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 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 teammate and pole winner Riccardo Patrese, and the McLaren TAG-Porsche turbo's of Niki Lauda (12th) and John Watson (15th) joined him above the 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 whose turbo BMW engine which was putting out approximately in qualifying compared to about for the non-turbocharged Ford-Cosworth.
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. 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.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW1:30.2531:29.122 — 2 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari1:31.0361:29.650 +0.528 3 28 René Arnoux Ferrari1:30.7991:29.901 +0.779 4 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW1:30.2021:30.475 +1.080 5 15 Alain Prost Renault1:32.2441:31.144 +2.022 6 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo1:31.2951:31.272 +2.150 7 16 Eddie Cheever Renault1:31.6131:31.564 +2.442 8 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault1:32.5901:31.628 +2.506 9 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW1:34.1611:31.959 +2.837 10 23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo1:32.4071:32.593 +3.285 11 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault1:34.6101:32.423 +3.301 12 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart1:33.7381:32.677 +3.555 13 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG1:33.1901:33.133 +4.011 14 36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart1:35.4891:33.384 +4.262 15 7 John Watson McLaren-TAG1:35.9281:34.705 +5.583 16 1 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford1:36.6311:35.291 +6.169 17 40 Stefan Johansson Spirit-Honda1:37.8621:35.483 +6.361 18 30 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford1:36.9681:35.624 +6.502 19 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford1:37.2701:36.220 +7.098 20 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford1:36.7961:36.435 +7.313 21 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford1:37.6771:36.619 +7.497 22 4 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford1:37.5651:36.644 +7.522 23 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo1:36.647 no time +7.525 24 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford1:36.7881:37.319 +7.666 25 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Alfa Romeo1:38.5771:36.834 +7.712 26 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford1:37.1051:37.634 +7.983 27 26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford1:37.7981:37.186 +8.064 28 2 Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford1:37.2771:37.245 +8.123 29 17 Kenny Acheson RAM-Ford1:37.7551:37.272 +8.150Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 52 1:23:10.880 4 9 2 28 René Arnoux Ferrari 52 +10.212 3 6 3 16 Eddie Cheever Renault 52 +18.612 7 4 4 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari 52 +29.023 2 3 5 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 52 +53.680 8 2 6 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 52 +1:13.348 12 1 7 36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart 52 +1:33.922 14 8 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 52 +1:36.035 11 9 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford 51 +1 lap 19 10 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 51 +1 lap 20 11 1 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford 51 +1 lap 16 12 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford 50 +2 laps 26 13 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford 50 +2 laps 21 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Alfa Romeo 45 Engine 25 4 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford 44 Fuel system 22 30 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford 41 Engine 18 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 35 Exhaust 9 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 28 Clutch 24 15 Alain Prost Renault 26 Turbo 5 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 24 Electrical 13 7 John Watson McLaren-TAG 13 Electrical 15 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 10 Gearbox 23 23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo 4 Turbo 10 40 Stefan Johansson Spirit-Honda 4 Distributor 17 6 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 2 Engine 1 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo 2 Collision 6 26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford 2 Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford 17 Kenny Acheson RAM-Ford Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 51 2 René Arnoux 49 3 Nelson Piquet 46 4 Patrick Tambay 40 5 Keke Rosberg 25Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 89 2 Renault 72 3 Brabham-BMW 50 4 Williams-Ford 36 5 McLaren-Ford 34Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References