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http://www.stradsplace.com/VIDEOS/1983_ ... Brazil.wmvWilliams retained defending world champion Keke Rosberg, but their number two seat, which had been occupied on a temporary basis by both Mario Andretti and Derek Daly in 1982 after the departure of Carlos Reutemann, was filled for 1983 by Ligier's Jacques Laffite. Ligier also lost Eddie Cheever to Renault, and replaced them with Jean-Pierre Jarier, signed from Osella, and Raul Boesel, formerly of March.
Osella filled Jarier's seat with Corrado Fabi, brother of Teo, who had raced for Toleman in 1982. Fabi was joined by fellow Italian debutante Piercarlo Ghinzani, who filled the seat which had been vacant since Riccardo Paletti's death in Canada.
The March team united with RAM Racing and became RAM March. As well as Boesel, Rupert Keegan was also replaced by the team, who shrunk to just one car, for Eliseo Salazar of ATS. The German team were also reduced to one car, run for Manfred Winkelhock who had driven alongside Salazar in 1982.
Tyrrell kept Michele Alboreto as their team leader after the Italian won for the first time at the last race of 1982. They replaced Brian Henton in the other car with American rookie Danny Sullivan.
The Brabham, McLaren and Lotus teams all retained both of their 1982 drivers - Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese for Brabham, John Watson and Niki Lauda with McLaren and Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell at Lotus.
Renault held on to team leader Alain Prost but lost René Arnoux to Ferrari, and poached Cheever from Ligier to replace him. Alfa Romeo also kept their team leader, Andrea de Cesaris, but replaced Bruno Giacomelli with Mauro Baldi, signed from Arrows.
, that we don't have in the 21st century!Yep, I +1ed you. The golden years of F1 are no more golden than we have now... That's not to say that the golden years weren't great, instead, simply to say that what we have now is probably the (equal) best F1 has ever been. People need to stop staring at the late 80s/early 90s with rose tinted glasses, what we have now is amazing!hollus wrote:Very nice, thanks for posting it, SeijaKessen.
I watched it with interest since I started following F1 in 86 at a tender age and understanding it much later. I wanted to compare to what I know from more recent times.
Was this supposed to be a particularly good race? In that sense I was dissapointed.
I saw none of the action expected from the "golden years". The leaders were haunting each other for the whole race, true, but we had a faster car stuck behind a slower one due to a top speed deficit that nullified slipstreaming, that car eventually pulling away easily once in clean air, and cars without top speed deficit passing too easily in the straights. One could even see the difficulty to get closer than half a second to the car in front int eh first place. All of that is strangely reminiscent of modern times...
Unpredictability, yes, as the race was eventually decided by mechanical failures (this I did remember from the late 80s).
I also wanted to see the mythical Ostkurve before it was tamed, and saw a nice corner, like many we have now, but no obvious wow moments and the rest of the track could be described as long straights with a mickey mouse section where nothing ever happened.
I wanted to see wild slip-streaming duels, and found none.
I wanted to see longer braking distances and the consequent daredevil passes under breaking, but the (really long) barking areas didn't help and the one actually interesting pass happened because of traffic.
I don't want to sounds negative, but I saw nothing in this 1981 race that we don't have in the 2010s...
P.S. The ad at 57 minutes, that was truly unique 80's vintage
Anyone who relies on funky tires and DRS to enjoy Formula One - and I'm not specifically addressing anyone, by the way - with the thought that those concepts seek to return the sport to the "golden years," or an era when overtaking was prevalent and parity was the rule, would be bitterly disappointed by what they saw if they could actually go back and see the "golden years." The notion that earlier periods featured more "action" is nothing more than a myth brought forth by the fact that most people used to read about grands prix after they happened rather than watch them live, and the sports writers who penned those articles were given to practice sensationalist storytelling from time to time.hollus wrote:[...]
Was this supposed to be a particularly good race? In that sense I was dissapointed.
I saw none of the action expected from the "golden years".
[...]
I suppose if you like unimaginative, glorified spec racing, today is fantastic.beelsebob wrote: Yep, I +1ed you. The golden years of F1 are no more golden than we have now... That's not to say that the golden years weren't great, instead, simply to say that what we have now is probably the (equal) best F1 has ever been. People need to stop staring at the late 80s/early 90s with rose tinted glasses, what we have now is amazing!