Date May 20, 1984 Course Dijon-Prenois Weather Dry | Location Dijon, France Course length 3.801 km (2.361 mi) | |
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Distance 79 laps, 300.279 km (186.519 mi) | ||
The 1984 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Dijon on May 20, 1984. It was the fifth round of the 1984 Formula One season.
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This was the 5th French and 6th and last ever World Championship Grand Prix to be held at the 3.801km (2.361m) Dijon-Prenois circuit as it was deemed too short by the governing body FISA (circuits where lap times were under 60 seconds were considered too small for Grand Prix racing. With speeds increasing, it was felt that another race at Dijon would see the cars lapping in under one minute. The same fate would fall on the shortened Paul Ricard Circuit after 1990). Fittingly in France, Frenchman Patrick Tambay, in the all French team (French car, French engine, French tyres and French fuel) scored the Equipe Renault team's last pole position.
Dual World Champion Niki Lauda won the race in his McLaren-TAG, his first win in France since 1975. Tambay finished second in his Renault RE50 with the Lotus-Renault of Nigel Mansell third. After almost losing a wheel on the fast Courbe de Pouas leading onto the pit straight, World Championship leader Alain Prost was forced to pit to change the wheel. He put in one of his usual stirring drives, but could still only manage 7th in his McLaren-TAG.
After impressing in the final qualifying session run in heavy rain, François Hesnault was not allowed to start on race day after Ligier was withdrawn from the race, despite the Frenchman qualifying 14th (one place behind the new Toleman-Hart of Ayrton Senna). This was done so the teams number one driver Andrea de Cesaris could start from the back of the grid. de Cesaris' Friday time was disallowed when his Ligier JS23's onboard fire extinguisher was found to be empty. As the final qualifying session was run in the wet, de Cesaris actually failed to qualify as his best time was 11 seconds slower than 26th placed Piercarlo Ghinzani in the Osella and 17 seconds slower than Hesnault. de Cesaris would go on to finish in 10th place, two laps adrift of Lauda.
Qualifying
* François Hesnault actually qualified 14th with a time of 1:05.850 in the first qualifying session. However Ligier withdrew his entry in order for their #1 driver Andrea de Cesaris to start after the Italians Friday time was disallowed due to an empty onboard fire extinguisher in his JS23 and he could not post a quick time in the wet final session.