F1/Seasons/1981/Round 1
1981 · Round 1 of 15

United States Grand Prix West

March 15, 1981 · Long Beach · California · USA
Jones
WINNER
Alan Jones · Williams · from grid 2
FASTEST LAP
Lap timing starts in 2004. This race has none.
+12
MOST PLACES GAINED
René Arnoux · grid 20 to P8
8 of 24
CLASSIFIED
16 retired

01/Classification

24 cars
Finishing order
PosDriverConstructorGrid+/-LapsTime / statusPtsFastest lap
1Alan JonesWilliams2+1801:50:41.3309
2Carlos ReutemannWilliams3+180+9.1906
3Nelson PiquetBrabham4+180+34.9204
4Mario AndrettiAlfa Romeo6+280+49.3103
5Eddie CheeverTyrrell8+380+1:06.7002
6Patrick TambayTheodore17+1179+1 Lap1
7Chico SerraFittipaldi18+1178+2 Laps0
8René ArnouxRenault20+1277+3 Laps0
RMarc SurerEnsign1970Fuel system0
RDidier PironiFerrari1167Fuel system0
RJean-Pierre JarierLigier1064Fuel pump0
RHector RebaqueBrabham1549Accident0
RBruno GiacomelliAlfa Romeo941Collision0
RJacques LaffiteLigier1241Collision0
RKeke RosbergFittipaldi1641Engine0
RJan LammersATS2141Collision0
RRiccardo PatreseArrows133Fuel system0
RBeppe GabbianiOsella2426Accident0
RNigel MansellTeam Lotus725Accident0
RGilles VilleneuveFerrari517Halfshaft0
RJohn WatsonMcLaren2316Brakes0
RElio de AngelisTeam Lotus1313Accident0
RAlain ProstRenault140Collision0
RAndrea de CesarisMcLaren220Collision0

Ordered on the source’s position column and printed from position_text. Those two disagree on purpose: position is a sort key that is never null, and position_text is what happened to the car. 16 of 24 cars here were not classified (16 retired). Across the archive that is 9,612 of 26,048 result rows, so a page that printed the sort key would tell more than a third of every field it finished.


02/Grid to finish

8 of 24 cars
Grid minus finishing position
PLACES GAINED
DriverConstructorGridFin+/-
René ArnouxRenault208+12
Patrick TambayTheodore176+11
Chico SerraFittipaldi187+11
Eddie CheeverTyrrell85+3
Mario AndrettiAlfa Romeo64+2
PLACES LOST

No classified car finished behind its grid slot.

Movement is grid minus finishing position, and it is computed for 8 of the 24 cars entered. It is left blank for the other 16: a car that was not classified has no finishing position to subtract from, and no car here carries grid 0, the value the source uses for a pit lane start or for no recorded grid slot. Scoring a grid of 0 as a gain of every place on the grid is the arithmetic this rule exists to stop; 266 of 26,048 rows across the archive are grid 0, and 40 of those were classified.


03/The 1981 season

15 rounds
MAR 15 to OCT 17
RdDateGrand PrixCircuitWinnerConstructorCars
1MAR 15United States Grand Prix WestLong BeachAlan JonesWilliams24
2MAR 29Brazilian Grand PrixAutódromo Internacional Nelson PiquetCarlos ReutemannWilliams25
3APR 12Argentine Grand PrixAutódromo Juan y Oscar GálvezNelson PiquetBrabham24
4MAY 3San Marino Grand PrixAutodromo Enzo e Dino FerrariNelson PiquetBrabham27
5MAY 17Belgian Grand PrixZolderCarlos ReutemannWilliams24
6MAY 31Monaco Grand PrixCircuit de MonacoGilles VilleneuveFerrari20
7JUN 21Spanish Grand PrixJaramaGilles VilleneuveFerrari24
8JUL 5French Grand PrixDijon-PrenoisAlain ProstRenault24
9JUL 18British Grand PrixSilverstone CircuitJohn WatsonMcLaren24
10AUG 2German Grand PrixHockenheimringNelson PiquetBrabham24
11AUG 16Austrian Grand PrixRed Bull RingJacques LaffiteLigier24
12AUG 30Dutch Grand PrixCircuit Park ZandvoortAlain ProstRenault25
13SEP 13Italian Grand PrixAutodromo Nazionale di MonzaAlain ProstRenault24
14SEP 27Canadian Grand PrixCircuit Gilles VilleneuveJacques LaffiteLigier24
15OCT 17Caesars Palace Grand PrixLas Vegas Street CircuitAlan JonesWilliams24

Every figure here is one race, read from f1_results and f1_races. The finishing order is the source’s position column; the printed position is position_text, which is a letter on 9,612 of 26,048 rows across the archive (R retired 9,089, W withdrew 364, D disqualified 159). Grid 0 is a pit lane start and prints as PIT, not as a place ahead of pole; 266 of 26,048 rows are grid 0. Time is a total for the winner and a gap to the car ahead for everyone else, and it is present on 8,508 of 26,048 rows only, so most of the archive shows the status instead; where both exist and the status is not “Finished” the status is printed beside the time, because 8,335 of 16,436 classified rows finished lapped or otherwise not cleanly. The fastest lap column is empty before 2004: the source carries lap timing on 8,977 of 26,048 rows and a ranked fastest lap in 447 of 1,161 races, and speed on 8,238 of those, none after 2024. Points are printed as the source stores them and are never rounded to a whole number: 38 of 26,048 rows are fractional (0.5, 1.33, 3.14), which is half points for a shortened race and a split score for a shared car, and every one of them is real. Three races (1951 French, 1956 Argentine, 1957 British) print two cars as first, because two drivers shared one car and the record books credit both; in those three the source hangs the race points on other rows, which is why 5 of 1,164 winning rows across the archive print zero points. Constructors carry no logo in any f1_* table, so none is drawn and none is invented. The 1981 season is complete at 15 rounds.