1985 South African Grand Prix

Last updated

1985 South African Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One World Championship
Kyalami 1961 - 1988 Layout.png
Race details
Date19 October 1985
Location Kyalami
Transvaal Province, South Africa
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.104 km (2.550 miles)
Distance 75 laps, 307.800 km (191.258 miles)
Weather Sunny, hot and dry
Pole position
Driver
 Williams-Honda
Time 1:02.366
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Finland.svg Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda
Time 1:08.149 on lap 74
Podium
First
 Williams-Honda
Second
 Williams-Honda
Third
 McLaren-TAG
Lap leaders
  • 1985 South African Grand Prix

The 1985 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 19 October 1985 at the Kyalami Circuit in South Africa. It was the fifteenth and penultimate round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Contents

The race was marked with some teams boycotting the event due to apartheid – the segregation of blacks and whites – and was the last South African Formula One race until apartheid ended in 1992. The race was won by Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Honda, who also took pole position.

Report

Until the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, this was the last World Championship Grand Prix to be held on a Saturday,; [1] [2] it also was the last World Championship Grand Prix where laurel wreaths were given to the drivers at the podium. [3] The event was boycotted by two teams, Ligier and Renault, owing to mounting international pressures against tolerating the country's system of apartheid. A state of emergency had been declared by the South African government in July due to growing civil unrest nationwide, and French teams Ligier and Renault's boycotts were in lockstep with the French government's boycott and sanctioning of South Africa, [4] apparently doing so under pressure. [5] Most of the Formula One drivers, including Alain Prost, Niki Lauda and Nigel Mansell were personally very much against racing in South Africa, but the drivers held the mentality that because they were contracted to drive at every Grand Prix, they would race at Kyalami. [6]

Some governments tried to keep their drivers from entering the race. Brazil's sanctions on South Africa nearly prevented Nelson Piquet or Ayrton Senna from racing. [7]

Finland and Sweden held similar reservations regarding Finn Keke Rosberg and Swede Stefan Johansson competing. [7] Sweden's National Automobile Federation had announced Johansson could not race in South Africa before the event, [7] but he did race.

Ayrton Senna initially said he would race if Lotus raced. However, he later said he would boycott the race. [8]

Multiple sponsors also ordered teams to remove their branding from cars they backed, most notably Marlboro and Beatrice Foods.

The latter held an equity interest in the single car Haas Lola team. While Alan Jones qualified 18th for that team, his car was not on the starting grid. Officially Jones cited illness as to why he did not race, but it was widely rumored at the time that Beatrice ordered the team to boycott. [6] In 2017, Jones described a meeting with Bernie Ecclestone the night before the race, who suggested that Jones feign illness the next morning and not show up. Ecclestone described how Beatrice were under pressure in the US from activists such as Jesse Jackson not to race, under threats including strike action by African Americans working in their businesses. Only Jones and team management Teddy Mayer and Carl Haas were aware of this plan. Jones said "And so, on the Saturday morning I was gone. I just didn’t turn up. They had the car out ready to go, when they were told, "AJ’s been struck down by a virus and we are not racing"." [9] [10]

It was the final South African Grand Prix until apartheid ended, with FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre announcing days after the race that the Grand Prix would not return to the nation for 1986 because of apartheid. [5] Even without the political pressures, this might well have been the final Formula One race held at Kyalami in its then form: FISA had long since deemed that circuits where lap times were under 60 seconds were considered too small for Grand Prix racing and with car speeds increasing all the time, it was reasonable to conclude that lap times from 1986 would be under 60 seconds. Kyalami's pole position time had actually fallen by over 10 seconds since the 1981 race, and Mansell's 1985 pole time of 1:02.366, at an average speed of 237 km/h (147 mph), was over two and a half seconds faster than Nelson Piquet's 1984 pole time of 1:04.871.

During qualifying, the Brabham BMW's reached 332 km/h (206 mph) on the 1.65 km (1.0 mi) long front straight, just 3 km/h (2 mph) shy of their season's best at Paul Ricard in France some 3 months earlier.

The South African Grand Prix would only return in 1992, after apartheid ended, in a new configuration of the Kyalami circuit. Mansell would also win the 1992 race driving a Williams, albeit with a naturally-aspirated Renault engine. [11]

Classification

Qualifying

Pole position went to Nigel Mansell, averaging 236.898 km/h (147.201 mph).

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:03.1881:02.366—
27 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:03.8441:02.490+0.124
36 Flag of Finland.svg Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:03.0731:02.504+0.138
412 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:04.5171:02.825+0.459
58 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 1:05.4111:04.088+1.722
611 Flag of Italy.svg Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:04.6111:04.129+1.763
719 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:06.0831:04.215+1.849
81 Flag of Austria.svg Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:05.3571:04.283+1.917
92 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:05.7571:04.376+2.010
1018 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:05.0791:04.518+2.152
1117 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:06.5461:04.780+2.414
1222 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:06.3861:04.948+2.582
1320 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 1:07.8001:05.114+2.748
1423 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:07.1591:05.260+2.894
1527 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:05.2681:05.757+2.902
1628 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:05.4061:05.388+3.022
173 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:06.7091:05.649+3.283
1833 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alan Jones Lola-Hart 1:07.1441:05.731+3.365
194 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:07.9351:06.205+3.839
2029 Flag of Italy.svg Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:10.0251:08.658+6.292
2124 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:09.9041:09.873+7.507

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 751:28:22.86619
26 Flag of Finland.svg Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 75+ 7.57236
32 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 74+ 1 Lap94
428 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson Ferrari 74+ 1 Lap163
517 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 74+ 1 Lap112
618 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 74+ 1 Lap101
73 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 73+ 2 Laps17 
Ret11 Flag of Italy.svg Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 52Engine6 
Ret29 Flag of Italy.svg Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 45Radiator20 
Ret1 Flag of Austria.svg Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 37Turbo8 
Ret4 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 16Accident19 
Ret12 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 8Engine4 
Ret27 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 8Turbo15 
Ret7 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 6Engine2 
Ret20 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 4Engine13 
Ret19 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 3Engine7 
Ret8 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 3Engine5 
Ret24 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 1Electrical21 
Ret22 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 0Collision12 
Ret23 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 0Collision14 
DNS33 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alan Jones Lola-Hart Withdrew18 
Source: [12]

Championship standings after the race

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References

  1. ↑ "F1 to return to Las Vegas with Saturday night race in 2023". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "The best Formula 1 schedule ever? Las Vegas Grand Prix schedule". AutoGear UK via MSN.com. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "FORMULA 1 brings back history: The first three SPRINT RACES win the WREATH" . Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  4. ↑ Walker, Rob (February 1986). "Tiger, Tiger". Road & Track . 37 (6). New York, United States: Hachette Filipacchi Médias: 122.
  5. 1 2 Paskman, Ken (24 October 1985). "Auto Racing". The Orlando Sentinel. p. B-2. Retrieved 5 November 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "1985 South African Grand Prix flashback". 5 February 2008. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Martin, Gordon (17 September 1985). "The Apartheid Controversy Reaches Formula 1 Racing". San Francisco Chronicle (Final Edition). San Francisco, California, United States: Hearst Communications: 63.
  8. ↑ "Injury shelves Lauda". The Gazette. 27 September 1985. p. C-12. Retrieved 5 November 2020– via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Jones, Clarke. AJ: How Alan Jones Climbed to the Top of Formula One. Penguin Random House Australia.
  10. ↑ "Australian F1 legend Alan Jones reveals untold story about his unusual absence from a grand prix". news.com.au. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  11. ↑ "Grand Prix Results: South African GP, 1992". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  12. ↑ "1985 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  13. 1 2 "South Africa 1985 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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