1989 Formula One World Championship

Drivers and constructors

• Despite being on the entry list, the FIRST team did not contest any races.
• ^† All engines were 3.5-litre displacement configuration.

  Team and driver changes

Regulation changes

Technical regulations

• In order to combat rising costs, turbocharged engines were banned at the end of, as the governing body felt them to be making the sport dangerous and expensive. However, turbocharged engines returned from the season onwards.
• The engine displacement was mandated at.
• In the interest of safety, the driver's feet must be situated behind the front axle-line. This rule had been introduced in 1988 and was mandatory for all new chassis, but any that were a carry-over from were not obliged to comply with the rule which was only made compulsory for all cars from 1989. Due to the loss of the powerful turbo engines, designers were locked in a race to make the cars as aerodynamic as possible, as such designers were introducing cockpits and front ends that were smaller and far more cramped than ever, at the expense of driver comfort. The problem was first highlighted at the opening round in Brazil, with focus on the Ross Brawn-designed Arrows cars. Both drivers, Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever, suffered severe cramping and felt that the new regulations were in fact making it more dangerous, Cheever saying that "if got sideways... simply cannot correct with the steering wheel" due to his lanky frame.

  Sporting and event regulations

• Race distances were standardised at in order to keep the races within the two-hour time limit. At slower street circuits like Monaco, the set distance could be lower. In 1989, the race distances varied from to, with the aforementioned exceptions.
• The arrival of the Onyx team, the return of Brabham, and the expansion of other teams from one car to two meant that there were now 39 drivers competing for 26 places on the starting grid. So pre-qualifying was retained from and expanded to 13 cars. The four fastest cars would be allowed into the main qualifying session, from which the 26 fastest cars would be allowed to race.
• Trackside barriers had to have a minimum height of, with the wall separating the pit lane from the start/finish straight at minimum.

  Calendar

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Brazilian Grand Prix	|1968 Season report Pre-season testing As was the tradition in Formula One in the 1980s, pre-season testing took place at the Jacarepaguá Autodrome in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Teams would travel there for 10 days in March to test and acclimatise to Rio's very hot and humid weather. The 1989 testing sessions saw several major accidents. Thierry Boutsen crashed heavily in his Williams, and later, Frenchman Philippe Streiff crashed violently at the third corner, a fast, flat out left hander called Suspiro. The AGS-Ford he was driving broke its rear suspension and he went head-on into the barriers. The impact broke the car's roll-over bar, and Streiff suffered severe back injuries and was left in a coma. He survived but was permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Race 1: Brazil The climate as the Formula One circus arrived at Jacarepaguá was one of much optimism in what many saw as a new age, with many revelling in the brutal and much more appealing sounds of the V10 and V12 engines. Brazil proved to be an excitement filled race, and dramatic too. Qualifying had a few surprises, with Riccardo Patrese, scoring his first front row start since, next to the home favourite, world champion Ayrton Senna. Williams and Renault were both surprised by the position, but both highly pleased with Thierry Boutsen qualifying fourth alongside the high powered Ferrari of Berger and in front of Prost who could only manage 5th. The race started with a bang, as Senna's hopes at a home Grand Prix victory were dashed after a clash with Berger in the first turn. 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. Senna was squeezed between Patrese and Berger, and lost the front wing of his car. Patrese got through unscathed and in the lead of his record-breaking 177th Grand Prix start whilst Berger was out on the spot while Senna was forced to pit for repairs and would finish the race two laps down in eleventh place. Double world champion Alain Prost's McLaren had been having problems all weekend with the Frenchman finding the McLaren MP4/5 hard to set up, and when his two stop strategy was ruined by a clutch failure, he knew he had to continue the race having made just one of his scheduled two pit stops on the notoriously abrasive Rio circuit. He finished second. Nigel Mansell secured a surprising win for the Scuderia, with no problems despite ongoing gearbox faults all weekend and a lack of winter testing. The final step of the podium was taken by local Maurício Gugelmin. Grand Prix debutant Johnny Herbert, Derek Warwick and Alessandro Nannini scored the remaining points. Warwick was desperately unlucky. He lost over 20 seconds in a slow pit stop and only finished 17.8 seconds behind Mansell at the finish suggesting a win or podium place had gone begging. During the awards ceremony, Mansell cut his hand open on the trophy, ending the celebration early. This was to be the last race at this fast, flat and abrasive Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro. Formula One would move to a shortened Interlagos circuit in Senna's hometown of São Paulo for the 1990 season onwards.