McLarens take early lead

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 28

McLarens take early lead

Already two races old, the 1984 16-round world championships for drivers and manufacturers of Formula 1 racing cars have quickly developed into an extremely interesting situation. The Porsche-powered, Marlboro-sponsored

McLarens have won the Brazilian and the South African grands prix. The Frechman, Alain Prost, won at Rio de Janeiro and last week-end the Austrian, Niki Lauda, won at Kyalami, near Johannesburg, his teammate, Prost, finishing second. The success of the new McLaren MP4/2 has taken it to the top of the ladder in the Formula 1 manufacturers’ series and 29-year-old Prost, who has now won 10 world championship races, to the top of the world drivers’ ladder. However, these are early days and it could well be that the McLarens with their TAG-Porsche POl 1.5litre twin turbocharged V 6 engines will begin to meet their match once the Grand Prix circus moves to Europe. The next race in the

series is the Belgian Grand Prix, which will be held on the flat and featureless Zolder circuit on April 29. Traditionally, some of the Formula 1 teams reveal their new cars at the start of the European section of the series and so Zolder could produce some surprises. For the last four years, the tiny republic of San Marino, which is not far from Rimini on the Italian Adriatic coast, has conducted its own world chamOrace. Brabham and have each won two races and nothing is surer than that the Italian Ferrari team will have its usual fanatical support because it is racing in its homeland. Rene Amoux, a Frenchman who must be the oldest driver in Formula 1 today, for he was bom in July 1948, and the young Italian, Michele Alboreto, will be driving for Ferrari in the San Marino Grand Prix, which will be run on May 6 at Imola.

This year it is the turn of Dijon to conduct the French

Grand Prix on May 20. Dijon-Prenois is in one of the main wine-producing

areas in France and it is regarded as a more challenging circuit than the other French Grand Prix venue, Paul Ricard, which is near the south coast.

Undoubtedly the most glamourous Formula 1 race of them all is the Monaco Grand Prix, which will be held in the streets of Monte Carlo on June 3. It is at a time when most of the jetsetting beautiful people choose to stay on the French Riviera and the race attracts so much interest that it has been estimated that nearly 90 million people in 38 countries will watch it on television this year.

After Monaco, the Grand Prix circus will begin its North American tour, beginning with the Canadian Grand Prix on the site of Expo ’67 in Montreal on June 17. A week later, on June 24, the scene will shift to “Motor City,” Detroit, and the North American tour will conclude on July 8 with the newest event on the Formula 1 calendar in the downtown area of the oil-rich city of Dallas, Texas.

Then it will be back to Europe for the seven concluding rounds, the first of which will be the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, near London, on July 22. Then will follow the German and Austrian races on August 5 and 19 at Hockenheim and Osterreichreing, respectively. The last race in August will be

the Dutch Grand Prix amid the sand dunes next to the North Sea at Zandvoort. The Dutch race will be on August 26.

On September 9 the grid will form up for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, one of the traditional homes of motor racing. North of Milan, Monza is also the home of the notorious “tifosi,” said to be the most passionate motor-racing enthusiasts in the world and fanatically pro-Ferrari.

Each year one country hosts the European Grand Prix, as a general rule. This year Germany will have that honour on October 7, when the penultimate round of the series will be held on a completely new Nurburgring circuit in the wooded Eifel mountains. Like the old 14-mile Nurburgring circuit, which was deemed too dangerous for racing in 1977, after Niki Lauda’s near fatal accident the previous year, the new circuit is said to be potentially a classic course.

The sixteenth and final round this year will be held on October 21 in Spain at Fuengirola on a brand new circuit comprising mainly public roads. It is on the south coast of Spain and the attraction of the Costa deSol’s warm days will certainly make the Spanish Grand Prix the race that the Formula 1 circus will most eagerly await at the conclusion of what promises to be an action-packed series.