1980 rFactor Alternate Formula One season

The 1980 Formula One season will be the 31st in the history of the championship, and the second under the FIA presidency of Jean-Luc Knighte. Jacques Laffite and Ligier started the season reigning champions, looking to improve after an up-and-down 1979.

Teams and Drivers

Team	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Aspiration	#	Race Drivers	Rounds	Test Drivers
Equipe Ligier Gitanes Talbot	Ligier	JS15	Talbot	Turbo	1	Jacques Laffite	1-	None
					2	Edward Kevin	1-
Team Tyrrell	Tyrrell	010	Cosworth DFV	N-A	3	Hiroshi Takagi	1-	None
					4	Didier Pironi	1-
Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham	BT56	Renault	Turbo	5	Nelson Piquet	1-	None
					6	Larry Perkins	1-
Essex Team Lotus	Lotus	79c	Renault	Turbo	7	Harvey Jones	1-	None
					8	Alan Jones	1-
RAM March Racing Lotus FIAT Hart	RAM	80	FIAT	N-A	9	Jan Lammers	1-	None
					10	Nigel Mansell	1-
			Hart	Turbo	9	Jan Lammers	TBC
					10	Nigel Mansell	TBC
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari	312T5	Ferrari	Turbo	11	Gilles Villeneuve	1-	None
					12	Rene Aroux	1-
Equipe Renault Elf	Renault	RE20	Renault	Turbo	14	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	1-	None
					15	Carlos Reutemann	1-
Shadow Ford Racing	Shadow	DN10b	Ford	Turbo	16	Stefan Bellof	1-	None
					17	Brian Henton	1-
Olympus Cameras Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf	WR10	Renault	Turbo	18	Davey Clarke	1-	None
					19	Bruno Giacomelli	1-
Team Ensign	Ensign	N180	Honda	Turbo	20	Martin Rossler	1-	Ladislav Sedlak
					21	Deyan Rangelov	1-
					TBA	Ladislav Sedlak 1	1-
Saras Team Merzario SpA	Merzario	80	Lamborghini	Turbo	22	Mario Andretti	1-	Simone Guidetti
					23	Emerson Fittipaldi	1-
Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren	M29b	Ford	Turbo	24	Guilliame Gauthier	1-	Chico Serra Derek Warwick
					25	Derek Daly	1-
Albilad Williams Racing	Williams	FW07b	Honda	Turbo	26	Jody Scheckter	1-	None
					27	Callum McAllister	1-
Warsteiner Arrows	Arrows	A10b	Cosworth DFV	N-A	28	Keiran Sutherland	1-	None
					29	Riccardo Patrese	1-
Penske Team Rebaque	Rebaque	PR02	Cosworth DFV	N-A	30	Piercarlo Ghinzani	1-	None
					31	Padraig O'Connell	1-
JLD TAG ATS Racing	JLD	JLD4	TAG-Porsche	Turbo	32	Pierre Depault	1-	Michael Bleekemolen
					33	Rupert Keegan	1-
Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo	179	Alfa Romeo	N-A	34	Alain Prost	1-	Andrea de Cesaris
					35	Roberto Horford	1-
Gazprom Restov Racing	Restov	RS11	Lada	Turbo	36	Elio de Angleis	1-	Valentino Nicchi
					37	Beppe Gabbiani	1-
Audi Sport	Audi	48	Audi	Turbo	38	Niki Lauda	1-	Jochen Mass
					39	Marc Surer	1-
Osella Squadra Corse	Osella	06	Alfa Romeo	Turbo	40	Thomas Nurmester	1-	Teo Fabi Siegfried Stohr
					41	Eddie Cheever	1-

Key
Turbo	Turbocharged
N-A	Normally Aspirated

Team Changes

• Fittipaldi Automotive and Jenkins Industries F1 Team did not return to start 190, with Jenkins going bust with 3 races to go in 1979 and Fittipaldi pulling out of Formula One.
• Osella Squadre Corse were the first of the new teams to be granted an entry to the sport, mid way through 1979. The Italian squad secured the old Williams FW06 chassis used by Jenkins after the team went bust, and signed a deal with Alfa Romeo to receive engines from the Italian manufacturer in exhange for a choice over one of their drivers starting from 1981 onwards.
• Audi Sport were the second of the new teams to be announced for 1980. The squad, after having their entry confirmed before the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, spent most of 1979 testing their car in secret, but when the car didi break cover it emerged that someone had found the blueprints to the Brabham BT48 in a skip and copied them. To power their chassis, the German manufacturer developed their own in-line 6 turbocharged engine.
• Restov Racing were the next squad to be announced. The anglo-Russian squad founded by busineesman Edward Restov quickly secured a deal with Renault to run their old RS11 chassis and engines, to be re badged as Ladas. Restov also showed his business acumen by signing Russian company Gazprom into a lucrative title sponsorship deal.
• Renault offered a supply of engines to all teams, with Brabham, Lotus, Renault, Restov, and Wolf taking delivery of Renault engines.
• ATS Racing was renamed to JLD Racing following the latter's take over of the former.
• Ensign signed a deal with Honda for a supply of engines.
• RAM Racing rebadged their normally aspirated Ferrari engines to FIATs after a request from Ferrari.

Driver Changes

Changed Teams

• Thomas Nurmester, who drove in place of an ill Geoff Lees for Tyrrell at the 1979 Monaco Grand Prix, moved to Osella, where he would receive a full-time drive. However, he was also retained by Tyrrell as a test and reserve driver.
• Mario Andretti moved to Merzario after ebing sacked by the McLaren team, along with Emerson Fittipaldi after his family team lef the sport.
• After being left without a drive after Jenkins Industries' F1 team pulled out, Rupert Keegan joined JLD
• 1979's journeyman, Beppe Gabbiani, moved to his third team in 14 months, Restov, ahead of the 1980 season.
• Niki Lauda was dropped by Brabham after a lacklustre 1979, with the Austrian joining Audi.
• Marc Surer recovered from his horrific back injuries he suffered at the 1979 German Grand Prix to join Audi.

Entered Formula One

• Along with Formula One's first team from behind the Iron curtain, Bulgaria's Deyan Rangelov proved to be Formula One's first Eastern European driver.
• Larry Perkins joined Brabham after winning Australia's Rothmans International Series.
• Nigel Mansell joined RAM full-time after serving as their test driver in 1979.
• Briton Brian Henton joined Shadow Ford Racing after finishing second in European Formula Two in 1979.

rFactor Alternate Formula One seasons
Previous Season	This Season	Next Season
1979 rFactor Alternate Formula One season	1980 rFactor Alternate Formula One season	1981 rFactor Alternate Formula One season