1980 Argentine Grand Prix

Summary

This race was additionally notable for the drivers threatening to boycott the event because of the appalling state of the track, which was breaking up in many spots in the infield thanks to the intense heat of a Buenos Aires summer.

The immense grip of the aerodynamic suction created by the ground effect technology and the cars' tyres and a battle between Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari 312T5), Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite (Ligier JS11/15) and Nelson Piquet, made it even more exciting due to the break-up of the track surface. Piquet finished second, Laffite retired with a blown engine and Villeneuve crashed going through the fast Tobogán complex due to a front suspension failure, although this was most likely exacerbated by a number of times he went off the very slippery track onto the sometimes bumpy and grassy run off area and consistently riding up the apex curbs of the Buenos Aires Autodrome.

The grass took out home favorite Carlos Reutemann (who had jumped into 5th at the start from 10th) in his first drive with Williams, who attempted to pass Piquet going into the Ascari chicane after the two mile flat out section. Reutemann slid off the track trying to pass Piquet on the outside of the Ascari chicane onto the grass run-off area. The two radiators in Reutemann's Williams FW07 sucked in grass and were both blocked, and the engines (already running at higher temperatures than normal) were even more prone to blowing up there in Buenos Aires because of the hot weather- a common problem at the Argentine Grand Prix.

Multiple drivers spun off the track in the infield section, including Reutemann's teammate Jones, who had a short pitstop to clean his air intakes, but quickly returned to the battle. Reutemann also went into the pits to clean out his air intakes, but the damage was done and he retired with a blown engine soon after. Unsure if he would race again after 1980, the Argentinian was in fact so disconsolate that he sat motionless in his car for a few minutes, then got out of his car, sat on the track next to his car and burst into tears; the patriotic Reutemann had never won his home Grand Prix and would never do so.

The rate of attrition allowed Jody Scheckter into third place, but with just a handful of laps left suffered an engine failure in the Ferrari. This allowed Keke Rosberg to score his first ever podium in the same race as Piquet's first, and another future world champion Alain Prost (McLaren M29) scored a point on his Formula One début. It was a famous race of attrition on a terrible surface, where unusually the winner spun off twice and the runner-up once, and lap times were considerably slower than the previous year.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Notes

• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Swedish driver Stefan Johansson, Irish driver David Kennedy and French driver and future World Champion Alain Prost.
• This was the 5th Grand Slam for an Australian driver.
• This was the 1st podium finish for a Finnish driver.
• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Italian constructor Osella.

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

|Previous_year's_race = 1979 Argentine Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 1981 Argentine Grand Prix

References

1. "January 13 down the years: Local joy, local despair in Argentina". ESPN EMEA Ltd..
2. "Grand Prix Results: Argentine GP, 1980". Inside F1, Inc..
3. "01/13/1980 race: Grand Prix of Argentina (F1) qualifying results - Racing-Reference.info".
4. "1980 Argentine Grand Prix". formula1.com.
5. (13 January 1980). "1980 Argentine Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive".
6. "Argentina 1980 - Championship • STATS F1".