1983 Detroit Grand Prix

Championship standings

Prost leads by four points from Piquet after winning at Spa, with Tambay one further back. Renault leads the Constructors’ Championship by five points from Ferrari.

Previous race

Prost won Belgium from pole, briefly challenged by Andrea de Cesaris’s Alfa Romeo before a slow pit stop and then engine trouble ended de Cesaris’s challenge. Piquet ran as high as second but lost fifth gear late on and dropped to fourth. Cheever and Tambay completed a Franco-Italian top four.

Track changes

The Detroit circuit has been modified from its 1982 configuration. The extremely tight hairpin at Turn Five, at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Chrysler Drive, has been eliminated and replaced with a new section of track that stays on Chrysler Drive. The pit lane entrance has also been moved to before the final chicane. The new layout is faster and preferred by the drivers.

The race distance has been reduced to 61 laps (approximately 250 km) after the 1982 race failed to reach the standard Grand Prix distance within the two-hour time limit.

Practice

Friday’s entire programme ran in wet conditions. Only one hour of running on Saturday is available to set the grid.