1980 Formula 1.5 Season

The 1980 Formula 1.5 Season was the 31st season of the Formula 1.5 World Championship. Elio de Angelis won his first World Drivers' crown with 40 points. Meanwhile Lotus-Ford clinched their third World Constructors' Championship with 57 points. 1980 bore witness to a season long battle for the Drivers' title that was only clinched in the final round. A fantastically close Constructors fight was also enjoyed, as the top six teams finished within 14 points of each other come seasons end.

An interesting side-note, not one driver was able to convert pole position to a race victory at any Grands Prix all season.

## Entries

### Excluded teams

* Albilad Williams Racing Team, Equipe Ligier Gitanes, Parmalat Racing Team, and Equipe Renault Elf

### Team changes

* Scuderia Ferrari returned to Formula 1.5, lining up on the grid for the first time since the 1973 season.
* Another team to come back to the sport was Tyrrell, having been absent from F1.5 since 1977.
* Lotus, who had provided chassis' to Héctor Rebaque in his 1979 campaign, made a full return to the sport. Their cars hadn't raced in F1.5 under the Team Lotus banner since 1975.
* Walter Wolf Racing pulled out of all top-tier Formula competition at the end of 1979. A stellar debut season in F1 in 1977 saw them burst on to the scene and seemingly prove themselves as title threats right from the get-go. Steady decline however saw them move to Formula 1.5 by 1979 in what was a year riddled with unreliability, to such a degree that the team only registered two finishes, not enough to retain interest from team boss Walter Wolf. During the winter break, the team got sold off to the Fittipaldi brothers who merged assets and in the early stages of 1980 used Wolf WR7 chassis', rebranded as Fittipaldi F7's.
* The small Italian team, Osella, entered Formula 1.5 after kicking about in European F2 and F3 for a good part of the last decade.
* One of two teams to leave F1.5 for Formula 1 at the end of 1979 was Bernie Ecclestone's Parmalat Brabham team. After producing fast but fragile machines the previous year, Bernie took a chance and returned the team to the 'big leagues' again.
* The factory Renault squad also felt it was time to move up. Showcasing themselves as having the fastest car throughout most of last season, their only hinderances being reliability and a weekness on extremely tight circuits such as Monaco.

### Driver changes

* Scuderia Ferrari's return saw them bring 1975 F1.5 Champion, Jody Scheckter and young star Gilles Villeneuve to the sport.
* Team Tyrrell fielded former race winner Jean-Pierre Jarier and Irishman Derek Daly.
* McLaren retained reigning World Drivers' Champion, John Watson, and signed 1979 European Formula 3 Champion, Alain Prost to partner him, replacing the ousted Patrick Tambay.
* ATS parted ways with Hans-Joachim Stuck and filled his place with Swiss driver, Marc Surer for the majority of the season. Dutchman, Jan Lammers raced a second car for the team in the first three rounds of the year before taking over Surer's car for another three while the Swiss was out recovering from injury.
* Heading in to the season, Lotus had famous American racer Mario Andretti leading the team, however he wouldn't lead them for long as young Italian, Elio de Angelis, trounced experienced teammate Andretti winning four races to Mario's zero, en-route to the World Drivers' Championship in only his second year of competition. In doing this, Elio became the first driver to win the World Championship with Team Lotus since Jim Clark in 1966, and the first to win it using a Lotus chassis since Jo Siffert in 1969.

## Calendar

### Calendar changes

* The Spanish Grand Prix was to be a championship race but for the FISA–FOCA war concerning ground-effect aerodynamics getting involved. As a result, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo boycotted the event. It was announced on Friday's practice that the race to be contested on June 1st was not going to be held under FISA regulations. Therefore, it would not be counted as a Formula 1.5 championship race. The race was won by Jochen Mass with Elio de Angelis second and Jean-Pierre Jarier third.
* The Italian Grand Prix was moved from the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari because Monza underwent major upgrades, including building a new pit complex which could not be done in time.
* The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was originally supposed to be held on November 2nd, but the race was cancelled.

Due to event sharing arrangements, two Grands Prix swapped circuits for 1980:

* The French Grand Prix was moved from Dijon-Prenois to Paul Ricard Circuit.
* The British Grand Prix was moved from Silverstone to Brands Hatch.

## Results & standings

### World Drivers' Championship standings

Points towards the 1980 World Championship of Drivers were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis for the first six positions in each race. Only the best five results from the first seven races and the best five results from the remaining seven races could be retained by each driver.

Legend: **Bold** = Pole Position; *Italics* = Fastest Lap; (Brackets) = Result/score did not count towards championship total

### International Cup for F1.5 Constructors' standings

Points towards the 1980 International Cup for F1.5 Constructors were awarded on a 9–6–4–3–2–1 basis for the first six positions in each race. All points earned by a constructor were retained towards their final total.

Legend: **Bold** = Pole Position; *Italics* = Fastest Lap