The CRAZIEST Season in F1 History! 

Fun fact: Alain Prost retired 5 laps from the end of Austrian GP. Had he won that race, he would have scored 43 points against 42 from Keke Rosberg. In fact, Prost lost 1981, 1982 and 1984 championships due to retirements in the Austrian GP which helped the actual champions to beat him in the end of the year.

This is the kind of RU-vid content i really like. No fancy graphics, just someone with a passion broadcasting him/herself so to speak ;)

Any videos on 1980s F1 are must watch for me. A brilliant time for the sport. Thanks for this.

This was the first F1 season I properly followed, when I was 13 years old. Little did I know that it was an exception rather than the rule but God it was exciting. Some great seasons since, but you never forget your first... Loved the Piquet comments!

Your portrayal of Nelson Piquet couldn’t have been more accurate. You had me in stitches there. Hahaha… Bravo!

This season must've been a rollercoaster to follow live. From the drivers strike in South Africa, the boycott of Imola, the tragedy of Villeneuve's death in Zolder to Pironi's career-ending crash at Hockenheim, and then added to the fact that there were DNFs left, right and centre each race, so consistency was very hard to find, with Rosberg coming out on top. I'm generally impressed by championship wins built on consistency as well as those in which the winning driver won the most races. They're great examples of the moral of the Hare and the Tortoise 'Slow and steady wins the race.' Stoffel Vandoorne in Formula E and Will Power in Indycar, both in 2022, won the championship in their respective series by only winning once, but Matt Crafton in NASCAR Trucks in 2019 and Oriol Servià in Indy Lights in 1999 managed to win the championship despite not winning any races at all, which I'd argue is also impressive. In terms of crazy seasons I've seen in motorsport, I think the most chaotic I've ever seen was the 2020-'21 Formula E Championship. That season was such a mess that drivers would literally fly up or down several places in the standings from race to race, partially due to the qualifying system at the time, which sorted the field into groups based on championship order, with the result that the drivers leading the championship tended to qualify deep in the field and had to race their way back through, and with how close the majority of the grid were, track position was often vital. Eighteen drivers out of a grid of 24 were still in mathematical title contention going into the final double header in Berlin, that's how crazy it was! 11 drivers won a race (no-one won more than twice), 20 drivers scored at least one podium finish and every driver scored at least one point. And champion Nyck de Vries only scored points in 7 out of 15 races (2 wins, 2 2nds, and 8th and 2 9ths). An honourable mention goes to the 2020 MotoGP season, as while I didn't watch it, I did keep an eye on it online and it was still bonkers just from looking at the results and race reports. Funnily enough, champion Joan Mir only won once during the season!

What would have made it even more crazy is that if Rosberg finished 2nd in the Swiss Grand Prix he would have still won the championship. He would then have the chance to do the biggest troll move in F1 history and retire from the sport, meaning he would have been a world champion without a single career win.

I'm a Montrealer and must say it's very nice being less than an hour from our own F1 circuit by bus and metro ride. I have been to the Formula One race nineteen times. But I stopped going because the ticket prices beyond ripoff now and they reduced a lot of access points. The food prices are also unfair, and to buy a Ferrari t-shirt? Sixty bucks! This video is well produced and accurate to the season of '82.

3:22 - No wonder this car was so fast...from this angle it looks like a kayak mounted to a rocket-powered tea-tray with wheels. Nice vid mate, great work 👍🏻

The rest of '24 season has potential to be crazy as well...hell, it's quite crazy now. Love the front wing-less cars of '82.

The Piquet digs made me smile. The man is a terminal bellend. Great video, kept me engaged.

Very good documentation of the season 82! Thanks 👌

Piquet: first Turbo Champion, first Honda champion, first(and only) BMW champion. Champion on 3 diferent engines + beat a brit on a brit team ;)

14:28 Daly broke down, he had already crashed many laps before and lost his rear wing. He was driving around without a rear wing for several laps and you can see this very clearly on the broadcast

I attended both LongBeach GP & CAESARS PALACE F1 IN 1982...I have some of the most incredible photos of Gilles, Prost, Mario, Cheever, and Pironi in the Queens hairpin at Long Beach that year! It was to this day the best F1 SEASON IN ITS HISTORY! One team wins the drivers title, another loses both drivers and still wins the Constructors Title?? UNHEARD OF!!!!

Great video; I was 20 in 1982 and watched as much as I could of this season that was available in the USA. And of course I also watched all the televised CART races plus the Indy 500 (CART didn't give points for Indy that season; it was considered only USAC that year). I will admit I was a Villeneuve fan so his death kind of took down my F1 interest that year, but it was an amazing FI season with all the up and downs, Pironi having a nearly insurmountable lead at the time of his accident but eventually Mr. Consistency Keke Rosberg wound the driver's championship. Regarding Mario Andretti - it's not like he was sitting at home; he was back in CART full-time with Patrick Racing (one of CART's top 2 teams). Mario finished 3rd in the series that year - no wins but 4 seconds and 2 thirds - so 6 times on the "podium" (CART would sometimes do the F1-style podium, other races they didn't). At Indy he qualified 4th but his car was knocked out on the initial start crash triggered by Kevin Cogan. Also, in that particular era CART cars were as close to F1 as they ever got - ground effects with skirts, turbo Cosworth engines, etc. so Andretti could jump into an F1 car and get up to speed quickly. And I have to agree that the "track" in Las Vega in the Caesar's Palace parking lot was total crap - it was crap for F1 and for CART when they ran the circuit for a few years.

One of my Thesis drawings in College was an illustration I drew of Pironi's Ferrari 126C on Canson Paper with Colored Pencil!

Thanks Ned. 1982 was my very first season following F1and yeah, what a year. Although not starting at round 1, I started at Monaco!!! What a crazy race. I soon started following Pironi and was terribly sorry for his accident and that he lost the Championship by only 5 Points. Thanks for the vid, the hard work and the memories.

I lost it at the Piquet burn🔥😂😂 What an amazing video mate!

Strange watching. They weren't exactly promoting 'crash'n''crumble' zones back then, as pionered by Mercedes, Volvo and Saab, preferring rolling coffins instead! Little wonder championship leader Pironi got his legs crushed. And that other driver died from similar injuries.

I remember the T-shirt very well - FISA+FOCA=FIASCO

Azerbaijan is both an European and an Asian country, as it lies between the Caucasus mountain range and the Caspian Sea. The northern part of Azerbaijan is in Europe, and the southern part in Asia. Baku, being on the peninsula where the Greater Caucasus meets the Caspian Sea, is exactly at the border between Europe and Asia.

The FW08 was the quickest naturally-aspirated car in 1982. The first 3 quickest cars were all turbocharged (Renault, Ferrari, Brabham-BMW) which had 100 or more hp. At the tracks with long straights like Hockenheim or Ricard, or tracks at high altitude like Kyalami in South Africa the turbos were sometimes 3 second laps quicker than the next fastest car. At Hockenheim, the gap between Patrese in the Brabham-BMW qualifying 6th and Alboreto qualifying 7th was 2.9 seconds. Just think about that.

Keke WDC: To achieve your dreams the first step is to pitch up. For the big teams, 1982 was a non-season. Regulation changes for 1983 (ground effect outlawed completely, all cars return to a flat undertray, four wheel drive banned along with cars with more than four wheels, minimum weight set at 540 kg, credit Wiki) discouraged teams from putting any development into their cars, which were about to become obsolete. Williams and Rosberg kept on plugging away with the equivalent of a family sedan and to finish in the points, first you have to finish. Circuit racing is banned in Switzerland. Autoslalom and hillclimb are very popular however and Switzerland has a FIA-designated Autorité Sportive Nationale or ASN. On top of this, some electric races have been held on street circuits. Call me confused.

These are videos are so absolutely phenomenal. Thank you!

Good summary of a crazy season, thanks to RU-vid for recommending this video.

In 1979 right after the INFAMOUS French GP 1979, my house caught fire but the fire department saved it from burning from a brush fire on our canyon that day July 1, 1979🏁

Ron Dennis should star wrintting the script

Bro has a personal problem with piquet😂 great vid loved it

Great remake 👍 !

37:17 pure gold

1984...Prost losing to Lauda by a 1/2 point, despite Prost winning more races.

1982 was a helluva topsy-turvy year indeed. I'll never forget it, as it was my very first year as a Formula 1 fan. Actually, i became a big fan while watching the German grand prix live, which meant that luckily i was spared from all the horrific accidents ...

1983 was pretty same crazy but without fatalities.

Funny sidenote: Rosberg wasn't the first driver to win a title with just one race win. That honor goes to Mike Hawthorn in 1958 who is also the last driver to win a F1 championship with a front engine car

The best season in history

In motorsports.....you wanna win, you have to be a Finn. ; )

I love your season review. May I suggest that you make one for another amazing season-1986?

Great narrative,

33:10 I’m pretty sure that’s Zandvoort. It’s the new pull rod front end which Pironi only used in practice in Canada and Germany and the race at Brands Hatch. The tulips on the inside are a bit of a giveaway too.

1982 most exciting seasons also one of of the deadliest one

Rosberg's Williams had about 150-200 hp deficit compared to Brabham, Renault and Ferrari. It was arguably the 4th or even 5th best car on the grid (after McLaren). It's insane that he won the 1982 title with that car and even more insane is that some people complain that he won only one race. They understand very little about F1. That Williams was literally 5 seconds slower on Hockenheim qualifying than the top cars.

My favorite season is 2010, for obvious reasons lol! Other great seasons though include 1984, 1986, 1994, 2007, 2008 and 2016.

Amazing to see your channel going up in the world, seems a long way from the Leyton House video a year ago

I started watching F1 that year, and IMHO the Renault and McLaren 82 cars were the best looking F1 cars ever, with the Ferrari very close. The loss of Villeneuve was a tragedy and he would have won the championship easily, with the Ferrari being the best car that year by midseason. And Watson doing such a great job only to be fired when Prost became available was so unfair.

This is a season that would be desserving of a "Rush 2" movie, it would be perfect since Nikki Lauda would still be in it

great video, just one thing. can you not add the fade-in effect for every sentence? just a suggestion

Totally crazy season

Rosberg driving the wheels off his Williams

Retracing old ground i see😜

5:23 let me get this clear once and for all: we brazillians DO NOT SPEAK SPANISH.

Pironi was cursed.

2007 was epic

It was Alonso with first championship :D But ok, at that time Renault definitely wasn't the best car but it also wasn't 4th worst

great call not to show the images of the crash.!!!!

Sure a different era.... Not the kindergarten whining of today - back then drivers actually put their lives on the line. And sometimes lost it. But also funny to see how they tried to cheat - 25 litres of cooling water for the brakes... yeah, right. And a massive fan sucking "cooling air" from underneath the car, what could be wrong with that? Interesting to see how easily Bernie changed sides. :) But the reliability issues were almost ridiculous at times. I can remember races, where just a few cars made it to the finish. So basically everybody who finished got points. The fans were not so pleased with such races.

I watched this entire video only to be later disqualified for being underweight

This is ridiculously anal of me but as this is so well researched I better say Williams were in Didcot back then not Grove

Sweet

12 minutes in and I've decided I can't sit through any more of this. Maybe, later on, the narrator would have gone on to say that Rosberg drove two totally different designs of car that year and won the championship in a chassis that had led its first race until very near the end of the Belgian GP and had qualified on pole for the British GP, albeit that it couldn't get off the grid under its own power on the warm up lap; not exactly the fourth fastest car. This content might be easier to listen to if the author got somebody else to read it. The pronunciation of everything from drivers' names to everyday English words made it a difficult listen. It sounds like you weren't even around in 1982. If you didn't go on to say it, Rosberg was the last driver to win the championship in the same season as his first grand prix victory. 42 years later, Lando Norris could be the first to do so since.

👍🏻 🇫🇮