F1 1979 Round 3 - Kyalami
Closing the Southern hemisphere F1 tour, the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami was the site of the third round of the 1979 World Drivers’ Championship. The classic sweeping track is always a popular venue with the drivers and a 25-car field (season’s best so far) was on Sunday’s night starting grid.
Unsurprisingly, the Tyrrell-Ligier duel which highlighted the South American races continued in South Africa, with this Sasha Sosnowski (who was having a one-off drive in the V12 Brabham-ALFA) as the guest star in the contenders’ lot. Pierre Labédan (Tyrrell) took the pole in qualifying, with Sasha second and Carl Larrad in third, far in front of his team mate Frank Verplanken (only 8th on the grid). The superior power of the ALFA-Romeo V12 enabled Sasha Sosnowski to take the lead at the start, but after holding back Pierre for 5 laps the Americano-Polish driver made a slight mistake and the Tyrrell was through. Pierre was from then on unchallenged and cruised to his second win of the year, one that must leave his opponents wondering what will prevent him from being champion this year.
After his intial mishap, the young Sasha was seemingly also cruising to a well deserved 2nd place, but a laps in concentration made him crash out for good on lap 45. This handed 2nd place to Frank Verplanken, who had overcame his poor grid position with a fine start, several overtakings and a solid pace throughout the race. Another super-sub at ALFA-Romeo was Othmane Belmachi, who took 3rd place after having started at the back of the grid. Behind him was Thomas Gatschnegg who gave the new Ferrari 312T4 its first points in its first start. His team mate Olivier Philipps was in the chase for a podium spot in the first part of the race but crashed out on lap 36. Apart from Sosnowki and Philipps, many other drivers crashed and the high attrition rate allowed Ludovic Tiengou (McLaren) and David Conan (Lotus) to score their first points of the year. Only 8 cars saw the chequered flag on this reputadely easy track, with Gianluca Desposito (Shadow) and Patrice Gibelin (Rebaque) rounding up the survivors’ list.
Next round will feature a totally different track, the suburban Monaco wannabe circuit of Long Beach under the sunny Californian fog !
Final Standings :
1 - Pierre Labédan (Tyrrell-Cosworth 009)
2 - Frank Verplanken (Ligier-Cosworth JS11)
3 - Othmane Belmachi (ALFA-Romeo 179)
4 - Thomas Gatschnegg (Ferrari 312T4 )
5 - Ludovic Tiengou (McLaren-Cosworth M28)
6 - David Conan (Lotus-Cosworth 79)
7 - Gianluca Desposito (Shadow-Cosworth DN9)
8 - Patrice Gibelin (Lotus-Cosworth 79)
F1 1979 Round 2 - Interlagos
Last Sunday saw the second race of the South American tour for the 1979 F1 circus, on the magnificent Interlagos cricuit in Sao Paolo, Brazil. A nice 24-car grid was on hand, but unfortunately three of those were out as early as the second corner of the first lap, where a shunt took off Vincent Rieux, Gianluca Desposito and Ludovic Tiengou.
With no evolutions on the cars since the opening round in Buenos Aires, the podium challengers were very much the same as two weeks ago. It was therefore no suprise to see the Labédan brothers occupying the first row of the grid, with their new Tyrrell team-mate Grégory Letellier just behind them in 4th place. After a rather rough opening lap, it was Pierre Labédan who emerged as the early leader in front of Frank Verplanken's Ligier. Right away, Pierre transformed his superior qualifying speed in tremendous race pace and started building up a nice gap over Frank. Sadly, a promised win was denied to the Tyrrell squadron leader when the graphics card on his PC started having troubles. After struggling for a few laps, Pierre was out on the 15th revolution, handing the lead to Frank who himself had a solid gap over the other Labédan, Franck. The order in the lead did not change after that, and Frank recorded his first win in the championship on his favourite track of the schedule. The Ligier triumph was completed by Carl Larrad’s excellent 3rd place, which he conquered after a magnificent climb back through the field following a first lap spin to avoid another car.
As in Buenos Aires, an Arrows took 4th place, but it was this time the one of Tiago Malafaya. Carloz Pozzi confirmed his fabulous pace with the slow ATS and was rewarded with the 2 points of 5th place. Sixth place went to Grégory Letellier, who brought Tyrrell another championship point in his debut race, despite having spun at the start.
Austria’s Thomas Gatschnegg took 7th for the Ferrari T3’s last race, and will certainly be one of the men to watch with the new T4 in Kyalami. Thomas beat Stefan Maurischat’s ALFA-Romeo by only three seconds, the driver from Liechtenstein getting with this 8th place his best ever finish in an HSO F1 1979 race. Rookie driver David Conant (Lotus) took the checkers for the second consecutive time, and finished 9th in the process just in front of Vincent Beretta’s Williams and the crowd favourite Fittipaldi F5A of Marc Florkin.
The championship standings now have Ligier both the drivers and constructors’ tables, with the Tyrrell boys a few points behind.
The South emisphere tour will bring us to South Africa and its Kyalami circuit in three weeks time. See you there !
Final Standings : :
1 - Frank Verplanken ( Ligier-Cosworth JS11 )
2 - Franck Labédan ( Tyrrell-Cosworth 009 )
3 - Carl Larrad ( Ligier-Cosworth JS11 )
4 - Tiago Malafaya ( Arrows-Cosworth A1 )
5 - Carlo Pozzi ( ATS- Cosworth D2 )
6 - Grégory Letellier ( Tyrrell-Cosworth 009 )
7 - Thomas Gatschnegg ( Ferrari 312/T3 )
8 - Stefan Maurischat ( ALFA-Romeo 179 )
9 - David Conan ( Lotus-Cosworth 79 )
10 - Vincent Beretta ( Williams-Cosworth FW06 )
11 - Marc Florkin ( Fittipaldi-Cosworth F5A )
F1 1979 Round 1 - Buenos Aires
The second season of HSO F1 1979 started last Sunday under the cheers of the fanatic Argentinian crowd of the Buenos Aires autodrome. With 23 cars on the grid the race promised to be a good one - and it was !
Pre-season favourites after setting the pace during the Winter testing, the Tyrrell team did not deceive its supporters. The Labédans brothers held the front line of the grid, and right from the first laps poleman Pierre build up a small margin he was able to keep all race long. Second home was Frank Verplanken who was keen to show that he could be a contender when at the wheel of a competitive car. The last podium spot went to the second Tyrrell of Franck Labédan - not as fast as his brother Pierre, Franck nevertheless covered a very good race, mixing it with Frank Verplanken, Guillaume Siebert and Martin Audran to gather 4 championship points. Defending champion Guillaume Siebert, now at Arrows, took 4th in front of a surprising Carl Larrad (Ligier). Mario Gassner took the last point with a fine 6th, having succeeded in keeping focused all race long despite running alone for most of the race - which was his weak point in 2009.
Carlo Pozzi and the very slow ATS finished 7th, in front of David Conan, Karel Marciniszyn and Bernard Jeanmart, who all saw the checquered flag for their first race in the series.
Next stop for the F1 circus will be the beautiful Interlagos circuit in three weeks time, yet another track where ground effects will be a definite advantage!
Final Standings :
1 - Pierre Labédan ( Tyrrell-Cosworth 009 )
2 - Frank Verplanken ( Ligier-Cosworth JS11 )
3 - Franck Labédan ( Tyrrell-Cosworth 009 )
4 - Guillaume Siebert ( Arrows-Cosworth A1 )
5 - Carl Larrad ( Ligier-Cosworth JS11 )
6 - Mario Gassner ( Brabham-ALFA BT48 )
7 - Carlo Pozzi ( ATS-Cosworth D2 )
8 - David Conan ( Lotus-Cosworth 79 )
9 - Karel Marciniszyn ( Fittipaldi-Cosworth F5A )
10 - Bernard Jeanmart ( Lotus-Cosworth 79 )
F1 1979 – Early Season Review
Tyrrell vs. Alfa-Romeo – this simple assertion can sum up the early season of the 1979 Formula 1 World Championship.
Drivers from the two teams have in fact won all of the 6 races run so far. With three wins (Kyalami, Jarama, Zolder) and a third place, Oscar Erroz, the Tyrrell driver from Spain, logically leads the provisional standings with 31 points (out of 36 possible). He will need to score at least a 2nd at Monaco to better his current tally, which is far from impossible considering his current pace and race reliability.
Second in the standings is the French Alfa-Romeo driver, Guillaume Siebert, who gathers two wins (Buenos Aires and Long Beach) and two seconds to total 30 points. Despite a series of tracks not necessarily suited to the heavy Alfa-Romeo, his results so far are impressive to say the least and call for many a good result on the fast tracks coming ahead.
A win in Interlagos and a brilliant second in Long Beach (after a ding-dong battle with Siebert for the win), give France’s Stéphane Lebourhis (Tyrrell) third place in the standings with 15 points. Often in the winning pace, Stéphane has not finished many races, as in Zolder where a collision with a lapped car deprived him from an almost certain victory that would have put him back in the hunt for the title. A good result in Monaco is now almost mandatory to keep his title hopes alive.
Behind these three drivers the cake was split in many slices. Othmane Belmachi, the Renault driver, leads the chase with 7 points despite no podium finishes. His score could have been higher, and it certainly will thanks to the speed of the new RS12 Renault Turbo car. Each with the 6 points of a second place are Frank Verplanken (Lotus) and Tiago Malafaya (Shadow). Often on the first rows of the grid, Frank (as his Belgian team mate Vincent Rieux) never really transformed those into points finishing positions. The same can be said about the Ligier drivers, who shone in qualifying (Franck Labédan scoring his first career pole in Kyalami) but have yet to score big points. Franck nevertheless has 6 championships points so far, thanks to a fine third in South Africa. His team mate Yahia Boukerche ran into a wild series of technical mishaps which have prevented from finishing a single race. Guy Ligier is unhappy and expects better things from his pair of top French drivers.
Coming next in the World Championship standings are five drivers tied at 4 points. Among them is Eric Campillo from Spain, who ran the full distance in the last four races, even giving his lazy Arrows a beautiful third in Zolder. His team mate and fellow Spanish, Lluis Segura, is also a constant finisher on the early season races, but has not yet reached the top 6 in any of these events. Also with a third place (in Jarama) is young Polish driver Jan Kowalski, who proved that the flat 12 Alfa-Romeo engine and the Brabham chassis are a worthy match. His Brasilian team mate, Andre Cunha, was not as lucky and only finished one race, his home Grand Prix, but out of the top 6. Also with 4 points is Williams driver Olivier Philipps, who had to do with the old FW06 so far but will surely be a potential winner with the new FW07. Finally, also with 4 points, are Frenchman Alain Lefebvre (McLaren) and Austrian Thomas Gatschnegg (Wolf), who both scored a coupe of fifths, and will seek to climb on their first podium in the coming races.Last of the classified drivers are England’s Matthew Cox (Renault), American Darryn Smalley (Ferrari), Vincent Rieux (Lotus) of Belgium and Canada’s John Cook (McLaren). All of them are in cars that should allow them to expand that total in the second part of the season.
Some drivers only made irregular appearances, but nevertheless shone as Josete Chaco (Tyrrell, 2nd in Buenos Aires), Mickael Taloc (Renault, 3rd in Buenos Aires), Germain Merida (5th in Kyalami in his only outing for Ligier), or Allar Foht (4th in Long Beach with a Tyrrell). Another stellar driver, but with no points in the standings, is German Uwe Klöppel who drove his Ensign N177 up to a magnificent 5th during the Spanish Grand Prix, only to lose the position late in the race due to an unscheduled pitstop.
Finally, let’s give a round of applause to the drivers at the back of the grid, those driving the least efficient cars available. Particularly remarkable were some of the performances of Alejandro Meirinhos (Fittipaldi) and Stefan Maurischat (Merzario and Rebaque), who both often saw the finish line but unfortunately not yet in the points paying positions. We wish points will reward them soon, as we do for Ludovic Tiengou (Shadow), Jean-François Bovy (Ensign) or Hervé Sabathé (Kauhsen).
Welcome to the HSO F1 1979 championship webpage. You will find here results and standings of the F1 1979 and BMW Procar races.
The F1 1979 mod used will be an evolution of the GP1979 Master Series mod created last year and should be available shortly. Concerning the BMW M1 Procar mod, you can already grab it at rFactorcentral. There are still some empty seats so don't hesitate to subscribe on the forum.