British Formula 3 1979
Only two teams appeared properly prepared for the 1979 season, Project Four and Team Tiga with drivers Chico Serra and Andrea de Cesaris. It would be Serra's consistency that saw him take the title after an number of avoidable accidents and mistakes dropped De Cesaris from contention. 18-year-old Mike Thackwell was also very consistent and won four of the last eight races in his works March.
With honours divided, British F3's run of projecting its champion straight into F1 stopped with Serra. The Brazilian progressed instead to F2 with the Project Four team, moving into F1 a year later with Fittipaldi. Ironically this was the first time there was a single British championship, the BARC and BRDC championships having merged for 1979.
Ground effect reached F3 in 1979 but none of the constructors could adapt the new technology to production cars. The March 793 was basically a 783 with wing-profile sidepods and - sometimes - skirts but the narrow 783 tub lent itself well to this adaptation and the 793 won all but one race in Britain. The overweight Chevron B47 was also a wing-car version of a 1978 car but in this case the sidepods were too narrow to be effective and it managed just one wet-weather win. After dominating 1978, Ralt almost vanished from F3 in 1979 as their prospective customers waited in vain for the new ground-effect RT3 to become available. A scaled-down version of the F2 RT2 design, the car showed promise in testing. The Argo JM3 also proved quick on occasions and it was these two designs that looked best placed to challenge March in 1980.
The races
04 Mar 1979 > Silverstone
11 Mar 1979 > Thruxton
25 Mar 1979 > Silverstone
01 Apr 1979 > Snetterton
08 Apr 1979 > Donington Park
16 Apr 1979 > Thruxton
07 May 1979 > Brands Hatch
20 May 1979 > Race of the Year at Donington Park
26 May 1979 > Monaco GP F3 Race at Monte Carlo
28 May 1979 > Silverstone
10 Jun 1979 > Brands Hatch
17 Jun 1979 > Cadwell Park
01 Jul 1979 > Silverstone
14 Jul 1979 > Silverstone
15 Jul 1979 > Radio Trent International F3 Trophy at Donington Park
05 Aug 1979 > Snetterton
12 Aug 1979 > Mallory Park
27 Aug 1979 > Silverstone
02 Sep 1979 > Leinster Trophy at Mondello Park
09 Sep 1979 > John Player Raceday at Donington Park
15 Sep 1979 > Oulton Park
30 Sep 1979 > Thruxton
07 Oct 1979 > Silverstone
28 Oct 1979 > Thruxton
03 Nov 1979 > STP-Link Formula 3 Race at Thruxton
Championship events shown in bold
1979 Vandervell F3 Championship table
| 1 | Chico Serra | March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 103 pts | 5 wins |
| 2 | Andrea de Cesaris | March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 90 pts | 6 wins |
| 3 | Mike Thackwell | March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 71 pts | 5 wins |
| 4 | Stefan Johansson | Chevron B47 - Toyota Novamotor March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 54 pts | 1 win |
| 5 | Brett Riley | March 783 - Triumph Dolomite Swindon March 793 - Triumph Dolomite Swindon | 40 pts | 1 win |
| 6 | Kenneth Acheson | Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota Novamotor March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 35 pts | |
| 7 | Bernard Devaney | Chevron B47 - Toyota Novamotor Chevron B47B - Toyota Novamotor March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 27 pts | 1 win |
| 8 | Nigel Mansell | March 783 - Triumph Dolomite Swindon March 793 - Triumph Dolomite Swindon | 24 pts | 1 win |
| 9= | Roberto Guerrero | Argo JM3 - Toyota Novamotor | 15 pts | |
| 9= | Michael Roe | Chevron B47 - Toyota Novamotor Chevron B47B - Toyota Novamotor March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 15 pts | |
| 11 | Eddie Jordan | Chevron B47 - Toyota Novamotor March 793 - Toyota Novamotor | 9 pts | |
| 12 | Placido Inglesias | Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota Novamotor | 8 pts | |
| 13 | Alain Prost | Martini MK27 - Renault Dudot | 4 pts | |
| 13 | Eliseo Salazar | Ralt RT1/76 - Toyota Novamotor Ralt RT3 - Toyota Novamotor | 4 pts | |
| 13 | Rob Wilson | Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota Novamotor March 783/793 - Toyota Novamotor | 4 pts | |
| 13 | John Bright | March 773 - Toyota Novamotor Ralt RT1/78 - Toyota Novamotor Pilbeam MP44 - Toyota Novamotor | 4 pts | |
| 13 | Jorgé Caton | Ralt RT1/77 - Toyota Novamotor | 4 pts |
This series ran over 20 rounds and used a 9-6-4 points system with an extra 2 points awarded for fastest lap. Points tables from Autosport 22 November 1979 p22 and Autocourse 1979/80 p231.
The Novamotor-built Toyota engine won every F3 in 1978 but the Triumph engine, now prepared by Swindon Race Engines, and a Titan-built Chevrolet Vega also appeared. Renault-Gordini and BMW engines were used extensively in France and Germany respectively.
