1983 Detroit Grand Prix

The 1983 Detroit Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 5, 1983, in Detroit, Michigan.

1983 Detroit Grand Prix
Race 7 of 15 in the 1983 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	June 5, 1983
Official name	2nd Detroit Grand Prix
Location	Detroit street circuit Detroit, Michigan
Course	Temporary street course
Course length	4.120 km (2.56 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 247.195 km (153.60 miles)
Weather	Sunny and warm with temperatures reaching up to 76.8 °F (24.9 °C); wind speeds up to 11.3 miles per hour (18.2 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	René Arnoux	Ferrari
Time	1:44.734
Fastest lap
Driver	John Watson	McLaren-Ford
Time	1:47.668 on lap 55
Podium
First	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford
Second	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford
Third	John Watson	McLaren-Ford
Lap leaders

Summary

Circuit changes

The circuit had been slightly modified from its original configuration the year before, with the pit lane extended to place the entrance before the final chicane, and a short new section of track eliminating the extremely tight hairpin at Turn Five. The new layout was faster and much preferred by the drivers. Friday's entire agenda was run in the rain, however, and it was left to a single hour on Saturday to decide the starting grid.

Qualifying

Contrary to the usual pattern, after the first fifteen minutes or so of qualifying, the track became slower as more rubber was laid down. This was apparently due to moisture still in the track being drawn out by the now-present sunshine. The pole-winning time of 1:44.734 was posted by René Arnoux on his Ferrari's first set of qualifying tires; on his second set, he was more than two seconds slower. Many who did not record a quick time early in the session were caught out by the changing conditions, and the grid held many surprises as a result. Defending Champion Keke Rosberg was twelfth, Alain Prost thirteenth and Niki Lauda eighteenth, while the non-turbocharged cars of Marc Surer and Alboreto were fifth and sixth. American Eddie Cheever, in the only competitive ride of his F1 career with Renault, was in seventh spot, six places ahead of his highly regarded teammate.

Race

Over 70,000 fans enjoyed beautiful weather for the race on Sunday. The boats on the Detroit River, the blaring music and the floods of people from the downtown hotels created quite an atmosphere, inevitably bringing comparisons to Monaco, as the Long Beach event often did.

The first attempt at a start was halted just as the green light was about to come on, when Andrea de Cesaris signalled from the grid that his Alfa Romeo had stalled. The whole process was begun again, with another pace lap that reduced the race distance from 61 laps to 60, and this time the green light came on. This time, however, Patrick Tambay's Ferrari, in the second row, stalled on the grid. He held his breath while everyone made their way safely around him, and then, expecting a push-start, instead was removed from the circuit by tow truck.

Piquet made an excellent start and beat Arnoux to Turn One. He led after the first lap, with Arnoux ahead of de Angelis, de Cesaris, Alboreto, Derek Warwick, Rosberg (already up from twelfth) and Cheever. The two leaders quickly began to separate themselves from the rest, while a four-way nose-to-tail battle raged for fourth. On lap five, Cheever retired with ignition failure, de Angelis forfeited third place with a broken gearbox and Piercarlo Ghinzani abandoned his Osella in the pits with an overheating engine.

Arnoux, after steadily closing the gap to Piquet, overtook the Brabham into Turn One and gained the lead on lap 10. Piquet let him through without a fight, knowing that the Ferrari was planning a fuel and tire stop, while he was not. When Rosberg finally got by de Cesaris for third at the end of lap 11, he was almost 15 seconds behind Piquet, but clearly faster. Alboreto, in fifth place and also threatening de Cesaris, had started on full tanks and, like Piquet, was not planning a pit stop.

By lap 20, Rosberg had caught up with Piquet's Brabham and easily went by to take second, about twenty seconds behind Arnoux. On lap 29, the Ferrari's lead was up to almost 30 seconds when Arnoux came into the pits, as expected, followed soon after by Rosberg's Williams, whose intentions had been unclear. Arnoux rejoined after a stop of just 13.5 seconds, still barely in the lead; by the time Rosberg was able to get back on the track (his stop lasted 17.5 seconds), he was in fifth place behind Piquet, Alboreto and Jacques Laffite, none of whom had stopped. But just three laps after his pit stop, Arnoux suddenly coasted to a halt on the circuit with an electrical failure.

When Laffite pitted, Piquet was back in the lead, with Alboreto up to second and Rosberg third, 25 seconds back. John Watson, having started in 21st position on the grid, was now in fourth, making his regular charge through an American Grand Prix field. It looked as if Nelson Piquet and Brabham-BMW were on their way to victory as Alboreto was doing all he could to stay close. Suddenly, on lap 51, Piquet slowed with a punctured left rear tire, and as he made his way back to the pits, Alboreto and Rosberg went by. While he was in the pits, Watson also came through. All that was left was for Alboreto to bring the Tyrrell home over the final nine laps, taking it rather easy since he was too far in front for Rosberg to catch him. Watson, meanwhile, was doing anything but taking it easy, and he set the race's fastest lap (1.6 seconds faster than his qualifying time) while just failing to catch the Williams for second place. Piquet rejoined to finish in fourth, ahead of Laffite in the second Williams and Nigel Mansell's Lotus.

Alboreto's teammate, American Danny Sullivan, in his only season of Formula One, retired at the halfway point of the race when his engine failed. His only points for the season came from his fifth place at Monaco, though he did finish second at the non-Championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. When Sullivan could not secure a drive with turbo power for 1984, he saw the writing on the wall and returned to the US and the CART Indy Car series.

Tyrrell's Michele Alboreto scored his second Grand Prix win and first points of the season. The tight downtown street course took away much of the advantage of the turbocharged cars, and Alboreto's win for Cosworth-Ford was the last of the season's three non-turbo victories. It was also the last for a normally aspirated engine until the turbos were outlawed after the 1988 season, and the last of a record 155 wins for the legendary Cosworth DFV and also the last victory for the Tyrrell team.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	2:08.851	1:44.734	—
2	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	2:11.506	1:44.933	+0.199
3	27	Patrick Tambay	Ferrari	2:10.994	1:45.991	+1.257
4	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	2:09.601	1:46.258	+1.524
5	29	Marc Surer	Arrows-Ford	2:09.292	1:46.745	+2.011
6	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	2:08.198	1:47.013	+2.279
7	16	Eddie Cheever	Renault	2:08.418	1:47.334	+2.600
8	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	2:08.034	1:47.453	+2.719
9	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	no time	1:47.534	+2.800
10	30	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Ford	2:11.107	1:47.586	+2.852
11	33	Roberto Guerrero	Theodore-Ford	2:08.496	1:47.701	+2.967
12	1	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	2:06.382	1:47.728	+2.994
13	15	Alain Prost	Renault	2:15.731	1:47.855	+3.121
14	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	2:07.792	1:48.395	+3.661
15	6	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	2:17.489	1:48.537	+3.803
16	4	Danny Sullivan	Tyrrell-Ford	2:18.758	1:48.648	+3.914
17	36	Bruno Giacomelli	Toleman-Hart	2:13.205	1:48.785	+4.051
18	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	2:09.019	1:48.992	+4.258
19	25	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Ford	2:07.652	1:48.994	+4.260
20	2	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	2:13.080	1:49.245	+4.511
21	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	2:10.632	1:49.250	+4.516
22	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	2:12.092	1:49.466	+4.732
23	26	Raul Boesel	Ligier-Ford	2:12.164	1:49.540	+4.806
24	32	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	2:15.556	1:49.885	+5.151
25	23	Mauro Baldi	Alfa Romeo	2:11.169	1:49.916	+5.182
26	34	Johnny Cecotto	Theodore-Ford	2:14.547	1:51.709	+6.975
27‡	31	Corrado Fabi	Osella-Ford	2:15.085	1:53.516	+8.782
Source:

‡ - Driver failed to qualify for the race.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	G	60	1:50:53.669	6	9
2	1	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	G	60	+ 7.702	12	6
3	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	M	60	+ 9.283	21	4
4	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	M	60	+ 1:12.185	2	3
5	2	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	G	60	+ 1:32.603	20	2
6	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	P	59	+ 1 Lap	14	1
7	30	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Ford	G	59	+ 1 Lap	10
8	15	Alain Prost	Renault	M	59	+ 1 Lap	13
9	36	Bruno Giacomelli	Toleman-Hart	P	59	+ 1 Lap	17
10	26	Raul Boesel	Ligier-Ford	M	58	+ 2 Laps	23
11	29	Marc Surer	Arrows-Ford	G	58	+ 2 Laps	5
12	23	Mauro Baldi	Alfa Romeo	M	56	+ 4 Laps	25
Ret	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	M	49	Suspension	18
NC	33	Roberto Guerrero	Theodore-Ford	G	38	+ 22 Laps	11
Ret	34	Johnny Cecotto	Theodore-Ford	G	34	Gearbox	26
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	M	33	Turbo	8
Ret	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	G	31	Electrical	1
Ret	4	Danny Sullivan	Tyrrell-Ford	G	30	Electrical	16
Ret	25	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Ford	M	29	Wheel	19
Ret	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	G	26	Collision	22
Ret	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	P	25	Engine	9
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	M	24	Brakes	15
Ret	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	P	5	Gearbox	4
Ret	16	Eddie Cheever	Renault	M	4	Distributor	7
Ret	32	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	M	4	Overheating	24
Ret	27	Patrick Tambay	Ferrari	G	0	Engine	3
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	28
2	Nelson Piquet	27
3	Patrick Tambay	23
4	Keke Rosberg	22
5	John Watson	15
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	36
2	Williams-Ford	32
3	Ferrari	31
4	Brabham-BMW	27
5	McLaren-Ford	25
Source:

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

Further reading

• Innes Ireland (October, 1983). "2nd Detroit Grand Prix: Cosworth Counterattack". Road & Track, 162–166.
• Mike S. Lang (1992). Grand Prix!: Race-by-race account of Formula 1 World Championship motor racing. Volume 4: 1981 to 1984. Haynes Publishing Group. ISBN 0-85429-733-2