1990 British Formula Three Championship

The 1990 British Formula Three season was the 40th season of the British Formula Three Championship, starting on 1 April at Donington Park and ending on 7 October at Silverstone following 17 races.

The season was notable for its domination by future Formula One champion Mika Häkkinen and fellow Finn and future F1 driver Mika Salo; both drove Mugen-Honda-powered Ralt chassis, prepared by West Surrey Racing and Alan Docking Racing respectively. Häkkinen started the year strongly with three wins from the first four races, but Salo responded with four victories in the next six events to establish an 11-point advantage over his rival. The 11th round of the series at Snetterton proved a turning point, however, as Salo spun out while leading, allowing Häkkinen to begin a sequence of six wins from the final seven rounds which would allow him to seal the title with two rounds to spare.

Häkkinen’s reward would be a deal to race with the Lotus F1 team in 1991, although Salo’s career momentum was ruined by a drunk-driving charge that forced him to move to Japan to further his career.^[1] Other drivers in the field that went on to enjoy success in international motorsport included Christian Fittipaldi, who went on to win the International Formula 3000 championship the following year before enjoying stints in F1 and CART, and future touring car and sportscar driver Peter Kox.

1990 also marked the start of a dominant period for Mugen-Honda engines, which would power each British F3 champion until 2005 with only one exception. Charles Rickett won the Class B title in a year-old Volkswagen-powered Ralt.

Drivers and Teams[edit]

Team	Chassis	Engine	No.	Driver	Rounds
Class A
Bowman Racing	Ralt RT33	Volkswagen-Spiess	1	Steve Robertson	All
			4	Philippe Adams	All
			12	Fernando Plata	1–7
				Stephen Hepworth	10–17
			14	Peter Kox	1–10, 12–17
West Surrey Racing	Ralt RT34	Mugen-Honda	2	Mika Häkkinen	All
			3	Christian Fittipaldi	All
			16	Minoru Tanaka	All
Paul Stewart Racing	Reynard 903	Mugen-Honda	5	Paul Stewart	1–3
	Ralt RT34				4–17
	Reynard 903		6	Derek Higgins	1–4
	Ralt RT34				5–17
Alan Docking Racing	Ralt RT34	Mugen-Honda	7	Mika Salo	All
			8	Hideki Noda	All
Swallow Racing	Reynard 903	Mugen-Honda	10	Julian Westwood	1–4
	Ralt RT34				5–17
	Reynard 903		11	Jonathan McGall	1–3
	Ralt RT34				4–17
Formula Services	Reynard 903	Alfa Romeo	18	Jose Cordova	1–4
				Adrián Fernández	5
Hubbard Racing	Reynard 903	Opel	20	Hilton Cowie	5–9, 13–15, 17
	Ralt RT33		94		3
			21	Niko Palhares	3–4
	Ralt RT34				5–9
Racefax Motorsport	Ralt RT32	Mazda	23	Alain Menu	1–2, 4
Dawson Auto Developments	Reynard 903	Alfa Romeo	25	António Simões	2–3, 5, 10–11, 13, 17
Tech-Speed Motorsport	Reynard 903	Volkswagen-Spiess	27	Gary Ayles	1–4, 6–9
				Scott Stringfellow	13
			28	Jordi Gené	All
Hepworth Racing	Reynard 903	Volkswagen-Spiess	30	Stephen Hepworth	1–6
				Jason Elliott	9–10
				Henrik Larsen	11–14
				Ross Hockenhull	16
Superpower Engineering	Reynard 903	Volkswagen-Spiess	33	Paul Warwick	1
	Ralt RT34	Mugen-Honda			2–9
				Bernard Dolan	10
				Gary Ayles	11–17
Team Itchi-Ban	Reynard 903	Mugen-Honda	37	Nic Jönsson	15–16
			38	Mikael Gustavsson	15
			39	Linus Lundberg	15
G-Son Racing	Reynard 903	Volkswagen-Spiess	40	Fredrik Ekblom	1
Diamond Racing	Reynard 903	Volkswagen-Spiess	44	César Tiberio Jiménez	4
Reynard R&D	Reynard 903B	Mugen-Honda	50	Jason Elliott	11, 13, 15–17
Class B
Peter Lea Racing	Reynard 873	Alfa Romeo	51	Eddie Kimbell	1–13
				Sandy Brody	14–17
	Reynard 883		56	Alan Tulloch	1–10, 13–17
Stronghold Racing	Ralt RT32	Toyota	52	Steve Bradley	1–4, 6, 8–11, 14
	Ralt RT33	Volkswagen-Spiess			15, 17
Steve Deeks	Reynard 883	Alfa Romeo	53	Steve Deeks	5–8, 10, 17
Bowman Racing	Ralt RT33	Volkswagen-Spiess	54	Charles Rickett	1–13
				Darren Shaw	14, 16
				Dana Brewer	15, 17
Tollbar Racing	Ralt RT32	Volkswagen-Spiess	55	Juan Serda	All
Davies Racing	Ralt RT31	Volkswagen-Spiess	57	Tony Davies	1, 4–6, 10, 17
Tech-Speed Motorsport	Reynard 873	Volkswagen-Spiess	58	Paul Smith	10
G-Son Racing	Reynard 883	Volkswagen-Spiess	60	Monica Stråth	1
Racefax Motorsport	Ralt RT32	Volkswagen-Spiess	61	Dominic Chappell	1–3
	Ralt RT33				4–17
Hubbard Racing	Reynard 893	Volkswagen-Spiess	64	Pekka Herva	14–15, 17
	Ralt RT33	Opel	91	Flurin Zegg	4
Zeus Motorsport	Reynard 883	Volkswagen-Spiess	66	Peter Sneller	1–2, 4–8, 10–12, 15–17
Petroglobe International	Reynard 893	Alfa Romeo	67	Dana Brewer	13
Diamond Racing	Reynard 893	Toyota	70	César Tiberio Jiménez	3
Cram Motorsport	Ralt RT33	Toyota	71	Rob Mears	All
JWD Motorsport	Ralt RT31	Toyota	83	Jack Dickenson	4, 9
Carlton Tingling	Reynard 883	Volkswagen-Spiess	85	Carlton Tingling	15

Race calendar and results[edit]

^1 Häkkinen and Salo set identical fastest lap times and were subsequently both awarded an additional point.

Championship Standings[edit]

Points in brackets include dropped scores – only the best 14 of 17 scores count towards the championship

References[edit]

External links[edit]