile Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford 1:36.016 1:33.848 +4.637
DNQ 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:34.634 1:34.310 +5.099
DNQ 21 Brazil Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:36.937 1:36.546 +7.335
DNQ 35 United Kingdom Brian Henton Toleman-Hart 1:40.505 1:36.648 +7.437
DNQ 30 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Arrows-Ford 1:36.720 1:38.308 +7.509
DNQ 36 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 1:36.999 1:37.256 +7.788
DNQ 31 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford 1:37.493 1:55.307 +8.282
Source: [5]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 26 France Jacques Laffite Talbot Ligier-Matra M 63 2:01:25.20 10 9
2 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford M 63 + 6.23 9 6
3 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari M 63 + 1:50.27 11 4
4 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo M 62 + 1 Lap 15 3
5 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford G 62 + 1 Lap 1 2
6 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford G 62 + 1 Lap 7 1
7 22 United States Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo M 62 + 1 Lap 16  
8 17 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford A 61 + 2 Laps 20  
9 33 Switzerland Marc Surer Theodore-Ford A 61 + 2 Laps 19  
10 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford G 60 + 3 Laps 2  
11 4 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford A 59 + 4 Laps 22  
12 3 United States Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford G 56 Engine 14  
Ret 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford M 51 Spun Off 13  
Ret 15 France Alain Prost Renault M 48 Collision 4  
Ret 12 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford G 45 Collision 5  
Ret 9 Sweden Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford A 40 Spun Off 21  
Ret 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford G 35 Spun Off 6  
Ret 32 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Ford M 26 Collision 23  
Ret 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford G 24 Handling 3  
Ret 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari M 24 Ignition 12  
Ret 14 Chile Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford A 8 Spun Off 24  
Ret 25 France Patrick Tambay Talbot Ligier-Matra M 6 Spun Off 17  
Ret 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford P 6 Spun Off 18  
Ret 16 France René Arnoux Renault M 0 Collision 8  
DNQ 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford P    
DNQ 21 Brazil Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford P    
DNQ 35 United Kingdom Brian Henton Toleman-Hart P    
DNQ 30 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Arrows-Ford P    
DNQ 36 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart P    
DNQ 31 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford M        
Source:[6][7]

Notes

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  • This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Canadian driver Jacques Villeneuve, sr.
  • This was the 300th Grand Prix in which a Frenchman participated. In those 300 races, French driver had won 20 Grands Prix, achieved 115 podium finishes, 30 pole positions, 32 fastest laps and 2 Grand Slams.
  • This was also the 100th Grand Prix in which a Mexican driver participated. In those 100 races, Mexican driver had won 2 Grands Prix, achieved 7 podium finishes, and 1 fastest lap.

Championship standings after the race

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

References

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1981 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  2. ^ Jenkinson, Denis (November 1981). "The Canadian Grand Prix: Heroes all". Motor Sport. p. 72. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  3. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "tJ13_TV presents 1981 Canadian GP - Gilles driving blind". YouTube.
  4. ^ Lang, Mike (1992). Grand Prix!. Vol. 4. Haynes. p. 67. ISBN 0-85429-733-2.
  5. ^ Hamilton, Maurice, ed. (1981). AUTOCOURSE 1981–82. Hazleton Publishing Ltd. p. 214. ISBN 0-905138-17-1.
  6. ^ "1981 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. ^ "1981 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 27 September 1981. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Canada 1981 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.


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