1991 Formula One season

F1 season
Previous = 1990
Current = 1991
Next = 1992The 1991 Formula One season was the 42nd FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on March 10, 1991, and ended on November 3 after sixteen races.

eason summary

The season started off in Phoenix where Ayrton Senna took pole ahead of Alain Prost, Riccardo Patrese, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Jean Alesi. At the start, Senna and Prost maintained their places while Mansell sliced ahead of Patrese and Piquet lost out to Alesi and Gerhard Berger. The order at the end of lap 1 was: Senna, Prost, Mansell, Patrese, Alesi and Berger. Early on, as Senna was pulling away from Prost, Alesi got past Patrese for fourth. However, Patrese repassed him on lap 16 and closed up on Mansell. He attack on lap 22 but shot into an escape road and rejoined behind Alesi and Berger. He quickly closed up on them with Berger attacking Alesi but unable to pass. Patrese passed Berger on lap 34. On the next lap, Mansell's gearbox failed and soon afterwards, on lap 36, Berger had fuel pump trouble, which forced him to retire. Patrese then passed Alesi who pitted on lap 43. He closed in on Prost and the Ferrari pitted on lap 46, with right rear troubles putting him down to seventh. Patrese didn't last longer, his gearbox failing and then being hit by Roberto Moreno forcing both of them out. Piquet who did not stop was passed by Alesi for second with Prost taking fourth off Stefano Modena soon after. Alesi was having gearbox troubles and was holding back Piquet as Prost began to attack both of them. On lap 70, Piquet passed Alesi and Prost followed him through. Prost then shifted sides getting ahead of Piquet as well. Modena passed Alesi for fourth and Alesi soon retired with gearbox troubles. Unflustered by all this, Senna won from Prost, Piquet, Modena, Satoru Nakajima and Aguri Suzuki.

The field went to Brazil and Senna pleased his fans by taking pole ahead of the two Williams' of Patrese and Mansell who were in front of Berger, Alesi and Prost. At the start, Senna took off and Mansell got by Patrese while Alesi got by Berger and Piquet got ahead of Prost. The order was: Senna, Mansell, Patrese, Alesi, Berger and Piquet. Mansell began to attack Senna but could not pass. Senna then slowly pulled away from Mansell who had a slow stop on lap 22. He stayed second after the stops but 7 seconds behind Senna, the major change in the stops was that Piquet who did not stop was third and that Berger and Prost had got by Alesi. Berger blasted past Piquet soon afterwards as Mansell began to catch Senna. Mansell was closing in but had to stop on lap 50 with a puncture. He charged back towards Senna who was having gearbox troubles. However, it was his gearbox which ironically gave way first on lap 60. Patrese was having the same problem but still running in second and Berger was having a sticking throttle. It began to rain and Prost passed Piquet for fourth. The top three struggled on these conditions, Senna winning from Patrese, Berger, Prost, Piquet and Alesi.

In San Marino now and Senna took his 55th pole position ahead of Patrese, Prost, Mansell, Berger and Modena. It rained as they were approaching the start and Prost spun off on the parade lap and was out. At the start, Patrese got ahead of Senna while Mansell had a poor start and retired after being hit by Martin Brundle. The order was: Patrese, Senna, Berger, Modena, Alesi and Nakajima. Patrese pulled away but pitted on lap 10 with a misfire and rejoined several laps down. On lap 16, Nakajima retired from fourth with transmission failure. After the stops, Senna stayed ahead of Berger while Moreno and got fourth from Pierluigi Martini. Soon afterwards JJ Lehto passed Martini to take fifth. At the front, the gap between Senna and Berger was stable. Modena retired on lap 42 with transmission troubles, promoting Moreno to third which he held only for eight laps when Lehto passed him. On lap 52, Moreno retired with an engine failure. At the front, Senna won ahead of Berger, Lehto, Martini, Mika Häkkinen and Julian Bailey.

Senna took another pole in Monaco with Modena a surprising second ahead of Patrese, Piquet, Mansell and Berger. At the start, Berger hit Piquet and Piquet was out while Berger dropped to the back. The order was: Senna, Modena, Patrese, Mansell, Prost and Moreno. With overtaking hard, there were no changes until Prost got past Mansell on lap 30. By now, Senna was over 10 seconds ahead of Modena, who was holding up Patrese. Soon afterwards, Alesi passed Moreno for fourth and pulled away. On lap 43, Modena's engine blew in the tunnel and this blocked Patrese, who spun off into the wall and both were out. Mansell was pressurizing Prost, who had troubles with a loose wheel made a daring move up the chicane on lap 63 to take second. Soon afterwards, Prost was forced to stop to change the wheel and dropped down to fifth. Senna took his fourth win in four ahead of Mansell, Alesi, Moreno, Prost and Emanuele Pirro.

In Canada and the Williamses were 1-2 in qualifying, Patrese on pole ahead of Mansell, Senna, Prost, Moreno and Berger. At the start, Mansell got ahead of Patrese while Berger slipped past Moreno. It was Mansell leading from Patrese, Senna, Prost, Berger and Moreno. On lap 5, Berger retired with battery troubles but Moreno could take fifth only for 5 more laps before he spun off into retirement. Mansell and Patrese were pulling away from Senna while there was a battle for fourth between Prost, Alesi and Piquet. On lap 26, Senna retired with alternator troubles and two laps later Prost was out with a failed gearbox. Alesi was third but on lap 35, his engine expired. This put Mansell in front of Patrese, Piquet, Modena, Andrea de Cesaris and Ivan Capelli. Patrese had to pit with a puncture and rejoined behind Piquet. He then had gearbox troubles and was passed by Modena as Capelli spun off. On the last lap, Mansell who was waving to the crowd let his revs too low and stalled the engine. This left a delighted Piquet to win ahead of Modena, Patrese, de Cesaris, Bertrand Gachot and Mansell who was classified sixth.

The Williamses took 1-2 in qualifying in Mexico with Patrese ahead of Mansell, Senna, Alesi, Berger and Piquet. At the start, Patrese was poor and lost three places while Alesi dived ahead of Senna. The order was: Mansell, Alesi, Senna, Patrese, Berger and Piquet. There was action as Senna passed Alesi with Patrese following him through and then Modena getting by Piquet. Berger's engine failed on lap 6 and soon afterwards Patrese passed Senna and set off after Mansell. Modena then began to drop back. Patrese passed Mansell and then both Senna and Alesi had a go at the Englishman with Alesi spinning and dropping back to seventh. Patrese then began to pull away from Mansell who was holding up Senna. Meanwhile Alesi passed Moreno and then de Cesaris as Mansell pulled away from Senna. He closed the gap to Patrese to 1.2 seconds before Patrese increased his pace and made the gap stable. Alesi's clutch failed on lap 43 and Piquet had wheel bearing troubles two laps later and thus Gachot was fifth. He held it until he spun off on lap 52. At the front, Patrese won with Mansell making it a Williams 1-2 ahead of Senna, de Cesaris, Moreno and Eric Bernard.

Now France in the new Magny-Cours circuit and Patrese took another pole ahead of home hero Prost, Senna, Mansell, Berger and Alesi. At the start, Patrese had problems selecting his gear, and when he did start his car, he was engulfed by the field. This blocked Senna allowing Mansell to get ahead of him. The order was: Prost, Mansell, Senna, Berger, Alesi and Piquet. On lap 6, Berger retired with yet another engine failure. Two laps later, there was trouble as Piquet lost places as Gianni Morbidelli tried to pass him and hit Capelli, taking both out while Piquet lost time and places. At the front, Mansell attacked Prost and passed him on lap 22. At the stops, Mansell had a slow one and Prost was back in the lead. Senna was under pressure from Alesi but holding him at baay, over 15 seconds behind the leaders. Meanwhile, Mansell again began to close in on Prost and as the two wound through traffic on lap 54, Mansell made a superb move on the outside of the Adelaide hairpin to lead and then slowly pulled away. Mansell won from Prost, Senna, Alesi, the recovering Patrese and de Cesaris.

Mansell treated his fans in Britain with pole position ahead of Senna, Patrese, Berger, Prost and Alesi. At the start, Senna took the lead from Mansell while Berger hit Patrese, spinning Patrese out while Berger dropped down the order, behind Prost, Alesi and Moreno. At the front, Mansell turned off the rev-limiter to accelerate past Senna into the Hangar straight. Thus Mansell led from Senna, Alesi, Prost, Moreno and Berger. Soon Berger passed Moreno for fifth and this became fourth when Prost spun, dropping two places. Moreno then retired with gearbox troubles. At the front, the gap between Mansell and Senna was around 4-5 seconds with Alesi third, a long way back. However, when he was trying to lap Suzuki, he hit Suzuki, taking both out. After the stops, Mansell stayed 10 seconds ahead of Senna with Berger a long way back but 20 seconds ahead of Prost. Senna decided to try with a light fuel load to attack Mansell. He closed the gap to 7 seconds but because of that, he ran out of fuel on the last lap. Mansell won ahead of Berger, Prost, Senna who was classified fourth, Piquet and Gachot.

So, at the halfway stage of the year, we had Senna leading the championship with 51 points with Mansell second with 33, Patrese third with 22, Prost fourth with 21, Piquet fifth with 18, Berger sixth with 16, Modena seventh with 9 and Alesi eighth with 8. In the constructors championship, McLaren led with 67 points, Williams close in second with 55, Ferrari third with 29 and Benetton fourth with 23.

The second half of the year started in Germany and Mansell started where he left off, taking pole ahead of Senna, Berger, Patrese, Prost and Alesi. At the starrt, Mansell took off while Berger got by Senna and Patrese again had a poor start, dropping behind the Ferraris. At the end of the first lap, Mansell led from Berger, Senna, Prost, Alesi and Patrese. Patrese quickly got ahead of Alesi as the order settled down. Alesi decided to go without a stop while the rest pitted. However, Berger had some troubles in the stops and dropped back to 10th. Thus we had Alesi leading Mansell, Senna, Prost, Patrese and de Cesaris. Mansell quickly passed Alesi to lead and then pulled away. Prost and Senna were battling for third and Prost went wide at a corner trying to pas Senna allowing Patrese to take fourth. Patrese quickly passed Senna to leave him with a frustrated Prost. Prost tried to pass him on lap 38 but Senna did not give him enough room and Prost spun off and retired. Meanwhile Patrese had closed right in on Alesi and passed him on lap 39. On the last lap, Senna ran out of fuel again. No one, however could touch Mansell who won with Patrese making it a Williams 1-2 ahead of Alesi, the recovering Berger, de Cesaris and Gachot.

Senna took pole in Hungary ahead of Patrese, Mansell, Prost, Berger and Alesi. At the start, Patrese got away better then Senna but Senna moved over to block him. Mansell was forced to defend third from Prost and kept the place. The order was: Senna, Patrese, Mansell, Prost, Berger and Alesi. The top four stayed together and there was no way one could overtake the other. They pulled away from Berger who had a gap to Alesi. Prost's engine blew on lap 28, reducing the battle at the front to three. The pit stops changed nothing but after them Mansell began to hound his teammate Patrese for second. Patrese let him get past to see what Mansell can do about Senna but he realised that the answer was nothing. Senna was continuing to slowly edge away. A dull race was won by Senna ahead of Mansell, Patrese, Berger, Alesi and Capelli.

Before the race in Belgium, Gachot was in a British jail because of an incident with a taxi driver. He was replaced by Michael Schumacher for the race. In qualifying, Senna took pole ahead of Prost, Mansell, Berger, Alesi and Piquet but Schumacher was the sensation, qualifying seventh. At the start, Senna defended from Prost while Piquet and Schumacher got past Alesi. However, Schumacher slowed with a clutch problem on the run down to Eau Rouge and retired. At the front, Senna led from Prost, Mansell, Berger, Piquet and Alesi. On lap 3, Prost had fuel leaking out of his car and retired. Mansell began to attack Senna and after the stops got ahead of him. There was trouble when Berger spun after his stop and lost a lot of time. After the stops, Mansell led Alesi (who planned to go without stopping), Senna, Piquet, Patrese and de Cesaris. Then on lap 22, Mansell slowed to a halt with an electrical failure. Senna's engine then stopped for some time and because of that Piquet, Patrese and de Cesaris were right with him. Senna was unable to pull away because he had gearbox troubles. On lap 31, Alesi's engine blew up and Senna was leading. Patrese tried to pass Piquet but went wide and de Cesaris was able to take third. He then passed Piquet to take second, with Patrese following him through soon after. Piquet began to drop back and Berger passed him. Patrese had gearbox troubles and was suddenly behind Berger and Piquet. On lap 41, de Cesaris, around 2 seconds behind Senna retired when his engine expired. Moreno passed the struggling Patrese on the next lap. Senna won with Berger making it a McLaren 1-2 ahead of Piquet, Moreno, Patrese and Mark Blundell.

There was trouble before the Italian Grand Prix as Schumacher signed a deal with Benetton which displeased Jordan who went to court. The court put the case in favour of Benetton because Jordan had not signed a contract with Schumacher previously. Thus Schumacher and Moreno swapped teams. In qualifying, Senna took pole ahead of Mansell, Berger, Patrese, Prost and Alesi. At the start, Alesi steamed by Prost and hit Patrese into the first chicane and had to pit for repairs. Senna led Mansell, Berger, Patrese, Prost and Schumacher at the end of the first lap. Patrese began to charge, passing Berger n lap 7. As Mansell was trying to find a way to get ahead of Senna, Patrese got ahead of him. He then attacked Senna and took the lead on lap 26. However, on the next lap, Patrese spun and he could not select full gears then. He went to the pits and retired. At the same time, Prost passed Berger to take third. Mansell now began to hound Senna and went all directions to get ahead. He finally did it on lap 34 and Senna came into the pits for tyres. When he rejoined, the order was Mansell, Prost, Berger, Schumacher, Senna and de Cesaris. Senna was on a charge, passing Schumacher immediately after his stop. Berger then waved him through to see if he can attack Prost. Behind them, on lap 45, Piquet passed de Cesaris for sixth. Senna got ahead of Prost on the second chicane on the penultimate lap. Mansell won from Senna, Prost, Berger, Schumacher and Piquet.

Thus, with three-fourths of the season over, Senna led the driver's championship with 77 points with Mansell second with 59, Patrese third with 34, Berger fourth with 31, Prost fifth with 25, Piquet sixth with 23, Alesi seventh with 14 and Modena eighth with 9. In the constructor's championship, McLaren led with 108 points with Williams close behind in second with 93. Ferrari were third with 39 and Benetton were a further 6 points back in fourth with 33.

In Portugal now and Patrese took pole ahead of Berger, Senna, Mansell, Prost and Alesi. At the start, Mansell sliced across in front of Senna and switched sides to sneak by Berger. The order at the end of lap 1 was: Patrese, Mansell, Berger, Senna, Alesi and Prost. The Williamses pulled away from the McLarens who were pulling away from the Ferraris (Prost had by now passed Alesi). On lap 18, Patrese waved Mansell through and decided to follow him. The McLarens stopped first and Senna got ahead of Berger. When Mansell stopped on lap 29, he had trouble fixing the wheelnut of his right rear properly. As that mechanic went to get a spare one, the lollipop man unaware of the trouble signalled for Mansell to depart. Immediately, his right rear fell out and he stopped in the middle of the pitlane. The team picked up the tyre, fixed it on Mansell's car and sent him on his way but he was down in 17th. At the front, Berger passed Senna and set off after Patrese only for his engine to fail on lap 38. Two laps later, Prost from third went out with the same problem. This put the order as: Patrese, Senna, Alesi, Martini, Capelli and Piquet. On lap 49, Mansell who had charged through the field took sixth from his former arch-rival Piquet and was only 15 seconds from third place. Then, on lap 51, he was shown a black flag (disqualified) for the pit lane infringement. He was out. Capelli spun off on lap 65 from fifth. Patrese won from Senna, Alesi, Martini, Piquet and Schumacher.

Berger took pole in Spain ahead of Mansell, Senna, Patrese, Schumacher and Prost. At the start, it was damp and Senna blasted past Mansell while Patrese messed up again, dropping to sixth. Midway through the lap, Schumacher passed Mansell to take third. The order was: Berger, Senna, Schumacher, Mansell, Prost and Patrese. Mansell repassed Schumacher near the end of the second lap and set off after Senna. On lap 5, Mansell and Senna went side by side down the main straight but Mansell was ahead as he had the inside line. As the track dried, everyone stopped and Berger's stop was slow. Senna's stop was quick and he took the lead ahead of Berger, Mansell, Prost, Schumacher and Patrese. Senna then let Berger through on lap 12 in order to hold up Mansell while Schumacher blew past prost at the same time. Then, Senna spun into the last corner and dropped behind Mansell, Schumacher and Prost. Mansell quickly reeled in Berger and got ahead on lap 20 and proceeded to pull away. Schumacher now came to attack Berger and when he tried, he messed up and spun off. He rejoined back down in sixth. On lap 33, Berger slowed down with electrical troubles and retired. Soon afterwards, Patrese passed Senna for third. Schumacher had blistered his tyres in the spin and pitted, dropping behind Alesi who charged forward and passed Senna. Mansell crucially won from Prost, Patrese, Alesi, Senna and Schumacher.

With two more races to go, Senna can see the championship in his grasp with 85 points. Mansell was 16 points behind with 69 and need to pull off a miracle because there was only 20 points available. Patrese was third with 48, Prost was fourth with 31, Berger was fifth with 31, Piquet was sixth with 25, Alesi was seventh with 21 and Modena was eighth with 9. The constructor's championship was much closer with Williams, having 117 led McLaren with 116 by one point. Ferrari was third with 52 and Benetton was fourth with 37.

In Japan, the McLarens took 1-2 in qualifying with Berger ahead of Senna, Mansell, Prost, Patrese and Alesi. At the start, Berger got away well and Senna blocked Mansell while behind them Patrese got by Prost. Alesi did not last long, his engine failing even before finishing the lap. The order was: Berger, Senna, Mansell, Patrese, Prost and Martini. Senna let Berger pull away and then held up Mansell who had to win to keep his World Championship hopes alive. Mansell was frustrated at seeing Berger pull away and hounded Senna in the hope that Senna would make a mistake. However, it was Mansell who made a mistake first, spinning off at the start of lap 10. He was out and was left to wonder what might have been. Senna was the World Champion again. The McLaren team told Berger to let Senna through and thus protect him with the promise that Senna will let him back ahead on the last lap if they stay 1-2. There were no changes after the stops and the order stayed as: Senna, Berger, Patrese, Prost, Martini and Schumacher. At the front, Senna and Berger traded fastest laps. On lap 29, well behind Schumacher passed Martini for fifth. However, his engine failed on lap 35, giving the place back to Martini. Martini only held it for five more laps before his clutch failed, forcing him to retire. Nothing then changed afterwards, and Senna kept what the team told to Berger, by letting Berger through to win on the last lap. Berger won ahead of the new world champion Senna, Patrese, Prost, Martin Brundle and Modena. The McLaren 1-2 also meant that there were now 11 points ahead of Williams and had a grip on the Constructors Championship. After the race, Senna launched a tirade of abuse at former FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre which put a damper on his title celebrations. Senna also said that even before the controversial collision with Prost last year at the same track, he had decided that he won't let Prost get into the first corner ahead of him and also that he wouldn't mind even if they crashed. Some people thought afterwards that that he was indirectly saying that he smashed into Prost on purpose as revenge for their first collision in 1989, which gave the championship to Prost.

Before the final race in Australia, Prost was fired from the Ferrari team because he made some scathing comments about the team and described his car as a 'truck.' He was replaced by Morbidelli. In qualifying, the McLaren took 1-2 ahead of the Williamses and the Benettons with Senna ahead of Berger, Mansell, Patrese, Piquet and Schumacher. At the start, in extremely torrential wet conditions, Patrese lost time and was quickly behind Piquet and Alesi had also got by him and Schumacher. Senna led from Berger, Mansell, Piquet, Alesi and Patrese. On lap 3, Berger went wide allowing Mansell to be second and thus go after Senna. He was close enough on lap 5 and was side by side with Senna on the next lap but saw yellow flags because of Nicola Larini's crash. Thus he was forced to back off and Senna retained the lead. Alesi spun off immediately and was followed there by Schumacher. Both were out. Then, on lap 8, Martini spun off into the wall and his front wing which separated form his car was hit by Patrese and got stuck in Patrese's undertray. At the front, Mansell was no longer attacking Senna but Senna was unable to pull away. The condition became better but after another seven laps, more drivers began to spin off, including Mansell who smashed into a wall. Berger also spun off twice on the next lap as Senna gestured to the marshals to try to get the race stopped. Patrese also did the same gestures and finally it was stopped after Senna had finished lap 16. However, the officials had decided to count the results back 2 laps to lap 14 which meant that Senna won from Mansell, Berger, Piquet, Patrese and Morbidelli. Only half points were awarded because the race was stopped before 75% of the distance was over.

Because only half points were awarded in Australia, at the end of the season, Senna was the world champion with 96 points with Mansell second with 72, Patrese third with 53, Berger fourth with 43, Prost fifth with 34, Piquet sixth with 26.5, Alesi seventh with 21 and Modena eighth with 10. In the constructor's championship, McLaren were the world champions with 139 points with Williams second with 125, Ferrari third with 55.5 and Benetton fourth with 38.5.

Though each driver won a World Championship from 1991-93, the 1991 season was the last year that Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Alain Prost competed together. Prost would take a sabbatical in 1992. Mansell would leave F1 for CART in 1993, as his Williams team signed Prost for that season, and Mansell had a poor relationship with the Frenchman from their Ferrari days. Prost retired rather than have Senna as a teammate at Williams for the 1994 season, which saw Senna killed at San Marino and Mansell's return for the last four races.

Teams and Drivers

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1991 FIA Formula One World Championship.

1991 Constructors Championship final standings

References