1986 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps
25 May 1986

In the aftermath of a dreadful Monaco Grand Prix, the Brabham team had headed for the Paul Ricard circuit between races to do some testing, but disaster struck when Elio de Angelis’ rear wing suddenly collapsed on the long Mistral straight, pitching him into a spin which saw him cartwheel over the crash barriers and come to rest, upside-down, before bursting into flames. Because it was only a test session, there were few marshals around and they took several minutes to arrive, clad in shorts and t-shirts and carrying small fire-extinguishers. It was another half-hour before the injured Italian could be extracted from his car and put in a helicopter to be taken to Marseilles hospital. He died there of smoke inhalation, 29 hours after his crash. His only injuries from the crash itself were some light burns and a broken collar-bone, neither life-threatening, and in the aftermath of the accident changes would be made to ensure that safety procedures at test sessions would be the same as those at races. Jean-Marie Balestre also announced that an extraordinary meeting of the FIA would take place in June, amid widespread speculation that steps would be taken to limit the allowed engine sizes.

In the meantime, though, the paddock was in shock as the teams arrived in Belgium: de Angelis had been a popular figure in the paddock, widely regarded as one of the last of the “gentleman players” and the figure who had kept the iconic Lotus team going during its darkest period. The Brabham team were there in Belgium with just one car, for Riccardo Patrese, while de Angelis’ former team-mates Mansell and Senna looked particularly pensive, as did his great off-track friend Keke Rosberg. Brabham had announced just before the race that Derek Warwick would drive the second car from the next race in Canada.

A more pleasant surprise awaited on Friday qualifying where rising star Gerhard Berger used the power of his BMW engine to go fastest and set provisional pole. It was only a gung-ho lap from Nelson Piquet in the spare car (after grenading the Honda in his race car) that kept the Austrian from his first career pole, and he had to be satisfied with his first front-row start instead. Prost and Senna took the second row with Nigel Mansell fifth and Teo Fabi completing a good couple of days’ work for Benetton in sixth place. Arnoux, Rosberg, Alboreto and Tambay rounded out the top ten with the second Ferrari of Johansson down in 11th and the second Lotus of Johnny Dumfries 13th. With no non-qualifiers, the two Osellas of Ghinzani and Danner brought up the rear of the grid.

The grid lined up and TV viewers were intrigued to see the pictures from the TV camera attached to Phillippe Streiff’s Tyrrell, following a successful experiment by the Renault team last year. The lights went red, then green and the cars swarmed off the start; Rosberg dove left and left the track briefly, kicking up dust from the sand at the side of the track, while Berger got away tardily and was swamped by Prost going past on his right and Senna on his left, while Arnoux got a flyer to leap up to fifth. Like Monaco, Spa has a tight first corner that invites accidents as twenty-plus cars all stream through on lap one, and so it proved: Berger turned into the hairpin and caught Prost, both cars coming to a stop right at the apex of the corner. As Piquet and Senna disappeared into the distance, everyone else came to a grinding halt and tried to find a way through. Fabi stopped dead and had to go the long way round, while Rosberg found himself with nowhere to go except peel round in an outward circle and rejoin right at the back. Once everyone was past, both Prost and Berger got moving again and limped round to the pits for repairs – Prost’s front wing was noticeably flapping. In fact, the only retirement from the accident was the innocent Patrick Tambay, who had gone round the outside of the stationary cars but run over some debris and broken something in his suspension.

Piquet was already pulling out a handy lead over Senna, with Mansell some way back in third place. Fourth was Johansson, who had been fortunate to be in the right place and could drive right past the accident without stopping, with Dumfries up to fifth, ahead of Laffite, Jones, Boutsen, Alboreto and the Tyrrells of Brundle and Streiff, all in a long conga of cars. Prost and Berger, after lengthy stops for repairs, rejoined at the back of the field. Mansell, meanwhile, had caught a struggling Senna and passed him for second place, and the Brazilian was now being threatened by Johansson’s Ferrari. Further back, Rosberg was on the move, up to 12th, while Alboreto had likewise overtaken Boutsen for 8th. By lap 3, both Osellas had already retired with engine failure and Jones and Alboreto had both moved ahead of Laffite – the new Lola chassis looking good for the 1980 champion – while Rosberg was now ahead of the Tyrrells and himself gaining on Boutsen’s Arrows. Meanwhile, Mansell spun on lap 5 and dropped back behind Johansson and Alboreto, though he soon re-took fourth from the Italian.

Rosberg’s fine charge came to a premature end on lap 7 when his TAG engine had a rare failure, and on the following lap Dumfries damaged his car in a spin and had to retire, and Boutsen’s electrics packed up – six retirements already. After that the racing settled down for a while, with the best entertainment being Mansell’s chase of Johansson, finally getting past the Swede for third on lap 15 and charging after Senna. Suddenly, that became a fight for the lead, as Piquet toured into the pits and climbed out, his turbo boost controls fritzed. On the same lap, Alain Prost put up the fastest lap as he charged through the midfield – his race not run yet.

Mansell was the first to come in for tyres, the Williams team getting him out in a stonking 8s, and the next lap it was Senna’s turn, the Lotus mechanics doing almost as well but still getting him out behind Mansell, while Johansson went into the lead – the first time a Ferrari had led in 1986 – for a single lap until he too pitted and Mansell became the fourth leader of the race, with a gap now of some 3 seconds over Senna as the two made their way through to lap the midfield cars. Alboreto had also got ahead of Johansson in the pitstops and the Ferrari twins were now fighting over third place. Prost, meanwhile, was up to seventh, aided by the retirements of Arnoux (engine) and Brundle (gearbox). Senna was steadily reeling Mansell in, getting the gap down to 1.5s by lap 28, roughly 2/3 distance.

Little changed in the last third of the race; Prost made his way up into sixth when Jones came in for a lengthy tyre stop, while Mansell pulled out again from Senna, and the two Ferraris had an entertaining duel over third place, which ended with Johansson taking the place from his team-mate. And that was how they finished; Mansell took his third win, and his first of the season to go third in the table, while Senna’s second place saw him back into the championship lead. Johansson took his first podium place since his second place in Detroit in 1985, and Alboreto posted his first finish of the year in fourth. Laffite finished a lonely fifth place with Prost picking up the last point after a good run from the back after his accident – a point that was sufficient to keep McLaren atop the Constructors’ table.

---

Drivers Championship
1	Ayrton Senna	25
2	Alain Prost	23
3	Nigel Mansell	18
4	Nelson Piquet	15
5	Keke Rosberg	11
6=	Jacques Laffite	5
6=	Stefan Johansson	5
8	Gerhard Berger	6
9	René Arnoux	5
10	Michele Alboreto	3
11=	Martin Brundle	2
11=	Teo Fabi	2
13	Riccardo Patrese	1

Constructors Championship
1	McLaren-TAG	34
2	Williams-Honda	33
3	Lotus-Renault	25
4	Ligier-Renault	12
5	Ferrari	10
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	2
8	Brabham-BMW	1

---

Elio de Angelis, 1958-1986

1985 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps

15 September 1985

The F1 circus arrived at the Spa circuit in bittersweet mood. The circuit’s previous event in 1983 (won by Alain Prost) had been popular and the teams, fans and broadcasters were all glad to be back – but no-one could quite shake the remembrance that it was here that Stefan Bellof had been killed just a few weeks earlier, and Jonathan Palmer was injured and still in hospital.

With this being the re-running of the aborted race in June, the original entry list was honoured – so RAM were forced to drop back to one car (for Philippe Alliot), while Toleman, who had been entering two cars all along, even when they only had one driver, could enter both Ghinzani and Fabi. Carl Haas’ Beatrice-Lola team were absent, having not been in the initial race, but Zakspeed were at least back, with the car now driven by the leading F3000 driver, Christian Danner.

---

30. Christian Danner

Son of an eminent road-safety expert, Christian Danner somewhat ironically got bitten by the racing bug in his teens and by 19 he was racing in turbocharged Renault 5s, where in 1980 he was spotted by Manfred Cassani for his new BMW-backed team in German Group 4 racing. Before long, he made the step up to Formula 2 with the March works team, as well as racing BMW touring cars. Danner’s single-seater career continued its upward trajectory, with Christian becoming a front-runner in F2 by the end of 1983, but in 1984 when BMW withdrew from F2, it looked bleak. However, Danner managed to raise enough sponsorship to move to the Bob Sparshott Racing team, who took him into the new Formula 3000 championship in 1985. By the time of the Belgian Grand Prix, Danner lay second to Mike Thackwell in the series with only one race to go – but he couldn’t resist the lure of Zakspeed and Formula One…

---

Otherwise it was business as usual, with Alain Prost looking to repeat his 1983 win and extend his championship lead, with Michele Alboreto and his Ferrari team trying to put a stop to their rough spell and Senna, Piquet and Rosberg all looking good to pick up the win if either of the championship contenders put a wheel wrong.

The changeable Ardennes weather saw frequent showers throughout Friday and Saturday’s sessions, but the track stayed dry when it mattered and so the teams could concentrate on the tricky balance of power and control required by this historic circuit. On Friday morning, however, Niki Lauda had a bad spin into a barrier and jarred his wrist badly. Unable to drive, he withdrew. As luck would have it, John Watson was in the paddock and agreed to drive – but Ron Dennis’ petition to allow him to do so fell on deaf ears and only one McLaren would run for the rest of the weekend.

The sole McLaren would start the race on pole, with Senna alongside in the black and gold Lotus. Behind them was Piquet, with Alboreto fourth, Johansson fifth and Boutsen sixth in the Arrows, running well on home tarmac. The Ferraris had done much testing at Monza between races and were looking better, while the Williams cars of Mansell (7th) and Rosberg (10th) looked less impressive than of late. With just 24 entrants, everyone would qualify and at the back it was business as usual with Pierluigi Martini’s Minardi bringing up the rear, just behind Huub Rothengatter’s Osella, with Christian Danner making his Grand Prix debut from 22nd.

Sunday morning’s warm-up was wet, and it rained right through until shortly before the start of the race, at which point the track was wet even after it had stopped raining, so the grid lined up on wet tyres. As the lights went green, it was Ayrton Senna who got the best start, leaping into the lead while Prost dropped behind Piquet, who promptly spun as they all filtered round La Source. Fortunately, no-one speared the Brabham, though Surer and Rosberg had to take to the run-off area. Prost thus regained second, with Alboreto, a fast-starting Mansell, Johansson, Boutsen, Berger and de Angelis chasing. By the end of the first lap, Mansell had got past Alboreto and a dry line was starting to emerge already – a tactical battle would now ensue as everyone tried to judge the best time to come in for slick tyres. Piquet and Rosberg were first, the Brazilian keen to shed Pirelli’s dreadful wet tyres. A charging Mansell took second from Prost, who didn’t put up much of a fight, and set off in pursuit of Senna, already with quite a lead. Alboreto had already dropped to tenth and on lap 4 his clutch broke and he was out. Over the next few laps, cars streamed into the pits for new tyres. Johansson never made it, his own transmission going after 7 laps, while Ghinzani put his Toleman hard into the barriers after getting a bit enthusiastic on the damp track on fresh slicks.

Senna, Mansell and Prost all came in together and the Williams crew got their man out first, but the Lotus boys were smarter – putting scrubbed tyres on Senna’s car meant he got up to temperature quicker and re-took the lead on the run down to Eau Rouge. Mansell then compounded things by having a semi-spin at La Source on the next lap, He stayed in second, but Senna pulled out more of a lead. Prost was by now in “cruise and collect” mode, happy not to push the car too hard and ensure a finish in the points with Alboreto out, so he soon lost third to a charging Rosberg, and was being threatened by a strong drive from Boutsen, who in turn had the Renaults of Tambay and Warwick chasing him.

Around half-distance, the rain came back and there was activity in the pits as wet tyres were readied, but the shower passed as quickly as it came, and the track stayed dry. Senna was by now uncatchable, while the two Williams twins were having a terrific scrap over second until Rosberg’s brakes started to fade and he backed off, coming in to the pit to fix the problem which allowed Prost back into third. Mansell nearly ruined his own day with a slide, putting a wheel on the dirt but keeping the car pointing in the right direction, and that was where they ended: Ayrton Senna took his second career win in dominant style, while Mansell was happy with a career-best-equalling second place, and Prost with four points for third. Rosberg, Piquet and Warwick took the minor points, with Thierry Boutsen cruelly robbed of home points by a gearbox failure three laps before the end.

Prost thus led Alboreto by 16 points with just three races to go …

---

Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	69
2	Michele Alboreto	53
3	Ayrton Senna	32
4	Elio de Angelis	31
5=	Stefan Johansson	21
5=	Nelson Piquet	21
5=	Keke Rosberg	21
8	Niki Lauda	14
9	Nigel Mansell	13
10	Patrick Tambay	11
11	Jacques Laffite	10
12	Thierry Boutsen	9
13=	Marc Surer	5
13=	Derek Warwick	5
15	Stefan Bellof	4
16=	René Arnoux	3
16=	Andrea de Cesaris	3

Constructors Championship
1=	Ferrari	83
1=	McLaren-TAG	83
3	Lotus-Renault	63
4	Williams-Honda	34
5	Brabham-BMW	26
6	Renault	16
7	Ligier-Renault	13
8	Arrows-BMW	9
9	Tyrrell-Renault	4

1985 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps
2 June 1985

Two weeks after the Monaco Grand Prix, the teams convened at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix, all looking forward to a return to the historic track that had hosted the 1983 race. About the only complaint anyone had had about the newly renovated circuit was the amount of standing water on the track when it rained, so the Belgian organisers had had the circuit resurfaced with a new type of tarmac that promised to assist drainage. However, between a lack of planning on the Belgian side and a lack of inspection on the FISA side, the work was only completed 14 days before the race.

Francois Hesnault would not be present; having failed to qualify in Monaco, any remaining confidence had been obliterated by a horrific testing accident which left him wrapped in the catch fencing and unable to escape. He retired from F1 on the spot, and Brabham hired Swiss driver Marc Surer as a replacement.

---

6. Marc Surer

Surer had endured a torrid 1984 with the Arrows team, after a good 1983 in which he had shown himself a potent racer. He just couldn’t seem to get the hang of the new turbo-powered car and lost heart very quickly when the car just wouldn’t work for him. He occasionally showed sparks when a good scrap presented itself, but it was no real surprise – although a shame – that he elected not to return to F1 in 1985, instead driving Porsche sportscars for the Kremer team. However, the chance to drive for a top team like Brabham was too good to miss.

---

Friday practice went ahead in good weather, with Alboreto setting the fastest time, faster than the 1983 pole time and ahead of the Lotus twins of de Angelis and Senna. A new lighter Renault helped Tambay to fourth, with Johansson’s Ferrari and Rosberg’s Williams making up the top six. But there seemed to be a problem with the new surface; the sticky qualifying tyres were going off even quicker than usual, some barely able to get a flying lap out of them, and ruts were starting to appear, notably at the fearsome Eau Rouge complex. In other places, the surface was starting to break up. An inspection team went out and found it was even worse than it seemed – the surface on the racetrack sections (not on the public road sections which had matured under traffic) was falling apart rapidly. Hydrocar, the company who had laid the surface, were called in and worked through the night to effect repairs. Saturday Practice was delayed, then abandoned as it became obvious that the repairs had made matters worse if anything. Nelson Piquet’s visor was cracked by a flying stone, Alboreto pronounced it “undriveable”, and the drivers headed by Niki Lauda refused to participate further.

In Dallas last year there had been a similar situation but the race had gone ahead – the full stands and relatively low speeds had encouraged the drivers to participate, but Spa was a different kettle of fish entirely – the fastest cars were hitting 190mph through Eau Rouge and any departure from the track would have been serious if not fatal. So the race was cancelled on the Saturday evening, an official statement put out and fans given refunds and free tickets for the Formula 3000 race postponed from Saturday afternoon to Sunday – the less powerful cars were though to be safe enough on the circuit, though the number of excursions and spins during that race suggested that the right decision had been made.

The race was provisionally rescheduled for 15 September, replacing the Rome street circuit idea that had fallen through, and subject to strict inspections.

1984 Belgian Grand Prix

Zolder 

29 April 1984

Baldi’s Spirit-Hart

To the delight of no-one except the circuit’s owners, the Belgian Grand Prix returned to Zolder as part its new alternating-years deal with Spa-Francorchamps. The historic Spa track had been popular last year and produced a great race, while Zolder seemed a dreary destination, haunted by the ghosts of Gilles Villeneuve and Giovanni Amedeo who had died there in 1982 and 1981 respectively. Nonetheless here they were and on with it they got. Arrows had two BMW-powered A7 cars ready, but elected to give them both to Boutsen for his home race as they were still far from fully reliable. RAM had a second new car too, this one for Jonathan Palmer. In the event, there were no driver changes, but Mauro Baldi had to race to refinance his seat or lose it to Jean-Louis Schlesser, and Piercarlo Ghinzani’s fitness was touch-and-go for a while, which got test driver Jo Gartner’s hopes up. Meanwhile the Tyrrell team showed up with a smart new colour scheme on Bellof’s car, overall black with black-red-gold stripes and prominent sponsorship from German steak restaurant Maredo.

Bellof on the grid

Whatever had been ailing the Ferraris in South Africa had been fixed, and Alboreto and Arnoux were flying in practice, with the Italian taking pole ahead of Rosberg – the Finn once again putting in a great qualifying performance in a car he professed to find hard to drive. Derek Warwick was fourth, then de Angelis and Winkehock on row three. The McLarens, so dominant in Brazil and South Africa, were 8th (Prost) and 14th (Lauda) after again concentrating on their race setup in practice rather than trying to set the fastest times. The Brabhams continued having engine problems and could only manage 9th (Piquet) and 18th (Fabi). The injured Ghinzani did well to qualify 20th with bandaged hands, while the odd man out this week was Philippe Alliot who had managed to break both RAM cars in the process.

When the lights went out, for the third race in a row there was a stall on the grid. The two Ferraris shot away, but Rosberg shuddered, and remained still, with everyone miraculously getting past him and then the marshals sprinting on and giving him a shove to send him off last. Meanwhile, Derek Warwick had taken advantage to slot in between the two Ferraris and Winkelhock was going well in the ATS in fourth, with de Angelis and Patrese chasing. Prost and Cheever duelled over 7th position, which became 6th on lap 3 when Patrese’s ignition failed (he was the second retirement – Cecotto’s Toleman had already broken its clutch), by which time the leading four were already beginning to pull away from the chasing pack. Prost wasn’t far behind, departing from sixth with more niggles from that electronic system.

The first ten or so laps of the race saw a series of ding-dong battles between Alboreto and Warwick, Arnoux and Winkelhock, de Angelis and Piquet. The Brabham got past the Lotus soon enough, while further back Rosberg had sliced his way through the field to be running tenth, just behind Lauda, and the pair were closing on Cheever. Alboreto was pulling out a lead on Warwick, but Arnoux just couldn’t shake off Winkelhock’s ATS until the German’s Pirelli tyres started to fade on lap 22 and he fell back unto the clutches of Piquet, who soon got past and headed off after the leaders.

The two Tyrrell cars had, almost unnoticed, been doing spectacularly well, with Bellof now 7th and Brundle 9th and race leader Alboreto was nearly undone by his old team, getting sideways when lapping Bellof – but luckily keeping it running to only lose a few seconds. By this time, Arnoux had had a terrible pitstop and dropped down the order, promoting Piquet to 3rd, but he was under threat and lost the position to a charging Rosberg, before Warwick’s stop promoted the WIlliams to second. Alboreto then made his stop, and just had enough of a lead that a slick stop got him back out in the lead. Winkelhock’s great first stint had no sooner been compromised by a dreadful stop – ironically for a team whose parent company specialised in changing tyres – than his BMW engine gave out anyway and he pulled to a stop on lap 41. He had already outlasted Lauda (Radiator, lap 36), Cheever (turbo, lap 25), Laffite (spin, lap 16) and Mansell (Clutch, lap 14) among others, but that will have been scant consolation.

Finally, on lap 43, Rosberg pitted and his tyre stop was also a shambles, dropping him to sixth behind Stefan Bellof, with Arnoux nipping at his gearbox into the bargain. Bellof was attacking de Angelis in the corners, but the Lotus had too much power on the straights and was able to keep ahead, and the two were so busy battling they almost didn’t notice Rosberg and Arnoux breezing past almost in formation and disappearing into the distance, on the trail of Piquet, struggling on going-off tyres. With six laps to go, the pair got past Piquet, though Arnoux soon spun back down to fifth. Three laps from the end, Piquet’s BMW expired in another expensive cloud of steam, and then Rosberg’s tank ran dry on the last lap – the first time anyone had simply run out of fuel under the new regulations, without mitigating feed/injection problems. Arnoux was thus back up to third when Alboreto serenely cruised to his third career win, and his first for Ferrari, with Warwick a distant but satisfied second. Rosberg had done enough to be classified fourth, with de Angelis and Bellof making up the points finishers and Senna, Tambay and Surer and Palmer the only other cars still running.

Having not scored in the first two rounds, Ferrari were right back in the fight with 13 points from their afternoon’s work and McLaren having a double retirement.

---

Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	15
2	Derek Warwick	10
3=	Niki Lauda	9
3=	Keke Rosberg	9
3=	Michele Alboreto	9
6	Elio de Angelis	6
7	René Arnoux	4
8=	Eddie Cheever	3
8=	Riccardo Patrese	3
10=	Martin Brundle	2
10=	Andrea de Cesaris	2
12=	Patrick Tambay	1
12=	Ayrton Senna	1
12=	Stefan Bellof	1

Constructors Championship
1	McLaren-TAG	24
2	Ferrari	13
3	Renault	11
4	Williams-Honda	9
5=	Alfa Romeo	6
5=	Lotus-Renault	6
7	Tyrrell-Ford	3
8	Ligier-Renault	2
9	Toleman-Hart	1

1983 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps

22 May 1983

The majestic 14km Spa-Francorchamps circuit, set in the rolling forested hills of the Ardennes, had been one of the most feared and respected of the European road tracks. Like the Nürburgring or Le Mans it was known as a supreme test of skill and speed but also as a deathtrap. Safety concerns had led to the race’s boycotting in 1969 and subsequent removal from the calendar in favour of Zolder, but in 1979 a new, 7km layout was introduced, keeping the famous La Source hairpin and Eau Rouge, Raidillon and Blanchimont corners but with a purpose-build section linking the two arms of the old track. Feedback from April testing and feeder series races was positive, and fans looked forward to seeing it in action for the first time.

Local driver Thierry Boutsen had raised sponsorship to fund a drive and would take over the second Arrows from Chico Serra, while elsewhere on the grid, Tyrrell were the latest team to run Ford DFY engines. Ligier announced that they had struck a deal for Renault Turbo engines for 1984, while Lotus were rumoured to be in talks with Gerard Ducarouge to try and sort out their Renault powered car.

---

30. Thierry Boutsen

Thierry Boutsen began his racing career at the age of 18, joining the Pilette Racing School at Zolder in 1975 as an engineering student. Soon giving up his academic career to concentrate on racing, he bought himself a Formula Ford 1600 car and entered the Benelux series in 1977, moving to a customer chassis the following year and winning the championship with an 11/16 win record. This moved him up to F3, where he won three races to come second to Michele Alboreto in the European F3 series, and onwards into F2 with the works March team for 1981. He finished second to Geoff Lees in the 1981 championship and moved to the Spirit-Honda team who were preparing an F1 challenge for 1983. He won three times for the team but ultimately his reputation as a coming man ended up working against him – Spirit wanted a low-key entry into F1, and opted for Boutsen’s teammate Stefan Johansson who was seen as having blown his earlier chance.

---

Rain on Saturday meant that Friday’s times ended up deciding the grid, which saw Alain Prost on pole for the third time in six races, but only by a hundredth of a second over Patrick Tambay. Andrea de Cesaris turned some heads in third, two tenths off Tambay’s time, while Piquet in fourth was nearly a second off pole. Arnoux and Patrese filled row 3, then Winkelhock and Cheever. Rosberg was once again the top non-turbo down in 9th place, alongside Marc Surer’s Arrows – both drivers had been entertaining in qualifying with their ragged-edge style. Guerrero qualified well again in 14th, with teammate Cecotto 25th, Thierry Boutsen would start a creditable 18th, and the McLarens made it into the race this time, 15th (Lauda) and 20th (Watson). Last on the grid was Raul Boesel in the Ligier, with Ghinzani and Salazar the non-qualifiers – the latter a massive six seconds off Boesel’s time in his RAM.

Race day was overcast but dry, and there was the now-traditional Belgian startline farce: Surer stalled his Arrows on the grid, so the red lights were followed by a yellow to signal an aborted start – only De Cesaris reacted too quickly and shot off the line, chased by Prost. The pair went at it hammer and tongs for a third of a lap until they finally registered the black flags being frantically waved at them, then toured sheepishly back round to the grid to line up again. After a short delay, and with Surer now starting from the pits, his excellent qualifying all for naught, the lights went green this time and the whole field got away cleanly. De Cesaris once again got a great start, threading between Prost and Tambay and into the lead chased again by Prost, this time with Tambay, Arnoux, Piquet and Patrese in tow – at least until Patrese’s BMW engine blew, promoting Winkelhock to 6th.

Andrea de Cesaris was driving with a maturity and skill that surprised many, gradually pulling away from Prost until by lap six he was leading by three seconds, while Winkelhock was also doing a sterling job in staying with Piquet – until lap 12 when electrical problems sent him into the pits for repairs which lost him six laps. On returning to the race, he managed six more laps before a wheel fell off, pitching him into the catch-fencing. By then, Boutsen was out with suspension problems, Jarier and Watson had collided and Baldi’s throttle had packed in, and then it was pitstop time. Elio de Angelis was first in, then de Cesaris from the lead – but the Alfa Romeo team bungled the pitstop and took an extra ten seconds before sending him out in sixth. When Prost came in, the Renault crew did a great job and he was able to take the lead on the track once all the stops had shaken out, but de Cesaris was still second and was gaining on Prost again, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. Arnoux continued his disappointing season so far with a blown engine, and de Cesaris’ Alfa turbo followed suit three laps later, leaving the young Italian wondering what might have been.

Prost thus led by a handy margin from Nelson Piquet, who was having to drive within himself to conserve fuel, and the Brabham soon lost 5th gear into the bargain, allowing the chasing pair of Tambay and Cheever to catch up. On lap 33, the Ferrari got past and four laps later the Renault followed. By this time, the race was in its closing stages with just three laps to go. Piquet was holding on to fourth ahead of the two Williams cars of Rosberg and Laffite, but the latter had Niki Lauda worrying at him until the McLaren’s gearbox broke on lap 34, which left Giacomelli in seventh place in the Toleman, leading his team leader Warwick. Then, on the last lap, Giacomelli spun, letting Warwick through before continuing himself to finish 8th and last of the unlapped runners.

Alain Prost became the first man in 1983 to win two races after five different winners in the first five races, and it seemed that Renault had finally fixed their reliability problems, with Cheever third. Patrick Tambay’s second place kept him in the championship battle

---

Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	28
2	Nelson Piquet	24
3	Patrick Tambay	23
4	Keke Rosberg	16
5	John Watson	11
6	Niki Lauda	10
7=	René Arnoux	8
7=	Jacques Laffite	8
7=	Eddie Cheever	8
10	Marc Surer	4
11	Danny Sullivan	2
12=	Johnny Cecotto	1
12=	Mauro Baldi	1

Constructors Championship
1	Renault	36
2	Ferrari	32
3=	Brabham-BMW	24
3=	Williams-Ford	24
5	McLaren-TAG	21
6	Arrows-Ford	4
7	Tyrrell-Ford	2
8=	Theodore-Ford	1
8=	Alfa-Romeo	1

1982 Belgian Grand Prix

Circuit Zolder

9 May 1982

FOCA’s bluff had been well and truly called at the San Marino Grand Prix with the absence of most top teams not affecting gate receipts in the slightest, several FOCA-affiliated teams breaking ranks and Niki Lauda showing up in the pits to vocally complain about being denied the chance to race – not to mention the sponsors were unhappy at spending money for the cars not to be out on track showing the name. So everyone was back for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Last year’s race had been a tragic farce, with the death of Osella mechanic Giovanni Amadeo in practice followed by the organisers making a mess of the race start and Arrows mechanic Dave Luckett being very fortunate to only suffer broken legs as a result. $1.2m had been spent on the circuit since then, including widening the pit lane and pit wall to avoid a repeat of the Amadeo incident.

What the fans were mostly interested in, though, was the fallout between VIlleneuve and Pironi (the two apparently still not on speaking terms following the San Marino race), and who would replace Carlos Reutemann at Williams. Since his departure, rumours had been rife, with Nigel Mansell, Derek Warwick, Jean-Pierre Jarier, test driver Jonathan Palmer and even Emerson Fittipaldi mentioned. But the answer in the end surprised most: Derek Daly, who had endured a trying 1981 with March before beginning 1982 with the Theodore team. Teddy Yip was delighted for Daly and happily allowed him to go, bringing in Dutch veteran Jan Lammers instead. As well as a new driver, Williams had a new car, the FW08 finally ready to go after much testing. Alfa Romeo, likewise, had a new version of their car, the narrow-bodied 182B. The March team expanded to three cars to accommodate heavily-backed Spanish driver Emilio de Villota; the third car was named a “LBT March” for sponsorship reasons and crewed by the Formula Two Onyx team, and ran with the spare number 19. Brabham were back to their BMW-powered BT50 after some stern words from the Bavarians.

---

19. Emilio de Villota

Emilio de Villota had first made a career in touring cars, before in 1976 turning to single-seaters and racing in the British Formula Libre championships. The following year, he purchased a Brabham BT44 chassis to enter his home Grand Prix as a private entry but failed to qualify. However, the experience convinced him to try again and he set up his own team with considerable backing from Iberia airlines to run a McLaren M23 chassis for much of the latter end of the 1977 season, but again with little success. Turning away from the official F1 championship, de Villota had more success in the Aurora AFX series, still run to Formula One regulations, where he was crowned champion in 1980, driving a Williams chassis run by the RAM management team who took over March the following year. It was March that gave him his latest shot at F1 at the Belgian Grand Prix.

---

33. Jan Lammers

Lammers had just never had the breaks in Formula One, and despite having put the sluggish ATS in fourth place on the grid in Long Beach in 1981, had only had three more races for the team before being let go and had not succeeded in finding another team for the rest of the season. His callup by Teddy Yip was widely regarded as being his last chance to make it in Formula One.

---

Qualifying came, and despite the circuit’s nature evening out the gap between the Turbos and Cosworths, Renault dominated the day with Prost and Arnoux on the front row, followed by Rosberg and Mauda. Pironi and Villeneuve meanwhile duelled over row three. Eight minutes before the end of the session, with Pironi currently fifth, Villeneuve came across Jochen Mass’s March at Butte. Villeneuve jinked left to avoid Mass, Mass jinked left to make way, and the Ferrari’s front-left wheel hit the right-rear of the March, launching Villeneuve into the air. His Ferrari cartwheeled across the soft ground, the nose was torn off and the Canadian flung bodily from the car, his helmet coming off in the process. Mass stopped to render aid, as did Watson and Warwick, arriving on the scene shortly after, and Villeneuve was airlifted to hospital with a broken neck. At 9.12pm, after extensive consultations and testing, the 32-year-old driver was pronounced dead. A shocked Ferrari team withdrew from the event, and the grid all shuffled up two places to compensate. No thought was given to cancelling the race – after all, it was just a tragic accident like so many others in the sport’s history. Alboreto and de Cesaris thus filled row 3, with Derek Daly 13th in his first Williams start and the traumatised but blamless Jochen Mass and Mauro Baldi the two non-qualifiers who were promoted to the grid.

Race day came and on the surface it was business as usual, though many of the drivers were more pensive than usual. Last year’s startline antics were not repeated and everyone lined up successfully for the start, though Mansell’s clutch slipped on the parade lap and he had to hold it on the brake for the start. At the front, everyone got away cleanly, Arnoux taking the lead from Prost while Rosberg got a great start to take second. Mansell, however, stalled at the start from 7th place and in the process of avoiding him Giacomelli, arriving from 15th at speed, clouted Laffite’s Ligier, which in turn bumped into Salazar’s ATS. Laffite’s car wasn’t seriously damaged, but the ATS put a wheel on the grass, speared back across the track and karmically took out Giacomelli’s Alfa. Mansell was then given a push by the marshalls and got moving, as was Warwick who had likewise stalled. ATS’s bad weekend got worse when Winkelhock pulled off before the end of lap one with a broken clutch. Similarly, Mansell had just caught up to the back of the field when his clutch disintegrated entirely and he was out too.

Up front, two smaller groups were developing; Arnoux leading Rosberg, with a gap back to Prost, Lauda and de Cesaris, then a longer gap back to Alboreto and the rest of the field. Prost didn’t seem happy though, and Lauda and de Cesaris soon got by, while Arnoux was likewise having trouble holding Rosberg back. A lap after Prost dropped back, Rosberg cut inside Arnoux at Kanaalbocht and Arnoux toured in to the pits at the end of the lap, arm raised, with 3 of his 6 cylinders not firing. Frantic repairs were made and Arnoux sent out again. He was back in again on lap 8 to retire. Prost, meanwhile, was dropping back and came in for new boots to see if that helped, It didn’t.

Up front, Rosberg held a commanding lead with Lauda nibbling away at it, closely followed by de Cesaris, whose new Alfa was going very nicely indeed. Next came Patrese’s Brabham, with Watson in the second McLaren following, then Alboreto in the Tyrrell. All became a bit static, with the most interesting action between Piquet in 7th and Laffite and Cheever in the Ligiers following him, but that was short-lived as Piquet also came in for fresh rubber. De Cesaris rose to second after Lauda had to swerve to avoid a spinning backmarker, while Alboreto’s race ended with a smoking engine, followed by team-mate Henton a lap later.

De Cesaris’ good day came to an end on lap 34 when his gear linkage came apart, and Lauda’s chase of Rosberg was falling apart as he had wrecked his tyres avoiding Chico Serra’s spin. Team-mate Watson, on fresh rubber, was storming up the field, though, and got past Patrese for third before being waved past by Lauda. The race was settling into a procession as most drivers began preserving their tyres. Patrese spun into a tyre barrier on lap 53, Prost – running well down the order now on his *third* set of tyres – did similar on lap 60, while a lap later Derek Daly followed suit under heavy pressure from Eddie Cheever over fourth place.

Rosberg’s tyres were fading and his brake pedal wasn’t working properly, so Watson was able to quickly close the gap and put the Finn under pressure – Rosberg buckled, slid wide at the Kleine Chicane and Watson was through, pulling away from the Williams in the last few laps to record a fine victory, seven seconds ahead of Rosberg. Lauda was third, over a minute behind, then Cheever, de Angelis and Piquet made up the final points – the defending champion finally breaking his 1982 duck.

In scrutineering, though, Lauda’s car was judged to be just 2kg underweight and he was disqualified (Watson’s was just 1kg over the limit), which moved everyone up a space and gave Chico Serra another point for Fittipaldi.

It had been a difficult weekend for Formula One as a sport. It had been four years since the death of Ronnie Peterson at the Italian Grand Prix of 1978, two since Patrick Depailler’s death in a testing accident, and Gilles Villeneuve had been a popular figure both in the paddock and among fans.

---

 

Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	18
2	John Watson	17
3	Keke Rosberg	14
4	Niki Lauda	12
5=	Didier Pironi	10
5=	Michele Alboreto	10
7=	Carlos Reutemann	6
7=	Gilles Villeneuve	6
9	Elio de Angelis	5
10=	René Arnoux	4
10=	Nigel Mansell	4
10=	Riccardo Patrese	4
10=	Eddie Cheever	4
14	Jean-Pierre Jarier	3
15=	Manfred Winkelhock	2
15=	Eliseo Salazar	2
15=	Nelson Piquet	2
18	Chico Serra	1

Constructors Championship
1	McLaren-Ford	29
2	Renault	22
3	Williams-Ford	20
4	Ferrari	16
5	Tyrrell-Ford	10
6	Lotus-Ford	9
7	Brabham-BMW	6
8=	ATS-Ford	4
8=	Ligier-Matra	4
10	Osella-Ford	3
11	Fittipaldi-Ford	1

1981 Belgian Grand Prix

Circuit Zolder

17 May 1981

Lotus returned to the paddock in time for the Belgian Grand Prix and, along with Toleman and the second ATS car, there were now 32 entries for the race. FISA thought this was too many and would lead to overcrowding in the pits and on the track, and pressured some of the smaller teams to take the weekend off. In the end, ATS withdrew Lammers but ran Borgudd, while Ensign withdrew their only car, leaving Patrick Tambay to sit the race out. Meanwhile over at Osella the injured Guerra was replaced with Italian rookie Piercarlo Ghinzani.

---

31. Piercarlo Ghinzani 

Born in Bergamo, Piercarlo Ghinzani had begun in Formula Ford and moved up to Formula Three in 1973, making slow progress with the small Allegrini team and a customer Brabham chassis. He finally came good, winning the European F3 title in 1977 for EuroRacing, but the opportunity to progress into Formula Two or One never materialised. Instead, Ghinzani remained in F3 developing Alfa Romeo’s engine and his patience was finally rewarded in 1981 when Enzo Osella asked him to deputise for the injured Miguel-Angel Guerra for the Belgian Grand Prix.

---

Renewed controversy over the 6cm ground clearance rule dominated the weekend until, during Friday practice, Osella mechanic Giovanni Amadeo stumbled from the crowded pit wall and fell into the path of Carlos Reutemann’s speeding Williams. Amadeo suffered a fractured skull and was rushed to hospital, and angry mechanics began to complain to the race organisers about the cramped conditions in the pit lane, exacerbated by the number of non-team personnel there to see and be seen. Although shaken by the incident, Carlos Reutemann rallied to take pole position, with Piquet lining up alongside. Pironi and Patrese took up the second row, and Watson and Jones the third. Once again, neither Toleman and neither March qualified, with Slim Borgudd and an unhappy Rene Arnoux joining them in sitting out the race.

When race morning dawned, the mechanics decided to protest that their views were not being considered, and staged a sit-in on the track, in which they were joined by several sympathetic drivers. Nonetheless, the race organisers flagged the warm-up lap at the normal time, leading to a shambles as some cars departed and others were vacant and unattended, which in turn led to long delays while the grid formed up for the start – not helped when Piquet missed his grid slot and had to go round again. By this time, some of the other cars on the grid were starting to overheat and some turned off their engines, assuming there’d be another parade lap after Piquet’s error. When the organisers instead began the usual start sequence, Patrese was unable to restart his engine and began to

wave his arm. His mechanic, Dave Luckett, jumped off the pitwall and began to start the car manually but the sequence couldn’t be stopped and the start took place. Patrese’s stationary car was avoided by most of the grid but team-mate Siegfried Stohr approached unsighted and collided with Luckett and Patrese’s car. Stohr, visibly anguished, leaped out of his car and ambulances were called, but meanwhile the race continued and as the field came around to finish the first lap they weaved between the various personnel on the grid, while marshals waved frantically for the cars to stop, the drivers waved frantically for them to get off the track. Eventually, some drivers pulled up of their own initiative and, eventually, a restart was called. Miraculously, Dave Luckett had suffered a broken leg and various cuts and bruises but was not seriously hurt, to the relief of all concerned (not least the traumatised Stohr).

The restart was taken with neither Arrows car present, and the race proceeded in somewhat subdued circumstances. Didier Pironi got ahead of Reutemann at the start, while Jones diced with Piquet until accidentally nudging the Brabham into the catch-fencing on lap 12. Shortly afterwards, he got ahead of his team-mate, and then past Pironi into the lead, but it wasn’t to last. On lap 19, his gearbox failed, putting him in the sand with a scalded thigh courtesy of a ruptured radiator, while Pironi had fallen back, so Reutemann took the lead from Laffite and Mansell, going well in the new Lotus, with Watson fourth, but the McLaren suffered gearbox trouble and dropped back, allowing Villeneuve to inherit the position with de Angelis fifth and Eddie Cheever sixth. On lap 54 the heavens opened and gave the organisers the perfect excuse to red flag the race and bring proceedings to a close.

Reutemann, Laffite and Mansell stood on the podium with plenty to celebrate – Reutemann had seen title rivals Piquet and Jones fall by the wayside, Laffite had finally had a good race after frustration so far in the Talbot Ligier and Mansell had his first podium finish. But after the events of the day there was no joy in evidence and on Monday the F1 world was saddened to hear that Giovanni Amadeo, the Osella mechanic, had died of his injuries in hospital.

---

Drivers Championship
1	Carlos Reutemann	34
2	Nelson Piquet	22
3	Alan Jones	18
4	Riccardo Patrese	10
5	Jacques Laffite	7
6	Elio de Angelis	5
7=	Alain Prost	4
7=	Nigel Mansell	4
9=	Gilles Villeneuve	3
9=	Marc Surer	3
9=	Mario Andretti	3
9=	Eddie Cheever	3
9=	Hector Rebaque	3
14=	René Arnoux	2
14=	Didier Pironi	2
16=	Patrick Tambay	1
16=	Andrea de Cesaris	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Ford	52
2	Brabham-Ford	25
3	Arrows-Ford	10
4	Lotus-Ford	9
5	Talbot Ligier-Matra	7
6	Renault	6
7	Ferrari	4
9=	Alfa Romeo	3
9=	Ensign-Ford	3
9=	Tyrrell-Ford	3
11=	Theodore-Ford	1
11=	McLaren-Ford	1