British GP 1983

British GP, 1983

There was a month off between the Canadian and British GPs and so there were a lot of changes to the entry list at Silverstone. The only change on the driver front was the arrival at RAM Automotive of Kenny Acheson. More significant was the first appearance on the Honda turbocharged engine in the back of a Spirit, driven by Stefan Johansson. The McLaren team had been testing the new TAG turbo engine at Weissach but it was still not ready to race. The big news for British fans was the arrival of a pair of new Gerard Ducarouge-designed Lotus 94Ts for Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell. Mansell had been struggling all season in an old Cosworth-engined 92 while de Angelis had monopolized the Renault-powered 93T. Ferrari had two new 126 C3s on hand for Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay while both Brabham, Alfa Romeo and Toleman had B versions of their cars. Osella had two new Alfa Romeo V12-powered FA1E chassis for Corrado Fabi and Piercarlo Ghinzani.

Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari 1-2 with Arnoux ahead of Tambay while Alain Prost was third and de Angelis fourth. Then came the two Brabham-BMWs with Riccardo Patrese outqualifying Nelson Piquet. Eddie Cheever (Renault) and Manfred Winkelhock (ATS-BMW) shared the fourth row and the top 10 was completed by Andrea de Cesaris and Mauro Baldi in their Alfas. Keke Rosberg was the first non-turbo but he was 12th. Johansson did a promising job with 13th on the grid.

At the start the two Ferraris stormed away and in the course of the first lap it was Tambay who emerged ahead of Arnoux ahead of Prost, Patrese, Cheever and de Angelis. Piquet made swift progress early on while de Angelis disappeared with a blown engine to be followed by Cheever and Johansson. On lap nine Patrese was also gone and that meant that fifth place behind Tambay, Arnoux, Prost and Piquet had been inherited by de Cesaris with Winkelhock sixth. Prost was on the move and overtook Arnoux on lap 14. Five laps later Piquet also passed the Ferrari while on lap 20 Prost went into the lead. Tambay dropped back to Piquet and eventually lost second place on lap 31. During the pit stops nothing changed at the front but Mansell made a late stop and was fifth and closing on the Ferraris in the last part of the race. He overtook Arnoux on lap 48 but could do nothing about Tambay. Prost duly won by 20secs with Piquet second, Tambay third and Mansell fourth. Arnoux was fifth and Niki Lauda (McLaren) sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
15 Alain Prost Renault  67 1h24m39.780s  
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  67 1h24m58.941s  
27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari  67 1h25m06.026s  
12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Cosworth  67 1h25m18.732s  18 
28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  67 1h25m38.654s  
Niki Lauda McLaren-Cosworth  66  15 
23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo  66  11 
22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo  66  
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  66  24 
10 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Cosworth  65  25 
11 Keke Rosberg Williams-Cosworth  65  13 
12 Jacques Laffite Williams-Cosworth  65  20 
13 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth  65  16 
14 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Cosworth  65  23 
15 30 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  65  17 
16 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Cosworth  64  21 
17 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  64  19 
Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW  49 Engine Overheating 
26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Cosworth  48 Suspension Hydraulic Leak 22 
32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Cosworth  46 Fuel Pressure 26 
rr 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart  27 Gearbox 10 
Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  Turbo 
40 Stefan Johansson Spirit-Honda  Fuel Pump Belt 14 
16 Eddie Cheever Renault  Cylinder Head Gasket 
36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart  Turbo 12 
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  Distributor 
nq 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Cosworth    27 
nq 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Cosworth    28 
nq 17 Kenny Acheson RAM March-Cosworth    29