Seven months after the first race of the season at Rio de Janeiro, the F1 world was at the Kyalami circuit near Johannesburg for the final race. Most racers and their team boss were relaxing at the Kyalami Ranch on Wednesday before the race. It looked almost like a holiday.
But it is not all peace and quit. From tomorrow, they will be fighting with each other with 700 pK in their back at 300 km/h. The South-African GP was the last race of the 1983 season.Like in 1982, it would be the title deciding race.
The first eight races of the season were won by seven different drivers. Only during the summer, it appeared that Alain Prost and Renault got the upper hand. But then there was Rene Arnoux and Nelson Piquet who were the best in the last races. All three could become world champion: Prost has 57 points, Piquet 55 and Arnoux 49. Who would win was interesting, but which car would be the first car with a turbo-compression engine that wins a F1 championship?
Remember that already in 1977 Renault had a turbocharged engine and in 1979, they obtained their first win. Ferrari followed in1980 and then BMW, Honda and Porsche. This turbo-power-war got extreme in 1983, especially during qualifying. The turbopressure was fully open, helped by more and more technical innovations. Also during the season there were experiments with special fuel based on a mixture of petrol, kerosine and other chemicals. In that field it was Brabham who was the most inventive.
An employee of the French airplane company UTA alarmed Renault Sport one week before the race. He had seen at the Paris airport fuel tanks labelled “Brabham”, destination Johannesburg. The rule however was that it was not allowed to import fuel and all teams had to use local Avgas fuel. But Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA were close friends, so the rule must not be interpreted so strictly. Renault and Prost were getting worried about it. Prost had already four wins; Arnoux had three wins but a lousy first part of the season; Piquet who only had won the Brazilian GP was now a consistent top 6 finisher. And Prost had made a silly mistake at Zandvoort, a DNF at Monza and only second in the European GP after winner Piquet.
The F1 final round started with two days tyre-testing sessions. Patrick Tambay, not sure where he would be driving next year, was the fastest. But also fast were Niki Lauda with the TAG Porsche Turbo engine and the new Williams FW09-Honda. Prost was again worried about all this. He even was convinced that Lauda would help Piquet and that Tambay would do that for Arnoux. And his biggest fear was that his Renault RE40 with an updated engine would not be fast enough. Prost looked worried and preoccupied, very nervous nail-biting all the time. He was most of the time on the golf course; he did not want to see the French press.
And yes. First official training on Thursday. Piquet was fastest, Arnoux second and Prost only seventh. But already two BMW engines went up in smoke! In the afternoon, Prost was able to smile a little: third fastest after Tambay and Piquet and only by a small margin. And Arnoux put himself out of the race. His Ferrari stopped on track due to an electrical failure. He helped to push the car off the track but his right foot got stuck under the front wheel. He was flown to the hospital, nothing broken, but a lot of pain.
On Saturday, nothing changes. Patrick Tambay was still the fastest and would start from pole-position. Next to him was Piquet, second row Patrese and Arnoux, Prost fifth.
After the qualifying sessions, war started. Jean Sage, Renault’s team manager, wanted to know on behalf of all teams in which lap each team scheduled their pitstop. This to prevent any chaos. Bernie Ecclestone took over. He handed out on a typed paper the strategy. Brabham would take fuel and tyres in lap 27 and 46, Renault in lap 36 and 42. How about that. Everybody suspected that Bernie would order Patrese to escape on low fuel and soft tyres in order to do an early pits stop and Piquet would then pit later.
Sunday, warming -up laps. Lauda was the fastest, in front of Patrese, Piquet and Prost.
At the start of the race, the two Brabham cars immediately passed Tambay. Riccardo Patrese in the #6 Brabham blocked the rest of the drivers, while Piquet in the #5 flew away after the first corner. Arnoux was out for the title. His left front tyre got deflated and he had to pit. In lap 8, his engine gave up.
Piquet had created an advantage of half a minute. In lap 28 he could come for fuel and tyres without losing the lead. Prost was stuck behind Patrese from the start and he even had to let Lauda pass him. Then on lap 33, a Renault turbo breakdown. No crown for Prost this year.
After all pit stops in lap 47: Piquet in front of Patrese and Lauda followed by the duel since the start between Tambay and De Cesaris. He had to stop his Ferrari in lap 57 with also a broken engine.
Piquet started to play it safe. From mid-race after the “PROST OUT” sign from the pit wall, he lowered the turbo pressure of his BT52. He let Patrese and Lauda pass him. When the McLaren stopped (Lap 71 ) he let De Cesaris past. He was still on the podium, finishing third and the four points were enough for the best of it all: Nelson Piquet was the world Champion. And this for the second time. The worst thing: Prost was sacked by Renault two days after the race.
Publication: 02/10/2025Back to overview
