1979 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX - OSTERREICHRINGNewsflashIt's all change at
Rebaque, as the injured
Marc Surer will be replaced by
Padraig O'Connell for the rest of the season. Italian rookie
Piercarlo Ghinzani will replace a frustrated
Hector Rebaque for the rest of the European season.
The
Merzario merry-go-round keeps on turning:
Elio de Angelis is back in his seat, with
Vittorio Brambilla back on the sidelines. For how long is unknown.
Changes at
Shadow too, as
Keke Rosberg is back in the car, replacing the injured
John Watson for this round only.
James Hunt's retirement has gifted
Wolf reserve driver
Bruno Giacomelli a second stint in the car, the arrangement lasting for the rest of the season.
Williams will run the Honda turbo in both cars this weekend, effectively sacrificing the rest of this season for long term gain. All points gathered for the rest of the season will go to Williams-Honda, which is seperate from the previous Williams-Ford. Reliability issue will inevitably plague the team during the development team, but they will be bouyed by the fact it is the most powerful on the grid.
Harald Ertl will make another F1 appearance this weekend, this time with ATS. The Austrian will replace
Hans-Joachim StuckFIA President Jean-Luc Knighte has announced the long term future of the Austrian Grand Prix is secure. "It's a great track"he said "and the drivers love the unique challenges it offers them. Also, spectators, including myself, find the races extremely exciting to watch, and we all know how in this day and age the spectators drive F1. personally I love the track"
QUALIFYING
For a second weekend in a row, Honda personnel were left beaming after the Saturday action, as they saw both Williams line up on the front row for tomorrow. Scheckter had the edge over his less experienced team-mate, whose time was half a second adrift of Scheckter. Reutemann was next fastest, albeit a further second behind McAllister. Jabouille lined up 4th, ahead of Arnoux, Kevin, Villeneuve, and Laffite, the Ligiers showing improved qualifying pace. The Shadows lined up 10th and 11th behind an improved Lauda, with Harvey Jones showing his talent hauling the Lotus up to 12th. The bottom 18 was very much Noah's Arks, with the Tyrrells 20th and 21st, ahead of both Alfas and both Wolfs. Brancatelli with a poor showing was an interloper in the pattern, while Rebaque showed a huge improvement, the improved chassis alowing rookie drivers to qualify 27th and 28th. de Angelis was able to qualify 29th on his return, and Pierre Depault qualified for only the second time this year. Gabbiani, Rossler, Fittipaldi, Ertl, Keegan, Ongais, Sedlak and Jenkins all failed to qualify.
RACE – 53 LAPS
Scheckter lead off the line, but Reutemann and both Ferraris made a great start to leapfrog McAllister into the Hella-licht chicane. Arnoux and Villeneuve touched, and drifted through the corner, but McAllister took too much of the extremely harsh kerbs, sending him spinning off on the crass. Niki Lauda also spun. McAllister rejoined down in 20th.
By the end of lap 1, Scheckter had a 1.6 second advantage over Reutemann, with Jabouille in 3rd and Laffite in 4th. Into the chicane, Arnoux passed Laffite, and Keke Rosberg passed Villeneuve for 6th. Scheckter was still pulling away, and while the Renaults were busy scrapping with Arnoux, Scheckter had created a 6 second advantage by lap 3.
Jabouille had a slow exit to the chicane, and on the through turn 2 and the run down to the Bosch Kurve , was passed by Laffite, Arnoux, Villeneuve, and Rosberg. Next time around into the Hella-Licht chicane, Sutherland, Piquet and Harvey Jones demonstrated their synchronised spinning, each driver taking too much of the deadly kerbs.
By lap 7, Scheckter lead by 10 seconds ahead of Reutemann, Laffite, and both Ferraris. Callum McAllister was stuck in the midfield, and had dropped to 22nd place! A lap later, however, and Scheckter was sent crawling back to the pits, as the gearbox failed. Reutemann now led, and Padraig O’Connell was up to 13th position in the Rebaque! By lap 11, however, Villeneuve and Laffite had passed Reutemann, and Laffite moved into the lead on lap 12 with a move down the inside of Villeneuve into the chicane. Ed Kevin had also got past Rosberg and Jabouille for 4th place.
Mario Andretti again made a rookie mistake – he took too much Hella Licht curb, spun out, and rejoined straight into the path of Takagi, ending both drivers’ day. Tyrrell’s day was over within the first 15 laps, as Lees had spun off at turn 3 a lap earlier.
Meanwhile, Villeneuve, Reutemann and Laffite were fighting over the lead, with neither of them being able to pull away while in the lead. A promising day for Elio de Angelis eneded in a taste of the Hella-Licht barriers on lap 22, the Italian put too much power down, punting him into the wall. He was fighting the Alfas and the Wolfs for 22nd position.
On lap 24, Jean-Pierre Jabouille had got past Ed Kevin, and had joined the leading 3 in the battle for the lead. Another disappointing day for McLaren ended with engine failure for Gauthier. The McLarens hadn’t ahd the pace to penetrate the top 10 all weekend, and were mired down in the midfield.
Lap 25, and Kevin had passed both Renaults, and set about Villeneuve. The Ligier man capitalised on a poor exit from the chicane for Villeneuve, and used the slipstream to pass the Ferrari into the Bosch Kurve, with Jean-Pierre Jabouille following him through. Ligier now had a 1-2, with Laffite having a 1.5 second advantage over the Irishman. Laffite was set to take the championship lead, as Arnoux was out of the race after being punted off by Lammers on lap 8.
The Ferrari threat came to an end on lap 30, as Villeneuve retired from the race with engine failure from 4th position. Jean-Pierre Jabouille had caught both Ligiers, and passed them, and was now in the lead on lap 31. Rosberg, having a great day to try and secure a seat at Shadow Cosworth, had now passed Reutemann, and was into 4th.
Padraig O’Connell was fighting for 11th place on his debut, but his day was ended wih an altercation with Prost on lap 33. The Briton spun, and Alain Prost collected him, sending both out of the race.
By lap 36, Kevin was back in the lead, ahead of both Renaults and Laffite. The Renaults now took turns to try and pass the Irishman; Reutemann attempted to do so on lap 39, but Kevin held on through the Hella Licht chicane. Lap 40 was Jabouilles turn, but this time, the Renault made it stick. Kevin was demoted to 3rd a lap later, as Laffite passed him on the run to the Bosch Kurve. Rebaque’s day was not over, as Ghinzani found himself in 10th place.
Harvey Jones was able to catch Rosberg in 5th position on lap 43, the bickering with Reutemann over 4th had slowed them down. Jones managed to pass both turbo cars in the space of two laps, again demonstrating his talent in comparison to Alan Jones, who after a series of spins was in 10th, out of 13 runners. Reutemann was in Harvey’s slipstream a lap later, and dived down the inside of the small kink at the Bosch Kurve, both cars touching wheels, but Jones held his ground to stay in front.
Bellof, having a disappointing day, made things worse by spinning on lap 47 at the Hella Licht chicane. Bellof was coming up to be lapped, while Laffite, and Kevin went through, Bellof rejoined the track straight in the path of Jabouille. Jabouille’s front left was torn off, along with Bellof’s sidepod.
With 4 laps to go, Laffite led Reutemann, Kevin and Rosberg, and at the start of lap 50, Kevin passed Reutemann, and set about catching Laffite, a second up the road. Kevin was right behind Laffite on lap 51, and took advantage of the slipstream to make a bold move down the inside of Laffite at the Bosch Kurve, going into the lead!
Reutemann had dropped back by 2 seconds at the start of the last lap, so it would almost certainly be a Ligier 1-2. Laffite was right on Kevin’s gearbox on the last lap, but outbraked himself into turn 2! Laffite tried to overcome the second deficit, but it was to no avail, Ed Kevin took his second victory in Formula One. Laffite was in second, and Reutemann in 3rd was 2 seconds adrift, with fourth-placed Rosberg a further second behind. Harvey Jones came home 5th to score more points, ahead of Nelson Piquet in 6th. Brancatelli came home 7th, and Piercarlo Ghinzani took 8th place to claim his and Rebaque’s first points of the year. Sutherland was the last man on the lead lap in 10th, a minute and 10 seconds down on the lead. Lauda and Bellof were a lap down in 11th and 12th respectively, while Alan Jones and Jabouille were classified in 13th and 14th.
Pictures
The new Williams livery
The new Rebaque/Penske ivery
The start
Hella-Licht melee (McAllister out of shot to the extreme left)
Synchronised spinning
How the bathplug did he get up there?
Scheckter retires
Takagi/Andretti out.
Laffite passes Arnoux, Jabouille swamped
Laffite, Reutemann, Villeneuve and Jabouille fighting for the lead.
Villeneuve retires
Gauthier retires
de Angelis in the barriers
Prost - O'Connell incident
Kevin leads Laffite o the second to last lap
Kevin wins
Driver's Championship-After 11 rounds1: Jacques Laffite - 49
2: Rene Arnoux - 43
3: Ed Kevin - 42
4: Jody Scheckter - 34
5: Callum McAllister - 28
= Gilles Villeneuve - 26
7: Carlos Reutemann - 24
= Harvey Jones - 24
9 Jan Lammers - 21
= Nelson Piquet - 21
11: Alan Jones - 14
12: Jean-Pierre Jabouille - 13
= Hiroshi Takagi - 13
14: Gianfranco Brancatelli - 11
15: Mario Andretti - 8
16: James Hunt - 6
= Alain Prost - 6
= Guilliame Gauthier - 6
19: Stefan Bellof - 5
= Keke Rosberg - 5
21: Andrea de Cesaris - 4
= Geoff Lees - 4
= Derek Daly - 4
= Kieran Sutherland - 4
25: Niki Lauda - 3
= John Watson - 3
27: Roberto Horford - 2
28: Thomas Nurmester - 1
= Davey Clarke - 1
= Piercarlo Ghinzani - 1
Constructor's Championship-After 10 rounds1: Ligier-Ford - 91
2: Ferrari - 69
3: Williams-Ford - 62
4: Renault - 37
5: Lotus-Ford - 34
6: Ram-Ferrari -27
7: Brabham-Ford - 23
8: McLaren-Ford - 19
9: Tyrrell-Ford - 18
10: Shadow-Ford - 13
11: Alfa Romeo - 8
= Arrows-Ford - 8
= Wolf-Ford - 8
14: RAM-Ford -5
15: Rebaque-Ford - 1
Another thing, it will be interesting how you decide to tell the McLaren take over by Ron Dennis...That's if it happens at all
I always knew that RAM were capeable of a win so long as they had the correct drivers and cars! 
