Editor Chris Balfe remembers the 1982 Austrian GP - Osterreichring, 15 August 1982

It had been a pretty awful year and F1™ needed something to raise its spirits.

In Belgium we lost our brightest star Gilles Villeneuve, while in Canada poor Riccardo Paletti perished in a horrific start-line crash. Hockenheim brought us more misery when Ferrari star Didier Pironi crashed heavily during the Saturday practice session in an incident uncannily similar to that, which had robbed us of his Canadian team-mate earlier in the year.

Following Pironi's massive crash everyone was feeling down, therefore we were delighted when some light relief came along in the form of the excellent trackside 'punch up' between race-leader Nelson Piquet and Chilean driver Eliseo Salazar.

With no Austrian involvement in F1™ the 1981 event looked like being the last. However thanks to Niki Lauda's decision to return to the sport, and a deal between Bernie Ecclestone and local businessman Ernie Huppert, the Grosser Preis von Osterreich remained on the calendar for '82.

Pironi still lead the championship, with 39 points, but Watson (30), Rosberg (27), Prost (25) and local hero Lauda (24) were closing in. Ferrari led the Constructors' Championship with 61 points ahead of McLaren (54), Renault (44) and Williams (40).

Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone - pops up everywhere doesn't he? - was in a peculiar situation. On the one hand, as boss of Brabham, he was more or less being forced to dance to the tune of engine supplier BMW who at one point threatened to withdraw their supply unless his team got its act together. While as President of FOCA (Formula One Constructors' Association) he was committed to heading the anti-Turbo brigade. As Jimmy 'God' Greaves would say; "It's a funny old game."

It had been a pretty awful season for the Brabham-BMW thus far, the low spot being the Detroit Grand Prix - Motor City for Chrissake! - when Nelson Piquet failed to qualify. A week later however Nelson stormed back in Canada to give Brabham-BMW their first win, narrowly beating team-mate Riccardo Patrese who was driving a Cosworth powered Brabham.

The biggest problem with the Brabham-BMW was weight. Eventually Brabham designer Gordon Murray came up with the perfect solution, a pit stop. Murray opted to start the Brabhams on half-loads of fuel thus enabling the cars to build a healthy lead before making a fuel stop, round about the halfway mark. The lighter fuel load meant less wear on tyres, which meant softer compounds.

Up until this point drivers had stopped for tyres but not fuel. So, next time you hear Uncle Max going on about how the fans love pits stops and fuel strategy, remember that it was his old pal Bernie who introduced the wretched things in the first place.

The two Brabhams lined up on the front row of the grid, Piquet taking pole with a 1:27.612, third fastest was Alain Prost (Renault) on 1:28.864 and Tambay (Ferrari) 1:29.522.

Piquet made a cracking start and shot off into the lead while Rosberg made a superb effort by squeezing the Williams between Tambay's Ferrari and the pit wall.

Daly was slow to get away and consequently de Cesaris tried to go round the outside but Lauda was already there. The Italian clipped Daly's front-right wheel and was sent smack-bang into team-mate Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa-Romeo. Elsewhere, Rupert Keegan (March) had clipped the pit-wall breaking his steering arm - four cars out within seconds of the start - all in all a typical start to an Austrian GP.