1981 Brazilian GP Highlights

KekeTheKing

Banned
Supporter
By special request I have created a Highlight Package for the 1981 race at Jacarepagua. The only version I have includes Japanese commentary, so I've added a music soundtrack from the 80/81 period to one of them. Hope you enjoy!


 
Here's my Overtaking Summary for the race as well.

Lap 2
Watson on Surer - P9
Watson on Prost - P8
Jarier on Rebaque - P13
Tambay on Zunino - P17
Mansell on Piquet - P15
Tambay on Piquet - P16
Tambay on Mansell - P15

Lap 3
Jarier on de Cesaris - P12

Lap 4
de Angelis on Giacomelli - P4
Surer on Prost - P9
Rebaque on de Cesaris - P13

Lap 5
Jarier on Laffite - P11
Tambay on de Cesaris - P14

Lap 8
Mansell on de Cesaris - P14

Lap 9
Watson on Villeneuve - P6

Lap 10
Jarier on Prost - P8

Lap 13
Cheever on Giacomelli - P19

Lap 14
Watson on Rosberg - P5

Lap 15
Jarier on Surer - P7

Lap 16
Jarier on Rosberg - P6

Lap 18
Surer on Rosberg - P7

Lap 20
Prost on Rosberg - P8
Villeneuve on Zunino - P14
Stohr on Zunino - P15

Lap 21
Laffite on Rosberg - P8

Lap 28
Piquet on Mansell - P11

Lap 29
Surer on Jarier - P6
Laffite on Jarier - P7

Lap 38
Piquet on Tambay - P10
Piquet on Rosberg - P9

Lap 47
Jarier on Laffite - P6

Lap 48
Rosberg on Piquet - P9
Tambay on Piquet - P10

Lap 49
Surer on de Angelis - P4

Lap 51
Mansell on Piquet - P11

Lap 60
Laffite on Jarier - P6
 
jones-reut-cartel-2.jpg
 
There was a picture someone posted in a thread I started on 606 which was a colour photo of Frank Williams waving a large wrench from the pit wall at Reutemann's car...Frank was unhappy because Carlos wasn't giving up the lead to Jonesy.

All the stuff on 606 has vanished.

The deal Carlos had signed with Frank was that if he was less than 7 seconds ahead of AJ, then he had to give up position. In the event, the lead stretched out to over 10 seconds before settling in to less than 7 secs.
 
After watching the race I can see why Reutemann didn't want to give way to Jones. Alan only briefly challenged Carlos in the early stages, and as Ray said, the gap fluctuated between 5-10 seconds for most of the Grand Prix. I would love to have heard Hunt's take on this one. The BBC coverage must be out there somewhere. Has Webber already had his turn to pick the classic GP's for BBC? Brazil 81 might be a good start.
 
This race with "JONES-REUT" was the first ever "Senna-Prost"- / "Hamilton-Alonso"-type controversy in the 'modern' Formula One era and was a precurser to what Williams would experience mid decade with "Mansell-Piquet".

Something changed in the year or two prior to 1981/82. In 1979, Gilles Villeneuve stayed behind Ferrari teammate Jody Schechkter in Italy with the South African winning the title from the Canadian...and then all sense of "honour" went out the window in 1981 and in 1982 (especially for Ferrari with devastating and ultimately tragic consequences).

So when something small as Webber-Vettel happens at Silverstone in 2011, I tend to just chuckle at the 'smallness' of it. It's nothing in comparison to what's gone before. The worst of it was probably Senna nearly forcing Prost into the pit wall while the Frenchman was trying to take the lead in Portugal in 1988.
 
Great work, Keke!!

That race was fantastic, wasn't it?!

Thanks mjo. It was a great race for Reutemann, that's for sure. Jones wasn't that thrilled, failing to appear on the podium.

What a crazy start though, with terrible camera angles to actually see what happened. The race was basically split up right away, with the circuit being almost completely blocked. It was good for Keke while it lasted, but the Fittipaldi just didn't have the legs to keep up. Quite a performance by Surer as well, notching Ensign's best finish ever.
 
It was a great race for Reutemann, that's for sure. Jones wasn't that thrilled...

...It was good for Keke while it lasted, but the Fittipaldi just didn't have the legs...

Two things there:

Ironically, both Reutemann victories for Williams that season had him not spraying the champagne on the podium. This thread highlights why it happened to be that way in Brazil, but the Belgian GP at Zolder was a horrific nightmare...Reutemann ran over an Osella mechanic in the pits (I forget if he was killed or not) on Saturday...and the start on Sunday was even more appalling when Patrese's Arrows stalled and a mechanic who tried to help him was then hit head on by the 2nd Arrows of Sigfried Stohr after the starting lights went green, sandwiching the poor guy between the cars. I saw it on tv as a kid. Horrific memory!

[You Tube has the start which had a chaotic grid formation with some cars 'rolling'. Perhaps Keke can put it up?]

Also, that Fittipaldi was an absolute dog. Not only that, it was a Dog with Fleas! Rosberg got as much as he could out of it...and that's the type of sharp and ballsy driving by the Finn which attracted Williams to Keke for the following season when Jonesy decided to retire from F1 late in the year (1981).
 
Incubus, I originally (post # 8 in this thread) meant intentional squeezes on your 'teammate'. Yes there have been some bad/worse squeezes than Senna on Prost in Portugal in 1988...but I was mainly citing it in the context of "teammates".
 
@ Incubus. Plenty of teammates have come together. Senna squeezed, but there was more than a car width left. (BTW, I'm not defending this kind of maneuver)
 
Oh right, but I meant the only ones I can think of that were worst than Senna on Prost or Schumacher on Rubens were the ones... that did result in collisions.

Back in the late seventies/early eighties there one one driver who was, rightfully or wrongfully, consistantly accused of having a monopoly on "the art" of squeezing.

One italian gentleman who was more famous for his squeezing than his driving... :)
 
Hey, Keke, do you have an edit of the start of the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix lying around?

There were a number of extraordinary things taking place on the grid that Sunday.

Grand Prix starting proceedures changed after that tragic meeting.
 
Back
Top Bottom