1988 British Grand Prix

  1988 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 8 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season
Date	10 July 1988
Official name	XLI Shell Oils British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Great Britain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.778 km (2.969 mi)
Distance	65 laps, 310.570 km (192.979 mi)
Weather	Wet and cool
Pole position
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:10.133
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd
Time	1:23.308 on lap 48
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Second	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd
Third	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford

The 1988 British Grand Prix (formally the XLI Shell Oils British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 10 July 1988 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone. It was the eighth race of the 1988 Formula One season. The 65-lap race was won by McLaren driver Ayrton Senna after he started from third position. Nigel Mansell finished second for the Williams team and Benetton driver Alessandro Nannini came in third.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Silverstone Circuit, many facilities had been added to the circuit, including a Press Centre complex, an internal ring road, debris fencing, wide screens to show live action as broadcast by the BBC, and a 600-metre long hospitality tent for corporate guests. However, the weekend was overshadowed by the death of the RAC Chief Executive Peter Hammond in a car crash on the way to the track.

Qualifying

After weeks of speculation, Nigel Mansell announced that he would race for Ferrari in the 1989 season, encouraged to go to the Italian team by a series of high speed accidents on Friday as a result of problems with Williams' reactive suspension, as well as a streak of seven consecutive retirements.

Williams were in major trouble during qualifying. With Mansell only 13th in Friday Qualifying and Riccardo Patrese 30th and seemingly set to fail to qualify, some 14 seconds from 26th place, the team's Technical Director Patrick Head made a snap decision to dump the reactive suspension until the end of the season. This they did overnight between the Friday and Saturday sessions of the event after previously telling both drivers that changing to the more conventional suspension was next to impossible without months of work. Head said in an interview on race morning that "It's a bodge frankly. We've put steel mechanical springs and dampers on. We've changed the front struts into dampers, designed some new bits and pieces which we machined up overnight. We did some new pistons for the front struts...it's a bit of a bodge as I said".

The grid had an unfamiliar look to it. The McLarens were suffering handling problems because of new bodywork introduced that was more suitable for high speed circuits coming up later in the season (the turbo snorkels were moved from on top of to inside the sidepods at an R&D cost estimated by Ron Dennis to be at more than £150,000 for what he described as nothing more than a small aerodynamic gain with no increase to Honda power). Meanwhile, the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto got the jump on everyone and occupied the front row of the grid. Berger's pole time of 1:10.133 was three seconds slower than the 1987 pole time set by Nelson Piquet. Although on pole, Berger was far from confident going into the race stating that the Ferrari's could not live with the McLarens on fuel consumption, words echoed by Alboreto. For his part Alboreto secured his first front row start since he scored pole in the opening race of the 1985 season in Brazil, it was the last time the Italian would start an F1 race from the front row. Senna and Prost qualified in 3rd and 4th place, the first time no McLaren had been on the front row of the grid since the 1987 Mexican Grand Prix and first time in 1988 that neither McLaren was on pole.

During the Friday qualifying session, Senna had two high speed spins at Stowe corner as both he and Prost searched in vain for balance with their cars' new bodywork (Prost claimed that he was not able to get to within 2 seconds of his times in testing at the circuit from a month earlier, claiming that with full tanks in testing he was easily lapping in the 1:10s). The team reverted to the cars having the turbo snorkels for the rest of the weekend which restored some of the cars' balance, but the time lost and the Ferraris with their better top end power put pole out of reach of even Senna (Berger explained that with only one real slow corner on the circuit, Silverstone suited Ferrari, which suffered from a lack of throttle response in low gears, more than any other on the calendar). Further testing at Silverstone before the next race in Germany revealed other factors and not the missing snorkels were the cause of the cars' imbalance and the McLarens did not appear with the turbo snorkels for the rest of the season.

An exceptional performance put the naturally aspirated March-Judds in 5th and 6th, in front of the turbos of Lotus and Arrows, while Mansell and Patrese qualified in 11th and 15th respectively with Patrese almost 18 seconds quicker in Saturday qualifying than he was on Friday. Despite Patrick Head describing the converted suspension as a bodge, both Williams drivers expressed their delight at their cars' new 'conventional' suspension, saying it was amazing how much more confidence they had in their cars knowing that they would now behave the same way lap after lap and not different from lap to lap and sometimes corner to corner as it was with the reactive cars.

Both Zakspeed turbos failed to qualify for the race showing the cars' lack of handling and lack of power from the team's own 4 cylinder engines with Bernd Schneider the slowest of the 30 drivers, some 7.9 seconds slower than Berger's Ferrari. His experienced team mate Piercarlo Ghinzani fared little better, being almost 6 seconds slower than the Ferrari. Also failing to make the grid were the EuroBrun of Oscar Larrauri and the Ligier of Stefan Johansson who, as usual, complained of very little grip from his JS31 (upon hearing Maurício Gugelmin tell of being able to take Club corner flat in top gear in his March 881, Johansson told it wasn't like that in the Ligier, adding that even in the dry it took a wet weather technique to drive it). The Coloni of Gabriele Tarquini failed to pre-qualify, ironically with a faster time than Schneider managed in qualifying.

Race summary

The race was held in pouring rain, the first wet race since the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix. Senna made an excellent start to tail Berger and Alboreto into the first turn. Alboreto had actually beaten Berger away but with the inside line the Austrian pulled ahead through Copse. Senna was soon past the Italian and unsuccessfully challenged Berger for the lead. Prost's start was awful and he fell back to 9th place. On lap 3, Ivan Capelli dropped back with electrical trouble.

By lap 14, Maurício Gugelmin, Alessandro Nannini and Mansell were fighting for 3rd place. One lap later, Senna finally took the lead under the Bridge chicane, overtaking Berger and lapping Prost, who was running very slowly, at the same time. Using his skill in wet conditions, Senna managed to pull away and build a lead. On lap 20, Mansell passed Nannini for 4th, after which the Italian spun at Club and let Gugelmin through. Two laps later, Mansell passed Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari for 3rd, the Italian was already receiving alarming messages from his Ferrari's fuel read out. On lap 24 Prost retired claiming handling problems of his McLaren. He would cop plenty of flack from the French press who saw it as Prost giving up rather than race on with some French commentators labeling the double World Champion a "coward".

"The handling of my car was terrible from the start. Understeer here, oversteer there...I was getting into huge slides, taking huge risks, to run 15th. Why risk a big accident, maybe break a leg or something, and put myself out for the rest of the year - so I can maybe be 12th or something? Everyone does what he wants with his own car and his own life. I know maybe I lost the championship today, but I decided to stop."

Alain Prost in the McLaren pit following his retirement from the British Grand Prix.^[1]

Seeking out the wet parts of the track to cool his tyres, Mansell drove very well to set the fastest lap at an average speed of 206 km/h in difficult weather track conditions. On lap 50, he caught and passed Berger who only 20 laps before had a 50-second break on the Englishman and held 2nd place until the finish, some 23 seconds behind Senna. As he'd predicted the Austrian was suffering with a fuel deficit and was losing places rapidly. On the very last corner, he ran out of fuel and dropped from 5th down to 9th losing places to Piquet, Warwick, Cheever and Patrese in the run from the Woodcote Chicane to the finish line. The same problem happened to Alboreto, who had run out of fuel on lap 63.

Nannini, despite two further spins, claimed his first Grand Prix podium finish helping further justify Benetton's decision to sign him. Gugelmin collected his first World Championship points, and Nelson Piquet and Derek Warwick rounded out the top 6.

Nigel Mansell set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:23.308 on lap 48. This compared to the lap record of 1:09.832 he set during his 1987 win at Silverstone in dry conditions.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:10.746	1:10.133	—
2	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:10.669	1:10.332	+0.199
3	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:10.787	1:10.616	+0.483
4	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:11.550	1:10.736	+0.603
5	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:11.766	1:11.745	+1.612
6	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:13.030	1:12.006	+1.873
7	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	1:13.166	1:12.040	+1.907
8	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:13.400	1:12.737	+2.604
9	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	1:12.843	1:13.287	+2.710
10	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	1:13.192	1:12.862	+2.729
11	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd	1:14.192	1:12.865	+2.732
12	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	1:12.960	1:12.986	+2.827
13	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	1:14.247	1:12.984	+2.851
14	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	1:13.910	1:13.438	+3.305
15	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	1:31.541	1:13.677	+3.544
16	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	1:15.272	1:14.260	+4.127
17	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:16.607	1:14.451	+4.318
18	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:15.590	1:14.643	+4.510
19	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:14.732	1:14.832	+4.599
20	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	1:17.889	1:14.888	+4.755
21	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:15.779	1:14.924	+4.791
22	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	1:15.635	1:14.992	+4.859
23	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	1:16.014	1:15.004	+4.871
24	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford	1:16.249	1:15.135	+5.002
25	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	1:16.859	1:15.374	+5.241
26	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	1:16.780	1:15.527	+5.394
DNQ	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford	1:16.691	1:16.026	+5.893
DNQ	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed	1:18.359	1:16.043	+5.910
DNQ	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd	1:17.438	1:16.110	+5.977
DNQ	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed	1:19.078	1:18.010	+7.877
DNPQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	65	1:33:16.367	3	9
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd	65	+ 23.344	11	6
3	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	65	+ 51.214	8	4
4	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	65	+ 1:11.378	5	3
5	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	65	+ 1:20.835	7	2
6	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	64	+ 1 Lap	9	1
7	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	64	+ 1 Lap	13
8	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	64	+ 1 Lap	15
9	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	64	+ 1 Lap	1
10	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	64	+ 1 Lap	10
11	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	64	+ 1 Lap	21
12	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	64	+ 1 Lap	20
13	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	63	+ 2 Laps	23
14	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	63	+ 2 Laps	22
15	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	63	+ 2 Laps	19
16	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford	63	+ 2 Laps	24
17	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	62	Out of Fuel	2
18	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	62	+ 3 Laps	25
19	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	60	Out of Fuel	26
Ret	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	38	Transmission	12
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	34	Alternator	6
Ret	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	24	Handling	4
Ret	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	14	Engine	17
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	9	Clutch	14
Ret	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	8	Broken wing	16
Ret	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	0	Suspension	18
DNQ	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford
DNQ	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed
DNQ	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd
DNQ	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed
DNPQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 54 2 Ayrton Senna 48 3 Gerhard Berger 21 4 Nelson Piquet 15 5 Michele Alboreto 13

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 102 2 Ferrari 34 3 Benetton-Ford 17 4 Lotus-Honda 16 5 Arrows-Megatron 10

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

References

1. Roebuck, Nigel (January 1989). "Grand Prix - World Formula One Championship 1988/89". 4 (1): 93.
2. "1988 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.