1983 United States Grand Prix West

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = United States
Grand Prix = United States
GP_Suffix = West
Official name = 8th United States Grand Prix West
Date = March 27
Year = 1983
Race_No = 2
Season_No = 15
Location = Long Beach, California
Course = Temporary street course
Course_mi = 2.04
Course_km = 3.283
Distance_laps = 75
Distance_mi = 153.00
Distance_km = 246.230
Weather = Sunny, warm
Pole_Driver = flagicon|France Patrick Tambay
Pole_Team = Ferrari
Pole_Time = 1:26.117
Fast_Driver = flagicon|Austria Niki Lauda
Fast_Team = McLaren-Ford
Fast_Time = 1:28.330
Fast_L

First_Driver = flagicon|UK John Watson
First_Team = McLaren-Ford
Second_Driver = flagicon|Austria Niki Lauda
Second_Team = McLaren-Ford
Third_Driver = flagicon|France René Arnoux
Third_Team = Ferrari

The 1983 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on March 27, 1983 at Long Beach, California.

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After struggling mightily in qualifying, the McLaren team found their way on race day, as John Watson and Niki Lauda climbed from positions 22 and 23 on the grid to finish first and second in the final USGP West at Long Beach.

Once again, the circuit had been slightly modified, primarily to free up Ocean Boulevard, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Since the alternate route on Seaside Way included a tunnel under the Long Beach convention center, the pits were moved to the long, curving Shoreline Drive section, where the Start and Finish lines were reunited for the first time since 1977.

As practice began on Friday, it immediately became clear that the two huge bumps where the circuit rejoined the old layout at the end of the Seaside Way straight were wreaking havoc with both the drivers and cars. Some were being launched a foot off the ground by the uneven surface! More than one team was concerned that the suspension on their cars would never last more than a few laps under race conditions. In any case, René Arnoux (1:26.935) led Alain Prost, Patrick Tambay and Riccardo Patrese on the day's timing chart, while perennial front-runners Nelson Piquet, Lauda and Watson found their Michelin qualifying tires virtually useless.

Overnight, some quick work by the DOT and some quick-drying cement remedied the problem with the bumps quite nicely. Tambay grabbed his first pole with a stunning lap of 1:26.117, the only lap to beat teammate Arnoux's Friday time, and Keke Rosberg's 1:27.145, punctuated with massive oversteer-induced slides, was good enough for third on the grid, ahead of teammate Jacques Laffite. American Danny Sullivan, in his only season of Formula One, managed a fine ninth in the Tyrrell. Eddie Cheever was fifteenth in the second Renault, without the new chassis now available for teammate Prost, who was eighth. The McLarens of Watson and Lauda were never able to arrive at a balanced setup, and they would start in 22nd and 23rd position.

"On Sunday, warm and sunny, an excellent crowd saw Tambay jump to the front at the start. Rosberg, immediately behind him, tried to squeeze through the middle of the all-Ferrari front row. He touched Arnoux's right front with his left rear as he swung wide, but both continued, with Rosberg in second, followed by Laffite and Arnoux. At the end of Seaside Way, Rosberg looked inside Tambay as they approached the sharp right-hander, but locked up and spun completely aroundndash without hitting anything! He lost second to Laffite, but continued again with no apparent damage."

After one lap, Sullivan was up to sixth, behind Arnoux, and Cheever was ninth, immediately behind Prost. Sullivan was passed by Patrese on the second lap, and then by Prost and Cheever on lap three. Before long, however, Prost began dropping back with a misfire that had been plaguing him recurrently all weekend, and he finally pitted on lap 16. Cheever was able to get by Arnoux and Patrese when Arnoux began to lose grip from his Goodyears, and was up into fifth place. When Cheever entered the Renault pit for a new set of tires, however, he found the crew still frantically diagnosing Prost's engine; he was waved off and had to return when things had quieted down. The mechanics were able to solve the problem eventually, but, while Prost ran strongly to the end, he was able to do nothing but circle around three laps down.

Meanwhile, Rosberg had regained second place behind Tambay and, by lap 20, was again looking for a way by. The top six cars, in fact, were all running very close together, and Rosberg soon found himself under increasing pressure from Laffite, who was in turn being hounded by Jean-Pierre Jarier's Ligier and Patrese's Brabham.

"On lap 26, Rosberg could wait no longer and took the inside line entering the hairpin before the pits. As Tambay turned into the right-hand corner, his right rear tire bumped Rosberg's left front, bouncing the Ferrari into the air and spinning it around backwards, stalling the engine. Rosberg continued again, driving around the outside of the disabled car. As he entered the chicane before the start/finish line, he found his teammate Laffite alongside and Jarier almost touching his gearbox behind. The two Williams cars touched briefly, and Jarier ran into the back of Rosberg, who hit the wall, bounced off, and hit it again before sliding to a stop. Jarier continued, but only briefly, as a damaged front wing had spoiled his handling, and he retired in the pits."

Laffite was now in the lead, with Patrese in second. By lap 28, the McLaren twins, using their Michelin tires to full advantage as others pitted, were lying third and fourth, having just gotten by Marc Surer, Sullivan and Johnny Cecotto. When Watson got by Lauda at the end of Shoreline Drive, he was 20 seconds behind the two leaders. With Watson closing the gap to the front and Laffite's tires going off quickly, Patrese decided to give Laffite a go. His outbraking attempt failed when he slid up the escape road at Turn One on lap 43, and he could not rejoin until he had let Watson and Lauda go by. In just two more laps, both McLarens had gone around Laffite as well, and, from 22nd and 23rd on the grid, were now first and second.

With Laffite still struggling with his tires, Patrese was able to catch him up again and took third on lap 52. Arnoux was charging back through the field after a second tire stop, and was waging battle with Cheever for fifth place when they came upon Laffite on lap 67, again at the end of Shoreline Drive. At the hairpin, the Williams and Ferrari swapped places around Cheever, as Arnoux went from sixth to fourth in one corner. On the next lap, however, Cheever lost fifth place when he pulled off with a broken gearbox. With just three laps to go, Patrese retired from a sure third place when his distributor broke.

Lauda, suffering from a worsening cramp in his right leg, could not challenge Watson down the stretch, and the Ulsterman came home nearly half a minute ahead for his fifth victory. It was the farthest back from which a modern Grand Prix driver had ever come to win a race. Arnoux came through for a remarkable third, and Laffite hung on for fourth, ahead of Surer and Cecotto, who scored a point in just his second F1 race.

Classification

F1 race report
Name_of_race = United States Grand Prix West
Year_of_race = 1983
Previous_race_in_season = 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1983 French Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1982 United States Grand Prix West
Next_year's_race = None

Notes

* Rumors persisted all weekend that race organizer Chris Pook, the main figure in the attempt to create a "Monte Carlo of the United States" in Long Beach, had decided that Formula One was too expensive and risky, and, indeed, after the race, he announced that he planned to run a CART race at Long Beach in 1984 instead of F1. Despite tremendous success since the race's inception in 1976, and the observable impact of the global exposure it brought to the city, the organizers believed that the less expensive and more popular (in the United States at least) CART championship, dominated by American drivers, would be a more promising investment.

References

* Rob Walker (July, 1983). "8th United States Grand Prix West: Whiz Kids". "Road & Track", 144-149.
* Mike S. Lang (1992). "Grand Prix!: Race-by-race account of Formula 1 World Championship motor racing. Volume 4: 1981 to 1984". Haynes Publishing Group. ISBN 0-85429-733-2