1988 Brazilian Grand Prix

June 2024 F1 Brazil 1968 Brazilian 17º Grande Premio do Brasil Autódromo_de_Jacarepaguá_1978-1995.png 3 April 1988 1 16 Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Permanent racing facility 3.126 5.031 61 190.693 306.891 60 187.567 301.860 Cloudy and hot Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:28.096 Brazil 1968 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:32.943 45 Austria Alain Prost McLaren-Honda France Gerhard Berger Ferrari Austria Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda Brazil 1968 BRA The 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 April 1988, at the renamed Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Rio de Janeiro. Following his 3rd World Drivers' Championship in 1987 the Jacarepaguá Circuit was named after local hero Nelson Piquet. It was the first race of the 1988 Formula One season. Background Winter testing had indicated Ferrari would be maintaining the edge that they had gained by winning the final two races of the 1987 season despite only having an updated version of their 1987 car, with McLaren-Honda and Williams, now with naturally aspirated Judd V8 engines, also producing cars that looked like potential race winners. Ferrari had dominated the pre-season tests in Rio with times that were not only faster than everyone else, but faster than had been recorded at the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix, prompting rumors that the team had either shut off the FIA's mandatory pop-off valve which in 1988 limited turbo boost pressure to just 2.5 Bar, or more likely were running the 1987 valve which had a 4.0 Bar limit (although neither Ferrari or Honda gave out official power figures for their engines, most of the team engineers agreed that in 1988 the turbo engines had lost approximately 300 bhp kW PS 0 on due to the reduction in boost). The rumors were renewed during qualifying in Brazil when neither Michele Alboreto nor Gerhard Berger could get near their test times from a month earlier and both drivers complained of engines that were down on power, too thirsty and had poor throttle response out of the slower corners. With the 1988 pop-off valve connected, both Ferraris were also significantly slower on the circuits long back straight than either the McLaren or Lotus Hondas which were all timed at over 290 km/h mph 0 on. During the qualifying session, there was controversy when Nelson Piquet made comments in the local media publicly insulting Ayrton Senna, though he later claimed he did not know he was talking to a journalist and was forced to withdraw his allegation under threat of a lawsuit (over time, these insults by Piquet – with the aid of Prost – also extended to claims that Senna was homosexual, particularly given his failed marriage in 1982; as it transpired in a 1990 interview of Senna by Brazilian edition of Playboy the gay claim may have been motivated by the fact that Senna had apparently had a relationship with Piquet's wife when she was singleFormula One's Greatest Driver Lost His Virginity To A Prostitute When He Was 13 http://jalopnik.com/5977119/formula-ones-greatest-driver-lost-his-virginity-to-a-prostitute-when-he-was-13 Jalopnik 18 January 2013). The World Champion had also been insulting about Nigel Mansell's wife Roseanne (calling her an "unattractive boxhead"), and both drivers' families. BMS Dallara's Alex Caffi had to use a modified Formula 3000 chassis because the Formula One chassis was not ready. As the F3000 chassis could not fit the newer 3.5L Cosworth DFZ engine, the car was forced to use an old Cosworth DFY making it the last time an engine derived from the 3.0L Cosworth DFV engine that had debuted in Formula One in 1967, was used in a Formula One Grand Prix. Drivers making their debut in Rio were: Brazilian Maurício Gugelmin (March-Judd), Spanish driver Luis Pérez-Sala (Minardi-Ford), Argentine Sportscar driver Oscar Larrauri (EuroBrun-Ford) making his F1 debut at the age of 33, Briton Julian Bailey (Tyrrell-Ford) who had sold just about everything he owned in order to pay for his drive with Ken Tyrrell's team, and young German Formula 3 Champion Bernd Schneider signed with Zakspeed. Of the new drivers, only Bailey and Schneider failed to qualify. BMS Dallara, EuroBrun (with Larrauri and 1987 International Formula 3000 champion Stefano Modena) and Rial Racing, with veteran Andrea de Cesaris as its sole driver, were making their F1 debuts as constructors. The EuroRacing side of the EuroBrun team had formerly run the factory backed Alfa Romeo team from 1982–85, while Brun Motorsport, run by Swiss slot machine magnate and race driver Walter Brun, were long time competitors in the World Sportscar Championship. Rial, run by German Günter Schmid, was basically a rebirth of his old ATS Team which had previously competed in Formula One from 1977–84. All three teams would use the ubiquitous 3.5L Ford DFZ V8 engine. Qualifying Just five months after his crash during qualifying for the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix, Mansell produced a sensational performance to qualify his naturally aspirated Williams second, 1.5 seconds faster than the next 'atmo' car, the Benetton-Ford of Thierry Boutsen in 7th. On the pole was Senna in his first drive for McLaren with a time almost two seconds slower than Mansell's 1987 pole time. The second row was occupied by Gerhard Berger's Ferrari and Alain Prost's McLaren. After only a small amount of testing at Imola before joining in the Rio tests due to the late finish of the car, neither Senna or Prost were happy with the balance of their McLaren MP4/4s in qualifying. Making Mansell's lap even more impressive was that while the McLaren-Hondas either side of him were hitting over 290 km/h mph 0 on on the 900 metre long back straight, his Williams-Judd was only recorded at 265 km/h mph 0 on, slower even than the turbos were recording on the shorter pit straight. It showed just how much wing he was forced to run on his car despite the team continuing to use its computer run Reactive suspension system, though Mansell himself put it down to an underpowered Judd V8 on its race debut.Nigel Roebuck John Townsend Grand Prix - 1988 Formula One World Championship 1988 Garry Sparke & Associates Glen Waverly, Victoria, Australia 0 908081 59 6 36 1st By qualifying on the front row, Mansell became the first driver of a naturally aspirated (atmo) car to start on the front row of a Grand Prix since his former Williams teammate Keke Rosberg had put his Williams-Ford on pole position for the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix at the same circuit. The four non-qualifiers were the Tyrrell-Ford of Julian Bailey, the turbo Zakspeeds of Piercarlo Ghinzani and Schneider, and the turbo Osella of Nicola Larini. Alex Caffi failed to pre-qualify his converted F3000 Dallara. Race summary On the parade lap, Senna's gear selector mechanism broke and he had to complete the lap jammed in first gear. The first start was aborted and Senna started in the spare car from the pits. At the second start, Alain Prost with no one in front of him due to Senna's absence, won the start and put in one of his famous first laps that saw him lead by almost 2 seconds, with Mansell in 2nd place, though he was soon passed by Berger's Ferrari. After running in the hot air behind the turbocharged Ferrari, on lap 19 Mansell's temperature gauge showed that the Williams was overheating (at the first aborted start Mansell had been forced to drive off around the track, thankfully without penalty, due to his Judd V8 already overheating on the grid). He entered the pits to investigate, handing third to Nelson Piquet in his Lotus; during the process, Mansell stalled his engine. Senna was making a remarkable drive from the rear of the grid, climbing to 21st on lap 1 (after almost colliding with the March of his former flatmate Maurício Gugelmin who suffered gearbox failure less than 50 metres after the start of his debut race and pulled to the inside of the track as Senna was leaving the pits), 15th on lap 4, 8th on lap 10, into the points on lap 13 and by lap 20 was in second place after passing Piquet on the back straight following a pit stop to Berger. In previous years with high horsepower, the Rio circuit had proved savage on tyres and drivers were forced to stop two or three times a race for new rubber. With the reduction of turbo boost in 1988, tyre wear was reduced and McLaren figured on only one stop for their drivers. Prost pitted on lap 26 without losing the lead, and Senna pitted a lap later. During his stop Senna stalled his Honda engine and dropped to sixth place. Shortly afterwards he was shown the black flag and disqualified for changing cars after the green flag had been shown following the parade lap, a move that was not allowed. Over the last 10 laps of the race Berger closed to within 10 seconds of leader Prost, but the Frenchman was merely pacing himself to make sure he finished on the now lower fuel limit and Berger was unable to catch him. Piquet, the reigning World Champion, came home third in his first drive for Lotus ahead of Derek Warwick in the Arrows-Megatron. Michele Alboreto in the second Ferrari and Satoru Nakajima in the second Lotus rounded out the points with 5th and 6th places. The first atmospheric car to finish was the Benetton-Ford of Thierry Boutsen. Nakajima and Boutsen both finished a lap down on Prost in 7th place. The first race of FISA's new equivalency formula in a bid to make the 'atmos' competitive had seen turbos still take all the points on offer. Classification Pre-qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:37.033 — 2 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:37.886 +0.853 3 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:38.276 +1.243 4 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:43.869 +6.836 DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:46.442 +9.409 Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:30.218 1:28.096 — 2 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:30.928 1:28.632 +0.536 3 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:31.975 1:28.782 +0.686 4 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:32.123 1:29.026 +0.930 5 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:32.888 1:30.087 +1.991 6 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:32.523 1:30.114 +2.018 7 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:32.060 1:30.140 +2.044 8 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:34.070 1:30.439 +2.343 9 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:33.546 1:30.929 +2.833 10 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:33.293 1:31.280 +3.184 11 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:34.323 1:31.713 +3.617 12 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:31.722 1:32.748 +3.626 13 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:34.037 1:31.833 +3.737 14 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:34.988 1:32.275 +4.179 15 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:33.787 1:32.843 +4.747 16 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:35.930 1:32.933 +4.837 17 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:36.832 1:33.408 +5.312 18 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:37.214 1:34.474 +6.378 19 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:37.601 1:34.481 +6.385 20 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:36.593 1:34.532 +6.436 21 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:37.454 1:34.579 +6.483 22 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:38.628 1:34.686 +6.590 23 23 ESP Adrian Campos Minardi-Ford 1:36.593 1:34.886 +6.790 24 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:37.506 1:34.910 +6.814 25 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:41.149 1:35.407 +7.311 26 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:38.927 1:35.711 +7.615 DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:39.711 1:36.137 +8.041 DNQ Did not qualify 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:40.431 1:37.621 +9.525 DNQ Did not qualify 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella 1:38.927 1:38.371 +10.275 DNQ Did not qualify 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:45.540 1:38.614 +10.518 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 60 1:36:06.857 3 9 2 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 60 + 9.873 4 6 3 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 60 + 1:08.591 5 4 4 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 60 + 1:13.348 11 3 5 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 60 + 1:14.556 6 2 6 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 59 + 1 Lap 10 1 7 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 59 + 1 Lap 7 8 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 59 + 1 Lap 15 9 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 57 + 3 Laps 21 Ret Retired 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 53 Engine 14 Ret Retired 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 47 Transmission 22 Ret Retired 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 46 Chassis 20 Ret Retired 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 40 Suspension 16 Ret Retired 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 35 Suspension 25 Ret Retired 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 35 Brakes 19 Ret Retired 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 32 Engine 17 DSQ Disqualified 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 31 Illegal Car Change 1 Ret Retired 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 23 Clutch 18 Ret Retired 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 20 Engine 24 Ret Retired 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 18 Engine 2 Ret Retired 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 7 Engine 12 Ret Retired 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 6 Engine 8 Ret Retired 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 6 Engine 9 Ret Retired 23 ESP Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 5 Chassis 23 Ret Retired 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 0 Gearbox 13 Ret Retired 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 0 Electrical 26 DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford DNQ Did not qualify 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed DNQ Did not qualify 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella DNQ Did not qualify 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-FordSource:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/263/ 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118224436/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/263/ 18 January 2015 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 FRA Alain Prost 9 2 AUT Gerhard Berger 6 3 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 4 4 GBR Derek Warwick 3 5 ITA Michele Alboreto 2Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1988/bresil/championnat.aspx Brazil 1988 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 13 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda9 2 ITA Ferrari8 3 GBR Lotus-Honda5 4 GBR Arrows-Megatron3Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References Brazilian Grand Prix 1988 1987 Australian Grand Prix 1988 San Marino Grand Prix 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix Brazilian Grand Prix Category:Brazilian Grand Prix Grand Prix Brazilian Grand Prix