[citation needed] Ford and Cosworth recognized early on that the DFR could not compete permanently with the new ten and twelve-cylinder engines from Ferrari, Honda, or Renault.

Although teams like Lotus and Tyrrell were already trying to get customer HBs in the spring of 1989, Ford and Cosworth stuck to this dichotomy until the end of 1990, under pressure from Benetton.

It was only broken up in 1993 by the McLaren customer team, which emphatically demanded that equivalent engines be supplied and was able to enforce this from the middle of the season.

Initial considerations were aimed at a twelve-cylinder engine; Corresponding press releases were distributed on the occasion of the Canadian Grand Prix in 1991 and repeated until the spring of 1992.

After that, it was obsolete because the FIA reduced the displacement limit to 3.0 liters for the 1995 season after the fatal accidents of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

[citation needed] The DFV/DFZ/DFR replacement was designed by Geoff Goddard to result in 3,498 cc (213.5 cu in) (96 mm x 60.4 mm) HB V8, which was introduced with the Benetton team midway through 1989 making its debut at the French Grand Prix, and won the Japanese Grand Prix that year (Benetton used both the original HBA1 and the development HBA4 in 1989).

A significant innovation of the HB relates to the narrower cylinder bank angle of 75 degrees compared to the DFV-DFZ-DFR series.

A five-valve head, as used by Ferrari, Motori Moderni (as “Subaru” in 1990 at Coloni), and Yamaha (Zakspeed), was tested by Cosworth on appropriately converted DFZ-DFR blocks but deemed unnecessary.

In 1992 the HB-V blocks appeared as customer engines at Fondmetal and Lotus; In 1993 they went to the McLaren team in the first half of the year, which they continued to develop independently together with TAG until the summer of 1993.

At the end of the season, however, Nannini achieved the first win in the series at the rainy Japanese Grand Prix with the HB II, which was used for the first time, after Ayrton Senna's disqualification, which was followed by second place in Australia.

[citation needed] In 1990 Benetton competed with three-time world champion Nelson Piquet and Alessandro Nannini, who was replaced by Roberto Moreno after an injury in a helicopter accident in the last two races.

At the US Grand Prix , Pierluigi Martini (Minardi), Andrea de Cesaris ( BMS Scuderia Italia ) and Jean Alesi (Tyrrell) qualified ahead of Piquet in the fastest Benetton.

[citation needed] In December 1990, Cosworth decided to continue the customer engine program with the HB, which was initially supposed to come to an end with the discontinuation of the DFR.

While Benetton used the HB-V versions, Jordan ran the HB-IV engines dating back to the previous year in the 191 throughout the season.

Bertrand Gachot started in the second car, and was initially replaced by debutant Michael Schumacher after being sentenced to prison in late summer.

In 1993, Lotus used the previous year's chassis, which had been further developed into the 107B, which was equipped with reactive wheel suspension and, from the summer of 1993, also with anti-slip control.

Over the course of the year, Lotus fell into arrears with the lease payments for the engines; at the end of 1994, when the team went bankrupt, they were still among the open claims.

In October 1992, when asked by a journalist about the future engine partner, Ron Dennis replied: "It would be inappropriate to share this information with you".

Admittedly, McLaren developed the electronics of the HB engines independently together with their technology partner TAG, so that the difference in performance was "blurred".

The European Grand Prix at Donington Park, which is one of the "ten best races in Formula 1", is considered historic, mainly because of Senna's outstanding overtaking maneuver on the first lap.

In the first races of the year, Minardi was surprisingly successful with the technically very simple M193 designed by Gustav Brunner; good results were mostly achieved in difficult weather conditions.

At the rainy season opener on the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, Christian Fittipaldi finished fourth and secured three valuable championship points for the team.

Half of the company's shares were acquired by a consortium led by Giuseppe "Beppe" Lucchini, whose Formula 1 team BMS Scuderia Italia had stopped operating at the end of 1993.

Although Minardi's agreement with TWR for the supply of HB-III engines also extended to 1994, with the financial support of Lucchini, Minardi managed to conclude a contract directly with Cosworth, so that on the one hand the detour via TWR and on the other hand the team became superfluous Gained access to HB-VII and HB-VIII engines; the latter was from the German Grand Prix in action.

Regardless of the significantly more powerful engine compared to the HB III, Minardi in 1994 was unable to match the performance of the previous year.

In late autumn 1994, Walkinshaw persuaded Minardi to abandon the Mugen engines with the threat of enforcement measures for unpaid bills from the 1993 season.

[citation needed] The Arrows team, which has been running under the name Footwork since 1991, had used ten-cylinder Mugen engines in 1992 and 1993, which could be traced back to Honda designs.

HB VI is usually mentioned in the registration lists; On the other hand, some sources assume that Simtek actually used the older but cheaper HB-IV versions without valve pneumatics for financial reasons.

The team continued the season with inexperienced backup pilots Jean-Marc Gounon, Domenico Schiattarella, and Taki Inoue.

He qualified for every race and in the second half of the season was repeatedly able to assert himself against the drivers of the established Larrousse team, who drove with younger and more powerful HB engines.