Race · Round 4 of 16 · 2 April 1978

1978 United States Grand Prix West

Carlos Reutemann won for Ferrari from pole at Long Beach. 10 of the starters were not classified.

Dry, with cloud · High of 17 °C, 0.4 mm of rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Long BeachLong Beach, California, United States of America
Winner: Carlos ReutemannFerrari
Pole: Carlos Reutemann
Fastest lap: Alan Jones
Entries: 3012 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	—	1	80	Finished	9
2	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	4	80	Finished	6
3	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	008	12	80	Finished	4
4	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	—	6	80	Finished	3
5	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	—	14	80	Finished	2
6	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	—	9	79	Finished	1
7	Alan Jones	Williams	FW06	8	79	Finished	0	fastest lap
8	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	F5A	15	79	Finished	0
9	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	—	18	79	Finished	0
10	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	—	20	79	Finished	0
11	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	—	19	75	Finished	0
12	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	M26	11	74	Accident	0
DNF	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	—	10	59	Accident	0
DNF	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	—	17	50	Transmission	0
DNF	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	RS01	13	43	Turbo	0
DNF	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	2	38	Accident	0
DNF	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	3	27	Ignition	0
DNF	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	008	22	25	Gearbox	0
DNF	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	A1	21	17	Gearbox	0
DNF	Jochen Mass	ATS	—	16	11	Brakes	0
DNF	John Watson	Brabham	—	5	9	Engine	0
DNF	James Hunt	McLaren	M26	7	5	Accident	0
DNS	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	—	—	—	Accident in practice	0
DNS	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	—	—	—	Accident in practice	0
DNQ	Brett Lunger	McLaren	—	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	N177	—	—	DNQ	0
DNPQ	Keke Rosberg	Theodore	TR1	—	—	DNPQ	0
DNPQ	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	78	—	—	DNPQ	0
DNPQ	Danny Ongais	Shadow	DN9	—	—	DNPQ	0
DNPQ	Derek Daly	Hesketh	308E	—	—	DNPQ	0

A blank chassis is a season the team ran more than one design and no source says which car raced here.

F1DB layout long-beach-1 · 3.251 km · 13 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Carlos Reutemann	1	1	80
Mario Andretti	4	2	80
Patrick Depailler	12	3	80
Ronnie Peterson	6	4	80
Jacques Laffite	14	5	80
Riccardo Patrese	9	6	79
Alan Jones	8	7	79
Emerson Fittipaldi	15	8	79
Rolf Stommelen	18	9	79
Clay Regazzoni	20	10	79
Jean-Pierre Jarier	19	11	75
Patrick Tambay	11	12	74
Jody Scheckter	10	DNF	59
Vittorio Brambilla	17	DNF	50
Jean-Pierre Jabouille	13	DNF	43
Gilles Villeneuve	2	DNF	38
Niki Lauda	3	DNF	27
Didier Pironi	22	DNF	25
Arturo Merzario	21	DNF	17
Jochen Mass	16	DNF	11
John Watson	5	DNF	9
James Hunt	7	DNF	5

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	11	1:20.636	—	0 m	—
2	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	1:20.836	+0.200	8 m	+0.200
3	Niki Lauda	Brabham	1	1:20.937	+0.301	12 m	+0.101
4	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	5	1:21.188	+0.552	22 m	+0.251
5	John Watson	Brabham	2	1:21.244	+0.608	25 m	+0.056
6	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	6	1:21.474	+0.838	34 m	+0.230
7	James Hunt	McLaren	7	1:21.738	+1.102	44 m	+0.264
8	Alan Jones	Williams	27	1:21.935	+1.299	52 m	+0.197
9	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	35	1:22.006	+1.370	55 m	+0.071
10	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	20	1:22.163	+1.527	62 m	+0.157
11	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	1:22.234	+1.598	64 m	+0.071
12	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	4	1:22.414	+1.778	72 m	+0.180
13	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15	1:22.491	+1.855	75 m	+0.077
14	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:22.630	+1.994	80 m	+0.139
15	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	1:22.790	+2.154	87 m	+0.160
16	Jochen Mass	ATS	9	1:23.106	+2.470	100 m	+0.316
17	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	19	1:23.212	+2.576	104 m	+0.106
18	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	36	1:23.291	+2.655	107 m	+0.079
19	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	10	1:23.419	+2.783	112 m	+0.128
20	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	17	1:23.454	+2.818	114 m	+0.035
21	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	37	1:23.589	+2.953	119 m	+0.135
22	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	18	1:23.677	+3.041	123 m	+0.088
23	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	16	1:23.733	+3.097	125 m	+0.056
24	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	1:23.792	+3.156	127 m	+0.059
25	Brett Lunger	McLaren	30	1:23.795	+3.159	127 m	+0.003
26	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	22	1:24.008	+3.372	136 m	+0.213

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Pit stops

Pit stops are recorded from 1994. F1DB, the source of every stop here, holds none before then, so this race has no stints to draw.

Practice sessions Pre-qualifying

Pre-qualifying

Pre-qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	36	1:23.540	—	0 m	—	—
2	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	35	1:23.840	+0.300	12 m	+0.300	—
3	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	37	1:24.729	+1.189	46 m	+0.889	—
4	Brett Lunger	McLaren	30	1:25.076	+1.536	60 m	+0.347	—
5	Keke Rosberg	Theodore	32	1:25.785	+2.245	87 m	+0.709	—
6	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	25	1:26.128	+2.588	101 m	+0.343	—
7	Danny Ongais	Shadow	39	1:26.150	+2.610	102 m	+0.022	—
8	Derek Daly	Hesketh	24	1:26.615	+3.075	120 m	+0.465	—

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

2 more photographs

Where this comes from

Round: 4 of 1978
Grand Prix: United States Grand Prix West
Dates: 2 Apr 1978
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Ferrari
Entrant: Ferrari
Confidence: reference

No layout is recorded for this round: this register has no layout timeline for the circuit, and a blank here is better than a guess.