1982 United States Grand Prix West

1982 United States Grand Prix West
Race 3 of 16 in the 1982 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	April 4, 1982
Official name	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Location	Long Beach, California
Course	Temporary street course
Course length	3.428 km (2.13 miles)
Distance	75.5 laps, 258.814 km (160.82 miles)
Weather	Clear and warm with temperatures reaching up to 63.9 °F (17.7 °C); wind speeds approaching speeds up to 11.8 miles per hour (19.0 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo
Time	1:27.316
Fastest lap
Driver	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford
Time	1:30.831 on lap 12
Podium
First	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford
Second	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford
Third	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1982 United States Grand Prix West (officially the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach) was a Formula One motor race held on April 4, 1982, at the temporary street circuit at Long Beach, California.

Summary

In his third race since returning from a self-imposed two-year "retirement," Austrian Niki Lauda won the seventh United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach, ahead of Keke Rosberg. It was the 18th victory of Lauda's career, and his first for McLaren. Canada's Gilles Villeneuve crossed the line in third, but he was disqualified after the race when a protest of his Ferrari's rear wing was upheld by the officials.

Just five days after the previous race in Brazil, Carlos Reutemann had shocked his boss Frank Williams, and everyone else in the paddock, by announcing his retirement. When former World Champion (for Williams) Alan Jones insisted he was not available, Williams contacted another former Champion, American Mario Andretti. His commitment to the Patrick Indy racing team posed no conflicts, so he agreed to drive the second Williams for the weekend, saying, "I had nothing else to do, so I accepted."

Significant changes had been made to the course since the previous year's race. The Queen's Hairpin at the end of Shoreline Drive had been transformed into a right-angle turn that led into a new section of track with several demanding corners, leading up to Ocean Boulevard. On the other end of the course, the short straight at the bottom of the hill from Linden Avenue had been lengthened and a chicane had been inserted near the beginning of the curving Shoreline Drive "straight," in anticipation of the pits being moved there from Ocean Boulevard. The changes increased the length of the lap only slightly, but added about ten seconds to the previous year's times as the drivers became acclimated to the new layout.

In Saturday's qualifying, the cars running on Michelin tires had a decided advantage over the Goodyear teams, though the Michelin men had all learned from Lauda's times on Friday that their harder race tires were faster than the qualifiers. Seeing this development, Lauda intentionally used only one set and kept a brand new set for Sunday's race. Lauda topped the charts through almost the entire session, but, after crashing into a wall early on, Andrea de Cesaris threw his Alfa Romeo around in 1:27.316 to beat Lauda's time by .012 of a second, three minutes before the session ended. It was the Italian's first pole position (his only pole in 208 career starts), and he was ecstatic. At the time, de Cesaris was the youngest driver to achieve pole position, a record beaten by Rubens Barrichello at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix. Lauda, meanwhile, knew he had a fresh set of rubber for the race, while de Cesaris did not. Defending World Champion Nelson Piquet was the fastest Goodyear runner, in sixth position on the grid. The two American drivers were together in Row 7 as Eddie Cheever recovered from an early collision with the wall to put his Talbot Ligier in the thirteenth spot, while Andretti was still getting used to the Williams and ended up alongside Cheever in fourteenth.

Sunday was clear, warm and gorgeous with a crowd of 82,000. As the cars formed on the grid for the start, Lotus driver Elio de Angelis lined up on the wrong side (he claimed he was waved into the wrong place). He quickly backed out of the spot, bumping his teammate Nigel Mansell behind him. When Mansell put his car into reverse, thinking that de Angelis was coming back further, the green light came on. As a result, Mansell claims to be the only driver to have started a race in reverse. Everyone got away cleanly, though Mansell found himself near the back of the field. At the front, de Cesaris made an excellent start, jumping into the lead ahead of Lauda and René Arnoux.

At the end of the first lap, de Cesaris led by two seconds, followed by Arnoux, Lauda, Bruno Giacomelli, Villeneuve, Alain Prost, Didier Pironi, Rosberg, Piquet, Michele Alboreto, John Watson, Cheever and Andretti. On lap six, with the Italian beginning to stretch his lead slightly, his Alfa Romeo teammate Giacomelli closed up on Lauda, who was right behind Arnoux. As the three cars approached the hairpin, Giacomelli made a run down the outside of Lauda, locked up his brakes and slid into the back of Arnoux's Renault. Both cars were out, and de Cesaris now led Lauda by 5.7 seconds, with Villeneuve in third. Prost hit the inside wall whilst under braking for the right hander at the end of Ocean Boulevard and was immediately out.

Lauda now began to cut into de Cesaris' lead, setting the race's fastest lap in the process. On lap 15, de Cesaris was held up by Raul Boesel's March in the chicane entering Shoreline Drive as he came up to lap him. This gave Lauda the momentum he needed to sweep by into the lead at the end of the straight, and the Austrian immediately began to pull away.

At the same time, Rosberg and Villeneuve were in the middle of a smashing battle over fourth place, behind John Watson. Over several laps, Rosberg closed the gap to Villeneuve until, on lap 19, he was right on the Ferrari's tail. On the next lap, the Williams edged briefly ahead between the hairpin and the new chicane, but the Ferrari's horsepower advantage allowed Villeneuve to retake the position down the Shoreline Drive straight. Rosberg repeated his pass in the same spot on the following lap, and this time was able to fight off Villeneuve's attempt to outbrake him into the right-hander at the end of the straight. Villeneuve, in fact, overshot the corner and slid up the escape road. Piquet was just about to slip by when Villeneuve jumped back on the track in front of him and salvaged his hold on fifth place.

Meanwhile, Andretti had advanced from fourteenth on the grid to ninth in the second Williams, with a best lap faster than teammate Rosberg's. On lap 19, however, he lost it in the "marbles" of tire rubber that were collecting off-line and damaged his suspension against the wall in Turn 4. Rosberg continued, his eyes now on Watson's McLaren. Watson had jumped from eleventh on the grid to third in just eight laps, taking advantage of the softer Michelin tire compound he had chosen. For six laps, the two cars were nose to tail, until Watson had to give way on lap 27 as his softer tires went off. Rosberg quickly pulled away and Watson stopped for new rubber just two laps later.

At the front, Lauda suddenly increased his lead over de Cesaris from five seconds to 10 around lap 30, when the Alfa developed brake trouble. Apparently content now with second place, but possibly distracted by smoke from an engine fire, the Italian lost concentration and shockingly flew off the road into the Turn Five wall on lap 34, ripping off two wheels and the right sidepod. This left Lauda almost a full minute ahead of Rosberg, with only Villeneuve, Alboreto and Cheever also on the lead lap.

After a tire stop, Cheever retired from a fine drive in the Talbot Ligier with gearbox failure. On lap 59, Riccardo Patrese took fourth from Alboreto, who was struggling with damage from a battle with Villeneuve. This became third in the books when the stewards accepted Tyrrell's protest of Ferrari's staggered, two-part rear wing, aimed at circumventing the 110 cm limit on its width, and Villeneuve was disqualified.

Lauda came home nearly 15 seconds ahead for his second win in the United States, along with the 1975 Watkins Glen race, and Rosberg secured a fine second place. For the only time (although there are scheduled to be 3 races held in the US during the 2023 Formula One World Championship), this would be one of three American races in the same season, with the inaugural Detroit race and the Championship clincher in Las Vegas still to come.

Classification

Pre-qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time
	18	Raul Boesel	March-Ford	unknown
	31	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	unknown
	32	Riccardo Paletti	Osella-Ford	unknown
	36	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	unknown
5	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1:37.264

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	1:31.095	1:27.316
2	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	1:28.791	1:27.436	+0.120
3	16	René Arnoux	Renault	1:31.159	1:27.763	+0.447
4	15	Alain Prost	Renault	1:29.935	1:27.979	+0.663
5	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1:30.669	1:28.087	+0.771
6	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1:29.934	1:28.276	+0.960
7	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1:29.949	1:28.476	+1.160
8	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	1:28.576	1:29.042	+1.260
9	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1:30.125	1:28.680	+1.364
10	31	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	1:31.383	1:28.708	+1.392
11	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1:32.900	1:28.885	+1.569
12	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1:31.084	1:29.027	+1.711
13	25	Eddie Cheever	Ligier-Matra	1:31.802	1:29.336	+2.020
14	5	Mario Andretti	Williams-Ford	1:31.190	1:29.468	+2.152
15	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1:31.432	1:29.587	+2.271
16	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	1:30.565	1:29.694	+2.378
17	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	1:30.117	1:29.758	+2.442
18	2	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-Ford	1:30.281	1:29.984	+2.632
19	14	Roberto Guerrero	Ensign-Ford	1:31.806	1:30.186	+2.870
20	29	Brian Henton	Arrows-Ford	1:32.607	1:30.474	+3.158
21	17	Jochen Mass	March-Ford	1:31.808	1:30.476	+3.160
22	33	Derek Daly	Theodore-Ford	1:32.502	1:30.919	+3.603
23	18	Raul Boesel	March-Ford	1:32.277	1:30.977	+3.661
24	4	Slim Borgudd	Tyrrell-Ford	1:31.768	1:31.033	+3.717
25	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-Ford	1:31.593	1:31.602	+4.277
26	10	Eliseo Salazar	ATS-Ford	1:33.663	1:31.825	+4.509
27	36	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	1:34.024	1:31.988	+4.672
28	32	Riccardo Paletti	Osella-Ford	1:33.289	1:32.146	+4.830
29	20	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:32.496	1:32.510	+5.180
30	30	Mauro Baldi	Arrows-Ford	1:33.701	1:34.320	+6.385

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	M	75	1:58:25.318	2	9
2	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	G	75	+ 14.660	8	6
3	2	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-Ford	G	75	+ 1:19.143	18	4
4	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	G	75	+ 1:20.947	12	3
5	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	G	74	+ 1 Lap	16	2
6	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	M	74	+ 1 Lap	11	1
7	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	G	73	+ 2 Laps	17
8	17	Jochen Mass	March-Ford	P	73	+ 2 Laps	21
9	18	Raul Boesel	March-Ford	P	70	+ 5 Laps	23
10	4	Slim Borgudd	Tyrrell-Ford	G	68	+ 7 Laps	24
DSQ	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	G	75	Illegal Rear Wing	7
Ret	25	Eddie Cheever	Ligier-Matra	M	59	Gearbox	13
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	M	33	Spun Off	1
Ret	29	Brian Henton	Arrows-Ford	P	32	Spun Off	20
Ret	14	Roberto Guerrero	Ensign-Ford	A	27	Spun Off	19
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	M	26	Spun Off	15
Ret	31	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	P	26	Transmission	10
Ret	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	G	25	Spun Off	6
Ret	33	Derek Daly	Theodore-Ford	A	23	Spun Off	22
Ret	5	Mario Andretti	Williams-Ford	G	19	Collision	14
Ret	15	Alain Prost	Renault	M	10	Spun Off	4
Ret	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	G	6	Spun Off	9
Ret	16	René Arnoux	Renault	M	5	Collision	3
Ret	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	M	5	Collision	5
Ret	10	Eliseo Salazar	ATS-Ford	A	3	Collision	26
Ret	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-Ford	A	1	Collision	25
DNQ	36	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	P
DNQ	32	Riccardo Paletti	Osella-Ford	P
DNQ	20	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	P
DNQ	30	Mauro Baldi	Arrows-Ford	P
DNPQ	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	P
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	18
2	Niki Lauda	12
3	Keke Rosberg	8
4	John Watson	8
5	Carlos Reutemann	6
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	22
2	McLaren-Ford	20
3	Williams-Ford	14
4	Lotus-Ford	6
5	Tyrrell-Ford	6
Source:

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

Further reading

• Rob Walker (July, 1982). "7th United States Grand Prix West: Three Is A Charm". Road & Track, 96–100.
• 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