1979 Alternate Formula One season
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| 1979 Formula One season | |
|---|---|
| |
| Alan Jones won his first drivers' title, with Williams winning its first constructors' title. | |
| Turbo Era | |
| Season | |
| Races | 17 |
| Start date | TBA |
| Start Event |  Argentine Grand Prix
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| End date | TBA |
| End Event | Template:USA Toyota United States Grand Prix |
| Awards | |
| Driver's Champion | Template:AUS Alan Jones |
| Constructor's Champion | Template:GBR Williams-Ford |
| Entrant's Champion | Template:GBR Saudia Williams Racing Team |
| Seasons | |
| Previous season | Next season |
| 1978 | 1980 |
| Regional Series | |
| Tier 1 | 1979 British Formula One |
The 1979 Formula One season was the 30th season of Formula One. Mario Andretti and Lotus entered the season as reigning champions; however, they would not enter the season together, as Andretti unexpectedly moved to Ferrari and swapped seats with his rival Jody Scheckter after one of the most chaotic off-seasons in Grand Prix history. The season would be remembered for tragedy and controversy. Formula One would suffer its first fatality since Niki Lauda in 1976, when Welshman Tom Pryce was killed in qualifying for the German Grand Prix. Furthermore, the tensions simmering between FISA and FOCA over control of Formula One escalated into full-blown conflict over the course of the year, to the point of the Dutch Grand Prix having to be cancelled and then hastily rearranged as a non-Championship event at the eleventh hour due to the late withdrawal of all FISA entrants owing to failed summit talks. Ultimately, Australian driver Alan Jones and the Williams team would prevail to take their first championships, wrapping up both titles with a race to spare at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Teams and drivers
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Team Changes
Pre-season
- Arrows and North Star Racing combined their efforts ahead of the 1979 season - with North Star's Sir Blake Clayton joining the management board at the newly-named Arrows North Star Racing team.
- Hesketh took over the resources of Shadow in the pre season after the latter had collapsed financially midway through 1978.
- Emilio de Villota renamed his team from Centro Asegurador F1 to Madom Formula 1.
Driver Changes
Pre-season
- Bobby Rahal and Tom Sneva both elected to leave Formula One and return to IndyCar for the 1979 season.
- Other notable absentees from the grid at the beginning of 1979 were Patrick Depailler, John Watson and Patrick Tambay, none of whom were able to retain their seats at Williams, Brabham and Ligier respectively.
- Only a single team elected to retain an unchanged lineup: Alfa Romeo continued with their 1978 pairing of Emerson Fittipaldi and Elio de Angelis.
- Reigning champion Mario Andretti and runner-up Jody Scheckter would swap teams in the offseason; Scheckter would move to Lotus alongside their existing number 2 driver Thomas Nurmester, while Andretti would have a teammate just as new to the Scuderia- former Arrows driver Keke Rosberg, winner of the 1978 Tony Brise Memorial Trophy.
- Gilles Villeneuve, out of a seat at Ferrari, moved to Williams in the off-season, replacing Depailler and partnering returning lead driver Alan Jones.
- René Arnoux took Rosberg's seat at Arrows.
- James Hunt would stay at Brabham for a fourth season, but with his sixth teammate since joining the team; Nelson Piquet would step up to a frontrunning seat after a fractured 1978 spent at Arrows, Hesketh and March.
- Clay Regazzoni was let go at McLaren after one season and replaced by Belgian veteran Jacky Ickx, whom McLaren had coaxed out of retirement. Masahiro Hasemi was retained by the for 1979 after replacing René Arnoux for the final three races of 1978.
- Didier Pironi was lured away from Tyrrell by Renault to replace the departing Tom Sneva.
- Tom Pryce, having already done three races for Tyrrell in 1978 on loan from March to replace the injured Robert Kagan, signed full-time with Tyrrell for 1979 to replace Pironi. Pryce's seat at March would hence be taken by Harvey Jones, entering his first full season of Formula One after several bit parts in the previous three seasons.
- Rookie Dutchman Jan Lammers was signed by Ensign to replace Bobby Rahal after his return to North America.
- Dywa driver Renzo Zorzi swapped seats with Merzario driver Beppe Gabbiani.
- Leonhard von Gottorp departed Formula One for ventures new. His seat at Boro was taken by Dutchman Michael Bleekemolen, whose sole F1 outing prior was a failure to pre-qualify at the French Grand Prix for B&S Fabrications in 1977.
- The rejuvenated Hesketh outfit would return for 1979 with an all-new lineup of Italians Riccardo Patrese and Bruno Giacomelli.
- Patrese's vacated seat at Scuderia Everest was taken by American driver Eddie Cheever.
- The revolving door that had characterised the #26 Ligier over the previous few seasons was now in the hands of well-funded Argentine driver Ricardo Zunino.
- Interscope's second car, which had been driven by Mike Mosley and Brett Lunger in 1978, was now driven by Swiss rookie Marc Surer.
- David Kennedy replaced Timo Fuchs in the second Madom car.
Mid-season
- Rolf Stommelen found himself ousted from ATS before he had even had a chance to recover from his season-ending smash at the Canadian Grand Prix the previous year.
- Jan Lammers was sacked by Ensign after the Brazilian Grand Prix for poor performance. He would be replaced by German driver Timo Fuchs at the South African Grand Prix. However, Fuchs' dismal qualifying performance at Kyalami, combined with Lammers' sacking causing title sponsor Samson to pull their funding led to Ensign promptly sacking Fuchs and bringing back Lammers for the next race at Long Beach. Fuchs later appeared in a privateer entry run by Sachs Racing, partnering Klaus Ludwig for three rounds.
- Beppe Gabbiani was sacked by Dywa after the Belgian Grand Prix, with no apparent reason. His seat was to be filled at the Monaco Grand Prix by Italian-Yugoslavian driver Lena Troscchi, on her comeback from grave injuries in a Dywa GP race at Rouen the year before, but before she could take part in pre-qualifying, the ACM intervened, saying that allowing a known communist to race at Monaco would be bad for their image, and Troscchi was withdrawn from the race. Procar driver Ottavia Cacciatori would be called up at short notice to replace Troscchi.
- The #25 Ligier once again became a revolving door, with Patrick Tambay, Andrea de Cesaris, Alain Prost and Eddie Cheever all driving it at some stage.
- Tom Pryce was injured in a crash at the European Grand Prix, and missed the following two races. Ronnie Peterson was loaned by Ensign to Tyrrell to replace him for those races.
- Silvio Bachot would stand in for Peterson while he was on loan to Tyrrell.
- Following heavy criticism of his driving from the rest of the paddock, René Arnoux was benched by Arrows for the San Marino Grand Prix. Vaticano Valentino Nicchi, the 1977 350cc World Champion, would make his Grand Prix debut as a substitute, though ultimately Arnoux would be permitted to race.
- Dywa replaced Arsenio Matarazzo with promising Italian youngster Teo Fabi for the San Marino Grand Prix; however, this would ultimately come to nought as the team was denied access to the paddock for that race. Ottavia Cacciatori, seeing no point in sticking around, promptly departed the team, and so did Fabi
- Team Merzario was 'coerced' into replacing Renzo Zorzi with Arsenio Matarazzo at the San Marino Grand Prix, following his sacking by Dywa. Zorzi and Matarazzo had been teammates at Dywa the previous season.
- Jean-Pierre Jarier, having performed admirably for Boro in his drives for the team in non-championship races, was given a drive by the team for his home Grand Prix at France, taking the place of Michael Bleekemolen for that one race.
- Despite being meant to drive for Ligier at the French Grand Prix, Patrick Tambay did not show up to the venue, and so Andrea de Cesaris got a second round in the car.
- Dywa, with nobody to drive their cars, skipped the French Grand Prix as they had no lineup. They returned for the British Grand Prix with an all-new lineup comprised of relative unknowns Enrico Uncini and Guido Dacco.
Calendar
Championship Grands Prix
1 Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi set the same time lap time during the race (1:19.567), but the fastest lap was awarded to the Canadian driver as he set the laptime first.
Non-Championship Events
- The Dutch Grand Prix was reclassified as a non-Championship event following the withdrawal of all FISA entries for the race. This followed the breakdown of summit talks that were being held at the event regarding ground-effect regulations and other issues.
Standings
Drivers' Championship
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 9 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Only a driver's best 11 finishes counted towards the championship
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Constructor's Championship
Only a constructor's best placed two cars at each event counted for the championship. All results counted towards the championship
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- ↑ FISA withdraw support for Dutch GP; race goes ahead as Non-Championship, Autosport (1979)