Season Summary
The season had been expected to see a continuation of the Brabham-Renault-Ferrari battle, with supporting roles for McLaren, Williams and Lotus. McLaren however had stolen a march on its competitors thanks to its TAG turbo engine and the John Barnard-designed MP4/2. The combination of dual World Champion Lauda, nine time Grand Prix winner Prost, the TAG-Porsche and the MP4/2 quickly becoming the class of the field.
The FISA had introduced new fuel economy rules aimed at reducing speeds, ruling that cars must have a 220 litre fuel tank, with re-fueling now banned (the tank had to be 220L but teams were free to try and squeeze more in if they could, which some tried with methods such as freezing the fuel inside the tank). TAG, who had switched from being just a sponsor with Williams to being a partner with McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, commissioned German sports car manufacturer Porsche to design and build a V6 turbocharged engine. Porsche had extensive experience with similar economy rules due to its participation in endurance racing and this translated in superior fuel economy.
Reigning world driver's champion Nelson Piquet and his Brabham-BMW were usually the fastest combination on track but appalling early season reliability, where the reigning Drivers' World Champion failed to score a point due to numerous engine and turbo failures before his win in Canada, meant he was never able to challenge consistently, and by half way through the season it was apparent he wouldn't repeat as champion.
The season saw a titanic battle between both McLaren drivers Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. Prost had been sacked by Renault after failing to win the 1983 title (Prost had openly criticised Renault for failing to develop the RE40 during the season, resulting in the loss of both the Drivers' and Constructors championships). Fast and ambitious, the Frenchman quickly established his dominance over his teammate, especially in qualifying, though Lauda's race driving saw him often a match for his younger team mate.
Austrian Niki Lauda had returned to F1 in 1982 and soon showed he had lost nothing of his earlier determination and guile. He regularly matched the pace of his 1982-1983 McLaren team mate John Watson, but Alain Prost was a different kettle of fish. Lauda quickly realized he could not beat his young team mate on speed. The wily Austrian therefore ignored qualifying and concentrated on his race strategies. By winning races when Prost ran into trouble and scoring relentlessly when Prost proved quicker, Lauda was just able to win the title. He was the only second driver after Denny Hulme in 1967 to have ever won the title without achieving a single pole position in the season.
During the season, the Tyrrell team had its results stripped after a technical infringement.
McLaren dominated the season, with Prost winning a record 7 races, and Lauda winning 5. The team also scored four 1-2 results during the season to easily win the Constructors Championship with a then record 143.5 points, some 86 points in front of second placed Ferrari. McLaren won 12 of the season's 16 races, with Brabham's reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet scoring two wins and Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda) won one race each. For Japanese giant Honda, Rosberg's win in Dallas would be the first of 40 wins for their turbocharged V6 engines until the turbos were phased out following the 1988 season.
Read more about this topic: 1984 Formula One Season
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