The 1989 formula 1 season was a year with an absolutely huge field. It was a different time and era, though that year it was known that formula 1 was changing. The 1.5 litre turbo charged v6 engines were gone, replaced by 3.5 litre engines across the board in a variety of formats from V8, V10 or V12, the v12s were seen to be the most powerful but used more fuel and like now there was no refuelling. There was some new and old faces, there were returns to formula 1 for the likes of designer Mario Forghieri who designed a new Lamborghini engine for the Larrousse team.
Pirelli made a return as a tyre supplier with 7 teams running on the Italian rubber, Brabham returned after an absence in 1988 as did their new driver Martin Brundle, fresh from winning the world sports car championship. Renault also made their return as an engine supplier and would power Williams, the beginning of a hugely successful partnership.
There were no fewer than 20 teams competing in 1989, a total of 39 drivers as the Eurobrun team elected to run just one car as some did around that era to save money, The Coloni and Osella (aka Fondmetal) teams would often do the same although both teams ran two car operations for 1989.
However 39 cars starting a race would cause chaos, and with so many cars, there was some bound to be some slow coaches, it was an era which saw some pretty poor entries at times, with that a pre qualifying system was set up to eliminate some not so fast cars.
On Friday morning 13 cars would compete for 4 spots. Some cars and drivers were too good for pre qualifying, therefore 26 cars received a bye. The 26 were decided by results achieved in the previous season. New teams and teams that didn’t make the cut would compete for the 4 slots available but should they advance they would then go through qualifying proper, the other 26 cars would join the 4 pre qualifiers to make 30.
The 30 cars would then compete for the 26 slots by virtue of times in qualifying, aside from practice sessions, in short the timetable was along the lines of:
Friday morning early AM: 13 cars attempt to pre qualify, 4 fastest advance to qualifying. 9 cars and drivers would bow out and their weekend was over.
Friday am/afternoon: first qualifying session, 60 minutes to set a fast lap to make the grid. The 4 fastest pre qualifiers would join a further 26 cars to compete for 26 slots on the grid for Sunday.
Saturday afternoon: a further 60 minute qualifying session to determine the final grid slots (with the same 30 cars from Friday), the best time a driver set over the two days would determine grid positions. A further 4 cars would be cut and therefore not race on Sunday, leaving a grid of 26.
By mid-season it was often obvious if some teams were too good for pre-qualifying or if a team given a pass wasn’t really deserving of skipping the dreaded pre-qualifying, mid-way through the season the results were weighed up and the best teams with the best results on countback would not have to pre-qualify. Anyone else would! I hope you followed all that.
The numbers, teams, drivers, tyres (goodyear tyres unless stated) and engines that competed:
McLaren dominated the season using honda v10 engines, Ayrton Senna the defending world champion was joined by former world champion Alain Prost.
Tyrrell used Ford V8 Engines, Jonathan Palmer (father of Jolyon) partnered Michele Alboreto who later in the season gave way to first Jean Alesi and later, Johnny Herbert.
Williams used Renault v10 engines for drivers Thierry Boutsen and Ricciardo Patrese.
Brabham returned to Formula 1 after failing to get an engine deal in 1988, the team used Judd v8 engines and were one of the teams using Pirelli tyres. The drivers were Martin Brundle and Stefano Modena.
Arrows with designer Ross Brawn retained the line up of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever (although Martin Donnelly did drive in one race when Warwick was injured). The team used Ford v8 engines.
Lotus lost their honda engine and had to make do with Judd v8s for triple world champion Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima, both of whom had sons who drove in Formula 1 in later years.
March had a promising 1988 and continued with Judd v8s and the driver line up of Mauricio Gugelmin and Ivan Capelli.
Osella continued to struggle, another Pirelli runner using Ford v8s with Nicola Larini partnering Piercarlo Ghinzani.
The promising Benetton outfit retained Ford v8 engines (the works version with everyone else having a more dated version) and also kept hold of the talented Alessandro Nannini. Johnny Herbert started the season in the other car but injuries meant he couldn’t compete at 100% so Emanuele Pirro took over for the last 10 races.
Scuderia Italia were better known as Dallara as the Dallara company built their cars, they were another user of Pirelli tyres and Ford v8 engines and their drivers were the Italian duo of Alex Caffi and Andrea De Cesaris.
Everyone’s favourite backmarker Minardi also used Pirellis and Ford v8s, Pierluigi Martini and Luis Perez Sala were the drivers although Paulo Barilla did drive in one race when Martini was injured.
Ligier using their 4th engine in 4 years were another Ford engine user with the all French line up of 41 year old Rene Arnoux and Oliver Grouillard.
Ferrari using their own v12 engines had an exciting driver line up of Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger.
The Larrousse team used the new Lamborghini v12 engine, Yannick Dalmas started the season in the first car although Eric Bernard and Michele Alboreto later drove that car while the other car contained Frenchman Phillippe Alliot who did the whole season.
The underfunded Coloni team used Pirelli tyres and Ford engines, Roberto Moreno was in the first car all season initially partnered by Pierre Henri Raphanel although Enrico Bertaggia replaced him after round 10.
Eurobrun used Pirelli tyres and Judd v8s, but opted to run just one car all season, Gregor Foitek drove the hopeless device for 11 rounds but was then replaced by Oscar Larrauri.
Zakspeed barely raced all season, powered by a gutless v8 Yamaha engine and on Pirelli tyres, the unfortunate drivers were Bernd Schneider and Aguri Suzuki.
Onyx were new to formula 1, the ford engined cars were piloted by Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot, JJ Lehto replaced Gachot for the last 4 races.
Backmarkers Rial used 5 drivers during the season. Christian Danner and Volker Weidler raced together for 10 rounds, Weidler was replaced by Pierre Henri Raphanel for the final 6 rounds while Foitek replaced Danner for one race. In the final two rounds of the season Bertrand Gachot took over. They were another ford user.
AGS were the last team, another ford user who were dealt a tragic blow on the eve of the season as driver Philippe Strieff was paralysed in testing, Gabriele Tarquini replaced him for the season, the other car was initially driven by Joachim Winkelhock but Yannick Dalmas took over from round 8 on.
