Fifteen races, a last-round decider in a Las Vegas car park, and one of the closest finishes in Formula One history. Nelson Piquet took his first World Championship with Brabham-Ford (50 points), beating Carlos Reutemann's Williams-Ford by a single point — 49 — after the Argentine had led the title race for most of the year.

The Reutemann Paradox

Carlos Reutemann won rounds 2 (Brazil) and 5 (Belgium at Zolder, a race stopped early after an on-track tragedy in the pit lane) and arrived at the Caesars Palace finale leading Piquet by a point. He took pole. Then, inexplicably, he finished only eighth, gearbox and handling in disarray, while Piquet fought through exhaustion and neck cramps to finish fifth — enough for the title by one point. Earlier in the year Reutemann had defied a Williams team order to let Alan Jones past in Brazil; the fallout with the defending champion poisoned the garage and many believe drained Reutemann's motivation heading into Vegas.

The FISA-FOCA War and a New Order

The season opened under the cloud of the FISA-FOCA political war, which produced a non-championship South African GP boycotted by the manufacturers. The first Concorde Agreement was signed in March, codifying the commercial side of the sport for decades to come. On track, the Williams FW07C was the fastest car, but reliability and internal politics kept it from converting.

Villeneuve's Masterpieces

Gilles Villeneuve produced two of the most celebrated drives of his career in the uncompetitive turbocharged Ferrari 126CK: wet-weather domination in Spain at Jarama — holding off four faster cars (Laffite, Watson, Reutemann, de Angelis) within 1.2 seconds for 20 laps to win — and a tactical masterclass at Monaco. No one forgot either performance.

Williams won the constructors' title (95 points) thanks to Reutemann and Jones, but the drivers' crown went to Piquet. For Reutemann it was a wound that never quite healed: he announced his retirement early in 1982, after just two rounds of the new season.

Race Calendar

Rnd	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date	Winner
01	United States GP West Long Beach	Long Beach	15 Mar 1981	JonesWilliams
02	Brazilian GP Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet	Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet	29 Mar 1981	ReutemannWilliams
03	Argentine GP Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez	Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez	12 Apr 1981	PiquetBrabham
04	San Marino GP Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	3 May 1981	PiquetBrabham
05	Belgian GP Zolder	Zolder	17 May 1981	ReutemannWilliams
06	Monaco GP Circuit de Monaco	Circuit de Monaco	31 May 1981	VilleneuveFerrari
07	Spanish GP Jarama	Jarama	21 Jun 1981	VilleneuveFerrari
08	French GP Dijon-Prenois	Dijon-Prenois	5 Jul 1981	ProstRenault
09	British GP Silverstone Circuit	Silverstone Circuit	18 Jul 1981	WatsonMcLaren
10	German GP Hockenheimring	Hockenheimring	2 Aug 1981	PiquetBrabham
11	Austrian GP Red Bull Ring	Red Bull Ring	16 Aug 1981	LaffiteLigier
12	Dutch GP Circuit Park Zandvoort	Circuit Park Zandvoort	30 Aug 1981	ProstRenault
13	Italian GP Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	13 Sept 1981	ProstRenault
14	Canadian GP Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	27 Sept 1981	LaffiteLigier
15	Caesars Palace GP Las Vegas Street Circuit	Las Vegas Street Circuit	17 Oct 1981	JonesWilliams

P	Driver	Pts	W
	Nelson Piquet	50	3
2	Carlos Reutemann	49	2
3	Alan Jones	46	2
4	Jacques Laffite	44	2
5	Alain Prost	43	3
6	John Watson	27	1
7	Gilles Villeneuve	25	2
8	Elio de Angelis	14	0
9	René Arnoux	11	0
10	Hector Rebaque	11	0
11	Riccardo Patrese	10	0
12	Eddie Cheever	10	0
13	Didier Pironi	9	0
14	Nigel Mansell	8	0
15	Bruno Giacomelli	7	0
16	Marc Surer	4	0
17	Mario Andretti	3	0
18	Andrea de Cesaris	1	0
19	Patrick Tambay	1	0
20	Slim Borgudd	1	0

Data via Jolpica/Ergast · Telemetry not available