1996 British Formula Three Championship

The 1996 British Formula Three season was the 46th British Formula Three Championship. The season started on 31 March at Silverstone and ended there on 13 October following sixteen races. After losing out in the final reckoning to Oliver Gavin in 1995, Ralph Firman was able to clinch the crown on his second attempt from Kurt Mollekens and teammate Jonny Kane. New Zealander Simon Wills took the Class B title.

Interestingly, this season did not feature any Brazilian drivers, an unusual fact for British Formula 3 since the arrival of Emerson Fittipaldi in 1969.

The scoring system was 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 points awarded to the first ten finishers, with 1 (one) extra point added to the driver who set the fastest lap of the race. All results counted towards the driver's final tally.


Drivers and Teams

Team No Driver Chassis Engine Rounds
Class A
Paul Stewart Racing 1 Ralph Firman Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda All
2 Jonny Kane Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda All
Fortec Motorsport 3 Guy Smith Dallara F396 HKS-Mitsubishi All
4 Juan Pablo Montoya Dallara F396 HKS-Mitsubishi All
Promatecme 5 James Matthews Dallara F396 Renault All
6 Nicolas Minassian Dallara F396 Renault All
Alan Docking Racing 7 Brian Cunningham Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda All
8 Gonzalo Rodríguez Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda 1-4
Akbar Ebrahim 8
Steven Arnold 9
11 Kurt Mollekens Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda All
12 Risto Virtanen Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda 1-4
TWR Junior Team 9 Jamie Davies Dallara F396 TWR GM All
10 Mark Shaw Dallara F396 TWR GM All
Intersport 14 Ángel Burgueño Dallara F396 Opel All
SpeedSport F3 15 Darren Manning Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda All
TOM'S GB 16 Christian Horner TOM'S 036 TOM'S-Toyota 1-6
Naoki Kurose Dallara F396 16
17 Brian Smith TOM'S 036 TOM'S-Toyota All
18 Takashi Yokoyama Dallara F396 TOM'S-Toyota 1-3
TOM'S 036 4-16
19 Kazuto Yanagawa Dallara F396 TOM'S-Toyota All
DC Cook Motorsport 20 Paula Cook Dallara F396 Mugen-Honda 1-11
Graff Racing 23 Boris Derichebourg Dallara F396 Opel 11
Patrice Gay 14-15
Z-Speed 27 Martin Byford Dallara F396 Opel 1–9, 11-15
Class B
Z-Speed 31 Simon Wills Dallara F394 Vauxhall All
Hopkins Motorsport 33 Philip Hopkins Dallara F393 Fiat 1–6, 8–9, 11–13, 16
James Carney 14-15
Render Racing 34 Martin O'Connell Dallara F394 Vauxhall 1–3, 7–9, 12-13
Masami Nakamura 14-16
SpeedSport F3 35 Michael Bentwood Dallara F394 Vauxhall All
Team Magic Racing 36 Shingo Tachi Dallara F394 TOM'S-Toyota All
37 Ben Collins Dallara F394 Mugen-Honda 7-16
Mark Bailey Racing 47 Tavo Hellmund Dallara F394 TOM'S-Toyota 1-7
48 Chris Clark Dallara F394 TOM'S-Toyota 1-4

Race calendar and results

Round Circuit Date Pole Position Fastest Lap Winning Driver Winning Team Class B Winner
1 Silverstone 31 March Guy Smith Ralph Firman Guy Smith Fortec Motorsport Martin O'Connell
2 Guy Smith Jamie Davies Jamie Davies TWR Junior Team Martin O'Connell
3 Thruxton 14 April Ralph Firman Ralph Firman Jamie Davies TWR Junior Team Simon Wills
4 Donington Park 5 May Ralph Firman Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Fortec Motorsport Shingo Tachi
5 Brands Hatch 27 May Ralph Firman Ralph Firman Ralph Firman Paul Stewart Racing Simon Wills
6 Ralph Firman Ralph Firman Ralph Firman Paul Stewart Racing Philip Hopkins
7 Oulton Park 8 June Jonny Kane Juan Pablo Montoya Ralph Firman Paul Stewart Racing Martin O'Connell
8 Donington Park 23 June Brian Smith Juan Pablo Montoya Kurt Mollekens Alan Docking Racing Martin O'Connell
9 Silverstone 13 July Darren Manning Jonny Kane Darren Manning SpeedSport F3 Martin O'Connell
10 Thruxton 28 July Darren Manning Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Fortec Motorsport Ben Collins
111 Snetterton 11 August Jonny Kane Jonny Kane Jonny Kane Paul Stewart Racing Ben Collins
12 Pembrey 1 September Jonny Kane Jonny Kane Nicolas Minassian Promatecme Ben Collins
13 Jonny Kane Jonny Kane Jonny Kane Paul Stewart Racing Shingo Tachi
14 Zandvoort 29 September Juan Pablo Montoya Kurt Mollekens Kurt Mollekens Alan Docking Racing Ben Collins
15 Brian Smith Ralph Firman Jonny Kane Paul Stewart Racing Ben Collins
16 Silverstone 13 October Nicolas Minassian Nicolas Minassian Nicolas Minassian Promatecme Simon Wills

^1 Round 11 was shortened due to heavy rain, and a planned second race at Snetterton was also cancelled.

Drivers Championship

Pos Driver SIL
 SIL
 THR
 DON
 BRH
 BRH
 OUL
 DON
 SIL
 THR
 SNE
 PEM
 PEM
 ZAN
 ZAN
 SIL
 Pts
Class A
1 Ralph Firman 4 2 3 Ret 1 1 1 2 2 2 6 13 5 5 4 4 188
2 Kurt Mollekens 5 5 11 3 6 7 2 1 4 5 9 3 8 1 2 7 148
3 Jonny Kane Ret 6 5 Ret 4 Ret 10 Ret 3 Ret 1 2 1 2 1 2 146
4 Nicolas Minassian 9 8 7 5 2 3 3 3 9 Ret 17 1 7 3 3 1 139
5 Juan Pablo Montoya 2 12 4 1 12 2 9 13 7 1 3 4 6 4 Ret 5 137
6 Guy Smith 1 3 6 4 3 6 5 4 6 9 2 12 12 8 5 3 132
7 Darren Manning 7 10 17 2 5 8 6 6 1 4 5 7 4 12 7 6 105
8 Jamie Davies 3 1 1 Ret 10 10 4 20 11 6 7 5 2 Ret Ret DNS 98
9 James Matthews 6 4 2 9 20 11 8 19 10 7 4 8 9 Ret 8 12 59
10 Brian Smith Ret DNS 25 Ret 8 5 7 12 8 DNS 8 6 3 7 Ret DSQ 44
11 Brian Cunningham Ret 13 9 Ret 7 Ret WD 5 5 8 11 9 14 6 Ret 10 34
12 Ángel Burgueño Ret DNS 10 Ret 13 4 11 7 Ret 3 Ret 15 16 Ret 11 8 31
13 Mark Shaw 14 7 8 13 Ret Ret 18 9 13 Ret 19† Ret 18 10 Ret DSQ 12
14 Gonzalo Rodríguez 8 Ret 12 6 9
15 Patrice Gay 9 6 8
16 Takashi Yokoyama 13 9 20 8 11 Ret 19 17 Ret 14† 10 18 21 11 Ret 9 8
17 Martin Byford 11 11 Ret Ret 9 9 14 11 Ret 12 Ret DNS 15† 12 7
18 Risto Virtanen 21 21 14 7 4
19 Kazuto Yanagawa 16 18 19 Ret 17 Ret Ret 14 16 13 13 Ret 13 Ret 9 15 3
20 Christian Horner Ret 24 16 Ret 16 13 0
21 Paula Cook 17 16 21 Ret 18 14 DNS DNS 20 DNS DNS 0
22 Boris Derichebourg 14 0
23 Steven Arnold 15 0
24 Akbar Ebrahim 18 0
Naoki Kurose Ret
Class B
1 Simon Wills 19 17 13 14 14 15 15 15 21 11 16 16 17 Ret 13 11 201
2 Shingo Tachi 15 19 23 10 15 17 13 21 14 Ret DNS 11 10 14 Ret 13 192
3 Ben Collins Ret 10 17 10 15 10 11 13 10 Ret 147
4 Martin O'Connell 10 14 18 12 8 12 17 19 131
5 Michael Bentwood 20 22 DNS 11 Ret 16 16 16 18 12 18† 14 15 Ret Ret 14 119
6 Tavo Hellmund 18 20 24 12 19 Ret 17 56
7 Philip Hopkins 22† 23 22 Ret Ret 12 Ret 19 20† 19† 20 DSQ 52
8 Chris Clark 12 15 15 Ret 45
9 Masami Nakamura 17 Ret 16 20
10 James Carney 16 Ret 12
Pos Driver SIL
 SIL
 THR
 DON
 BRH
 BRH
 OUL
 DON
 SIL
 THR
 SNE
 PEM
 PEM
 ZAN
 ZAN
 SIL
 Pts

References

AUTOCOURSE 1996-97
British Motorsport Year 1996-97

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.