THE STORY OF THE DECADE

A decade of change. With Bernie at the helm, the sport’s global reach grows exponentially. It’s the norm for races to be broadcast live on television and the calendar expands to new territories. There are three races in the USA (Long Beach, Dallas and Detroit); Australia closes the season and the Japanese GP is reintroduced at Honda’s insistence. There are also huge improvements in safety, first with the banning of ground-e ect skirts in 1983, then the outlawing of turbo power in 1989. Even crash barriers are given a prescribed minimum height for the first time. But when you think of the ’80s, you also think of quality drivers. Champions Jones, Scheckter, Prost, Lauda, Senna, Mansell, Piquet and Rosberg all go head-to-head, alongside such talents as Villeneuve, Pironi, Berger and Tambay. Has there ever been a more talented grid?