Eddie Cheever

Regular team driver, World Champion Alan Jones, could only qualify his car 21st.

Both Lolas retired with steering damage in the race, Jones on lap 33, Cheever 4 laps later.

Cheever was only the third choice to replace Tambay for the race.

Team owner Carl Haas had originally asked the lead driver in his CART team, World Champion Mario Andretti to drive.

Mario declined however but recommended his son Michael as a replacement.

However, when Michael was unable to obtain a FIA Superlicence for the race, Haas turned to the experienced Cheever, who quickly agreed to an F1 comeback.

For, he was signed by Arrows team boss Jackie Oliver to partner British driver Derek Warwick (Cheever's appointment coincided with the U.S.-based USF&G financial group becoming the team's major sponsor).

Edward McKay Cheever Jr. (born January 10, 1958) is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League.

He worked his way up through the levels of European Formula racing, teaming with fellow American Danny Sullivan in Formula Three in 1975.

He scored a significant win against Gunnar Nilsson and Rupert Keegan at the end of 1975 and then driving for Ron Dennis' Project Four team in Formula Two in 1976, 1977, and 1978, finishing runner-up to René Arnoux in the 1977 championship.

By the end of 1977, he was considered the most promising driver in the world outside F1, scoring wins in 1977 in F2 at Nurburgring and Rouen.

Cheever first entered Formula One in, shortly after his 20th birthday.

After failing to qualify for the first two races of the year in Argentina and Brazil in a Theodore, he made the grid in South Africa in a Hesketh, but retired early.

Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championship races and started 132, more than any other American, driving for nine different teams from 1978 through 1989.

He then concentrated on Formula Two for the rest of 1978 and 1979.

For the 1979 F2 championship, Cheever left Project Four and joined the Italian Osella team, taking three wins and fourth overall in their BMW-powered FA2.

In Osella moved up to Formula One, Cheever piloting the team's Cosworth-powered FA1.

However, the car was unreliable and Cheever managed just one finish all year, twelfth place at the team's home race in Italy.

Switching teams repeatedly as he tried to climb his way up the grid, Cheever had five points-scoring finishes for the Tyrrell team in, and three podiums for Ligier the following year, including a second-place at the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix.

The season proved to be Cheever's high point in Formula One.

He signed with the factory Equipe Renault team alongside Frenchman Alain Prost, both of whom were among the year's Championship favorites.

Cheever earned four more podiums and 22 Championship points driving the Renault RE30C for the first two races before driving its much better replacement, the RE40, for the remainder of the season.

But the team's disappointment after losing both the Drivers' (Prost) and Constructors' titles late in the season brought about the replacement of both Cheever and Prost.

His best finish for Renault was second in the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, while earlier in the season he achieved his highest career qualifying position when he was second to teammate Prost at the French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard Circuit.

Unconfirmed rumors had Renault signing Cheever as the French manufacturer was looking to sell more cars in North America, and having an American driver in the factory-backed Formula One team would help that cause (there were three F1 races in North America in 1983 – Long Beach, Detroit and Canada).

In six more seasons, he never drove another truly competitive F1 car.

After leaving Renault, Cheever had two unsuccessful seasons with Alfa Romeo as a teammate to Italian Riccardo Patrese.

The thirsty and underpowered 890T V8 turbo engine used in the Alfas generally saw results few and far between, though it was generally believed Cheever outperformed his teammate despite failing to qualify for the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix.

Patrese, though, scored the only podium finish for the team in those two years when he finished third in the 1984 Italian Grand Prix.

Cheever had been third with six laps remaining but his Alfa ran out of fuel, handing the place to Patrese (the team had set Cheever's 890T engine for speed while setting Patrese for an economy run in the hope of a good finish).

was not helped by the team's car, the Alfa Romeo 185T, which proved to be extremely uncompetitive, forcing the team to upgrade its car, the 184T to 1985 specifications and use it for the last half of the season, though the old car did not improve results despite proving slightly faster as the fuel issue remained.

Late in the 1985 season, Alfa announced they were pulling out of F1 at the end of the year, leaving Cheever without an F1 drive, while Patrese went back to Brabham in place of Nelson Piquet, who was moving to Williams.While racing in the World Sportscar Championship for Tom Walkinshaw Racing's Jaguar team, Cheever raced in only one F1 Grand Prix in.

This was for the American owned and sponsored Haas Lola team at Detroit, as a replacement for the injured Patrick Tambay.

Cheever actually qualified the unfamiliar Lola THL2 with its turbocharged Ford V6 engine in tenth position.

In 1996, he formed his own IRL team, Team Cheever, and won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 as both owner and driver.

The team later competed in sports cars.

His younger brother Ross Cheever, nephew Richard Antinucci and son Eddie Cheever III also became racing drivers.

Though born in Phoenix, Arizona, Cheever lived in Rome, Italy, as a child and attended St. George's British International School and later The New School of Rome.

He was introduced to motorsports at age eight when his father took him to a sports car race in Monza.

He soon began racing go-karts and won both the Italian and European Karting Championships at age 15.