The annual visit to the Österreichring was always a highlight with sometimes surprising results. Remember that Jo Siffert had his second and final world championship win here in a BRM in 1971. In 1975, a rain storm cut the race short, handing victory to the March of Vittorio Brambilla for the only time in his career. A year later, John Watson took his maiden win here driving for the legendary American Penske team, almost a year to the day after they had lost their driver Mark Donohue in an accident at this circuit. Alan Jones won in a wet-dry race in 1977 for Shadow, another American-owned team, while in 1980 and 1981, there were wins for French drivers in French cars, with Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s second and final win for Renault being followed by success for Jacques Laffite of Ligier.
The Lotus team was in 1982 by no bookmaker a favourite. The team had not won a race for a long time; Mario Andretti was their last winner. The reason for this could be Colin Chapman’s innovative designs like the ground effect with the Lotus 78 gave not the effect he wanted. Remember that his ingenious innovation, the Lotus 88, was banned by the FIA in 1981. The Lotus 88 was a twin-chassis car: both chassis worked independently, allowing the outer chassis to stick to the road and massively increase the ground effect. But the Lotus team also had troubles with sponsorship deals, like the Essex petroleum oil trader David Thieme ending up in jail. On top of that, Chapman had been accused of fraud in the development of a DMC DeLorean sportscar.
Lotus arrived in Austria in 1982 fifth in the championship, after a disappointing season so far.
In total, 29 cars were entered for the Austrian Grand Prix, with only 26 to qualify for the race. The fastest cars were again the turbo-powered cars, especially at this high altitude circuit. Piquet put his Brabham on pole position, just under fourth tenths faster than Patrese and over a second faster than the fastest non-Brabham, the Renault of Prost. Tambay was fourth in the only Ferrari, ahead of Arnoux. The fastest normally-aspirated car was Rosberg’s Williams in sixth, ahead of De Angelis in the Lotus, Tyrrell’s Michele Alboreto, Derek Daly in the second Williams, and home hero Lauda in the first of the McLarens – the top 10 was covered by only massive 4.5 seconds! McLaren team-mate Watson, in his new role as de facto championship leader, struggled to line up 18th, 6.5 seconds behind Piquet. The final qualifier, a full 7.4 seconds behind the pole-sitter, was Ireland’s Tommy Byrne(Theodore), the first time he had made the field since stepping into the small team for the German Grand Prix. He pipped March’s Raul Boesel by less than two tenths, with Osella’s Jean-Pierre Jarier and Salazar in the ATS also failing to make the field.
The start of the race at the old Österreichring was always a major hazard, as the start-finish straight was very narrow and unusually bounded by a barrier tight to the track on the far side. This had created numerous first lap incidents, and 1982 was no exception. As Piquet led the field on the climb up to the Hella-Licht chicane, the two Alfa’s of Andrea de Cesaris and Bruno Giacomelli tangled with Daly just a few meters into the race, eliminating all three cars and sending debris across the track.
At the front, Prost outmanoeuvred Patrese to take second, but the Italian soon re-passed the Renault on the run up to the Kurve. When the field came around at the end of the first lap, the Brabhams led Prost, Tambay, Arnoux, De Angelis, Rosberg and Alboreto.
However, this would immediately change dramatically. That debris that littered the circuit after the first-lap crash had not been fully cleared, and Tambay soon suffered the consequences, with his right rear tyre blowing up, leaving him to tour around slowly to the pits for almost an entire lap. A few moments later, Alboreto, who was fighting with Rosberg for sixth, crashed heavily into the barriers at the Bosch Kurve, but despite the obvious mess over the track left by his car, the race was again allowed to continue. Rosberg soon slid back, being passed by the Lotus of Nigel Mansell, and the fast-started turbo-powered Tolemans of Derek Warwick and Teo Fabi. Warwick soon passed Mansell for sixth, but on lap 8, his suspension broke and then Fabi’s transmission failed. Both Tolemans out of the race.
Patrese quickly breezed past Piquet, and the two Brabhams disappeared up the road, leaving Prost behind. Their aggressive strategy of half-tanks of fuel and softer tyres looked to be paying off, as they seemed to be creating the ideal gap for their pit stop. The pace was too much for fourth place Arnoux’s Renault, which headed for the pits on lap 17 with engine trouble, eliminating another of the major turbo contenders. But a lap later, Piquet was also in the pit lane – his soft tyres had blistered, and he required an early pit stop, several laps ahead of schedule, dropping him to fourth between De Angelis and the recovering Rosberg.
Patrese was able to continue at the front, pulling out a lead of over half a minute over Prost ahead of his own pit stop on lap 24. The extra six laps gave him enough of a cushion to rejoin ahead of the Renault, but without the tyre blanket technology of today, he exited the pits on cold tyres, allowing Prost to close in. Then, on lap 28, bang! Patrese’s engine blew on the approach to the Texaco Schikane, the double left-hander in the middle of the circuit. The failure sent the Brabham into a high-speed spin, and the car was off into a grass bank only a short distance from where a photographer had breached the spectator barrier.
Prost was now leading by nearly half a minute, and with Watson struggling way down the field, it seemed he was on the verge of launching himself back into championship contention. De Angelis held a comfortable margin over Piquet, who was soon confined to the sidelines himself when the camshaft failed. The Brazilian’s retirement released Rosberg, now up to third, ahead of Laffite in the Ligier, his best run of the season so far. British driver Brian Henton was also enjoying his best performance in F1, slowly working his way up to an impressive fifth place, only for his engine to fail just a lap after Piquet retired. There were only nine cars left in the field with 20 laps to go.
Prost continued to steadily increase his lead to over 36 seconds, and seemed almost certain to win, until on lap 49, with just four laps to go, flames started to flicker from the exhausts of the Renault engine. The car ground to a halt. De Angelis swooped by and took the lead for the first time in his F1 career.
Rosberg had been steadily closing on De Angelis for several laps. It seems the Williams had protected its tyres better, and the Finn was now using all his skill to wrestle the car around the high-speed corners. In a wonderful display of attacking driving, with the car drifting sideways through every corner, Rosberg closed dramatically. With two laps to go, the Lotus was clearly in his sights, around two seconds ahead. At the start of the final lap, the gap was down to 1.64 seconds – it seemed a lot to make up, but De Angelis seemed to be struggling for grip and the engine coughing for air, while Keke was now clearly in an untouchable zone.
Going into the last corner, De Angelis was forced to take a very tight defensive line on the side, while Rosberg drove a wider line to try and cut back inside as De Angelis drifted across the circuit. Rosberg took as much tow as he dared, before moving out to the left and tried to pull alongside. However, at the final moment, the car stopped gaining. De Angelis held on to win by just 0.05 seconds: at the time, it was the second-closest grand prix finish in history. Colin Chapman was there at the finish, performing his traditional cap-toss as his car crossed the line to win.
De Angelis celebrated with both arms in the air, lifting the visor on his distinctive stormtrooper-style Simpson Bandit helmet. It was a first win for him, a 72nd win for Lotus, and a remarkable 150th win for the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, which had powered an unlikely winning car. Rosberg, though disappointed to miss out on his first F1 win ( he would win the Swiss GP), collected six valuable points to leave him second in the championship, now only six points behind Pironi’s total. Tambay drove brilliantly to finish fourth despite his disruptive early puncture, ahead of Lauda who struggled the entire race to finish a disappointing fifth. Just seven of the 26 starters finished the race, with Prost and John Watson classified finishers despite not running at the end.
For Lotus, though, 1982 would prove to be the end of an era. Despite the hope provided by the win in Austria, the team would collect just one point in the final three races. But that was nothing to compare with what was to follow. Shortly after the end of the season, on 16th December, Colin Chapman died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 54, shortly after returning from a test session. The news rocked the sport of F1 and Lotus, both of which had lost a great leader and innovator.
14 - Roberto Guerrero (Ensign)
10 - Eliseo Salazar (ATS)
27 - Patrick Tambay (Ferrari)
5 - Derek Daly (Williams)
Publication: 11/06/2024Back to overview
