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 .
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. This saw him spin off and clout the outside guardrail almost nose first, the resulting suspension damage causing his immediate 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 largely only having 3rd and 5th gears left in his McLaren's gearbox.
Another Austrian driver Gerhard Berger, who would go on to win 10 Grands Prix before retiring at the end of the 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 1:31.904No 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 1:33.172No 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 +11.362Source:
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 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 42 Engine 5 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart 35 Oil Pressure 10 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 32 Engine 8 7 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 28 Spun Off/Gearbox 2 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 28 Engine 3 21 Huub Rothengatter Spirit-Hart 23 + 28 Laps 26 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 18 Engine 16 16 Derek Warwick Renault 17 Engine 6 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 15 Injection 18 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 15 Handling 9 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 12 Engine 11 30 Jo Gartner Osella-Alfa Romeo 6 Engine 22 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 4 Gearbox 23 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 0 Gearbox 14 3 Stefan Johansson Tyrrell-Ford 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford
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 24Source:
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 30Source:
References