What Happened On This Day April 3 In F1 History?

What happened on this day, April 3 in Formula 1 history? Find out interesting facts and stories about Formula 1 on this day.

1923

Chuck Weyant was an American racing driver born on this day and active during the 1950s and 1960s. He raced in the Indianapolis 500 four times, in 1955 and from 1957 to 1959, when the race was part of the Formula One World Championship.

1977

The 1977 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach was a landmark race, heralding the dominance of the ground-effect era. Driving a Lotus 78, Mario Andretti won, becoming the first American to win a Grand Prix on his home soil while also giving the ground-effect Lotus its first win. Andretti held off Niki Lauda in a Ferrari, who took second, with Jody Scheckter finishing third in the Wolf Ford. The Formula One paddock arrived in mourning, following the deaths of Tom Pryce at the South African Grand Prix and Carlos Pace in a light aircraft crash near Sao Paulo. The Shadow team signed Alan Jones as Pryce’s replacement, while Hans-Joachim Stuck took Pace’s place at Brabham.

1977 United States Grand Prix West Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	80	1:51:35.470	9
2	11	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	80	+0.773s	6
3	20	Jody Scheckter	Wolf Ford	80	+4.857s	4
4	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell Ford	80	+74.487s	3
5	28	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi Ford	80	+80.908s	2
6	34	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Penske Ford	79	+1 lap	1
7	1	James Hunt	McLaren Ford	79	+1 lap	0
8	6	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	79	+1 lap	0
9	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier Matra	78	DNF	0
10	10	Brian Henton	March Ford	77	+3 laps	0
11	18	Hans Binder	Surtees Ford	77	+3 laps	0
NC	3	Ronnie Peterson	Tyrrell Ford	62	DNF	0
NC	22	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign Ford	57	DNF	0
NC	8	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Brabham Alfa Romeo	53	DNF	0
NC	17	Alan  Jones	Shadow Ford	40	DNF	0
NC	2	Jochen Mass	McLaren Ford	39	DNF	0
DQ	7	John Watson	Brabham Alfa Romeo	33	DSQ	0
NC	16	Renzo Zorzi	Shadow Ford	27	DNF	0
NC	9	Alex Ribeiro	March Ford	15	DNF	0
NC	12	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	5	DNF	0
NC	30	Brett Lunger	March Ford	4	DNF	0
NC	19	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees Ford	0	DNF	0

1988

The season’s first race, the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix, started amidst controversy after Nelson Piquet made public insults towards Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and their families during the pre-race build up. Senna initially secured pole, but faced a mechanical issue with his car being stuck in first gear during the parade lap. He switched to the spare car, began the race from the pit lane, and impressively climbed to second place, only to be disqualified for switching cars, and shown a black flag on lap 31. Senna’s teammate at McLaren, Alain Prost, ultimately won the race followed by Gerhard Berger for Ferrari and Piquet third for Lotus.

1988 Brazilian Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	11	Alain Prost	McLaren Honda	60	1:36:06.857	9
2	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	60	+9.873s	6
3	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus Honda	60	+68.581s	4
4	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows Megatron	60	+73.348s	3
5	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	60	+74.556s	2
6	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus Honda	59	+1 lap	1
7	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton Ford	59	+1 lap	0
8	18	Eddie  Cheever	Arrows Megatron	59	+1 lap	0
9	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier Judd	57	+3 laps	0
NC	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial Ford	53	DNF	0
NC	3	Jonathan  Palmer	Tyrrell Ford	47	DNF	0
NC	24	Luis Perez-Sala	Minardi Ford	46	DNF	0
NC	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola Ford	40	DNF	0
NC	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni Ford	35	DNF	0
NC	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS Ford	35	DNF	0
NC	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola Ford	32	DNF	0
NC	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren Honda	31	DNF	0
NC	25	Rene Arnoux	Ligier Judd	23	DNF	0
NC	33	Stefano Modena	Euro Brun Ford	20	DNF	0
NC	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams Judd	18	DNF	0
NC	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton Ford	7	DNF	0
NC	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams Judd	6	DNF	0
NC	16	Ivan Capelli	March Judd	6	DNF	0
NC	23	Adrian Campos	Minardi Ford	5	DNF	0

1998

McLaren made headlines by signing a 13-year-old karting prodigy, Lewis Hamilton. Ron Dennis praised Hamilton’s potential to reach the pinnacle of racing and included him in McLaren’s respected Young Driver Program. Hamilton’s father expressed surprise and gratitude, saying, “We did not expect this so soon. When McLaren first spoke to us our reaction was one of disbelief. What McLaren is giving us is a complete package, making sure Lewis’s education stays on the right track and he keeps his feet on the ground. It is almost as if the motor-racing side is a bonus. But Lewis will have to produce the results they are looking for.” Hamilton went on to make his debut for the team in 2007, narrowly missing out on the Championship in his rookie season, he went on to win the following year, 2008, and added a further six more titles to his name with Mercedes.

1999

The future of Silverstone was shrouded in uncertainty for a decade, started by Bernie Ecclestone’s stark warning that the British Grand Prix might not remain at Silverstone after the current contract expired in 2001. Ecclestone expressed scepticism about renewing the contract, saying, They can do all the restructuring it likes but I might not sign another contract. Shares in nothing are worth nothing.” He added Silverstone were no longer in discussions with him. “They said they’ll see what happens,” he said. “They don’t know what they are doing at the moment. They are not in any position to sign anything with anyone. Brands Hatch has put forward a proposal to host the Grand Prix and I am considering it.” The long-term future of the race at Silverstone wasn’t secured until 2010.

2003

Following a lacklustre 2002 Formula One season, interest sharply declined, leading to over US$110 million in unsold sponsorships across the ten teams. Jordan, which lacked a title sponsor in 2003, had the most available sponsorship stock at $21.6 million. Even Ferrari found itself with an unsold US$17 million sponsorship package.

2005

The 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix came just one day after the passing of Pope John Paul II, leading several teams and drivers to pay their respects. Notably, Ferrari raced with blackened nose cones as a tribute. The podium celebrations were subdued following Fernando Alonso‘s dominant win for Renault from start to finish. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher‘s race ended prematurely due to a spin, his first technical retirement in 59 Grands Prix since 2001. Jarno Trulli finished in second place for Toyota and Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium in third for McLaren.

2005 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	57	1:29:18.531	10
2	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	57	+13.409s	8
3	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren Mercedes	57	+32.063s	6
4	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	57	+53.272s	5
5	10	Pedro de la Rosa	McLaren Mercedes	57	+64.988s	4
6	7	Mark Webber	Williams BMW	57	+74.701s	3
7	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber Petronas	56	+1 lap	2
8	14	David Coulthard	RBR Cosworth	56	+1 lap	1
9	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	56	+1 lap	0
10	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan Toyota	55	+2 laps	0
11	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	54	DNF	0
12	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi Cosworth	54	+3 laps	0
13	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi Cosworth	53	+4 laps	0
NC	3	Jenson Button	BAR Honda	46	DNF	0
NC	4	Takuma Sato	BAR Honda	27	DNF	0
NC	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams BMW	25	DNF	0
NC	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	12	DNF	0
NC	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	4	DNF	0
NC	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan Toyota	2	DNF	0
NC	15	Christian Klien	RBR Cosworth	0	DNF	0

2016

Lewis Hamilton entered the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix as the previous year’s winner, with his Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg, leading the 2016 Drivers’ Championship. A title he would go on to win.

The qualifying session featured the controversial “elimination format” for the second time, with Hamilton securing pole, followed by Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari. Rosberg went on to win the race, followed by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton finishing third. Due to widespread criticism, the elimination qualifying format was stopped after this race. Starting from the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix, the sport returned to the previous three-segment qualifying format that had been in use from 2006 to 2015.

2016 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/retired	Pts
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	1:33:34.696	25
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	57	+10.282s	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+30.148s	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	57	+62.494s	12
5	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	57	+78.299s	10
6	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso Ferrari	57	+80.929s	8
7	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer	56	+1 lap	6
8	19	Felipe Massa	Williams Mercedes	56	+1 lap	4
9	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Mercedes	56	+1 lap	2
10	47	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Honda	56	+1 lap	1
11	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	56	+1 lap	0
12	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	56	+1 lap	0
13	94	Pascal Wehrlein	MRT Mercedes	56	+1 lap	0
14	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber Ferrari	56	+1 lap	0
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India Mercedes	56	+1 lap	0
16	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	56	+1 lap	0
17	88	Rio Haryanto	MRT Mercedes	56	+1 lap	0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso Ferrari	29	DNF	0
NC	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas Ferrari	9	DNF	0
NC	22	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	6	DNF	0
NC	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	0	DNS	0
NC	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	0	DNS	0
Vettel and Palmer did not start following technical problems on the formation lap. Magnussen started the race from the pit lane as penalty for failing to stop for a mandatory weight check during FP2.

F1 Driver Birthdays 3 April

Birthday	F1 Driver
3 April 1923	Chuck Weyant (d. 2017)

F1 Driver Deaths 3 April

Death	F1 Driver
3 April 1985	Helmut Niedermayr (b. 1915)
3 April 2007	Robin Montgomerie-Charrington (b. 1915)