1989 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.
[12] Ferrari completed the signing of British driver Nigel Mansell, taking the place of Michele Alboreto alongside Austrian Gerhard Berger.
[15][16] Williams recruited Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen from Benetton as Mansell's replacement, alongside veteran Italian Riccardo Patrese.
[23][24] 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.
[23][25] 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 Prix.
[27] The Brabham team returned after missing 1988, with Stefano Modena and Martin Brundle (fresh from winning the 1988 World Sports Prototype Championship) driving the Judd-powered BT58.
[30] The French Larrousse team continued running Lola chassis, but ditched the Ford Cosworth V8 engines in favour of the new Lamborghini V12, designed by Mauro Forghieri.
Ligier retained French veteran René Arnoux and signed newcomer Olivier Grouillard, who replaced experienced Swede Stefan Johansson.
AGS had retained Philippe Streiff for 1989, but the Frenchman crashed heavily at Rio while testing prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, suffering spinal injuries which left him as a quadriplegic and ended his racing career.
The Onyx ORE-1, designed by Alan Jenkins and powered by the Ford Cosworth DFR, was driven by Johansson and Belgian rookie Bertrand Gachot, who would eventually be replaced by Finnish newcomer JJ Lehto.
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.
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.
Patrese got through unscathed and in the lead of his record-breaking 177th Grand Prix start whilst Berger was out on the spot (the first of ten straight retirements for the Austrian driver) while Senna was forced to pit for repairs and would finish the race two laps down in eleventh place.
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.
Berger miraculously survived with just a broken rib, shoulder bone and burns to his back and hands, due to rescue crews removing him from the wreck in less than 60 secs.
[37] 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.
The dreadfully hot 100+ degree dry desert summer heat of Phoenix also made conditions trying; the track broke up during the race.
One driver, Alessandro Nannini, suffered from a severely sore neck after a crash in the morning warm-up and retired from fourth place on lap 10.
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.
The race had to be restarted when, on the first lap, Gugelmin caused a major first corner accident when he lost control of his March, flew into the air and landed on Mansell's rear wing.
The British Grand Prix at the very fast Silverstone circuit proved much the same – McLaren front row, Senna retiring from the lead after a spin, and Prost winning.
"[38] At Hockenheim in Germany (another very fast circuit) however, Senna's bad luck ended after scoring a treble – pole, fastest lap and the win, but he had to fight almost all the way with Prost to do so.
After both McLarens suffered bad mid-race stops for tyres, Prost emerged in the lead and looked to have the race in his grasp but lost top gear with less than two laps to go.
The dirty Hungaroring near Budapest provided an almost gripless practice and qualifying, that eventually led to the first non-McLaren pole position of the year – Riccardo Patrese made a Senna-like performance with a 0.31 gap between him and Senna.
Mansell was over two seconds off Patrese's time of an impressive 1:19.7, whilst Berger constantly complained of gear shift troubles – even asking the team to change the gearbox pre-race, which they did not.
The Italian Grand Prix at the Monza Autodrome near Milan sealed the end of two things: Gerhard Berger's terrible season (he scored a second place on both the grid and in the race) and Prost's relationship with McLaren.
The World Championship was virtually decided in the thirteenth round at Estoril near Lisbon, as Prost finished second to Berger and Senna retired in controversial circumstances when he collided with Mansell, who had illegally reversed in the pit-lane and ignored the resultant black disqualification flags.
Johansson finished a fine third for the struggling Onyx team (a result that meant they did not have to go through pre-qualifying in the first half of 1990), marveling at the car's performance on a low-grip track and speaking of optimism for Spain.
Senna kept the championship alive in Spain by taking pole position and leading throughout, beating Berger by almost half a minute at the Jerez circuit near Seville.
The Australian Grand Prix was overshadowed by the ongoing controversy surrounding the Japanese race, but once the appeals had been considered, Prost was crowned the champion for the third time.
