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#1 Scribe06

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Posted 06 October 2005 - 19:16

This dialogue set me to thinking:

Originally posted by angst
1982 - 11 different drivers from seven different teams won races that year, but it was a awful year in terms of politics and deaths and injuries.


Originally posted by Twin Window
As Angst says, 1982 was probably the most impressive year statistically, but in some ways it was an unusual 'one-off' due largely to the mortality & bad accident count.


Originally posted by Jerome.Inen
The most competitive year in Formula 1 according to me was 1982...

Arnoux (Renault), Prost (Renault), Rosberg (Williams), Pironi (Ferrari), Tambay (Ferrari), De Angelis (Lotus), Alboreto (Tyrrel), Watson (McLaren), Lauda (McLaren), Patrese (Brabham), Piquet
(Brabham).

11 (eleven!) different drivers winning Grand Prix, 7 different carmakers... pretty amazing year

(Alas also the year that Villeneuve died and Pironi smashed both his legs and his career)


Surprisingly, I had never quite viewed 1982 in the way that Stuart discribes it, although it is a very reasonable view of the season. However, it is one of those seasons where the statistics and the story of the season seem to agree.

I really hadn't thought about that season very much lately until I stumbled upon these posts. In retrospect, the season seems to be a part of the faultline which divides Then from Now. Despite all the difficulties of the season, I still find it such an amazing story that had anyone told us about it on 1 January 1982, he would have been either laughed at or jeered. Or both.

The pity is that most simply look at the statistics and often forget about all the drama that seemed to descend upon that season. I don't know about how it affected any of the others, but I have always suspected that it was one of the reasons that led me away from F1. Not certain exactly why, but it wasn't just the death of Gilles Villeneuve, more a change of tone that I was out of synch with. Plus, CART and IMSA GTP racing seemed much more enjoyable at the time.

So, is the consensus pretty much what Stuart says?

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#2 Mallory Dan

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 12:20

I thought at the time, and still do, that 1982 was a superb season. Not only loads of winning drivers and cars, but a lot of 'new' winners. Also some great races, Austria and Dijon for example, plus the last stand of the DFV, coming of the turbos. Pit-stops starting, 'garagistes' v manufacturers, plenty of politics/controversy, young Brits getting a chance (Noige, Warwick, DD, Henton, Byrne, Rupe). And perhaps best of all, a regular non-qualifier from the previous year winning the title !!

Whilst I thought GV a great driver, I was never really into the myth of him, so perhaps his death didn't colour my views of '82 as much as others. I maintain, GP racing has never been better than that year.

#3 petefenelon

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 12:37

'82 was a year when I found it very difficult to enjoy F1. The cars were absurd, there was no artistry required to get the best out of them - all that was needed was a lack of imagination and a lead foot -- nail the throttle and hang on for the ride, then pray that they got round the corners. On anything other than a billiard-table track they were potentially lethal blunt instruments. And I think that's why eleven drivers won races - that year wasn't about skill, it was entirely about staying out of harm's way.

The politics..... well the whole FIASCO war was a disgrace.

And the deaths and injuries?

No, it was a terrible season. The sense of relief I had in '83 when some degree of sanity returned to the cars made it a lot easier to breathe easily during the races.

#4 Henri Greuter

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 13:21

Originally posted by petefenelon
'82 was a year when I found it very difficult to enjoy F1. The cars were absurd, there was no artistry required to get the best out of them - all that was needed was a lack of imagination and a lead foot -- nail the throttle and hang on for the ride, then pray that they got round the corners. On anything other than a billiard-table track they were potentially lethal blunt instruments. And I think that's why eleven drivers won races - that year wasn't about skill, it was entirely about staying out of harm's way.

The politics..... well the whole FIASCO war was a disgrace.

And the deaths and injuries?

No, it was a terrible season. The sense of relief I had in '83 when some degree of sanity returned to the cars made it a lot easier to breathe easily during the races.


I second that opinion,

each and every race that firsth alf of the season something nasty or controversial happened which made F1 look bad and rediculous. Politics, rule breaking, cheating ( "Water cooled brakes"....) , injuries and fatalities.
A nasty year....

'83 made up for that, fortunately.

henri

#5 GIGLEUX

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 14:35

But don't forget that in 1983 Prost and Renault were robbed for the titles because of the illegalicy of the BMW's fuel. Another polemic in which the FIA was not very courageous!

#6 John B

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 14:40

In addition to the fatalities, as mentioned the number of huge crashes made it a difficult season for me as a young fan....I remember tuning in to sports reports with the first thought being had anyone been killed or injured that weekend. Even before the year there were huge testing accidents, one involving Pironi at France. Later that year at the same track there was a near LeMans 55 accident when Jochen Mass got launched. The turbo-ground effects combo was clearly pushing the limits and it was a relief when ground effects were banned for 1983.

Certainly the on track action was unpredicatable. The three teams which dominated 1983 had the potential to do so in 1982, but Renault and Brabham were really plagued by unreliability and Ferrari of course by the accidents. How many times will we see a team finish 1-2 with 2 different chassis/engines, as Brabham did at Canada?

#7 man

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 14:43

Politics and tragedy aside, 1982 provided some extraordinary wheel to wheel racing. Not to mention the elegant lines of the Ferrari 126 C2. :love:

#8 mikedeering

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 14:48

Originally posted by John B
How many times will we see a team finish 1-2 with 2 different chassis/engines, as Brabham did at Canada?


Or a car not qualify one week and win the race 7 days later!

#9 WHITE

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 15:29

Originally posted by man
Politics and tragedy aside, 1982 provided some extraordinary wheel to wheel racing.




:up: :up: :up:

And boxing too ( Piquet X Salazar )

#10 MoMurray

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 15:47

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
young Brits getting a chance (Noige, Warwick, DD, Henton, Byrne, Rupe).


Just as point of clarification, Byrne (Tommy) was not a young Brit. He is from Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland.

Also, I don't know the DD you are referring to but if you mean Derek Daly, he is also from the Republic of Ireland, although I would not consider '82 as his "chance". It was in fact the last of his five years in F1.

Mo

#11 Scribe06

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Posted 07 October 2005 - 18:18

I think 1982 was the point where I realized that the politics, which no end of people then and now openly despise and miss no opportunity to take a whack at, were far more interesting than the technical nonsense could ever be and told a story that most others seemed to be quite willing to completely ignore since it didn't fit with their notions of racing and fogged their rose-tinted glasses. Sorry, but as much of a nattering nabob of negativity that I am at times I don't buy into the "disgrace" and so forth concept. You play the cards you are dealt and the cards dealt in 1982 probably didn't do anyone many favors. However, it is fascinating to see how the cars were played by those playing the game that season.

I am always rather amused that the 1982 F1 season rates so highly in my own personal view of things. As much as I enjoyed the bickering, back-stabbing, and kicks to the crotch that signify the period from late-1978 until 1985, it was observed far more as an academic than as a "F1 fan," something I had probably ceased to be some years earlier for a variety of reasons.

I easily bought into the "GV Myth" having seen GV race in F/Atlantic and do just amazing things on the track. And I was also an early Keke fan as well.

Well, I thought that I would ask since I tend to wonder what others think because it does offer some insight that might be useful when pondering such things in the future.