1978 British Formula Three season

The 1978 British Formula Three season was the 28th season of the British Formula Three racing. There was once again two major championships contested throughout the year: the British Automobile Racing Club organised BP Super Visco British Formula 3 Championship, and the British Racing Drivers' Club backed Vandervell British Formula 3 Championship. This would be the final year with multiple British championship, with the BARC and BRDC unifying for the following season.

The BARC championship was won by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet ahead of British driver Derek Warwick, whilst in the BRDC championship, Warwick triumphed over Piquet.^[1] Piquet subsequently moved up into Formula One during the same year, driving for the Brabham team in the final Formula 1 race of the season as well as two other teams earlier.

BP Super Visco British F3 Championship

The BARC championship was run over 16 rounds, held at ten different circuits across England and in Monaco and France.^[2] The champion was Brazilian Nelson Piquet, ahead of BRDC series champion Derek Warwick^[1]

Calendar and results

Round	Date	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Ref.
R1	12 March	Thruxton Circuit	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[3]
R2	27 March	Thruxton Circuit	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[4]
R3	16 April	Brands Hatch	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[5]
R4	22 April	Oulton Park	Chico Serra	Sadia Racing with Project Four	March 783 - Toyota	^[6]
R5	30 April	Donington Park	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[7]
R6	6 May	Circuit de Monaco	Elio de Angelis	Everest Racing Team	Chevron B38 - Toyota	^[8]
R7	14 May	Mallory Park	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[9]
R8	29 May	Thruxton Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[10]
R9	11 June	Brands Hatch	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[11]
R10	25 June	Cadwell Park	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[12]
R11	2 July	Circuit Paul Ricard	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[13]
R12	9 July	Silverstone Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[14]
R13	15 July	Brands Hatch	Chico Serra	Sadia Racing with Project Four	March 783 - Toyota	^[15]
R14	23 July	Donington Park	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[16]
R15	24 September	Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[17]
R16	15 October	Mallory Park	Rob Wilson	International Computers Limited - Royal Grafton China	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[18]
R17	29 October	Thruxton Circuit	Chico Serra	Sadia Racing with Project Four	March 783 - Toyota	^[19]

Final championship standings

Points were awarded to the top six drivers in each race as follows:^[2]

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Fastest Lap
9	6	4	3	2	1	1

Pos.	Driver	Entrant	Car-Engine	Points
1	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp / Arno Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	101
2	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	72
3	Chico Serra	Sadia Racing with Project Four	March 783 - Toyota	72
4	Philip Bullmann	Alan Docking Racing Unipart Racing Team	Chevron B38 - Toyota March 783 - Triumph Dolomite/Swindon	22
4	Tiff Needell	Unipart Racing Team	March 783 - Triumph Dolomite/Swindon	22
6	Rob Wilson	International Computers Limited - Royal Grafton China	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	20
7	Andrea de Cesaris	Marlboro Team Tiga	Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota	19
8	Stefan Johansson	Anglia Cars Ltd	Argo JM1 - Toyota	15
9	Huub Rothengatter	Racing Team Holland Alan Docking Racing	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota Chevron B38 - Toyota	11
9	Thorkild Thyrring	Marlboro	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	11
11	Jacques Coulon	Martini Moutl - Jacques Coulon	Martini Mk 21 - Toyota	10
11	Elio de Angelis	Scuderia Everest	Chevron B38 - Toyota	10
13	Alain Prost	Écurie Elf	Martini Mk 21 - Renault Gordini/Dudot	7
13	Ian Taylor	Unipart Racing Team	March 783 - Triumph Dolomite/Swindon	7
15	John Bright	Rugby Finance (Midlands) Ltd Twinsocks with McRitchie of Edinburgh	Wheatcroft R18 - Toyota March 773 - Toyota	6
	Jim Crawford	Toyota Switzerland	Chevron B43 - Toyota
	Siegfried Stohr	Trivellato Racing Team	Chevron B43 - Toyota
18	Daniele Albertin	Scuderia Del Lario	Ralt RT1 - Toyota	4
19	Ian Flux	Cloud Engineering	Ralt RT1 - Toyota March 773 - Toyota	3
	Nigel Mansell	March Racing Team	March 783 - Toyota
	Pedro Nogues	Rushen Green Racing	March 783 - Toyota
	Trevor van Rooyen	Unipart Racing Team SDC Builders	March 783 - Triumph Dolomite/Swindon March 783 - Toyota
23	Geoff Brabham	Brabham Racing Organisation / Esso	Ralt RT1 - Toyota	2
	Jan Lammers	Racing Team Holland	Ralt RT1 - Toyota
	Brett Riley	Dr. Joseph Ehrlich Unipart Racing Team	Ehrlich RP4 - Toyota March 783 - Triumph Dolomite/Swindon
26	Patrick Bardinon	Écurie Elf	Martini Mk 21 - Toyota	1
	Philippe Colonna	Alan Docking Racing	Chevron B43 - Toyota
	Derek Lawrence	Derek Lawrence	Chevron B38 - Chevrolet Vega/Titan
	Jean-Louis Schlesser	Jean-Louis Schlesser	Chevron B38 - Toyota
Source^[1]^[2]

Vandervell British F3 Championship

The BRDC championship was run over ten rounds, held at five different circuits across England.^[2] The champion was Englishman Derek Warwick, ahead of BARC series champion Nelson Piquet^[1]

Calendar and results

Round	Date	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Ref.
R1	5 March	Silverstone Circuit	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[20]
R2	19 March	Silverstone Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[21]
R3	1 May	Silverstone Circuit	Chico Serra	Sadia Racing with Project Four	March 783 - Toyota	^[22]
R4	20 May	Oulton Park	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[23]
R5	13 August	Mallory Park	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[24]
R6	26 August	Donington Park	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[25]
R7	28 August	Silverstone Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[26]
R8	23 September	Silverstone Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota	^[26]
R9	30 September	Silverstone Circuit	Nelson Piquet	Brastemp/Armo/Hobby	Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota
R10	28 August	Brands Hatch	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[27]

Non-championship races

Race	Date	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning car	Ref.
World Cup International F3 Race	9 April	Donington Park	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[28]
Plastic Padding Formula 3 Trophy	11 November	Thruxton Circuit	Derek Warwick	Warwick Trailers	Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota	^[29]

References

[F378tables-1] "F2 Register - Index".

[oldracingcars_1978-2] "British Formula 3 1978 season review and full race results".

[3] "Thruxton, 12 Mar 1978 « British Formula 3".

[4] "Thruxton, 27 Mar 1978 « British Formula 3".

[5] "Brands Hatch, 16 Apr 1978 « British Formula 3".

[6] "Oulton Park, 22 Apr 1978 « British Formula 3".

[7] "Donington Park, 30 Apr 1978 « British Formula 3".

[8] "Monte Carlo, 6 May 1978 « British Formula 3".

[9] "Mallory Park, 14 May 1978 « British Formula 3".

[10] "Thruxton, 29 May 1978 « British Formula 3".

[11] "Brands Hatch, 11 Jun 1978 « British Formula 3".

[12] "Cadwell Park, 25 Jun 1978 « British Formula 3".

[13] "Paul Ricard, 2 Jul 1978 « British Formula 3".

[14] "Silverstone, 9 Jul 1978 « British Formula 3".

[15] "Brands Hatch, 15 Jul 1978 « British Formula 3".

[16] "Donington Park, 23 Jul 1978 « British Formula 3".

[17] "Snetterton, 24 Sep 1978 « British Formula 3".

[18] "Mallory Park, 15 Oct 1978 « British Formula 3".

[19] "Thruxton, 29 Oct 1978 « British Formula 3".

[20] "Silverstone, 5 Mar 1978 « British Formula 3".

[21] "Silverstone, 19 Mar 1978 « British Formula 3".

[22] "Silverstone, 1 May 1978 « British Formula 3".

[23] "Oulton Park, 20 May 1978 « British Formula 3".

[24] "Mallory Park, 13 Aug 1978 « British Formula 3".

[25] "Donington Park, 26 Aug 1978 « British Formula 3".

[oldracingcars.com-26] "Silverstone, 28 Aug 1978 « British Formula 3".

[27] "Brands Hatch, 7 Oct 1978 « British Formula 3".

[28] "Donington Park, 9 Apr 1978 « British Formula 3".

[29] "Thruxton, 11 Nov 1978 « British Formula 3".

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