1989
SEASON

Drivers and constructors

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1989 FIA Formula One World Championship. FIRST Racing injected material into their chassis in order to pass a mandatory FIA pre-season crash test, however, it made its car significantly overweight and they withdrew before the opening Brazilian Grand Prix . After this, they instead focused on the Formula 3000 series.

Team and driver changes

McLaren , having won fifteen of the sixteen races in 1988 , kept their successful driver line-up of 1985 and 1986 World Champion Alain Prost and defending champion Ayrton Senna . They would drive the new MP4/5 powered by a Honda V10 engine . Ferrari completed the signing of British driver Nigel Mansell , taking the place of Michele Alboreto alongside Austrian Gerhard Berger . The new 640 , designed by John Barnard , featured a semi-automatic electronic gearbox, the first of its kind, as well as the team's first 12-cylinder engine since 1980 . Williams recruited Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen from Benetton as Mansell's replacement, alongside veteran Italian Riccardo Patrese . The team had also done a deal with Renault , returning to F1 after a three-year break, that would see them have exclusive use of the French company's V10 engines. For most of the season, Williams ran with the FW12C , an updated version of their 1988 car, before the new FW13 was introduced at the Portuguese Grand Prix . Lotus kept their 1988 line-up of triple World Champion Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima , but lost their Honda engines. The new Lotus 101 , designed by Frank Dernie , used the Judd V8 engine instead. Benetton retained Alessandro Nannini and signed British rookie Johnny Herbert to replace Boutsen. However, Herbert was still recovering from severe foot injuries sustained in a Formula 3000 crash at Brands Hatch , and was eventually replaced by McLaren test driver Emanuele Pirro . Benetton continued as the de facto works Ford team, but had to make do with the Cosworth DFR -powered 1988 car, the B188 , until the new HB -powered B189 was introduced at the French Grand P...

Race 1: Brazil

The climate as the Formula One circus arrived at Jacarepaguá was one of much optimism in what many saw as a new age, with many revelling in the brutal and much more appealing sounds of the V10 and V12 engines. Brazil proved to be an excitement filled race, and dramatic too. Qualifying had a few surprises, with Riccardo Patrese , scoring his first front row start since 1983 , next to the home favourite, world champion Ayrton Senna . Williams and Renault were both surprised by the position, but bo... The race started with a bang, as Senna's hopes at a home Grand Prix victory were dashed after a clash with Berger in the first turn. In what would prove to be a regular occurrence during the season, the semi-automatic transmission in the Ferrari 640 allowed Berger to get a lightning start from 3rd on the grid and he attempted to go inside of Senna and Patrese into the turn. Senna refused to give room, causing a collision that destroyed the front wing of his car. Patrese got through unscathed and... Double world champion Alain Prost's McLaren had been having problems all weekend with the Frenchman finding the McLaren MP4/5 hard to set up, and when his two stop strategy was ruined by a clutch failure, he knew he had to continue the race having made just one of his scheduled two pit stops on the notoriously abrasive Rio circuit. He finished second. Nigel Mansell secured a surprising win for the Scuderia, with no problems despite ongoing gearbox faults all weekend and a lack of winter testing ... During the awards ceremony, Mansell cut his hand open on the trophy, ending the celebration early. This was to be the last race at this fast, flat and abrasive Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro. Formula One would move to a shortened Interlagos circuit in Senna's hometown of São Paulo for the 1990 season onwards.

Race 2: San Marino

At Imola in Italy, "normal service" was resumed. McLaren settled on the front row of the grid and stayed that way for the race, with Mansell's Ferrari retiring midway with gearbox issues. Gerhard Berger, despite showing promise by setting the fastest time in the wet Friday qualifying, suffered front wing failure thanks to Berger's curb hopping style and careered off the track at Tamburello at high speed and hit the concrete retaining wall very hard and spun multiple times along the wall. This fo... After the Grand Prix, Prost seemed disgruntled and said he wished to not make a comment on the race, other than that "orders were not respected". Senna refused to comment on the matter. Before the race at Monaco, Prost said he wanted "nothing to do with (Senna)" and refused to speak with him.

Race 3: Monaco

With Berger out, there were 29 cars in qualifying instead of 30, because Ferrari did not have a replacement driver. Senna had scored his third pole of the season, with the number 2 car of Prost again alongside. March introduced their new 1989 design. Senna went on to win by almost a whole minute over Prost while Stefano Modena secured a valuable third for the underfunded Brabham team on its return to Formula One after a year out. This result effectively allowed Brabham to avoid prequalify... During practice Prost revealed his discontent with Senna. According to Prost the pair had an agreement that if they were leading, whoever won the start would not be challenged by the other at the first corner, an agreement he previously had with former teammates Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg . Despite Marlboro 's John Hogan supporting Prost's story by stating he was present when the agreement was made, Senna continued to deny that any such agreement existed. He also contended that the corner he pa...

Race 4: Mexico

At the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico , Gerhard Berger made a return despite continued pain in his fingers. However, transmission and gearbox problems forced the Ferraris to retire from point-scoring positions for the third race straight. While they lamented their results, McLaren and Senna took a third win on the trot by a differing choice of tyres. Prost's choice, and the wrong set of tyres being given to him at a pit stop (which prompted team boss Ron Dennis to issue Pros... Mexico was the first time that Prost would publicly complain that his Honda V10 did not seem to work as well as Senna's, pointing out that early in the race he was clearly faster than Senna through the Peraltada curve heading onto the long front straight, but that even with a tow from Senna he was not able to make any ground on him. Then later in the race when Senna was coming up to lap Prost (who had much fresher tyres), the Brazilian was easily able to catch and pass him on the straight despit...

Race 5: United States

The United States Grand Prix had a new destination, this time in the hot desert city of Phoenix , Arizona . It was a new place, but the same old dirty and dusty street circuits, and while wider, faster, less dirty and less bumpy than both Detroit and Dallas , like Detroit the mostly right angled turns on Phoenix's street grid system gave the drivers few reference points for when to use their brakes- but this created many good overtaking spots. The dreadfully hot 100+ degree dry desert summer hea... Senna won the start and built up a small lead over Prost. Senna suffered an electrical problem when leading the race and his engine started to misfire. He signalled Prost through to a lead he would not lose on lap 34. Williams ended up being the only team to finish with both cars as the dirty track and unforgiving concrete walls ended six races, with the heat and dust cutting out many more. One driver, Alessandro Nannini , suffered from a severely sore neck after a crash in the morning warm-up a... The race of attrition saw Christian Danner score a surprise 4th place in his Rial , while Herbert and Boutsen rounded out the scoring zone. The race ran for the full 2 hours and was flagged after 75 of the scheduled 81 laps. Alain Prost scored his only ever win in the US, while Cheever's 3rd place was his final podium in Formula One. Before the race with the heat and practice times proving some 10–15 seconds per lap slower than predicted, a petition was circulated among the teams requesting the ...

Race 6: Canada

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was run in wet conditions and provided many retirements, but also a new winner. Senna was comfortably leading with only three laps to go when engine problems forced him to retire, handing Boutsen his first victory. Patrese came home second to make it a 1–2 finish for Williams, the first time a team other than McLaren had achieved this since Ferrari in Monza the previous year . Making up for his Phoenix indiscretion, Andrea de Cesaris picked up third for Dallar... Triple World Champion Nelson Piquet picked up his and Lotus's first points of the year by finishing 4th, only 4.8 seconds behind de Cesaris. René Arnoux would score the final points of his career by finishing 5th for Ligier . Caffi snatched the final point by finishing 6th.