The 1979 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 9 September 1979 at Monza. It was the thirteenth race of the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors.
The 50-lap race was won by South African Jody Scheckter, driving a Ferrari, with Canadian team-mate Gilles Villeneuve second and Swiss Clay Regazzoni third in a Williams-Ford. Scheckter claimed the Drivers' Championship in the process and became the first and only South African thus far to win the championship, while Ferrari clinched the Constructors' Championship. The race also marked Scheckter's final race win and podium; he retired after the following season. As of 2025, this is the last Grand Prix to be won by a driver from the continent of Africa. Two day after the race, Scheckter signed a one-year contract for Ferrari until 1980.
This race marked Scuderia Ferrari's 300th start in a World Championship event as a team.Scuderia Ferrari did not participate in the 1950 French Grand Prix; Peter Whitehead's privateer entry in this race does not count towards the team's participation tally.
Report Background Monza was revamped for 1979, with the track re-surfaced and run-off areas added to the Curva Grande and the Lesmo curves.
The entry list was enlarged by the return of the Alfa Romeo team, which had participated in the Belgian and French Grands Prix earlier in the season. Alfa Romeo fielded two cars: a new 179 chassis for Bruno Giacomelli, and the old 177 for Vittorio Brambilla, back in action for the first time since the crash in the previous year's race at Monza that had claimed the life of Ronnie Peterson. Meanwhile, Mexican Héctor Rebaque had his HR100 chassis ready for the first time, while Switzerland's Marc Surer, having won the Formula Two championship the previous month, made his first Formula One appearance as Ensign took him on in place of Patrick Gaillard.
Qualifying The turbo-powered Renaults were quick in qualifying and filled the front row of the grid, with Jean-Pierre Jabouille ahead of René Arnoux. It was Jabouille's fourth pole position of the season, and Renault's sixth. Scheckter and Alan Jones in the Williams made up the second row, while on the third were their respective teammates, Gilles Villeneuve and Clay Regazzoni. The top ten was completed by Jacques Laffite in the Ligier, the Brabhams of Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda, and Mario Andretti in the Lotus.
Race The Renaults were slow off the start line and so Scheckter took the lead, with Arnoux holding on to second. Jones also made a poor start and dropped to the back of the field, putting Villeneuve third and the fast-starting Laffite fourth. On lap 2, Arnoux passed Scheckter for the lead, while Piquet crashed out after tangling with Regazzoni. Regazzoni was slow out of Curva Grande and Piquet took an outside line to keep his speed. Regazzoni moved across, possibly unaware Piquet was there, and sent the Brazilian heavily into the barriers, with the Brabham ending in two halves either side of the track. Fortunately Piquet was unhurt, and Regazzoni continued in the race.
For the next eleven laps Arnoux, Scheckter, Villeneuve, Laffite and Jabouille ran nose-to-tail, with Regazzoni a distant sixth. Then, on lap 13, Arnoux's engine began to misfire, leading to his retirement. Scheckter thus regained the lead, with Villeneuve dutifully following him. Later in the race, Laffite and Jabouille also suffered engine failures, promoting Regazzoni to third.
Scheckter eventually took the chequered flag half a second ahead of Villeneuve and, with it, the Drivers' Championship. This one-two finish for Ferrari in their home race also secured them the Constructors' Championship. Regazzoni finished four seconds behind Villeneuve and 50 ahead of Lauda, with the final points going to Andretti and Jean-Pierre Jarier in the Tyrrell.
Qualifying
Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeNo1Jean-Pierre JabouilleRenault1:34.58012René ArnouxRenault1:34.70423Jody ScheckterFerrari1:34.83034Alan JonesWilliams-Ford1:34.91445Gilles VilleneuveFerrari1:34.98956Clay RegazzoniWilliams-Ford1:35.33367Jacques LaffiteLigier-Ford1:35.44378Nelson PiquetBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:35.58789Niki LaudaBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:36.219910Mario AndrettiLotus-Ford1:36.6551011Jacky IckxLigier-Ford1:37.1141112Didier PironiTyrrell-Ford1:37.1811213Carlos ReutemannLotus-Ford1:37.2021314Patrick TambayMcLaren-Ford1:37.2311415Hans-Joachim StuckATS-Ford1:37.2971516Jean-Pierre JarierTyrrell-Ford1:37.5811617Riccardo PatreseArrows-Ford1:37.6741718Bruno GiacomelliAlfa Romeo1:38.0531819John WatsonMcLaren-Ford1:38.0931920Emerson FittipaldiFittipaldi-Ford1:38.1362021Jochen MassArrows-Ford1:38.1632122Vittorio BrambillaAlfa Romeo1:38.6012223Keke RosbergWolf-Ford1:38.8542324Elio de AngelisShadow-Ford1:39.14924Jan LammersShadow-Ford1:39.313—Marc SurerEnsign-Ford1:40.821—Arturo MerzarioMerzario-Ford1:42.002—Héctor RebaqueRebaque-Ford1:42.769—
Race
Classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 50 1:22:00.22 3 9 2 12 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 50 + 0.46 5 6 3 28 Clay Regazzoni Williams-Ford 50 + 4.78 6 4 4 5 Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 50 + 54.40 9 3 5 1 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 50 + 59.70 10 2 6 4 Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 50 + 1:01.55 16 1 7 2 Carlos Reutemann Lotus-Ford 50 + 1:24.14 13 8 14 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 20 9 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 4 10 3 Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 12 11 9 Hans-Joachim Stuck ATS-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 15 12 36 Vittorio Brambilla Alfa Romeo 49 + 1 Lap 22 13 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 47 + 3 Laps 17 14 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 45 Engine 1 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 41 Engine 7 20 Keke Rosberg Wolf-Ford 41 Engine 23 25 Jacky Ickx Ligier-Ford 40 Engine 11 18 Elio de Angelis Shadow-Ford 33 Clutch 24 35 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 28 Spun Off 18 16 René Arnoux Renault 13 Engine 2 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 13 Accident 19 8 Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford 3 Engine 14 30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 3 Suspension 21 6 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1 Accident 8 17 Jan Lammers Shadow-Ford 22 Marc Surer Ensign-Ford 24 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford 31 Héctor Rebaque Rebaque-Ford
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Swiss driver Marc Surer. This race marked the 10th Grand Prix win for a South African driver. This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Mexican constructor Rebaque - the first from the North American country. This was the 300th Grand Prix start for Ferrari. In those 300 races, Ferrari had won 78 Grands Prix, achieved 255 podium finishes, 89 pole positions, 88 fastest laps, 23 Grand Slams and had won 9 Driver's and 6 Constructor's Championships.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jody Scheckter 51 (57) 2 2 Gilles Villeneuve 38 1 3 Jacques Laffite 36 1 4 Alan Jones 34 5 Clay Regazzoni 27 (28)Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 95 1 2 Williams-Ford 62 1 3 Ligier-Ford 61 4 Lotus-Ford 39 5 Tyrrell-Ford 22Source:
Bold text indicates the 1979 World Champions.
References