The 1983 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on 17 April 1983. It was the third race of the 1983 Formula One World Championship.
French driver Alain Prost won the race for the Renault team, and this was the French marque's 3rd French Grand Prix win in a row and the 4th in 5 seasons. Second was the Brabham-BMW of World Champion Nelson Piquet, with Prost's Renault teammate Eddie Cheever finishing third. Rounding out the points finishers were Patrick Tambay in his Ferrari, and the non-turbo Williamses of Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite. This was the final time that both Renault cars started on the front row until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix, when young Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli started on the front row.
Summary Qualifying On home soil, Renault dominated the French Grand Prix. Alain Prost took pole position 2.3 seconds faster than second placed teammate Eddie Cheever. It would be Cheever's best ever qualifying position in Formula One. On the fast Circuit Paul Ricard with its 1.8 km long Mistral Straight, the turbo engines with their greater power had a large advantage. The fastest normally-aspirated car was the 12th placed McLaren-Ford of Long Beach runner up Niki Lauda, qualifying some 4.3 seconds slower than pole-sitter Prost. After occupying the front row of the grid at Long Beach, Ferrari had difficulty with René Arnoux qualifying 4th and Tambay faring worse, only qualifying 11th.
Chico Serra returned to the grid in the No.30 Arrows-Ford after the expected sponsorship that would have kept Australia's World Champion Alan Jones in the seat for the remainder of the season fell through at the last minute. Serra, who qualified 26th in France, would only last this and the next two races in Imola and Monaco before Arrows team boss Jackie Oliver replaced him for good with Belgian rookie Thierry Boutsen (who had finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 1981 and 1982 European Formula Two Championships) at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Failing to qualify for the race were the RAM-Fords of Eliseo Salazar and debutante Jean-Louis Schlesser, and the Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani.
Race As he had done in qualifying, Prost dominated the race for his first win in over 12 months, only losing the lead during the mid-race pit stops. Piquet finished second in the Brabham-BMW while Eddie Cheever finished 3rd in his Renault. Tambay managed to salvage what had been a tough weekend by finishing 4th with the Williams pair of Rosberg and Laffite finishing a lap down in 5th and 6th respectively.
Before the race, Lotus driver Nigel Mansell had his toes accidentally run over by his own team pushing his car in the pits which caused him to need a pain killing injection. He started the race but retired after just 6 laps when the pain of pushing the pedals became unbearable. Long Beach winner John Watson was the races first retirement on lap 3 with engine failure in his McLaren.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 15 Alain Prost Renault1:38.3581:36.672 — 2 16 Eddie Cheever Renault1:38.9801:39.785 +2.308 3 6 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW1:41.0951:39.104 +2.432 4 28 René Arnoux Ferrari1:40.0271:39.115 +2.443 5 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault1:39.5121:39.312 +2.640 6 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW1:39.6011:39.746 +2.929 7 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo1:38.099†1:39.611 +2.939 8 23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo1:41.2151:39.618 +2.946 9 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart1:43.0381:39.881 +3.209 10 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW1:40.2331:44.997 +3.561 11 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari1:40.3931:40.488 +3.721 12 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford1:41.0651:41.492 +4.393 13 36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart1:42.2191:41.775 +5.103 14 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford1:41.8381:42.448 +5.166 15 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford1:42.1771:43.317 +5.505 16 1 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford1:42.4501:42.551 +5.778 17 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford1:43.5521:42.615 +5.943 18 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford1:43.3201:42.650 +5.978 19 2 Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford1:43.2951:42.678 +6.006 20 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford1:42.8081:42.737 +6.065 21 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford1:42.9621:44.346 +6.290 22 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford1:43.3671:43.602 +6.695 23 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Ford1:45.6381:43.411 +6.739 24 4 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford1:44.3171:43.654 +6.982 25 26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford1:44.4701:44.905 +7.798 26 30 Chico Serra Arrows-Ford1:44.7781:45.859 +8.106 27 17 Eliseo Salazar RAM-Ford1:45.0732:02.335 +8.401 28 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford1:46.5411:45.812 +9.140 29 18 Jean-Louis Schlesser RAM-Ford1:45.8661:46.102 +9.194Source:
† — Time disallowed
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 15 Alain Prost Renault 54 1:34:13.913 1 9 2 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 54 + 29.720 6 6 3 16 Eddie Cheever Renault 54 + 40.232 2 4 4 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari 54 + 1:06.880 11 3 5 1 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford 53 + 1 Lap 16 2 6 2 Jacques Laffite Williams-Ford 53 + 1 Lap 19 1 7 28 René Arnoux Ferrari 53 + 1 Lap 4 8 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 53 + 1 Lap 15 9 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Ford 53 + 1 Lap 20 10 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 53 + 1 Lap 21 11 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Ford 52 + 2 Laps 17 12 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo 50 + 4 Laps 7 13 36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart 49 Gearbox 13 26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Ford 47 Engine 25 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Ford 36 Engine 23 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 36 Turbo 10 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford 29 Wheel bearing 12 23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo 28 Spun Off 8 30 Chico Serra Arrows-Ford 26 Gearbox 26 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Ford 23 Engine 22 4 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Ford 21 Clutch 24 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 20 Electrical 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 19 Water Leak 3 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 14 Engine 9 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 6 Physical 18 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 3 Engine 14 17 Eliseo Salazar RAM-Ford 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 18 Jean-Louis Schlesser RAM-Ford Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 15 2 Niki Lauda 10 3 Alain Prost 9 4 John Watson 9 5 Jacques Laffite 7Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Ford 19 2 Brabham-BMW 15 3 Renault 13 4 Ferrari 9 5 Williams-Ford 9Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References