The 1991 Formula 3000 International Championship was the seventh season of

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

in Europe.

Christian Fittipaldi Christian Fittipaldi (born 18 January 1971) is a Brazilian former racing driver who has competed in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, Champ Car, and NASCAR. He was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s, and parti ...

won the championship after ten rounds.

Technical changes

A major technical change for 1991 was the introduction by Avon of

radial-ply tyre A radial tire (more properly, a radial-ply tire) is a particular design of vehicular tire. In this design, the cord plies are arranged at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, or radially (from the center of the tire). Radial tire construction ...

s. Compared to the previous crossply tyres, these could be more consistently manufactured, and made the cars more consistent aerodynamically, but gave the drivers less control at high

slip angle In vehicle dynamics, slip angle or sideslip angle is the angle between the direction in which a wheel is pointing and the direction in which it is actually traveling (i.e., the angle between the forward velocity vector v_x and the vector su ...

Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lol ...

's T91/50 chassis was an evolution of the previous year's championship-winning T90/50, and retained a very short wheelbase of . By comparison, the

Reynard Reynard the Fox is a list of literary cycles, literary cycle of medieval allegorical Folklore of the Low Countries, Dutch, English folklore, English, French folklore, French and German folklore, German fables. The first extant versions of the cy ...

91D had a wheelbase of . The short wheelbase of the Lola was blamed for its inability to perform on the new tyres, and the Forti Corse team switched to Reynards after three rounds. The

Eddie Jordan Racing Eddie Jordan Racing was a British racing team founded by Irish racing driver Eddie Jordan in 1980. The team competed in Formula 3 and Formula 3000, winning the 1989 International Formula 3000 Drivers' Championship with Jean Alesi. After success ...

team attempted to lengthen its Lolas by adding a spacer in between the engine and gearbox, but eventually it too purchased a Reynard for

Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill (born 17 September 1960) is an English former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won 22 Grands Prix acr ...

. The

Ralt Ralt was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under ...

name, last seen in F3000 in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, returned after being split off from the

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

Group.

Season summary

Alessandro Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

won for the new

Il Barone Rampante Il Barone Rampante (sometimes known as Benetton Junior) was a Formula 3000 team created by Giuseppe Cipriani. The team took its name from the original Italian title of Italo Calvino's 1957 book The Baron in the Trees. The team ran in Internati ...

team at the first race at

Vallelunga Vallelunga (Italian for ''long valley'') is a valley, or plateau,Tonino Floris, Marco Spada, ''Pedalando nel Lazio''p. 97 Edizioni Mediterranee, 1996 . near Campagnano di Roma, Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in S ...

Jean-Marc Gounon Jean-Marc Gounon (born 1 January 1963) is a French racing driver. He raced in Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédérati ...

then took Ralt's last F3000 win at Pau. Christian Fittipaldi won at

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Located in southwestern Iberia, it lies on the Campi� ...

, and Zanardi won again at

Mugello The Mugello () is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Fl ...

. Gounon won on the road at

Enna Enna ( or ; ; , less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside. It has e ...

, but he was controversially adjudged to have jumped the start. The race win was given to

Emanuele Naspetti Emanuele Naspetti (born 24 February 1968) is a racing driver and entrepreneur from Italy. Career Karting He made his racing debut at the age of 12 and spent seven years in karting (1980–1986), participating in more than 200 races and achi ...

, who was making his first start in a Reynard after his Forti team had switched from Lolas. Naspetti then won the following three races at

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain, Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" ( ...

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

and

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

. His success was blamed in part on the exotic fuel blend provided by

Agip Agip S.p.A., acronym for Azienda generale italiana petroli, was an Italian automotive gasoline, Diesel fuel, diesel, Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, lubricants, fuel oil, and bitumen retailer established in 1926 and Subsidiary company, subsidiary ...

, which would be banned the following year. Fittipaldi's

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

teammate Antonio Tamburini won on the

Bugatti Circuit The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport Race track, race course, chiefly known as the venue fo ...

Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...

. In the finale at

Nogaro Nogaro (; Gascon: ''Nogaròu'') is a commune in the Gers department, Southwestern France. It is the site of a distillery of Armagnac brandy. Geography The commune is bordered by six other communes: Caupenne-d'Armagnac to the northwest, ...

, Fittipaldi beat title rival Zanardi for the race win and the championship.

Drivers and constructors

Calendar

Final points standings

Driver

For every race points were awarded: 9 points to the winner, 6 for runner-up, 4 for third place, 3 for fourth place, 2 for fifth place and 1 for sixth place. No additional points were awarded.

Complete Overview

R16=retired, but classified R=retired NS=did not start NQ=did not qualify

References

{{Formula 3000 years

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become to ...

International Formula 3000 seasons