Probably every other story that you will read today on September 11 will be about the terrorist attacks in the United States but not here. I can not write anything sensible that would do that event justice.
However, on this blog, today on September 11, I will tell the story of the greatest motor race in the history of Grand Prix racing.
The 1987 Formula One season was supposed to be the last run to the old turbocharged regulations. Race teams like Benetton were chucking out 1750 horsepower in qualifying sessions, out of engines designed to last 3 laps. This was clearly unsustainable. For 1987, the engines were pared back to 4 bar boost and engines still ran in the mid 700 horsepower range and when 1988 came around the engine manufacturers still weren't ready and so as a concession they were still allowed to run turbocharged engines but they were pulled even further back to 2.5 bar boost.
In 1988, Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari, Zakspeed, Arrows, and Osella all continued to run turbocharged engines until they were finally outlawed for 1989. As an aside, the chassis code for the Osella was FA1L... which bade well for them.
The 1988 season was almost a complete walkover for the McLaren team. Their Honda engines were simply miles better than anyone else's and their two drivers Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were at the top of their powers and made use of the equipment.
Between them, Senna and Prost would win 15 of 16 races in the 1988 season; which is almost total dominance. Almost...
The 1988 Italian Grand Prix started as most others would; with a McLaren lockout of the front row. The two McLarens shot off into the distance; with daylight third.
The Autodromo di Monza is different to most other circuts in that for most of the time, cars are driven at full throttle. That tends to have the side effect of occasionally breaking engines as they find their failure points.
Alex Caffi's Zakspeed would decide to become a teapot and expire in a cloud of steam. Reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet would park his Camel Lotus backwards in the gravel trap at Rettifilo. Derek Warwick in the turbocharged Arrows squared against Thierry Boutsen's Williams and Ivan Capello's March, for 6th place and 1 lonely world championship point as though they were playing for all of the marbles.
Meanwhile, Prost and Senna were out front trading fastest lap after fastest as the fuel loads came down. This could not last forever while they were running at top speeds of 331km/h. Something was bound to give. Alain Prost found the failure point of his Honda engine on lap 35.
Senna didn't find the absolute limit of the engine but he did find the limits of the race track.
On lap 49 of 51, Senna attempted to put a lap on Jean-Louis Schlesser who was driving a Williams and not only spun his McLaren trying to avoid the obviously shower Williams but beached the McLaren coming out of the Rettifilo.
Schlesser would have slid into the gravel but given his excellent car control, and bumped his Williams into the rear of the McLaren; thus breaking the McLaren's rear suspension and putting Senna out of the race.
With Senna out of the race, the two Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto who had been driving a quiet race and who'd expected to finish 3rd and 4th, suddenly found themselves in 1st and 2nd and that's where they'd stay.
While the McLaren team might have won 11 races in a row and won the next 4, Ferrari won the Italian Grand Prix and did it with a form 1-2 finish.
After the race, the Tifosi went nuts. The front straight became a sea of scarletti. Prime Minister Ciriaco De Mita would declare the Monday to be a public holiday.
For Ferrari, this was a doubly emotional victory as only four weeks earlier, founder Enzo Ferrari had died.
As far as national sporting teams go, Italy basically only has two that anyone cares about - di Azzurri and Scuderia Ferrari. Ferrari winning the Italian Grand Prix 1-2 may as well have been like winning the football World Cup. For Ferrari to win that race in particular and break McLaren's perfect streak was something else. I still think to this day that there hasn't been a single greater outpouring of joy by a nation, over a motor race.
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