1980 Argentine Grand Prix

1980 Argentine Grand Prix
Race 1 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Race details
Date	13 January 1980
Official name	XVI Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Location	Autodromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.81 km (3.61 miles)
Distance	53 laps, 307.93 km (191.33 miles)
Weather	Sunny, Very hot, Dry
Pole position
Driver	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Time	1:44.17
Fastest lap
Driver	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Time	1:50.45 on lap 5
Podium
First	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Second	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford
Third	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1980 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 13 January 1980 at the Autodromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Argentina. It was the opening round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was the 16th Argentine Grand Prix and the sixth to be held on the #15 variation of the Buenos Aires circuit. The race was held over 53 laps of the 5.81-kilometre (3.61 mi) circuit for a total race distance of 308 kilometres (191 mi).

The race was won by Australian driver Alan Jones driving a Williams FW07. It was Jones' sixth World Championship victory. Jones won by 24 seconds over Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham BT49. It was a prelude of the season to come, as Jones and Piquet would fight out the 1980 season. Another future world champion, Finnish driver Keke Rosberg, finished third driving a Fittipaldi F7.

Summary

This race was additionally notable for the drivers threatening to boycott the event because of the appalling state of the track, which was breaking up in many spots in the infield thanks to the intense heat of a Buenos Aires summer.

The immense grip of the aerodynamic suction created by the ground effect technology and the cars' tyres ^[1] and a battle between Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari 312T5), Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite (Ligier JS11/15) and Nelson Piquet, made it even more exciting due to the break-up of the track surface. Piquet finished second, Laffite retired with a blown engine and Villeneuve crashed going through the fast Tobogán complex due to a front suspension failure, although this was most likely exacerbated by a number of times he went off the very slippery track onto the sometimes bumpy and grassy run off area and consistently riding up the apex curbs of the Buenos Aires Autodrome.

Argentine driver Carlos Reutemann crying after leaving the race prematurely

The grass took out home favorite Carlos Reutemann (who had jumped into 5th at the start from 10th) in his first drive with Williams, who attempted to pass Piquet going into the Ascari chicane after the two mile flat out section. Reutemann slid off the track trying to pass Piquet on the outside of the Ascari chicane onto the grass run-off area. The two radiators in Reutemann's Williams FW07 sucked in grass and were both blocked, and the engines (already running at higher temperatures than normal) were even more prone to blowing up there in Buenos Aires because of the hot weather- a common problem at the Argentine Grand Prix.

Multiple drivers spun off the track in the infield section, including Reutemann's teammate Jones, who had a short pitstop to clean his air intakes, but quickly returned to the battle. Reutemann also went into the pits to clean out his air intakes, but the damage was done and he retired with a blown engine soon after. Unsure if he would race again after 1980, the Argentinian was in fact so disconsolate that he sat motionless in his car for a few minutes, then got out of his car, sat on the track next to his car and burst into tears; the patriotic Reutemann had never won his home Grand Prix and would never do so. ^[2]

The rate of attrition allowed Jody Scheckter into third place, but with just a handful of laps left suffered an engine failure in the Ferrari. This allowed Keke Rosberg to score his first ever podium in the same race as Piquet's first, and another future world champion Alain Prost (McLaren M29) scored a point on his Formula One début. It was a famous race of attrition on a terrible surface, where unusually the winner spun off twice and the runner-up once, and lap times were considerably slower than the previous year.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1:44.17	-
2	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	1:44.44	+ 0.27
3	25	Didier Pironi	Ligier-Ford	1:44.64	+ 0.47
4	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1:45.02	+ 0.85
5	12	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	1:45.46	+ 1.29
6	11	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	1:45.78	+ 1.61
7	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	1:46.01	+ 1.84
8	2	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1:46.07	+ 1.90
9	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	1:46.15	+ 1.98
10	28	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1:46.19	+ 2.02
11	1	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	1:46.28	+ 2.11
12	8	Alain Prost	McLaren-Ford	1:46.75	+ 2.58
13	21	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:46.97	+ 2.80
14	30	Jochen Mass	Arrows-Ford	1:47.05	+ 2.88
15	14	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	1:47.18	+ 3.01
16	6	Ricardo Zunino	Brabham-Ford	1:47.41	+ 3.24
17	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1:47.70	+ 3.53
18	3	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	1:47.83	+ 3.66
19	16	René Arnoux	Renault	1:48.24	+ 4.07
20	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1:48.44	+ 4.27
21	9	Marc Surer	ATS-Ford	1:48.86	+ 4.69
22	4	Derek Daly	Tyrrell-Ford	1:48.95	+ 4.78
23	22	Patrick Depailler	Alfa Romeo	1:49.20	+ 5.03
24	20	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:49.42	+ 5.25
25	18	David Kennedy	Shadow-Ford	1:50.25	+ 6.08
26	10	Jan Lammers	ATS-Ford	1:51.39	+ 7.21
27	17	Stefan Johansson	Shadow-Ford	1:51.57	+ 7.40
28	31	Eddie Cheever	Osella-Ford	1:54.21	+ 10.04
Source: [3]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	G	53	1:43:24.38	1	9
2	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	G	53	+ 24.59	4	6
3	21	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	G	53	+ 1:18.64	13	4
4	4	Derek Daly	Tyrrell-Ford	G	53	+ 1:23.48	22	3
5	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	G	52	+ 1 Lap	20	2
6	8	Alain Prost	McLaren-Ford	G	52	+ 1 Lap	12	1
7	6	Ricardo Zunino	Brabham-Ford	G	51	+ 2 Laps	16
Ret	22	Patrick Depailler	Alfa Romeo	G	46	Engine	23
Ret	1	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	M	45	Engine	11
NC	14	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	G	44	+ 9 Laps	15
NC	20	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	G	37	+ 16 Laps	24
Ret	2	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	M	36	Suspension	8
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	G	30	Engine	2
Ret	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	G	27	Engine	7
Ret	9	Marc Surer	ATS-Ford	G	27	Fire	21
Ret	11	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	G	20	Fuel System	6
Ret	30	Jochen Mass	Arrows-Ford	G	20	Gearbox	14
Ret	28	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	G	12	Engine	10
Ret	12	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	G	7	Suspension	5
Ret	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	G	5	Gearbox	17
Ret	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	M	3	Gearbox	9
Ret	16	René Arnoux	Renault	M	2	Suspension	19
Ret	25	Didier Pironi	Ligier-Ford	G	1	Engine	3
Ret	3	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	G	1	Collision	18
DNQ	18	David Kennedy	Shadow-Ford	G
DNQ	17	Stefan Johansson	Shadow-Ford	G
DNQ	10	Jan Lammers	ATS-Ford	G
DNQ	31	Eddie Cheever	Osella-Ford	G
Source: [4] [5]

Notes

• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Swedish driver Stefan Johansson, Irish driver David Kennedy and French driver and future World Champion Alain Prost.
• This was the 5th Grand Slam for an Australian driver.
• This was the 1st podium finish for a Finnish driver.
• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Italian constructor Osella.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alan Jones 9 2 Nelson Piquet 6 3 Keke Rosberg 4 4 Derek Daly 3 5 Bruno Giacomelli 2 Source: [6]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 9 2 Brabham-Ford 6 3 Fittipaldi-Ford 4 4 Tyrrell-Ford 3 5 Alfa Romeo 2 Source: [6]

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

References

1. "January 13 down the years: Local joy, local despair in Argentina". ESPN F1. ESPN EMEA Ltd. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
2. "Grand Prix Results: Argentine GP, 1980". Grandprix.com. Inside F1, Inc. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
3. "01/13/1980 race: Grand Prix of Argentina (F1) qualifying results - Racing-Reference.info". www.racing-reference.info. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
4. "1980 Argentine Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
5. "1980 Argentine Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 13 January 1980. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
6. "Argentina 1980 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.

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