1984 Austrian Grand Prix

1984 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 16 in the 1984 Formula One World Championship
The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
Race details
Date	19 August 1984
Official name	XXII Holiday Großer Preis von Österreich
Location	Österreichring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.942 km (3.692 miles)
Distance	51 laps, 303.042 km (188.292 miles)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
Time	1:26.173
Fastest lap
Driver	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:32.882 on lap 23
Podium
First	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG
Second	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
Third	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1984 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on 19 August 1984. It was the twelfth race of the 1984 Formula One World Championship, and the 400th Grand Prix held as part of the World Championship since it began in 1950.

The 51-lap race was won by local driver Niki Lauda, driving a McLaren-TAG. Brazilian Nelson Piquet finished second in a Brabham-BMW, having started from pole position, with Italian Michele Alboreto third in a Ferrari. The win, Lauda's fourth of the season, gave him the lead of the Drivers' Championship by 4.5 points from his French teammate Alain Prost, who spun out shortly after half distance.

Report

The race had to be stopped soon after the first start, due to a problem with the starting lights which caused chaos among the drivers with Niki Lauda claiming that he saw "Red, green, yellow then red again". This caused 3rd fastest qualifier Elio de Angelis to hesitate badly off the line and his Lotus-Renault was almost hit from behind by several cars and saw the Toleman-Hart of Ayrton Senna in 4th place by the time they reached Hella-Licht after starting 10th. On the formation lap for the re-start, pole sitter Piquet, who had seen the McLarens change tyres on the grid, angered the other drivers when he led the field on an extremely slow lap in an effort to not allow Prost or Lauda to scrub in their new Michelin rubber.

Alain Prost, Lauda's team mate and the World Championship leader going into the race, failed to finish after spinning off on oil at the Jochen Rindt Curve on lap 28, that came from the Lotus of Elio de Angelis when his Renault engine failed moments before Prost retired (de Angelis later received criticism for continuing to drive his car on the racing line while dropping oil). Prost had been running a close second behind Piquet at the time of his spin. Piquet came upon the oil of de Angelis first and managed to keep his car from sliding off despite a twitch on the oil. Prost however was having gear selection problems and hit the oil with one hand on his steering wheel and the other on his gear lever, spinning off into retirement. Lauda moved into second and then passed Piquet for the lead, the Brazilian suffering tyre trouble. Despite a brief gearbox problem where for a few hundred metres he could not find a gear before eventually finding 4th coming out of the Texaco Schikane, Lauda went on to win his home race by 23 seconds.

Another Austrian driver Gerhard Berger, who would go on to win 10 Grands Prix before retiring at the end of the 1997 season, made his Formula One debut at the Österreichring, finishing 12th and last in his ATS-BMW. The third Austrian in the race, Jo Gartner, retired after only 6 laps with engine troubles in his Osella-Alfa Romeo.

Both Renaults retired with engine failures, Derek Warwick on lap 18 and Patrick Tambay on lap 43.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:26.928	1:26.173
2	7	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:26.203	1:27.098	+0.030
3	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:27.531	1:26.318	+0.145
4	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	1:26.715	1:27.312	+0.542
5	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:27.748	1:26.748	+0.575
6	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	1:27.928	1:27.123	+0.950
7	2	Teo Fabi	Brabham-BMW	1:29.893	1:27.201	+1.028
8	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Renault	1:28.430	1:27.558	+1.385
9	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:28.760	1:29.012	+2.587
10	19	Ayrton Senna	Toleman-Hart	1:29.463	1:29.200	+3.027
11	5	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Honda	1:29.228	1:31.498	+3.055
12	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:29.694	1:30.000	+3.541
13	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1:30.966	1:30.736	+4.563
14	14	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	1:33.276	1:30.853	+4.680
15	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	1:31.003	1:31.313	+4.830
16	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1:31.250	1:31.045	+4.872
17	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:31.255	1:31.189	+5.016
18	26	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	1:36.771	1:31.588	+5.415
19	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-BMW	1:31.701	1:31.655	+5.482
20	31	Gerhard Berger	ATS-BMW	1:31.904	no time	+5.731
21	25	François Hesnault	Ligier-Renault	1:32.582	1:32.270	+6.097
22	30	Jo Gartner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:35.212	1:33.019	+6.846
23	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:33.172	no time	+6.999
24	10	Jonathan Palmer	RAM-Hart	1:34.622	1:34.128	+7.955
25	9	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	1:34.495	1:44.304	+8.322
26	21	Huub Rothengatter	Spirit-Hart	1:00:43.900	1:35.605	+9.432
27	3	Stefan Johansson	Tyrrell-Ford	1:37.292	1:36.282	+10.109
28	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	1:37.535	1:37.893	+11.362
Source:

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	51	1:21:12.851	4	9
2	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	51	+ 23.525	1	6
3	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	51	+ 48.998	12	4
4	2	Teo Fabi	Brabham-BMW	51	+ 56.312	7	3
5	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	50	+ 1 Lap	17	2
6	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-BMW	50	+ 1 Lap	19	1
7	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	50	+ 1 Lap	15
8	25	François Hesnault	Ligier-Renault	49	+ 2 Laps	21
9	10	Jonathan Palmer	RAM-Hart	49	+ 2 Laps	24
10	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	48	Out of Fuel	13
11	9	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	48	+ 3 Laps	25
12	31	Gerhard Berger	ATS-BMW	48	Gearbox	20
Ret	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	42	Engine	5
Ret	19	Ayrton Senna	Toleman-Hart	35	Oil Pressure	10
Ret	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Renault	32	Engine	8
Ret	7	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	28	Spun Off/Gearbox	2
Ret	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	28	Engine	3
NC	21	Huub Rothengatter	Spirit-Hart	23	+ 28 Laps	26
Ret	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	18	Engine	16
Ret	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	17	Engine	6
Ret	26	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	15	Injection	18
Ret	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	15	Handling	9
Ret	5	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Honda	12	Engine	11
Ret	30	Jo Gartner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	6	Engine	22
Ret	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	4	Gearbox	23
DNS	14	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	0	Gearbox	14
DNQ	3	Stefan Johansson	Tyrrell-Ford
EX	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Niki Lauda	48
2	Alain Prost	43.5
3	Elio de Angelis	26.5
4	René Arnoux	24.5
5	Nelson Piquet	24
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren-TAG	91.5
2	Ferrari	39.5
3	Lotus-Renault	35.5
4	Renault	32
5	Brabham-BMW	30
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Points accurate at final declaration of results. Tyrrell's points were subsequently reallocated.