David Tremayne looks back at the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix where legendary driver Gilles Villeneuve showcased his undoubted talent...
GREATEST RACES #25 – 1981 SPANISH GRAND PRIX
To mark F1's 75th anniversary celebrations, F1.com is counting down the sport's 25 greatest races, counting down each week and reflecting on some truly epic moments...
In order to fully appreciate just what Gilles Villeneuve achieved in the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix, surely one of the dashing French-Canadian’s greatest drives, it's insightful to avail oneself of archive footage of him driving Ferrari’s 126CK in the Canadian Grand Prix on the circuit later named in his honour.
1980 had been a miserable season with the warmed-over 312 T5 against full ground-effect machinery, and the new turbo 1.5-litre V6 created by technical chief Mauro Forghieri had been the priority, rather than the new 126CK chassis in which it was installed. Now it was clear that the 1981 version of that car was all horsepower and no handling.
Slow-motion footage of Villeneuve exiting the hairpin in Montreal, and then negotiating the swerves that led to the last corner, highlighted all too accurately the shortcomings of what he referred to as his "hopeless fast red Cadillac" as it wallowed and ploughed with horrendous diagonal yaw and pitch. It was the F1 equivalent of one of those "bucking bronco" mechanical bulls.
A RACE OF MANY FACTORS
The tight confines of Spain’s 2.058-mile Circuito Permanente del Jarama, just outside of Madrid, were not expected to do Ferrari any favours when the F1 circus gathered for the seventh round of the 1981 World Championship. Yes, Villeneuve had just pulled off an extraordinary triumph in Monaco, 601 days after he had won the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1979, but Jarama was a different kind of track when it first became a venue for the World Championship in 1968.
Villeneuve was only managed seventh in qualifying, 1.2s off pole-sitter Laffite’s pace, with Mario Andretti’s Alfa Romeo, Nelson Piquet’s Brabham-Cosworth and Elio de Angelis’ Lotus-Cosworth completing the top 10.
Like many of his rivals, Villeneuve went into the race, as he termed it, "dressed like you’re going to the North Pole" even though the ambient temperature was 30C. But as Laffite fluffed his start from pole and dropped as low as 11th with clutch slip, and Jones led Reutemann in a Williams 1-2, Villeneuve did his best drag racer impression and out-gunned everyone else to lead into the first corner, a tight right followed by another, named in Juan Manuel Fangio’s honour.
At the end of the lap the top 10 read: Jones, Reutemann, Villeneuve, Andretti, Prost, Watson, Giacomelli, Piquet, Riccardo Patrese (in the second Brabham) and Pironi.
On the second lap Villeneuve outbraked his former Ferrari team mate Reutemann into Fangio, to run second. Then on Lap 8 the unthinkable happened as Jones messed up his braking at the same turn and slid off the road, resuming in 15th. Now Villeneuve was the leader.
Further back, Piquet and Andretti collided on Lap 25, delaying the Brazilian and the American. And Prost then slid off the road on Lap 28; Villeneuve had brushed the Renault’s front wing as he sped by at the start, and the yellow car understeered off the road. Later, Piquet slid off on Lap 44, suffering heat exhaustion.
Reutemann mounted a serious counter-attack, trying everything to regain the place he had lost to Villeneuve, so the Ferrari driver had no time to relax. And now, as Watson had inherited Prost’s place and was pushing hard in the McLaren, he in turn was being challenged by the indefatigable Laffite; together with Villeneuve, he was the hero of the race with his forceful recovery.
When Piquet retired from fifth, the top five order was: Villeneuve, Reutemann, Watson, Laffite, and De Angelis – they were all running nose-to-tail. Villeneuve had the horsepower on the main straight, but he was having to tiptoe the Ferrari through the corners in a car whose weight was matched by its appetite for Michelin’s rubber.
The others, with their superior grip, were all over him round the rest of the lap, and he was particularly vulnerable on the exit from the final, nameless, corner. The closeness of the five-car train had spectators on the edge of their seats lap after impossible lap as the pursuers sought to outfumble one another while trying to unsettle Gilles and find the smallest chink in his armour. Far from a trip to the North Pole, it was the most challenging journey the man in the cockpit of car #27 had faced in what was already a sensational career.
A REMARKABLE DISPLAY AMID INTENSE PRESSURE
On Lap 49 Laffite found a way past Watson as they lapped Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the second blue Ligier, and the pair subsequently squeezed ahead of Reutemann on Lap 62 as they lapped Eliseo Salazar. The Argentine had been struggling for some time, having to hold third gear in engagement.
Now the fastest car in the race was ready to pounce, and surely Villeneuve could not resist much longer. Several times Reutemann had got alongside as they headed onto the main straight but each time the Ferrari’s grunt had kept Villeneuve ahead before he was extra-careful braking for Fangio. Now Laffite was determined to regain the prime slot he had lost at the start, after his brilliant comeback.
Time and again the five-car pack would open and close their respective gaps like a concertina, but up front in his own remarkable display of coolness, Villeneuve never succumbed to the intense pressure, allowed himself to get flustered, or sought to block his pursuers, even when Laffite, like Reutemann, would occasionally edge alongside on the exit to the final corner.
In the end, after 80 breathtaking laps, he led Laffite (0.22s), Watson (0.36s), Reutemann (0.43s) and De Angelis (0.23s) home with just 1.24s covering all five of them, making it the second closest race of all time since the Italian Grand Prix 10 years earlier when just six-tenths had covered winner Peter Gethin, Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, Mike Hailwood and Howden Ganley.
The Ferrari should never have won, but those who believed that had underestimated Villeneuve's pure skill in masterminding an impossible triumph. His win had showcased his calmness, nerve and talent as he did so without once overstepping the line between what were acceptable tactics and what weren’t.
He made the odd mistake, especially as the track was very dirty off-line. But that hurt his followers more, and his uncanny car control always got him out of trouble.
'I know that no human being can perform miracles. But Gilles made you wonder sometimes'
JACQUES LAFFITE
Brabham designer Gordon Murray was unstinting in his assessment of what he had just witnessed on that day in Spain: “I honestly think that was the greatest drive I’ve ever seen by anybody. His driving was just unreal.”
Later, Enzo Ferrari himself would say how much Villeneuve’s performance reminded him of pre-war legend Tazio Nuvolari. Yet Villeneuve himself merely shrugged after his great drive and said he was embarrassed to win.
“I couldn’t understand why they didn’t pass me," he said. "After all, three of them were ahead of me on the grid! All the time I was thinking they could run rings round me if they wanted to. Laffite’s car was worth two seconds more, at least, each lap. It was very, very hard for me. I had to take many big chances. But I never let go. It was the best race of my life.”
And, in retrospect, one of the most gripping races in F1’s 75 years remains a poignant reminder of just what this truly meteoric giant might have achieved at the wheel of a Williams or a McLaren…
Check out F1.com to see the full count down and celebrate the 25 greatest races throughout the sport’s glorious history.
