1988 F1 Season
Prost and Senna Fought Titanic Formula 1 Title Battle
After the end of the 1987 Formula 1 season several big names changed teams. World Championship winner Nelson Piquet moved to Lotus for 1988, while Lotus driver Ayrton Senna switched to McLaren. Stefan Johansson, who had driven for McLaren in 1987, found a berth at Ligier. Teo Fabi lost his drive with Benetton and was replaced by Alessandro Nannini.
It soon became clear during the 1988 season that the McLaren-Honda was far quicker than its rivals. The team would go on to almost completely dominate the year, with Alain Prost and Senna in a private title battle. Williams and lost their supply of Honda engines and had to be content with normally aspirated Judd units.
Prost Wins for McLaren at Interlagos
The Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos was Senna’s home race but the Brazilian had a weekend to forget. It started well as he set the pole position time in qualifying. Unfortunately, on the warm-up lap his McLaren developed a gear selection problem. The start was aborted and Senna switched to a spare car. This contravened the rules and he was eventually disqualified from the results.
Mansell surprised everyone in qualifying by setting the second quickest time in the unfancied Williams. In the race he was powerless to resist the turbo cars. Prost won for McLaren, with Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari second and Nelson Piquet’s Lotus third.
McLaren Dominate San Marino Grand Prix Weekend
The gulf between McLaren and the other teams was graphically demonstrated during qualifying at Imola. Senna took pole, ahead of his team-mate Prost. While Piquet managed to qualified third his time was over three seconds slower than his countryman up front. It was a demoralising figure for McLaren’s rivals.
While Senna jumped into an immediate lead Prost was very slow away from the line and lost several places. The superior performance of his McLaren meant that the Frenchman did not have too much trouble recovering the lost ground, although he could do nothing about his team-mate Senna. Piquet finished where he’d started, in third position. He was a full lap behind the McLaren pair.
The opening two races 1988 set the tone for the rest of the season. Prost and Senna battling for victory while the others fought over the minor placings. The next Grand Prix was inMonaco, a place where Senna had won for the first time in 1987. Prost had also tasted victory around the street circuit and it promised to be an enthralling encounter.
1988 F1 season review continues here.
Michele Alboreto, 1988 Ferrari F1
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