Miracle at Monza - 1988 review - good article

Can't believe this was 25 years ago; good article....

RETRO: Miracle at Monza - Racer.com

 

Funny, Motorsport Magazine has the report of the same race on its Internet-site as well....

Rgds

 

It was a pathetic race, but emotional that Ferrari had just died, and they won the race.... that car was not the best and the whole team was up in arms becuase of Enzo's last re orginization that took out Piero, Forgiheri, etc.... they had Barnard in there, Brunner, etc... all these designers and nobody to actually do the work. I missed that race I was supposed to go, but could not get out of school with enough time so decided to say in the USA. Pity.

 

Hmmm an economy run with fuel restricted turbo engines...hopefully that's not where we're headed from 2014+

Fantastic result. I am sure Schlesser is a friend of the Tifosi forever. I love that Ronny is still mad about it!

 

Ron Dennis actually lost a bet that he had made that day with no other than Bernie, that the two McLaren would wipe all the season's victories clean.
So his pride was hurt by that one that got away, but his wallet too; besides,giving money to Bernie Ecclestone must be quite painfull...

Rgds

 

"Reacting to Prost's failure – a burned piston – which was due to the lean fuel mixture Honda was running to try and eke out its mileage"

Yup that was probably the case in many failures during the turbo era. Go back to Imola in 85 when the lead changed constantly in the closing laps as everyone ran out of gas. And as good as 86 and 87 were, those seasons would have been even better had they not been hampered by constantly tightening fuel supplies.

So will they continue with a pointless restriction on fuel in this new turbo era?

And something I have not seen discussed yet, what will Ferrari be able to do this time around? They had no luck in the engine dept. in the 1st turbo era.

 

I watched and recorded the race live, good times.

 

The had one of if not THE most powerful engine back in those days from what I've read.

 

Correct, just very thirsty. The F1-87 and F1-87/88C had lots of potential...the dumb fuel restrictions killed it for them though.

 

I don't what you are reading but here is what I remember from watching every single race from mid 83 on live or as broadcast at the time. Without question, easily, the MOST powerful was the BMW inline 4, it's legendary, especially in qualifying. Next was the Renault V6 moreso in qualifying and then losing reliability as the race went on. Honda next. Then Ferrari was probably next for peak power, but it flat out stunk. The TAG turbo was not very powerful in qualifying but had quite enough for the race and was far superior to everything else for reliability and durability, hence the domination.

On the Ferrari engine, my very first view of F1 was crossing the track on a pedestrian bridge as Rene Arnoux drove right underneath in the Ferrari 1984. In 85, Michele pulled right in front of me with the engine on fire, have pics of it. Michele was so tired of the engine trouble that he drove the car on fire into the pits while standing up at Brands Hatch, to make a point! He was not unaware just fed up.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWpZw2h4-jQ]Ferrari on FIRE!! - Brands Hatch '85 [HQ] - YouTube[/ame]

 

You are talking about earlier cars though. By '87/'88 Ferrari had the highest trap speeds of all cars...

 

It was not until september of 87 that Ferrari with Gerhard driving started to improve and by this time boost was severely limited along with fuel, so being good/powerful when everyone was handicapped ain't really saying much.

See the results, fastest laps and poles here ;

1987 Formula One season - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1988 Formula One season - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Also trap speeds not only speak to power but especially down force and drag. In 87, as mentioned here before, it was the Mclarens that were fastest entering the Bosch curve at over 220 mph. Fastest while turning says something. They were getting rspectable but I don't think I would give the engine credit, I think it was the rest of the car improving.

Hey at least the Ferrari's looked good then and they did sound good.

 

HP in the 80's was kind of a useless comparison after 1984.

BMW - Megatron ... 1400 BHP quali trim in 83-84
Ferrari -1200-1300 hp quali trim
TAG Porsche 1100-1250
Renault 1000-1300 quali trim - huge fuel consumption
Motori Moderni - 900-1100
Alfa Romeo - 1200-1350
Zackspeed - 950-1200
Ford - 1200-1300
Honda - 1200 - 1400
Some engines could go up to 1600 BHP, but did not last long. BMW

 

Yep.

Honestly, if you think Ferrari is going to get left behind on the engine front with the new turbos, you have no idea. Ferrari's engine department is second to none.

 

F1 1988 Senna Mclaren Crash Italy GP Monza Schlesser Replays Fin.wmv - YouTube

 

Saw it live (TV).

 

Same here; ESPN I think....

 

Well, I think we do have an idea - they had strong engines in he 80's but that really did not matter much. Back then they either blew apart - 81-85 or from 86 - 88 they used to much fuel... they had to use the stupid emulsi system because they could not cool the incoming air charge ....