1996 British Formula Three Championship

1996 British Formula 3 International Series

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1997

File:Ralph Firman 2008 Super GT.jpg

1996 champion, Ralph Firman

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.

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

External links

• The official website of the British Formula 3 Championship