1982 Elite Racing League season

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1982 Elite Racing League season
Previous: 1981	Next: 1983

Drivers Champion	Manufacturers Champion
Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Ford

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.) Nigel Mansell won the ERL Drivers Championship at the Italian Grand Prix giving McLaren their first drivers title since 1977 - the Manufacturers Championship was won by Ferrari or McLaren at the last race at Caesars Palace.

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.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Constructor
1	South African Grand Prix	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit	Mario Andretti	Alain Prost	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW
2	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autodromo Internacional Nelson Piquet	Jacques Laffite	Nigel Mansell	Jacques Laffite	Talbot Ligier-Matra
3	California Grand Prix	Long Beach Street Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Nelson Piquet	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
4	San Marino Grand Prix	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	Gilles Vileneuve	Gilles Vileneuve	Gilles Vileneuve	Ferrari
5	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit Zolder	Mario Andretti	Riccardo Patrese	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Ford
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco	Elio de Angelis	Elio de Angelis	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford
7	United States Grand Prix	Detroit Street Circuit	Nigel Mansell	Keke Rosberg	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford
8	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Vileneuve	Mario Andretti	Didier Pironi	Mario Andretti	Ferrari
9	Dutch Grand Prix	Circuit Zandvoort	Keke Rosberg	Alain Prost	Alain Prost	Renault
10	British Grand Prix	Brands Hatch	Nelson Piquet	Jacques Laffite	Mario Andretti	Ferrari
11	French Grand Prix	Circuit Paul Ricard	Alain Prost	Nigel Mansell	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Ford
12	German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring	Jacques Laffite	Keke Rosberg	Jacques Laffite	Talbot Ligier-Matra
13	Austrian Grand Prix	Osterreichring	Jacques Laffite	Clay Reggazoni	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
14	European Grand Prix	Dijon-Prenois	Nigel Mansell	Nigel Mansell	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Ford
15	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	Clay Regazzoni	Clay Regazzoni	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari
16	Caesars Palace Grand Prix	Caesars Palace	Nigel Mansell	Nigel Mansell	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Ford

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	Nigel Mansell	54
2	Alain Prost	36
3	Mario Andretti	29
4	Jacques Laffite	28
5	Nelson Piquet	28
6	Andrea de Cesaris	26
7	Clay Regazzoni	26
8	Keke Rosberg	25
9	Riccardo Patrese	21
10	Eddie Cheever	18
11	Elio de Angelis	15
12	Stefan Johansson	15
13	Gilles Vileneuve	14
14	Marc Surer	14
15	Carlos Reutemann	13
16	Brian Henton	12
17	Michele Alboreto	11
18	Didier Pironi	9
19	Rene Arnoux	6
20	Patrick Tambay	0

Manufacturers Championship

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	McLaren-Ford	80
2	Ferrari	69
3	Brabham-BMW	49
4	Renault	42
5	Williams-Ford	38
6	Talbot Ligier-Matra	37
7	Lotus-Ford	30
8	Tyrrell-Ford	29
9	Arrows-Ford	26