1989 Brazilian Grand Prix

Background

The event, officially called the Grande Prêmio do Brasil was held at the Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Baixada de Jacarepaguá in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and was the first round of the 1989 Formula One World Championship. Free and qualifying practice sessions were held on Friday 24 March and Saturday 25 March, with a warm-up session and the Grand Prix race itself taking place on Sunday 26 March 1989. This was the last Formula One race at Jacarepaguá and in Rio de Janeiro. From 1990, the Brazilian Grand Prix would be held at a shortened Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, São Paulo, the home town of Ayrton Senna, where it is today.

Thirty-nine cars were entered for the event by twenty constructors, although Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS) withdrew one of their entries before the event. Thirteen constructors used Goodyear tyres whilst seven teams used Pirelli tyres. Several teams, including AGS with the JH23B, Benetton Formula with the B188, Scuderia Coloni with the FC 188, EuroBrun with the ER 188B, Larrousse with the Lola LC88B, March Engineering with the 881, Minardi with the M188B, Rial Racing with the ARC2, the Tyrrell Racing Organisation with the 017B, and Williams with the FW12C used versions of their cars from the previous season at this event, featuring varying degrees of modification, some only making minor changes whilst others, such as Eurobrun, Larrousse, and Williams had gone so far as to change engine manufacturer. Williams had one newly-constructed chassis at this race, alongside two 1988 chassis modified to 1989 specifications. Other teams introduced new cars, with Arrows debuting the A11, the returning Brabham debuting the BT58, Scuderia Italia debuting the Dallara F189, Ligier debuting the JS33, Team Lotus debuting the 101, McLaren debuting the MP4/5, debutante Onyx Grand Prix fielding their ORE-1, Osella debuting the FA1-M89, and Zakspeed debuting the 891. Scuderia Ferrari introduced the Ferrari 640 at this race, the first Formula One car with a semi-automatic gearbox.

Williams driver Riccardo Patrese made a then record-breaking 177th appearance at a Grand Prix. This race saw the grand prix debuts of British driver Johnny Herbert (in a Benetton) and French driver Olivier Grouillard (in a Ligier). Herbert competed with a sore ankle that caused him to limp due to injuries sustained in a Formula 3000 crash in August 1988.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

Several teams were required to participate in the Friday morning pre-qualifying sessions during 1989, in order to reduce the field to thirty cars for the main qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday. At the midway point of the season, the pre-qualifying group was to be reassessed, with the more successful, points-scoring teams being allowed to avoid pre-qualifying, and unsuccessful teams being required to pre-qualify from mid-season onwards.

At this first Grand Prix of 1989 in Brazil, five cars were allowed to progress. The AGS team had expanded from one car to two, and their first car, to be driven by Philippe Streiff, was not required to pre-qualify. However, the Frenchman had been paralysed in a midweek testing crash at the circuit, which ended his career. He was not replaced for the Grand Prix weekend, allowing an extra car to progress from the pre-qualifying session, the only time during the pre-qualifying sessions from 1988 to 1992 that five cars would be allowed to partake in the main qualifying session instead of the standard four.

The FIRST team withdrew before the event, as the car had failed a mandatory FIA pre-season crash test. This left thirteen cars participating in the session. They included the two Brabhams, as the team had not participated in 1988, and the new Onyx team with their two-car entry. Also included were the two Zakspeeds and the two Osellas. This left five other cars: the sole single-car entry from EuroBrun, and the second cars of the four teams expanding from one car to two for 1989, namely AGS, Coloni, Dallara and Rial.

During the session, the two Brabhams of Martin Brundle and Stefano Modena were considerably faster than the other entrants, securing a comfortable 1–2. Third was the EuroBrun driven by debutant Swiss driver Gregor Foitek, and fourth was the Osella of Nicola Larini. The fortunate fifth fastest runner, who also went through to qualifying on this occasion, was Zakspeed's Bernd Schneider.

Missing out in sixth was Alex Caffi in the Dallara, ahead of veteran Piercarlo Ghinzani in the other Osella. Another newcomer, German driver Volker Weidler was eighth in the Rial, with Pierre-Henri Raphanel's Coloni ninth, ahead of Joachim Winkelhock, also competing in Formula One for the first time, in the AGS. Eleventh was the second Zakspeed of Aguri Suzuki, with the Onyx drivers a little way adrift at the bottom of the time sheets, having had little time to test their new car. Stefan Johansson was faster than his Belgian team-mate Bertrand Gachot, the other driver in the session to make his Formula One debut, but was still over seven seconds slower than Brundle's time.

Pre-qualifying classification

Qualifying report

Ayrton Senna took pole position in qualifying ahead of Patrese and Ferrari's Gerhard Berger. For Patrese it was actually his first front row start since he started second at the 1983 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, a gap of 81 races. On his debut for Ferrari, Berger's teammate Nigel Mansell qualified sixth. Temperatures during Saturday's qualifying practice session were around 105 F. Benetton driver Herbert and Ligier driver Grouillard both qualified for their first Formula One races.

Qualifying classification

Race

Race report

The race was due to begin at 13:00 local time. Before the race the temperature was measured at 106 F. At the start, Nicola Larini was disqualified for an illegal start. Mansell became the first man since Mario Andretti in 1971 to win on his Formula One debut for Ferrari, a feat that was not matched until Kimi Räikkönen won for Ferrari at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix. It was also the first race ever to be won by a car with a semi-automatic gearbox. Mansell cut his hands on the trophy following the race. Mansell had lacked confidence in the new V12-powered Ferrari's reliability, and as such had booked a flight home which was due to depart at 16:30. He was joined on the podium by McLaren's Alain Prost and March's Maurício Gugelmin, making his first and only appearance on the podium. Johnny Herbert, still recovering from his horrifying Formula 3000 crash at Brands Hatch six months earlier, finished 4th on his Formula 1 debut for Benetton, 1.123 seconds behind Gugelmin and 7.748 seconds in front of teammate Alessandro Nannini who finished 6th.

The hard luck of the story of the race was undoubtedly Arrows driver Derek Warwick. After his first tyre stop which lasted 18 seconds (a normal stop for the time was around 6–8 seconds) and dropped him from 3rd to 8th, there was another problem fitting a rear wheel during his second stop for tyres, a problem which Warwick himself compounded by actually stalling the Arrows-Ford as he tried to leave his pit, all of which resulted in a stop of around 25 seconds. He eventually finished in fifth place, less than 18 seconds behind Mansell suggesting that the two long pit stops where he was stationary for almost 30 seconds longer than had the stops been trouble free, may have cost Warwick and Arrows their maiden Grand Prix victory.

Warwick's Arrows teammate Eddie Cheever collapsed after exiting his car following the collision involving the Zakspeed of Bernd Schneider that ended his race. Arrows actually had to modify Cheever's car after he failed the FIA safety check where a driver had five seconds to be able to exit their car. The new Ross Brawn designed Arrows A11 was a tight fit for the tall American and he had trouble fitting into the car before practice. It was also a tight fit for Warwick who pointed out during practice that it was really his and Cheever's own fault as Brawn had continually asked the pair if they were comfortable in the car, to which they both said yes, but as Warwick pointed out sitting in a stationary car in the workshop or pit lane is vastly different to being out on the track with all the bumps and g-forces. Schneider, whose car carried the new Yamaha V8 engine, only got into the race after Philippe Streiff's crash and the FIA had allowed five pre-qualifiers to enter the main field instead of four. Schneider did not qualify for another race until the season's penultimate round in Japan some seven months later. His new teammate Aguri Suzuki ultimately failed to qualify for all 16 rounds of the 1989 season.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

• Pre-qualifying results from FIA Yearbook 1989

|Previous_year's_race = 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 1990 Brazilian Grand Prix

References

1. (1989). "Autocourse 1989-90". Hazleton Publishing.
2. (8 November 2015). "Brazil 1989: 'Il Leone' roars to win on Ferrari debut".
3. Walker, Murray. (1989). "Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year". First Formula Publishing.
4. Benson, Andrew. (7 October 2009). "Pick your classic Brazilian Grand Prix". bbc.co.uk.
5. (December 2008). "Do you remember when Mansell cut his hands on the podium?". Derwent Howard.
6. "1989 Brazilian Grand Prix". formula1.com.
7. "Brazil 1989 - Championship • STATS F1".