A pivotal point in the team’s journey from the midfield to title-winning greatness
No. 121 WORDS STUART CODLING PICTURES JAMES MANN
NOW THAT WAS A CAR
McLaren’s almost absolute dominance of the 1988 Formula 1 season had many consequences, some almost unseen. In Italy it fertilised seeds of doubt over Ferrari’s decision to poach John Barnard from McLaren and indulge his requirements of setting up a design facility near Godalming so he could drive home for lunch. After all, il Mago (‘the magician’) had yet to deliver a win for Maranello, besides the inherited one at Monza, while McLaren seemed to be getting along perfectly well without him.
Elsewhere in that country the wealthy Benetton dynasty were also musing over the wisdom of their Formula 1 investments. The family-owned knitwear company had entered F1 as a sponsor before acquiring the struggling Toleman team at the end of 1985. Progress seemed rapid at first – from the low bar of having to acquire the assets of the defunct Spirit team just to put tyres on the cars at the beginning of that season. Toleman had high-calibre engineers, including Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds, and wanted only for resource; the ’85 car was its first carbon monocoque to be built in-house.
With a new name above the door – Benetton Formula – and powerful but lag-prone BMWs replacing the Hart turbos, the team claimed its first victory in 1986 as Gerhard Berger beat Alain Prost by 25s in Mexico (helped by the Pirelli tyres’ greater durability than Goodyear’s there). But the returns were slimmer in subsequent seasons as Byrne found himself having to design around a different engine every year. BMW slimmed down to a one-team supply – Brabham – and then withdrew, leaving Benetton to take on Ford’s late and unsuccessful GBA turbo in 1987 and then the naturally aspirated DFR in ’88. Despite the disadvantage of running the elderly V8, Alessandro Nannini and Thierry Boutsen notched up seven podiums and elevated Benetton to third in the constructors’ championship.
Change was brewing, though, as the Benetton family grew impatient with progress under the leadership of former journalist and Williams team manager Peter Collins. In January 1989 Luciano Benetton appointed maverick marketing man Flavio Briatore as the team’s commercial manager. Briatore, who confessed to having no knowledge whatsoever of F1 or its history, had a colourful background: a former ski instructor, he had developed a knack of ingratiating himself with high-net-worth clientele. After narrowly escaping a jail sentence as part of his association with businessman Attilio Dutto and his bankr
