The political skirmishes behind Benetton’s F1 turning point

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.

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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 bankrupt Paramatti Vernici company, Briatore developed an association with Luciano Benetton and led the company’s successful franchise expansion in the USA, latterly overseeing Benetton’s controversial global marketing campaigns featuring copulating horses and other striking (if outré) imagery.

The 1989 season got off to stuttering start – the B188 car had to be pressed into service in the opening rounds when the B189 was delayed, and new recruit Johnny Herbert was struggling with the legacy of his leg-shattering F3000 accident the previous August. Collins viewed Herbert as a future world champion and he certainly had the talent; what he lacked was the leg strength for heavy braking. Luciano Benetton was never quite sold on him and, when Herbert failed to qualify in Canada and Ford bigwigs began to chafe in public, Herbert was dropped in favour of McLaren test driver Emanuele Pirro. This didn’t recoup enough political capital to save Collins, who was ousted by Briatore at the end of August.

The B190 began a new era at Benetton with Briatore put in charge

Photo by: James Mann

Once his feet were under the desk, Briatore had free rein to shake up the team as he pleased. At Monza he approached Barnard, whose Ferrari contract was due to expire at the end of October with no renewal in the offing. Over breakfast on race day morning, with Alessandro Benetton in attendance, Briatore outlined his ambitions to break the team out of  ‘best of the rest’ status, backed by greater buy-in from Ford, increased sponsorship and a glossier image. Barnard’s response was to say he would require new, state-of-the-art facilities – in the vicinity of Godalming, natch – and shared ownership of it and the race team. Deal done, he joined as technical director and general manager on 6 November.

Thus the B190 currently taking shape in Rory Byrne’s mind would be the last of a generation of cars which had begun when Toleman graduated from F2 to F1 in 1981. While Benetton planned further investment in its existing Witney factory, and would continue to base race operations from there, Barnard was adamant that the entire design and construction facility would transfer to the new base in Surrey – which would require staff to relocate or face a multi-hour commute. Unsurprisingly there was little appetite for this and fault lines quickly developed within the organisation.

Barnard also had little or no interest in the B190, a car he declaimed as “exceedingly ugly”. Apart from making some suggestions about the suspension geometry he largely left Byrne to his own devices, since his bandwidth was occupied by future developments – his own car design, to be powered by a new V12 engine provided he could persuade Ford to underwrite it.

One notable shortcoming of the Benetton set-up was the lack of an in-house wind tunnel; it used Cranfield University’s tunnel at Shrivenham, which had a rolling road but could only accommodate quarter-scale models and had no means of rapidly adjusting pitch angles and ride height. The first job for future Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes technical director James Allison, then a recent graduate recruited by Barnard, was to design a strut which could achieve these adjustments while the tunnel was still running.

Barnard concluded that his new colleagues simply didn’t understand aerodynamics, an opinion he would later revise when Byrne-designed cars won several world championships

Although the B190 was the last of a genre it differed from its predecessors in a number of key details. Byrne took the opportunity to break from the turbo-style sidepod configuration; where the B188 and B189 had low-profile engine covers with air scoops above the radiator inlets, the B190 had a conventional airbox above the driver’s head with a wider volume to accommodate the relatively tall 75-degree HB engine.

The nose treatment was different, too: while the previous cars took an almost undeviating sloping line from the front of the cockpit aperture to the tip of the nose, the B190’s conk remained almost horizontal to a point just above the front wishbone legs, where it dropped sharply to wing level. A necessary evil resulting from the swap from pullrod to pushrod actuation for the springs and dampers, which now had to be located at the top of the bulkhead, it was an ugly compromise.

Another contentious point for Barnard – not that he made a concerted effort to over-rule it – was the configuration of the front wing. For several years Byrne had been using a relatively deep surface in combination with track-skimming endplates to achieve a degree of ground effect: the endplates theoretically ‘sealed’ the airflow underneath. When it worked it was very effective but, as Barnard pointed out, it was highly sensitive to bumps and pitch changes – neither of which could be accurately simulated in the Shrivenham tunnel. Barnard concluded that his new colleagues simply didn’t understand aerodynamics, an opinion he would later revise when Byrne-designed cars won several world championships.

The car came with ugly compromises but proved effective

Photo by: James Mann

Briatore continued to revel in his burgeoning reputation as a disruptor – he would become firm friends with F1 ‘ringmaster’ Bernie Ecclestone – but he appeared to confirm the impression that he was a little out of his depth with the trophy signing of Nelson Piquet, widely regarded as a spent force, to join Nannini for the 1990 season. In fact, while Piquet had been on a spectacular salary for two unproductive seasons at Lotus, Briatore nailed him down to a relatively pitiful stipend, albeit with bonuses for points scored.

Nelson kept his bank account ticking over with points finishes in the opening two transatlantic flyaway rounds, in which Benetton fielded B-spec B189s powered by the latest-spec HB engine. The B190 made its competitive debut at round three, the beginning of the European season, in San Marino – where Nannini held off Alain Prost’s Ferrari to score a podium finish behind Riccardo Patrese’s Williams and Gerhard Berger’s McLaren. Granted, Nannini benefited from the retirements of Ayrton Senna, Thierry Boutsen and Nigel Mansell, but getting the better of Prost was a significant coup.

Monaco was disappointing as Nannini stopped with gearbox failure and Piquet was disqualified for receiving a push start after spinning but, elsewhere, the B190 proved itself capable of challenging for podiums: Piquet was second in Canada and Nannini passed Senna for third place in France before an electrical glitch set in, but he was a fine second to Senna (and ahead of Berger) when a bold no-stop strategy paid off in Hockenheim. The Benettons generally occupied the lower reaches of the top 10 in qualifying but what the Ford engine lacked in horsepower compared with the Honda, Renault and Ferrari it partially compensated with reliability; the B190 chassis was nimble and kind enough on its tyres to consider non-stop races on tracks with a sympathetic surface.

But this was still not quite what Briatore or Barnard desired and, since diplomacy was not among the perfectionist Barnard’s strong suits, his visits to Witney generally provoked rancour. It was not difficult for long-time Toleman/Benetton employees to divine his disdain for both the state of aerodynamic research and the understanding of composite design and construction. Having been nicknamed ‘The Prince of Darkness’ at McLaren he rapidly became known as ‘The Godalming Scud’, after the ballistic missiles being exchanged in the conflict in Kuwait. “Unlike Scuds,” he was heard to say upon being apprised of this, “I always explode when I land.”

In October, shortly after Nannini claimed another podium in Spain, 13 employees including Byrne, Symonds and aerodynamicist Willem Toet tendered their resignations to Briatore and left to join Adrian Reynard’s ‘secret’ F1 project. A week after the Spanish GP Nannini lost his right arm in a helicopter crash, ending a promising F1 career although surgery to reattach it was successful enough for him to return to the cockpit in touring cars.

Formula 1 can be a cold and unsympathetic domain. As news of Nannini’s accident percolated through the racing world, putative replacements began shamelessly cold-calling Barnard to declare themselves available to fill the vacancy. But the job went to someone who was already sitting in Godalming on that day: Roberto Moreno, desperate to engineer himself out of the hopeless Eurobrun outfit, was in the UK looking for other drives and had volunteered to help Barnard perfect the cockpit dimensions for the forthcoming B191. The two had worked together at Ferrari and Barnard rated him.

Benetton scored a Japanese GP 1-2 and followed it up with Piquet's victory in Australia to vault to third in the constructors'

From sixth and ninth on the grid in Japan Piquet and Moreno finished 1-2 as Prost and Senna collided on the first lap, Gerhard Berger spun off on the gravel detritus left by them, then Nigel Mansell broke a driveshaft on the way out of the pits. It was the Benetton team’s best-ever combined result and, while this win was inherited to a great extent, at the season closer in Adelaide Piquet had to earn victory the hard way, fending off Mansell on old tyres after Senna missed a gear and crashed out.

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Adapted to run Pirelli rubber and resplendent in the promised new sponsorship – Camel and Nippon Autopolis – the B190 contested the first two rounds of 1991 before Barnard’s B191 was introduced at San Marino. What Pirelli brought to the table in this era was super-sticky qualifying tyres and slightly too hard – if durable – race rubber, so lead runners on Goodyears planning a pitstop had to accommodate the prospect of emerging behind Piquet and/or Moreno into their thinking, for the B190s – and, indeed, the B191s – would not be stopping. Piquet’s B190 finished on the podium in the final race at the unloved Phoenix street circuit, though this was partly a factor of attrition as the rapid Williams-Renaults were sidelined by gearbox issues.

When Reynard failed to secure an engine and abandoned its planned F1 entry, Byrne, Symonds and Toet were free agents again – and welcomed back to Witney. Joining them as technical director came Ross Brawn, fresh from TWR’s successful Jaguar sportscar programme

All was not well behind the scenes, however. Barnard’s no-compromise approach brought him into conflict with Briatore and Cosworth, the V12 never happened, and Ford began to get cold feet as the global economy cooled in response to surging oil prices brought on by the Kuwait conflict. When money promised for the Godalming project was repeatedly delayed, the contracts were annulled and Barnard departed mid-season.

Benetton would not be without senior technical leadership for long. When Reynard failed to secure an engine and abandoned its planned F1 entry, Byrne, Symonds and Toet were free agents again – and welcomed back to Witney. Joining them as technical director came Ross Brawn, fresh from TWR’s successful Jaguar sportscar programme.

Come September they would have a new superstar to shape their next car around: Michael Schumacher…

As Ford's input dipped and Barnard departed, Benetton's trajectory was stunted, but it led to even greater things to come

Photo by: James Mann

Race record

Starts: 32    
Wins: 2   
Poles: 0    
Fastest laps: 1    
Podiums: 7   
Championship points: 73

Specification

Chassis: Carbonfibre monocoque  
Suspension: Double wishbones with pushrod-actuated inboard coil springs/dampers
Engine: Naturally aspirated Ford HBA4 V8
Engine capacity: 3498cc
Power: 650bhp @ 13000 rpm
Gearbox: Six-speed manual
Brakes: Carbon discs front and rear     
Tyres: Goodyear, Pirelli
Weight: 500kg    
Notable drivers: Nelson Piquet, Alessandro Nannini, Roberto Moreno

The B190 played a vital role in Benetton's F1 history

Photo by: James Mann