1988 Belgian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results
Event: Belgian Grand Prix
Track: Spa-Francorchamps Circuit
Weather: cool, overcast, dry
Ayrton Senna won his 13th F1 World Championship race at the 1988 Belgian F1 GP. The McLaren driver started from pole and won on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the first time. It was also his 7th win of the season and the 66th win for the McLaren F1 team.
Enzo Ferrari, 14 August 1988
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari died at his Modena home on Sunday 14 August 1988 at the age of 90. The death was kept secret by Fiat through the entire day; his funeral took place that afternoon at the San Cataldo cemetery in the strictest privacy, attended by fewer than fifteen people. Marco Piccinini announced the news to the world the following morning at precisely 11.59. Formula 1 returned at Spa-Francorchamps a fortnight later to find the Scuderia in mourning, Piccinini's position effectively terminal (Cesare Fiorio would replace him for 1989), and John Barnard installed as technical authority working through a restructured Ferrari that was already being planned around 1989's V12 atmospheric engine. Renaud de Laborderie wrote that Ferrari "was motor racing in its splendour and its sometimes-dangerous fascination", the deus ex machina who had quietly resolved the FISA-FOCA war in 1981, the father figure who had built a personal mythology around a workplace recluse, a man whose final years had been shadowed by the death of his son Dino and the killing of Gilles Villeneuve. The cheval cabré would continue. Its founder would not.
The off-track story around the race was Mansell's absence: chicken-pox-recuperating in Texas by some accounts, jaundice by others. Frank Williams briefly published the Lloyd's insurance medical to silence speculation. Martin Brundle, just signed as Williams's 1989 test driver, took Mansell's seat. Frank Dernie had finally written to Ligier requesting his contractual notice be served from 12 August to 12 February 1989, the British understatement coming exactly when Ligier needed him at Magny-Cours; he had taken a Lotus offer to replace Ducarouge. Both Michel Tetu and Dernie had left Ligier in the same fortnight, leaving the Bleus without a technical director for 1989.
The 25th pole, Berger's electronic failure
Senna took the 25th pole position of his career in Friday's wet-dry qualifying, moving him ahead of Lauda and Piquet on the all-time list. Prost was second, four tenths back. Berger and Alboreto sat third and fourth for Ferrari, both having had to replace pop-off valves over the weekend. Patrese qualified fifth for Williams-Judd in a chassis that had not been competitive in months. Saturday's torrential rain washed out any improvements; Senna's Friday lap stood.
Sunday opened cool and dry. Senna's start was poor, the McLaren spun its wheels on the dusty side of the grid and Prost squeezed past around the outside of La Source. A lap later, Senna drafted past at Kemmel and was through into Les Combes for a lead he would not surrender. Berger held third for three laps before a Marelli-Weber electronic management failure rendered the Ferrari V6 inoperable; he pitted, restarted, then retired definitively on lap fifteen. Alboreto inherited third for the Scuderia ahead of Boutsen and Nannini. The Williams pair was nowhere, Patrese tangling with traffic, Brundle in the substitute Williams running in the midfield.
Senna pulls away, Prost backs off, Capelli's podium
Prost spent the opening twelve laps holding station within six seconds of Senna, but his McLaren, set up with deliberately reduced front downforce to save fuel, slid wildly through the slow corners as the tyres degraded. By lap fifteen he had lost five seconds; by lap twenty-five he was conceding two seconds a lap, having decided to drive for a comfortable second rather than risk pushing further. Alboreto's Ferrari surrendered to a broken engine on lap thirty-five, the V6 trailing smoke from the Combes; Boutsen inherited third, with Nannini fourth.
The most exciting story behind the McLarens was Ivan Capelli's. The March-Judd was without a clutch by lap twenty-five (Gugelmin's already retired by then) but Capelli drove around the problem with a series of opportunistic outside-line passes, on Patrese at the Fagnes, on Cheever at the Bus Stop. By lap thirty he had taken sixth from Piquet's Lotus and was running fifth ahead of Warwick. He took Piquet again on lap forty-one for what would eventually become the team's first ever F1 podium after the Benettons' post-race fuel-octane disqualification.
Senna crossed the line 30 seconds ahead for his seventh win of the season and the 13th of his career, McLaren-Honda's 11th consecutive grand prix victory of 1988, and the win that clinched the constructors' championship by 103 points over Ferrari. Prost took second; Boutsen and Nannini brought the Benetton-Fords home third and fourth on the road, but post-race fuel sampling revealed an octane reading above the 102 RON limit. Both cars were disqualified by the FISA World Council in December; the team was fined $250,000. Capelli's eventual third was the March team's first F1 podium. Piquet inherited fourth, Warwick fifth on the surviving Arrows-Megatron, Cheever sixth.
Prost concedes
The post-race quotation that defined the rest of the year came from Prost himself. "Senna really deserves the title this year. For me, the carrots are cooked. I don't see myself winning four races from here to the end of the season." It was a candid summary of where the season stood: seven wins to Senna, four to Prost, two races already lost on circuits the Frenchman had judged he could not win at, the championship's tiebreaker (wins, not points, deciding the title under the eleven-best system) firmly favouring the Brazilian. Senna refused to accept the concession. "It's not easy to beat Alain. You have to be under pressure all the time and effective. This race was probably less difficult than Budapest." With five rounds left, Senna led on wins; both drivers were level on 73 points. The 1988 championship was now formally in Senna's grasp, but five races away from being officially his.
Classification 1988 Belgian F1 GP
Fastest lap: 2:00.772 min by Gerhard Berger (Ferrari F1/87-88C) in lap 10
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