Brazilian GP 1988

Brazilian GP, 1988

The winter months had seen a lot of changes in the Formula 1 field with the increasingly restrictive turbo regulations convincing many teams to switch to normally-aspirated engines a year before turbos were finally banned. McLaren, Lotus, Ferrari, Arrows, Osella and Zakspeed all stayed with turbo engines. McLaren had hired Ayrton Senna to join Alain Prost with Honda engines replacing the TAG turbos for the 1988 season, while work pushed ahead for a normally-aspirated Honda engine for 1989.

World Champion Nelson Piquet had left Williams to join the Lotus-Honda team where he was partnered by Satoru Nakajima. Ferrari retained Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto while Benetton continued with the Ford turbo but replaced Teo Fabi with Sandro Nannini. Arrows resigned Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever and continued to use the Megatron engines with a B version of the Arrows A10. Osella had Nicola Larini and went on with the old Alfa Romeo engines while Zakspeed continued to do its own thing for Piercarlo Ghinzani and new boy Bernd Schneider. Martin Brundle decided to race Jaguar sportscars instead of F1.

The normally-aspirated teams were joined by Williams, which used the new Judd V8 engine. Nigel Mansell stayed with the team and was joined by Riccardo Patrese. The new engines were also used by Ligier which took on Stefan Johansson as replacement for Ghinzani and used Judd engines. The Leyton House March team also used Judds, expanding to two cars with Mauricio Gugelmin joining Ivan Capelli.

The Cosworth teams had swelled in number with Tyrrell (Philippe Streiff having been replaced by Julian Bailey), Larrousse (Philippe Alliot and Yannick Dalmas) and AGS (Streiff) being joined by Minardi, which had hired Luis Sala to partner Adrian Campos. Coloni reappeared for a full season with Gabriele Tarquini while there were three new teams: Rial, EuroBrun and Scuderia Italia. Rial employed Ferrari designer Gustav Brunner and Andrea de Cesaris, EuroBrun had Argentine Oscar Larrauri alongside Stefano Modena (the Italian being left in the lurch when Bernie Ecclestone decided that the Brabham team would sit out the 1988 season) and Scuderia Italia employed Alex Caffi and the season began with an uprated Formula 3000 car.

Qualifying in Brazil resulted in pole position for Senna with Mansell surprisingly quick in the Williams in second place ahead of Prost, Berger, Piquet, Alboreto, Boutsen, Patrese, Capelli and Nakajima. Senna was in trouble even before the start as his McLaren was jammed in first gear on the final parade lap. On the grid he put his hands into the air and the start was delayed. Senna went to the spare car and had to start from the pitlane.

At the start Mansell went away ahead but he was engulfed by Prost and Berger and in the early laps the order remained the same. Senna charged back up through the field but was to be disqualified for switching to the spare car against the rules. Berger finished second while Piquet third , Derek Warwick (Arrows) fourth, Alboreto fourth and Satoru Nakajima (Lotus) sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda  60 1h36m06.857s  3 
2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  60 1h36m16.730s  4 
3 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda  60 1h37m15.438s  5 
4 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  60 1h37m20.205s  11 
5 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  60 1h37m21.413s  6 
6 2 Satoru Nakajimi Lotus-Honda  59  10 
7 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  59  7 
8 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  59  15 
9 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd  57  21 
r 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Cosworth  53 Engine 14 
r 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  47 Drive Shaft 22 
r 24 Luis Sala Minardi-Cosworth  46 Rear Aerofoil 20 
r 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  40 Rear Suspension/accident 16 
r 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Cosworth  35 Suspension 25 
r 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Cosworth  35 Brakes/spin 19 
r 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Cosworth  32 Engine 17 
dg 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  31 Changed Car After Parade Lap 1 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Judd  23 Clutch 18 
r 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Cosworth  20 Fuel Pump/engine 24 
r 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd  18 Electrics/engine Overheating 2 
r 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Cosworth  7 Engine Overheating 12 
r 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd  6 Engine Overheating 8 
r 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd  6 Engine Overheating 9 
r 23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Cosworth  5 Rear Aerofoil 23 
r 15 Mauricio Gugelmin March-Judd  0 Transmission 13 
r 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Cosworth  -1 Electrics 26 
nq 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Cosworth    27 
nq 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed    28 
nq 21 Nicola Larini Osella-Alfa Romeo    29 
nq 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    30 
npq 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Cosworth    31