The 1984 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 7 April 1984. It was race 2 of 16 in the 1984 Formula One World Championship. The 75-lap race was won by Niki Lauda, driving a McLaren-TAG, with teammate Alain Prost second and Derek Warwick third in a Renault.
Report Qualifying Qualifying saw reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet take the first of an eventual nine pole positions for 1984 in his Brabham-BMW (which was clocked at on the circuit's long front straight), with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in his Williams-Honda. On the second row were Nigel Mansell in the Lotus and Patrick Tambay in the factory Renault, while on the third row were Alain Prost in the McLaren and Teo Fabi in the second Brabham. The top ten was completed by Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus, Niki Lauda in the second McLaren, Derek Warwick in the second Renault and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. The Cosworth-powered Tyrrells and Arrows struggled, with Thierry Boutsen coming 27th and last in his Arrows and thus failing to qualify.
Race In the Sunday morning warm-up session Piercarlo Ghinzani, who had qualified 20th in his Osella, crashed heavily at the fast left-hand Jukskei Sweep, the car bursting into flames. Ghinzani escaped with minor burns on his hands, and subsequently withdrew from the race, thus promoting Boutsen to the last grid spot.
Before the start of the race, Prost's McLaren refused to fire up thanks to a fuel pump failure and his McLaren was pushed to the side of the road and he started from the pitlane in the spare car. In fact, Ghinzani's accident and the subsequent 30 minutes delay before the start was extremely fortunate for Prost. During the warmup, Lauda had a chronic misfire in his TAG-Porsche race engine. It took the McLaren team until 13 minutes into the extra 30 to completely change the electrical system in Lauda's car, which cured the low-end misfire but one still remained intermittent between 7,500 and 8,500 rpm, but it was driveable and allowed Lauda to be 2nd fastest in the warmup to Piquet. In truth however, without Ghinzani's accident and the extra 30 minutes, the McLaren team wouldn't have fixed Lauda's car on time and the former dual World Champion would have been forced to race the spare car, meaning Prost would not have even started.
At the start, Piquet almost stalled on the grid and was passed by Rosberg and Mansell. The Lotus then faltered and Mansell fell down the order, putting Piquet back up to second by the first corner. At the end of lap 1, Piquet passed Rosberg for the lead, before teammate Fabi moved into second on lap 2. Lauda had made a good start to run fourth; he then overtook Rosberg on lap 4 and Fabi on lap 10. Both Brabhams then hit trouble, needing new tyres before retiring with turbo failures, Fabi on lap 19 and Piquet on lap 30.
From there, Lauda controlled the race and went on to win easily, with Prost over a minute behind in second and the only other driver on the lead lap. Warwick gained his first Formula One podium by finishing third, while completing the top six were Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo, its second points finish in a row giving more, somewhat false, hope that the 890T V8 would be competitive), Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) and, gaining his first ever World Championship point, Ayrton Senna in his Toleman-Hart.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:05.280 1:04.871 — 2 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:05.127 1:05.058 +0.187 3 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 1:05.792 1:05.125 +0.254 4 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 1:05.588 1:05.339 +0.468 5 7 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:06.576 1:05.354 +0.483 6 2 Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW 1:05.923 1:07.236 +1.052 7 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:06.305 1:05.953 +1.082 8 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:06.238 1:06.043 +1.172 9 16 Derek Warwick Renault 1:06.056 1:06.491 +1.185 10 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:07.404 1:06.323 +1.452 11 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 1:07.142 1:06.762 +1.891 12 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 1:06.974 1:07.417 +2.103 13 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart 1:07.657 1:06.981 +2.110 14 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:09.132 1:07.245 +2.374 15 28 René Arnoux Ferrari 1:07.514 1:07.345 +2.474 16 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:07.704 1:07.993 +2.833 17 25 François Hesnault Ligier-Renault 1:09.909 1:07.787 +2.916 18 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:08.399 1:08.042 +3.171 19 20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart 1:09.892 1:08.298 +3.427 20 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:10.829 1:09.609 +4.738 21 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 1:10.450 1:09.923 +5.052 22 10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart no time 1:10.383 +5.512 23 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart no time 1:10.619 +5.748 24 17 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 1:12.227 1:11.808 +6.937 25 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:12.322 1:12.022 +7.151 26 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:12.233 1:12.453 +7.362 27 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford 1:12.326 1:12.274 +7.403Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 75 1:29:23.430 8 9 2 7 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 75 + 1:05.950 5 6 3 16 Derek Warwick Renault 74 + 1 Lap 9 4 4 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 73 + 2 Laps 18 3 5 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 73 + 2 Laps 14 2 6 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart 72 + 3 Laps 13 1 7 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 71 + 4 Laps 7 8 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 71 + 4 Laps 20 9 17 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 71 + 4 Laps 23 10 25 François Hesnault Ligier-Renault 71 + 4 Laps 17 11 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 70 Ignition 10 12 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford 70 + 5 Laps 26 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 71 Disqualified 25 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 66 Out of Fuel 4 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 60 Disqualified 24 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 60 Transmission 11 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 53 Engine 12 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 51 Wheel 2 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 51 Turbo 3 28 René Arnoux Ferrari 40 Injection 15 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 29 Turbo 1 20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart 26 Tyre 19 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 24 Engine 22 10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart 22 Gearbox 21 2 Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW 18 Turbo 6 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 4 Radiator 16 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo Practice Accident
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 15 2 Niki Lauda 9 3 Keke Rosberg 6 4 Elio de Angelis 4 5 Derek Warwick 4Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG 24 2 Williams-Honda 6 3 Alfa Romeo 6 4 Renault 5 5 Lotus-Renault 4Source:
References