The 1983 season

Piquet Catches Prost at Kyalami

With ground effect banned and turbo power now essential, Nelson Piquet overhauled Alain Prost late in the year to win the first title for a turbocharged car.

Weeks before the season FISA outlawed ground effect and required flat bottomed cars, and so that the teams had longer to adapt, the South African Grand Prix moved from the start of the calendar to the end. Nobody could have known how much that shuffle would matter. Fifteen rounds ran from Rio de Janeiro in March to Kyalami in October, and the year showed just how decisive turbo power had become.

The calendar

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