1983 Monaco Grand Prix

As usual the Automobile Club of Monaco produced its own rules for the Grand Prix, which are at variance in many ways with the rest of the world. The first difference was the limitation of only 20 cars on the starting grid, and the second was the restriction of petrol in the pits, which effectively banned high-pressure refuelling and pit stops. The limitation on the number of starters was easily solved by a qualifying session at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning for those teams that did not score any points in last year’s Manufacturers Championship, which were Toleman, March and Theodore, so Warwick, Giacomelli, Guerrero, Cecotto and Salazar were out bright and early and the fastest three were to move up into the serious business of practice and qualifying due to start at 10 a.m. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong with the Toleman team and Warwick had to use all three team cars before he got in a decent lap, and the Theodore-Ensign team successfully eliminated itself with very little effort. Cecotto crashed and Guerrero’s car broke a driveshaft, so Salazar with the lone RAM-March and the shambolic Toleman team were the survivors to join the rest for the official practice.

In spite of a number of spectacular accidents in the San Marino GP none of the cars involved had to be scrapped, which says a lot for the constructional methods used in today’s Formula One cars and rebuilding was achieved without too much trouble. After the time-wasting exercise of changing the pedals and seat in the spare Ferrari to suit either Arnoux or Tambay, the Scuderia solved the problem by arriving at Monaco with four cars, two for Arnoux (064 and 062) and two for Tambay (065 and 063). The only other team that indulges in this luxury is Lotus who have two Renault powered cars for De Angelis (93T/1 and 93T/2) and two Cosworth powered cars for Mansell (92/10 and 92/5). After the first appearance of the 1983 Cosworth DFY engine at Paul Ricard, they are now well in production and Team Tyrrell joined the ranks, along with McLaren and Lotus, and though the DFY is better than the DFV in many respects it is still no answer to the power shortage that Ferrari, Renault and BMW make increasingly obvious at each successive meeting.

Elio de Angelis in his Lotus 93Y.