1982 Elite Racing League season

All information on this page is not part of canon.

1982 Elite Racing League season
Previous: 1981	Next: 1983

Drivers Champion	Manufacturers Champion
TBD	TBD

The 1982 Elite Racing League season was the 23rd season of the FIA's Formula One motor racing support series (the series would remain a support series until 1997.)

This year would be the third of the F1/ERL merge which saw the championship start with a drivers' strike at the season opener in South Africa on the F1 side and saw a partial-race boycott as part of the ongoing FISA–FOCA war at the San Marino Grand Prix, the season was called "ugly and marked by tragedy, dissension and greed" which gave both F1 and the ERL alot of thinking to do especially at the Belgian Grand Prix when beloved Gilles Vileneuve would tragically lose his life, also on the F1 side of things - Didier Pironi also suffered a career-ending accident while qualifying for the German Grand Prix. These incidents and several other major accidents led to regulation changes to increase driver safety for the 1983 season.

Season Review

• The Argentine Grand Prix was scheduled to take place on 7 March, but was cancelled due to lack of sponsors, as several pulled out due to uncertainty following the drivers' strike in the opening race.

• The Spanish Grand Prix was omitted from the calendar for several reasons. The Circuito del Jarama, where the race had been held the previous year, was unpopular with the drivers. In addition, the organisers had failed to pay their fees for 1981. Although the race was re-instated for 27 June after the organisers had paid off their debts to the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA), protests from the teams over the dangerous nature of the Jarama venue led to the race being cancelled.

• The French Grand Prix returned to Circuit Paul Ricard whilst Dijon-Prenois became the new European Grand Prix venue.

• The British Grand Prix returned to Brands Hatch

• The United States Grand Prix returned at a new venue, the Detroit Street Circuit (now known as Belle Isle.)

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Constructor
1	South African Grand Prix	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit

Teams and Drivers

• Fittipaldi Automotive, despite two strong seasons, withdrew from the ERL after downgrading their F1 efforts to just one car.

• Goodyear and Pirelli returned to the sport to battle Michelin in the ERL's first three way tyre war.

• BMW entered the series becoming the engine supplier for the midfield Brabham team.

Mid-season

• Ferrari made the decision following the Belgian Grand Prix to replace Vileneuve with former teammate Clay Regazzoni who came out of retirement to honour his former teammate by racing his car - the two had led Clay and Ferrari to success as teammates and Regazzoni said he needed to finally do something for Gilles.

• Following his career ending crash at Hockenheim, Didier Pironi was replaced at Ligier with Patrick Tambay who had a lot to prove upon returning to the ERL after finishing last with 0 points when he last raced in the series for McLaren

Team	Constructor	Engine	Tyres	#	Driver	Rounds
Arrows Beta Racing Team	Arrows-Ford	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		1	Marc Surer	All
				2	Brian Henton	All
Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham-BMW	BMW M12/13 1.5 L4t		3	Nelson Piquet	All
				4	Riccardo Patrese	All
Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	Ferrari 021 1.5 V6t		5	Gilles Vileneuve	1-5
					Clay Regazzoni	6-16
					6	Mario Andretti	All
John Player Team Lotus	Lotus-Ford	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		7	Elio de Angelis	All
				8	Stefan Johansson	All
Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren-Ford	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		9	Nigel Mansell	All
				10	Andrea de Cesaris	All
Elf Equipe Renault	Renault	Renault-Gordini EF1 1.5 V6 t		11	Alain Prost	All
				12	Rene Arnoux	All
Equipe Talbot Gitanes	Talbot Ligier-Matra	Matra MS81 3.0 V12		13	Jacques Laffite	All
				14	Didier Pironi	1-12
					Patrick Tambay	13-16
Team Tyrrell	Tyrrell-Ford	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		15	Michele Alboreto	All
				16	Eddie Cheever	All
Albilad Williams Racing Team	Williams-Ford	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		17	Carlos Reutemann	All
				18	Keke Rosberg	All

Drivers Championship

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	TBD	0

Manufacturers Championship

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	TBD	0