1981 Classic GP Manager

[TTupsi]

1981 German Grand Prix

Surprisingly, the major talking point this weekend was Ligier. The French team brought their new FR02 chassis to Hockenheim in the hopes of improved performance. The old FRA-01 chassis has by no means been a bad one, de Cesaris and Cogan scoring five points in the last five races so the team management must be really confident with the new one.

There was another driver change too as Theodore Racing's David Kennedy's contract was terminated. The Irishman had only qualified to one race all season (DNF in Monaco) and was reportedly running low on sponsor money too. His replacement is unknown Colombian Ricardo Londoño who hasn't so far achieved anything noteworthy. Some people on the paddock even claimed that Londoño shouldn't be allowed to race due to his inexperience but was granted a racing license by RDFIA nevertheless.

Pre-qualifying
After Toleman's departure from pre-qualifying, March's Hans-Joachim Stuck has been the dominant driver. Another pre-qualifying win earned him and teammate Rahal a place in qualifying. Theodore's Rupert Keegan was second fastest only 0,107 seconds slower than Stuck but would need help from his unproven teammate as Alfa Romeos looked strong in 3rd and 4th. In the end, Londoño delivered to the surprise of many. Despite being sixth fastest of the session, he lost only half a second to Keegan and helped Theodore return to the qualifying fro the first time since Monaco.

Qualifying
McLarens and Tyrrells dominated again, this time Mansell was on pole. Nelson Piquet continued Ferrari's improved form with fifth fastest time while his teammate was still struggling in 12th. Arrowses, de Angelis and Depailler were in the top-10 as expected but one driver didn't really belong. Kevin Cogan showed the potential of Ligier's FR02 car with 8th fastest time.

In the back Stuck and Keegan continued their fine form from pre-qualifying by qualifying in the 10th row ahead of both Renaults and Lotuses! This time, to the surprise of everyone, Ricardo Londoño was actually able to qualify for the race! Perhaps the Colombian isn't as bad as most people think... Hans Binder and Bobby Rahal were the two not qualifying for the race.

Race
It was a clean start and the McLarens took the lead with Tyrrells and Piquet following. Overall the first lap was very calm and the biggest mover was Londoño, up six places to 20th. Other than that all drivers kept their positions.

Pironi had made his way up to third during first laps but a minor driving error dropped him behind Piquet in fifth. Andrea de Cesaris had a much larger error as he crashed with Mike Thackwell in Ostkurve, both retired.

Befire pit stops around lap 20 of 45 the order had remained largely the same, surprisingly because the long straights offered plenty of slipstreaming opportunities. Ferrari's Carlos Reutemann had used his chances the best as he was up to 7th before being the first to pit. Hoffmann's retirement had also helped him gain one position.

Renault was having yet another terrible weekend and it was made even worse as René Arnoux crashed out on lap 22. A few laps later his countryman Alain Prost went out too. It was Prost's fifth retirement in a row as the youngster seems to be struggling with his confidence at the moment. Laffite was the fourth Frenchman out today when his transmission broke around lap 32.

At that moment Mansell was still leading with six second over Scheckter who had passed Rosberg during pit stops but lead the Finn by only two seconds. Pironi was back in fourth but too far back to threaten for a podium place. Piquet and Reutemann were on their way to get Ferrari's first double points finish of the season but unfortunately the Brazilian suddenly lost all power on lap 36 and retired.

Piquet's retirement gto Cogan up to sixth briefly but Ligier FR02's first points would have to wait for a while still when the Williams drivers de Angelis and Alboreto caught and overtook teh American in the closing stages. Cogan even had a small off with three laps to go, dropping further half a minute back. Word out for the smaller teams around the tenth place as Toleman, March and Theodore each got one car to the finish line. Derek Warwick continued his brilliant form with yet another 10th place, just ahead of Hans-Joachim Stuck and notably Ricardo Londoño who truly showed why Theodore picked him as David Kennedy's replacement.

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The development market for the eleventh race is open! You have until Tuesday 16:00 EEST to make/modify your investments.

 

[kedy89]

Tyrrell
Happy to see both cars finishing the race, though maybe not the best order in regard to the drivers' championship. The battle with McLaren will probably go down to the wire, so we have to keep working hard to come out on top.

 

[Milos]

Arrows

Great, no pace, no reliability either..

 

[Deleted member 161052]

That's OK so far. But - if we can't score any further points, we should boost it up.

 

[Sasha Jednak]

Theodore
We are extremely happy for Ricardo, fantastic result for him and for the team. Low, let's repeat this.

 

[Omer Said]

Shadow
Prost's mistake was really shocking. But such things happen to young drivers. We believe in him. On the other hand, this was a race to forget for the team. Hopefully our team will recover quickly from this disastrious weekend.

 

[Aidan Keranen]

McLaren
Great stuff from both of the drivers today, Nigel has put in a great drive to grab the win and the third place for Keke is incredibly important for our championship. We've got 5 rounds to go and will be working extremely hard to bring home the titles.

 

[oorjit07]

Toleman
This race showed exactly why we hired Derek and we are really happy with him. It was a shame that Hans didn't qualify again but we think we can both our cars to qualify and finish soo.

 

[Tim.E]

Fittipaldi
It's a shame Depailler qualified so low up the field, Tambay had a great run. Sadly no points but we'll keep on trying.

 

[TTupsi]

1981 Austrian Grand Prix

With ten races completed we head to the last third of the season. Last year Arrows' Jacques Laffite took the pole and strolled to victory lane but hasn't been in form this season. Tyrrell and McLaren have been the driving forces and Didier Pironi comes to Österreichring as the championship leader but only four points over McLaren's Nigel Mansell. Because the circuit is located in the mountaineous region, the turbo engines of Renault and Hart should have a slight advantage over their competition.

Pre-qualifying
After three straight weekends without qualifying, Alfa Romeo was finally able to get out of pre-qualifying as Italian Siegfried Stohr topped the charts just ahead of pre-qualifying ace Hans-Joachim Stuck. Their teammates weren't really on form but luckily fast enough to guarantee March and Alfa Romeo a place in the main qualifying session. Rupert Keegan and Derek Daly had good speed too in 3rd and 4th respectively but abysmal results by Ricardo Londoño and Stefan Johansson (6th time in a row in bottom-two) prevented them from progressing.

Qualifying
Tyrrell started the season well with four pole positions in first five races but hadn't got that top position since Belgium. Jody Scheckter was able to stop the drought as he defeated Nigel Mansell to the pole by 67 thousands of a second. Ferrari's Carlos Reutemann had the best qualifying of his season in third while championship leader Pironi was fourth fastest.

Third row had two largely unexpected drivers in Andrea de Cesaris and Alain Prost. Ligier had a great day otherwise too following Kevin Cogan's ninth place. Rosberg and the Arrows's completed the top-10. Depailler, Williamses and disappointing Piquet were next fastest before Renault duo in eight row. The turbo engines really seemed to have a slight advantage today. In the back March's Stuck and Toleman's Binder failed to qualify for the race.

Race
Tyrrell's Didier Pironi got the best start of all as he shot into the lead from fourth in the grid. Scheckter got a nice start too but had to let Mansell grab P2 in the chicane. Biggest losers in the start were Williamses who lost a few places right from the go. In the first corner de Angelis made contact with Shadow's Ricardo Zunino forcing them both out of the race. Alboreto meanwhile dropped to 21st between Tambay and Rahal.

Top three began to build a gap quickly while the pack of Hoffmann, Prost, Rosberg, Reutemann, Laffite, de Cesaris, Piquet and Arnoux was running very tight. Prost however crashed out on lap 3, retiring for the fifth time in a row. Meanwhile Scheckter had dispatched Mansell and was challenging Pironi for the lead.

Overall the gaps were growing but there were some good fights going on too. By lap 20 of 53 everyone had made one pit stop and the lead was unchanged. Reutemann had caught Mansell, Laffite was fifth followed by Ligiers and Hoffmann. Depailler, Cheever and Arnoux were further back fighting for last places in top-10. Piquet and Rosberg had had their share of problems and were down in 12th and 17th respectively.

Ten laps later the order was very different after both Tyrrells had again encountered technical problems. Mansell inherited the lead and following Reutemann's retirement on lap 34, was in total control of the race. Andrea de Cesaris was having the race of his career so far in second. Ligier's effort was backed by Cogan in fourth. They were split by Laffite. Hoffmann and Piquet were on course for too but followed by Depailler, Rosberg, Giacomelli and Cheever.

Rosberg was the next one out on lap 39 and four laps later Laffite joined him from a certain podium finish. With just ten laps to go Mansell leading was nothing new but no one could have seen both Ligiers on course to podium! Hoffmann was struggling with his car late in the race and had already had to let Piquet past.

Come the chequered flag and Nigel Mansell took his third win of the season after a consistent drive. Ligiers got their first ever double podium after Nelson Piquet was unable to catch Kevin Cogan. Patrick Depailler was able to pass Ingo Hoffmann late in the race and the Brazilian had to settle for one point. It was a great day for Bruno Giacomelli too. After being only fifth fastest in Thursda's pre-qualifying, the Italian was able to bounce back and take Alfa Romeo's best result this season with 7th, also claiming them the important 12th place in constructors' standings.

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The development market for the eleventh race is open! You have until Monday 16:30 EEST to make/modify your investments.

 

[Aidan Keranen]

McLaren
Another stirring drive there from Nige, he's making the most of everything and really gaining the rewards. It's a real shame that Keke got hit today with some problems, but we fancy ourselves to be able to make amends for that.

 

[Milos]

I'm seriously getting fed up by this now.....

 

[kedy89]

Tyrrell
Another great result lost thanks to our poor reliability

 

[Tim.E]

Fittipaldi
Awesome drive by Patrick, he really had his tactics spot on today. We are really pleased by his performance. On the other hand it's a shame Patrick retired, he didn't have the form today. Though after the race he said to us that he has high hopes for the next race. That's yet to be seen.

 

[Omer Said]

Shadow
Just when we thought we handled the reliability problems, we started to have problems with our drivers. Alain proved a great performance at the qualifying, but he made a big mistake in the race. Ricardo also unnecessarily involved in a crash. We will have a talk with our guys and try to recover fast.

 

[Deleted member 161052]

Ligier
What a race that was for us. It's the best - result - ever. We've given the car Andrea wanted and the car Kevin wanted. We are very happy for both of them, for our Ford engine and for the performance from this race.

We hope we can win one day.

 

[Sasha Jednak]

Theodore
Fantastic result for the team, we really gave it all and managed to meet all our goals. First, both drivers were using wet weather tyres and they set competitive times. And then, they both manage to run 1 lap on foot and beat their own laptime. We are very happy and hoping that we can continue with meeting our goals.

 

[TTupsi]

1981 Dutch Grand Prix

Nigel Mansell comes to the Netherlands as the championship leader after recapturing the lead from Tyrrell's Didier Pironi at Österreichring. As we enter te last four races of the season it looks like a battle between McLaren and Tyrrell for the championships. They are separated by only 10 points in the constructors' championship and their drivers are leading the way in drivers too. Arrows' Ingo Hoffmann is their closest challenger in fifth but he is already 22 points behind Mansell.

Pre-qualifying
Friday morning pre-qualifying was one with little drama. Alfa Romeo's Bruno Giacomelli was clearly the fastest guy on track, securing the Italian marquee's place in qualifying by himself. Theodores of Ricardo Londoño and Rupert Keegan were second and third while their closest rivals March were over 0,2 seconds slower. Rebaque's Stefan Johansson was one of the positives after setting the seventh fastest time.

Qualifying
Qualifying proved to be extraordinary as the top six positions were held by six different teams! Scheckter took the pole and was followed by Rosberg. Their teammates and championship leaders Pironi and Mansell meanwhile were in fourth row with Laffite, de Angelis, Reutemann and de Cesaris between them. Fittipaldi's Tambay was ninth while Piquet's 10th place marked only the second time this season both Ferraris qualified in top-10.

Rest of the grid was as usual. Patrick Depailler returned to ninth row he has come so used to lately while Renaults were in positions 20+ after losing their turbo advantage after Austria. Derek Warwick was disqualified for the first time this season in main qualifying session after starting seven straight races. Theodore's rookie Ricardo Londoño was the other not taking part in the race.

Race
Laffite and Scheckter swapped positions at the start. Rosberg slotted in between them and de Angelis, Reutemann and de Cesaris behind. Tambay got up to seventh while Mansell dropped to 10th behind Prost. Overall it was a clean start but unfortunately Theodore's Rupert Keegan was the unlucky one and crashed out at the last corner.

Laffite wasn't able to hold on to his lead long as Rosberg breezed past at the beginning of lap three and began to build a gap. On lap five the Finn must have certainly been anything but unhappy to see Tyrrell #4 smoking by the side of the road. Once again a Ford engine had let Tyrrell down. Next ten laps saw another two top-10 running Cosworth cars retire as de Cesaris and de Angelis suffered technical problems.

Laffite was moving backwards rapidly and was down in third after 20 laps. Scheckter was now leading from Reutemann as Rosberg had made a pit stop and descended to seventh between Piquet and Alboreto. Mansell and Tambay were in fourth and fifth.

Almost everyone else was on a single stop strategy which helped Rosberg capture the lead briefly before his second stop on lap 36 of 72. He dropped to third after rejoining the track. At the halfway point of the race after everyone had made their scheduled stops, the running order was: Scheckter, Reutemann, Rosberg and Piquet in top-4 positions but considerable gaps between each other. Tighter battle was going on for P5 between Alboreto, Villeneuve and Prost. Mansell, Laffite and Tambay on the other hand had retired with various problems already.

Thackwell, Cogan and Cheever had climbed into top-10 thanks to other drivers retirements but soon Cogan was the only one remaining after two more retirements shrinking the field to 15 cars after only 42 laps. They weren't the last retirees however as one by one the drivers either crashed out or pulled off track with a cloud of smoke. Arnoux, Stohr, Piquet, Surer and Villeneuve were out by lap 57 and so the last 10 laps would only have 10 cars on track.

Scheckter had by now built a huge gap of over 35 seconds to second placed Rosberg who was still giving it all in order to catch the South African. As it turned out, it would have probably been wiser to settle for second. Scheckter had just started lap 60 when the TV cameras captured a picture of Rosberg climbing off a shattered McLaren. The Finn had crashed in the Marlboro corner just moments after lapping Ligier's Cogan who had crashed in the corner before.

A crazy race would have a crazy finish as the last laps saw even more drivers retire from the race. Prost's Cosworth blew up from P4, Reutemann's gearbox broke down from P2 and Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo boiled before finish. Luckily for the Italian he had completed 90% of the race distance, was classified and scored Alfa Romeo's first point of the season despite retiring!

Despite the very low number of finishers, there was never a doubt of the winner. Tyrrell's Jody Scheckter had a fantastic weekend capped with a dominant victory after lapping the whole field (of four cars). Michele Alboreto finished second for Williams and Jean-Pierre Jarier got the second podium finish of his career in third. The previous one was 7,5 years ago in Monaco... Hoffmann and Zunino came home two laps down but still earning valuable points.

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The development market for the eleventh race is open! You have until Friday 16:00 EEST to make/modify your investments.

 

[Deleted member 161052]

I crash.

 

[Aidan Keranen]

McLaren
Disappointing end for us, but we wouldn't have signed Keke if it wasn't for this sort of showing. We fully support the sort of driving style he brings, and hope that this won't stop him in his pursuit of going 'flat out'.
For Nigel, it was earlier in the race, hard to fault him, mistakes happen. We can't forget this is his second season of grand prix racing and he's leading the championship.
We'll go back and regroup after this. We'll be back stronger too.