1990 Formula One World Championship


The 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 44th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 11 March and ended on 4 November. Ayrton Senna won the Drivers' Championship for the second time, and McLaren-Honda won their third consecutive Constructors' Championship.
The championship featured a dramatic battle between Senna and former teammate Alain Prost, who had made the switch to Ferrari. Prost mounted Ferrari's first title challenge for several years, and led the championship after three consecutive mid-season wins. Senna fought back strongly and went into the penultimate round at the Suzuka circuit in Japan with a nine-point lead over Prost. There, Senna took pole position only for Prost to beat him off the line; the Brazilian driver then drove into the Frenchman at the first corner, putting both out and thus settling the championship in Senna's favour. This was the second year in succession that the two drivers had collided at Suzuka. Senna admitted the following year that the collision was deliberate, as he was furious that Prost had been able to start on the clean side of the grid and had decided that he was not going to allow the Frenchman to 'make the corner' should he lose the start. Significantly, 1990 would be the last season in which drivers would be able drop their worst scores from their official championship points score as from the following season all of a driver's results across the championship season would count towards the official classification in the drivers' championship.

Drivers and constructors

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Team changes

  • The teams Rial and Zakspeed left Formula One after the season.
  • March's main sponsor Leyton House completed their takeover of the team and officially registered as a new constructor.
  • Life entered the sport, trying to market their unconventional W12 engine.
  • Lotus took on Lamborghini as their engine supplier.
  • Coloni struck a deal with Subaru and sold 51% of its shares to the Japanese car manufacturer.

    Mid-season changes

  • Faced with disappointing results in the first six races of the year, highly regarded designer Adrian Newey was fired from the Leyton House team.
  • The Subaru flat-12 engine supplied to Coloni was not producing more than and the chassis was overweight by some. Good results stayed away and Subaru withdrew their ownership. By the German Grand Prix, Coloni had arranged a supply of Ford-Cosworth engines.
  • The Life W12 engine was equally unsuccessful and the team switched to a Judd V8 engine before the Portuguese Grand Prix.
  • Onyx folded after ten races, and EuroBrun and Life after fourteen of the sixteen races.

    Driver changes

  • Nine drivers had left the grid, compared to the last race of the season, amongst them were Eddie Cheever, embarking on a successful career in IndyCar racing, and René Arnoux, who retired.
  • Alain Prost moved to Ferrari as a result of his stressful rivalry with his teammate Ayrton Senna and an overall unhappy year at McLaren, despite winning the 1989 championship. Gerhard Berger moved to McLaren to complete the switch.
  • Triple world champion Nelson Piquet moved away from Lotus, having endured two disappointing seasons and getting the news of the new Lamborghini supply contract. Piquet's contract turned out to be incentive-based: he would be paid US$100,000 for every point scored, though he was also paid a season retainer. The other Lotus driver, Satoru Nakajima, moved to Tyrrell over the winter, replacing Jonathan Palmer, who was signed as McLaren's test driver. Lotus attracted Derek Warwick from Arrows and promoted their test driver Martin Donnelly.
  • Three drivers made their debuts at the start of the season: Paolo Barilla at Minardi, Claudio Langes at EuroBrun and Gary Brabham at Life. Gianni Morbidelli became the fourth when he was needed as a stand-in.
Another eight driver switches had happened over the winter, within the lower-ranking teams.

Mid-season changes

Calendar change

The United States Grand Prix was moved from June to March to become the first round.
The Brazilian Grand Prix was returned to the Interlagos Circuit for the first time since 1980, with a shorter track layout after a major renovation of the facility.
The Canadian Grand Prix was moved to be before the Mexican Grand Prix.

Regulation changes

Three regulation changes occurred before the 1990 season, all from the aspect of driver safety:

Technical regulations

  • Larger rear-view mirrors
  • Quick-release steering wheel mandatory

    Sporting and event regulations

  • All marshals and medical staff must practice driver extrication exercises.

    Season report

Race 1: USA

The first race of the year was held on an angular street circuit in Phoenix, Arizona, USA; the race became the season opener so it could be held in cooler and much more pleasant weather, avoiding the degree heat that made conditions very difficult at the previous race in Phoenix, which took place in June 1989. Unexpected rain in qualifying led to a grid with Gerhard Berger on pole position with Pierluigi Martini second in the Minardi, Andrea de Cesaris third in the Dallara, Jean Alesi fourth in the Tyrrell, Ayrton Senna down in fifth and Nelson Piquet sixth. Alesi took the lead at the start ahead of Berger, de Cesaris, Senna, Martini and Piquet.
Alesi pulled away and Berger was dropping back Senna passed de Cesaris. Berger hit a wall on lap 9 forcing him to pit. He charged back but later retired with clutch problems. Alesi was 8.2 seconds ahead but Senna started to reel him in. Senna attacked on lap 34 but Alesi defended and kept the lead. Senna overtook Alesi one lap later and pulled away to win. Both Ferraris retired with Alain Prost retiring on lap 21 with an oil leak and Nigel Mansell on lap 49 with clutch problems. After that, Thierry Boutsen passed Piquet to take third with Stefano Modena's Brabham and Satoru Nakajima's Tyrrell getting the final points.

Race 2: Brazil

The Brazilian Grand Prix had returned to the Interlagos Autodrome in São Paulo for the first time since 1980, having been at the Jacarepagua Riocentro Autodrome in Rio de Janeiro for 9 previous seasons consecutively, and 1978. The circuit had been shortened from 4.9 mi to 2.6 mi.
During qualifying, Senna and Berger were 1–2 with Boutsen and Patrese 3–4 and the Ferraris of Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost behind them. At the start, Senna led Berger, Boutsen, Prost, Patrese and Mansell. Boutsen passed Berger early on but could not keep up with Senna.
At the stops, Boutsen ran into a tyre and had to change his nose cone, dropping back to 11th and some good work from the Ferrari crew got Prost ahead of Berger and Mansell ahead of Patrese. Senna was ahead of Prost, Berger, Mansell, Patrese and Alesi. Senna, 10 seconds ahead of everybody hit the backmarker, former teammate Nakajima, forcing him to pit and drop back to third. With just a few laps to go, Patrese retired with a broken oil cooler. Prost won from Berger, Senna, Mansell, the recovering Boutsen and Piquet.

Race 3: San Marino

There was a six-week gap before the San Marino round, at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near Bologna in Italy; a number of changes were made to most of the cars during this period. An almost identical grid to Brazil saw Senna, Berger, Patrese, Boutsen, Mansell and Prost line up after qualifying. At the start, Senna and Berger got away well but Boutsen sliced ahead of Patrese to take third with Mansell and Prost behind. Boutsen passed Berger on lap 2. On the next lap, a stone sliced through Senna's wheelrim, spinning him into a sand trap and out of the race. Boutsen pulled away from Berger but his engine blew on lap 18.
Soon Mansell passed Patrese and then attacked Berger. Berger closed the door and Mansell spun without hitting anything nor losing a place. He set off after Berger again but retired with engine problems. At the second stops, Nannini got ahead of Prost. Patrese closed in on Berger and passed him on lap 51. Patrese pulled away and won his first Grand Prix since South Africa in from Berger, Nannini, Prost, Piquet and Alesi.

Race 4: Monaco

In Monaco, Senna took pole but Prost was second with Alesi third ahead of Patrese, Berger and Boutsen. At the start, Berger collided with Prost at Mirabeau, blocking the track and stopping the race. The second start was all right and Senna led from Prost, Alesi, Berger, Patrese and Boutsen.
The race settled down and nothing changed until lap 30 when Prost retired with a battery failure. Then Mansell hit the back of Boutsen and was forced to pit and changed his front wing. Patrese's distributor failed on lap 42. Behind, Mansell was charging through the field and passed Boutsen to take fourth. But then he was sidelined with the same problem as Prost. At the front, Senna won from Alesi, Berger, Boutsen, Alex Caffi in the Arrows and Éric Bernard's Larrousse.