1988 Mclaren MP4/4 chassis #2

For some reason I want to say Arizona. Not 100% though.

 

The ultimate GP car driven by the best driver ever, and Prost.

 

+1000 isn't the car in the Marconi Museum?

 

2 LAPS from a perfect season... had Schlesser (subbing for Mansell at Williams) not taken out Senna (leading the race) 2 laps from the end of the Italian GP in 88, McLaren would have won ALL 16 races of the 1988 season.

Regardless of how you may feel towards Ferrari's arch enemy McLaren, it has to be admitted that the MP4/4 was THE most dominant chassis in F1 history...

Ferrari won 15 of 17 in 2002 and 15 of 18 in 2004. Dominant, but not as dominant as 15 of 16...

Frank

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tQCXE7DDuc

 

No idea what Pomeroy Index system is though. Maybe it has something to do with the design rules being much stricter in 2002 than in 1988, I don't know.

Mighty impressive from Mclaren and Ferrari regardless.

 

Wow...i always thought the F2004 was the fastest ever....

 

In 2002, Schumey was on the podium in every race, with only one third place...that to me is amazing....Senna in 1988 failed to podium 5 times; Prost twice. Staggering achievements.

 

The Pomeroy Index is an arcane algorithm devised by the late British Journalist Laurence Pomeroy and updated by Lenny Setright that proports to compare race cars. An interesting bit of intellectual gymnastics.

 

Allow me to preface this post by saying that information contained in it aims to show a little information that is historically accurate yet is ignored or forgotten when comparing statistics.

First of all I'll leave the crazy mathematical calculations to the pencil pushers and state that both Ferrari's and McLaren's achievements in their dominant seasons were amzing achievements in their own right and to compare them as to which was 'better' is a futile exercise.

Second in 1988 it was a season of transition as some of the cars ran turbos and some ran normally aspirated engines. This greatly fragmented the grid and left a much lower level of competition all around. McLaren that year was the perfect storm as the two best drivers, in the best car, with the best preparation dominated a poorly preppared group of teams. This was seen in lap times and qualifying when the McLarens were often over a second clear of anyone else. In fact they only had themselves to race in 1988.

Third, the dominant seasons Ferrari had (while statistically inferior) were done against better prepared teams and cars that were all being built to one set of rules. The opposition was better funded and more formidable than in 1988 making their dominance more difficult to achieve.

Lastly, while Schlesser is often cited as the villan at Monza historic FACT shows otherwise and unearths one of my favorite racing stories that reveals Prost as one of the finest tactical racing drivers the world has ever known. Save your Google searches as you will not find it. This is insider stuff that will impress even the strongest Prost hater.

If you wanna hear it let yourself be known

 

You have my complete and undivided attention.

Raptly,
Andrew.
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The true story of Monza '88 only came to be known when Ayrton Senna got to heaven. Whn he arrived, he was ushered into the presence of the Lord and they had a nice chat. Eventually Senna asked."Lord, I am thankful for all you did, but one thing I have never understood. At Monza in '88 I asked if I should lap Schlesser, and you told me to go for it. We collided and I lost a sure victory. I'm not trying to second-guess You, Lord, but I am curious: why did you tell me to do that?" God thought for a moment, then turned to his right: "Enzo, why did we tell him to do that?"

But I'd love to hear the other version as well!

 

Please.

 

Aaron Hsu I think. Up in CT at Highcroft Racing. They had a Silk Cut Jag, Gulf McLaren F1 GTR, Fina F1 GTR, etc. Cool stuff.

Edit: Wow, pretty easy for me to double check that one, LOL! http://www.f1carstoday.net/sida/Cars/McLaren.htm

 

Really?

 

Personally I would like to believe that it was divine providence that a few months after Enzo died, Ferrari won the ONLY race that MacLaren did not at the Italian GP in Monza...
for it to happen there of all places and at that time was simply one of those things that just felt so "right"

The fact that not only a Ferrari victory, but a Ferrari 1-2 at that (Berger followed by Alboreto) was just icing on the cake!

Frank

 

Well i'm game as well...

 

It was the competitions' fault that they chose to transition to naturally aspirated engines a year early... besides, the Honda engine was THE dominant engine in 86 and 87 and absolutely the one to have. The decision was made to limit the fuel tank to 150 liters so that the turbos would have to go into fuel conservation mode compared to previous years. This is why so many teams went over to naturally aspirated engines without the fuel limit. Also the turbos power was slashed from a maximum of 4.5 bar to 2.5 bar. This severely curtailed their power, but also took away a lot of the engine stress, leading to greatly increased reliability.

The net effect of this was that the teams that took the naturally aspirated route were inferior in power, and unfortunately the additional fuel that the regs allowed them increased the chassis weight so that they were even heavier than the turbos and much slower as a result. Ferrari stayed with turbos but were unable to solve the fuel efficiency problem. They were competitive in qualifying, but in the races they were forced to gradually keep turning down the boost just to finish the races. In fact at the British GP, Alboreto actually ran out of fuel and Berger went from 6th to 9th in the space of 50 yards on the last lap after running at the front and dropping back through the order as he dialed back the fuel...

As far as Monza goes, Prost was having engine problems and decided that since his engine was not going to last the race, he just cranked up the boost and blasted through his fuel until his engine let go, leaving Senna having to tiptoe throughout the rest of the race just to make his fuel last...when he came up on Schlesser at the chicane following the main straight, he had to pass him there, instead of losing time and allowing the Ferraris to catch him...rumour has it that was the story behind the story

Frank

 

Ah, not so fast there Grasshopper, apparently you are not familiar with my Google-fu:

"Appreciating the Professor" by Peter Dick.

http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/ramble5.htm

 

I suppose Frank has offered the condensed version of what happened which I have confirmed to be true by other sources including insiders at McLaren. What was not touched upon was the incredible brilliance of what Prost did in taking advantage of Senna's ego.

Early in the race Prost did sense a terminal problem with his engine so he cast the bait to Senna by turning up his boost well past a level where the fuel would last the race distance challenging Senna to keep pace with him. Senna should have known better as Prost was way too smart to go so fast early in the race but the temptation to beat him was too great. Sure enough Prost's engine expired leaving him to limp to the pits while Senna was now marginal on fuel and having to take huge chances in traffic to keep the rapidly catching Ferrari's at bay. Schlesser was very optimistically lapped by Senna resulting in an accident that left him out of the race. Had Senna been more conservative with fuel early in the race he would have had more margin later and perhaps would not have had to put himself in the position he did.

Of course Prost's strategy worked very well after the fact and it would be crazy to think he could have predicted that outcome. That said the sheer brilliance to realize your race would not bear any points and to formulate a plan to destabilize your opponent, all while racing along in the middle of a Grand Prix is truly a towering testament to Prost the racer.

Prost will never be indeared to race fans as he was never seen in lurid slides or bouncing the car of the curbs and through the grass showing an outward mastery of car control. His greatness lie in his ability to totally remove emotion from the game and focus totally on achieving the best outcome. That is why pole positions and fastest laps meant little to him as they scored no points and it is also why he rarely crashed or made mistakes.

To me both Prost and Senna were incredible in their own style and to rate one better than the other is a futile argument.

 

Well done. The internet is a big place and I guess I got a little lost. Excellent article.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Definitely worth the read.