1980 Formula One season

The 1980 Formula One season was the 34th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1980 World Championship of Drivers and the 1980 International Cup for F1 Constructors , [ 1 ] which were contested concurrently from 13 January to 5 October over a fourteen-race series. [ 2 ] The season also included one non-championship race, the Spanish Grand Prix . [ 3 ]

Alan Jones , driving a Williams - Ford , became the first Australian to win the World Championship since Jack Brabham in 1966 . The season saw a major change of guard in Formula One with the Williams team's first Drivers' and Constructors' titles, the emergence of Nelson Piquet as a championship contender and the debut of future World Champions Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell , while reigning champions Jody Scheckter and Ferrari suffered a terrible season that resulted in Scheckter retiring from t...

The 1980 Formula One season started in Argentina in January. This event, held at the Buenos Aires Municipal Autodrome located in the sprawling Argentine capital started off badly. After Friday's practice, due to the heat and the suction these ground-effect cars were creating, the track began to break up, and the drivers found conditions difficult and even dangerous. Led by Emerson Fittipaldi, the drivers staged a semi-unsuccessful protest – the organizers did actually fix the track, but not succ...

The other half of the South American January tour took place in Brazil. This meeting was also met with pre-race difficulties. The safety conditions of the very difficult, demanding and confined 5-mile Interlagos circuit located in the steel-making metropolis of São Paulo had been heavily protested by the drivers for some time, led by South African Ferrari driver Jody Scheckter. The original arrangement was that this Grand Prix was originally supposed to be held at the Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio ...

The F1 teams arrived in South Africa in March, at the fast Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria in the midst of an African summer. Alain Prost crashed his McLaren at the Esses and broke his wrist; he would miss this and the next race in Long Beach; while Marc Surer had it worse – he crashed heavily at Crowthorne and broke his leg; he missed the next 3 races. Like Interlagos before, the even higher altitude of Kyalami helped the Renaults even more so than in Brazil, and this proved t...

A stop-over in Long Beach, California right next to the Hollywood-dominated landscape of Los Angeles happened 4 weeks after the South African race. The typically pleasant and sunny weather there gave for a relaxed atmosphere at this tight, twisty and rough street circuit (1 of 2 on the calendar – the other being Monaco) which was in contrast to the previous 3 quick Southern Hemisphere circuits used thus far in the season. With its tight, slow layout being lined with unforgiving concrete walls, L...

The cancellation of the Mexican Grand Prix , supposed to have taken place 2 weeks after Long Beach created a 5-week gap between Long Beach and the Belgian Grand Prix. The F1 circus started its 4-month long European tour at Zolder, where Frenchman Didier Pironi took his first ever victory in his Ligier-Ford/Cosworth ahead of Alan Jones and his Argentine teammate Carlos Reutemann.

The classic street race in Monaco provided some excitement: there was a big pile-up at the start, where Derek Daly went flying twice over a number of cars at the first corner. He took out Prost in a McLaren, his teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier and Bruno Giacomelli in an Alfa. Didier Pironi led and crashed, and Carlos Reutemann took the lead and won from Frenchman Jacques Laffite in a Ligier-Ford/Cosworth and Piquet in a Brabham.

The Spanish Grand Prix at the tight and twisty Jarama circuit near Madrid ended up losing its championship status after Jean-Marie Balestre announced on morning of Friday's practice (in an attempt to put FOCA in their place after drivers driving for FOCA-aligned teams did not show up to drivers' meetings at the previous 2 Grands Prix) that the 1980 Spanish GP would not count as a championship round. Balestre also stripped the drivers of their racing licenses. The FISA-supported manufacturer team...

The abrupt non-championship status of the Spanish Grand Prix and the cancellation of the Swedish Grand Prix at the Anderstorp circuit meant there was a 6-week gap between the Monaco and French Grands Prix. The French Grand Prix took place while the Spanish Grand Prix debacle was still raging on 4 weeks afterwards. With their racing licenses given back to them, the drivers got on with their jobs, and at the Paul Ricard circuit on the southern French riviera near Marseille, Williams driver Jones b...

The British Grand Prix in 1980 was at Brands Hatch, just outside London. This race on the challenging and bumpy southern English circuit saw the Ligiers of Pironi and Laffite lead and fall out; Pironi retired after a puncture and Laffite crashed at Hawthorn's. Alan Jones took advantage of the Ligier's problems and Jones managed to hold off a quick Nelson Piquet to win yet again in a Williams, the English team's second consecutive British GP win.

The German Grand Prix at the ultra-fast Hockenheimring was marred by the fatal pre-race testing accident of Patrick Depailler at the ultra-high speed, top gear, flat out Ost-Kurve 9 days before the race. Suspension failure on his Alfa caused him to crash massively after his car overturned and vaulted the barriers, causing fatal head injuries. Alan Jones took pole from Renault driver Jabouille by mere hundredths of a second, and he led the race until he had to come in with a puncture on the strai...

The European high-speed circuit tour kept coming, and the fastest circuit of the season – the spectacular Österreichring in the Styrian mountains – enabled Jabouille to win by mere seconds from Alan Jones. Renault driver Jabouille, who had retired from every race he had participated in so far in the season, finally finished a race. His development work with Renault over the past 4 seasons gave him his 2nd and last F1 victory of his career.

The beach-side Zandvoort circuit near Amsterdam, modified from the previous year saw Brazilian Nelson Piquet win from Frenchmen Arnoux and Laffite. The Renaults dominated qualifying, although Jabouille retired and Jones went out after accident damage.

The European tour concluded with the Italian Grand Prix being held at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari near the town of Imola, rather than Monza. The Dino Ferrari circuit, located near the Ferrari factory and just outside Bologna had signed a deal to alternate the Italian GP with Monza, on the condition Monza improve its track safety and facilities. Although the Monza track owners had already made safety upgrades a year before, the deal had been signed before Monza made changes; so for the first time ...

The final leg of the 1980 Formula One season was a 2-part tour in North America, starting in Canada, at the Ile-Notre Dame circuit in Montreal. This race had to be restarted after a multiple pile-up involving Piquet and Jones at the start, when Jones shut the door at the very first corner after the start. Piquet jumped into the spare car, which had a short-lasting qualifying Ford/Cosworth engine in it – and although Piquet was clearly faster than anyone else, the engine in his Brabham blew up ea...

The other half of the North American visit and the last round of the 1980 Formula One season was the second round in the United States at the fast, dauntingly challenging Watkins Glen circuit in New York State, four hours from New York City and only 5 hours from Montreal. This race had been in doubt for almost the whole season, but on this quick, bumpy, demanding and elevated circuit located in the rolling vineyard hills above Seneca Lake, it did go ahead after a loan was given by FOCA to the or...

A third American race, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas was supposed to be the final event of the season 4 weeks after Watkins Glen but this event was cancelled.

Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. The International Cup for F1 Constructors counted the points of all drivers for a constructor. For the Championship, the best five results from rounds 1-7 and the best five results from rounds 8-14 were counted, while, for the Cup, all rounds were counted.

Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system: