The 1982 Formula One season was the 33rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1982 Formula 1 World Championship, which commenced on 23 January and ended on 25 September after sixteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Keke Rosberg and the Manufacturers' Championship was awarded to Ferrari.
Rosberg was the first driver since Mike Hawthorn in the 1958 season to win the championship with only one race win. 11 drivers won a race during the season, none of them more than two times, including nine different winners in nine consecutive races.
The combination of technical and sporting regulations used during this season prompted many complaints about safety before and during the season. The season saw two fatalities and many serious and violent accidents. Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve was killed in an accident during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder after hitting the March car of Jochen Mass. Italian driver Riccardo Paletti died at the Canadian Grand Prix when his Osella car hit the back of Didier Pironi's stalled car at the start of the race. Pironi, who had been Villeneuve's teammate, suffered massive injuries to his legs in another qualifying accident at the German Grand Prix and never raced in Formula One again.
The season started with a drivers' strike at the first race of the season. Later in the season, the disagreement between the sport's governing body and the teams (known as the FISA-FOCA war) re-started and many of the teams boycotted the San Marino Grand Prix. For the first time since the inception of Formula One more than 30 years earlier, there were no non-Championship races run during 1982. This situation would become permanent from 1984 onward. It was also the only season to host three Grands Prix in the same country (United States): the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, Detroit Grand Prix and United States Grand Prix West.
The 1982 season was the end of an era, in which, since 1950, at least 1 or 2 drivers were killed every year in a Formula One related event. From 1983 onwards, the sport would see 3 more drivers die in Formula One cars- Elio de Angelis in 1986 driving a Brabham during testing at Paul Ricard, Roland Ratzenberger in 1994 during practice for the San Marino Grand Prix, and triple world champion Ayrton Senna during the race itself- barely a day after Ratzenberger's death.
Read more about 1982 Formula One Season: Pre-season, Drivers and Constructors, Season Review, 1982 Drivers Championship Final Standings, 1982 Manufacturers Championship Final Standings
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