1993 European Grand Prix

Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit

## Lap Leaders

The **1993 European Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Sega European Grand Prix**) was a Formula One motor race held on 11 April 1993 at Donington Park in Castle Donington, Leicestershire, England. It was the third race of the 1993 FIA Formula One World Championship, and the seventh running of the European Grand Prix as a stand alone event in the Formula One World Championship.

A late spin from Damon Hill allowed fellow Briton Joey Davies to take his first win for Ferrari, with Hill recovering to finish second, ahead of pole sitter, Ayrton Senna.

## Background

The European Grand Prix meeting was the culmination of over 20 years of hard work for Tom Wheatcroft. Having bought a large part of the Donington Hall estate, including the pre-war racing circuit, for £100,000 in 1971, Wheatcroft transformed the previously derelict circuit into a modern racing facility. One of his first moves was to move his car collection to the circuit, creating the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition. The Donington Grand Prix Exhibition is home to one of the largest car collections in the world. After a hiatus of over 30 years, racing returned to Donington in 1977.

Over the next decade and a half Wheatcroft campaigned tirelessly to hold a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix at Donington. In 1983 he was given a provisional date for the 1988 Formula One season, but when the calendar for that year came to be finalised the RAC Motor Sports Association changed their mind and decided to stage the British Grand Prix at Silverstone instead. At the same time Wheatcroft even explored the potential for holding an Irish Grand Prix at Donington, but this too was vetoed by the RAC MSA. The addition of the Melbourne loop in 1985 was to enable the track to host Grand Prix motorcycling events, and British motorcycle Grand Prix moved to the circuit in 1987, and remains popular with riders and spectators alike.

Title sponsors of the race, Japanese video game manufacturer and publisher, Sega, branded much of the race around their mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega's Mega Drive console (known as the Genesis in North America) was riding high off a highly successful 1992. The company had begun sponsoring Williams at the beginning of the season, and booths of the well-received game *Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II* were frequently seen at promotional events for the team.

Between the second and third rounds of the championship, *La Gazzetta dello Sport* reported that Ferrari had made a significant financial offer to Williams's Chief Designer, Adrian Newey to join them for the 1994 season. *La Gazzetta* referenced that Newey had worked with Ferrari's number one driver Joey Davies at both March Engineering, and signed for Williams after a recommendation from the former World Drivers' Champion. Williams Technical Director Patrick Head refuted the offer, stating that Newey was under contract to the team and they expected him to stay. Williams conducted tests of their ABS at Silverstone in greasy conditions shortly before the Grand Prix, with former Andrea Moda driver Perry McCarthy at the wheel.

Benetton, Jordan, and McLaren announced they would be bringing minor chassis upgrades to the first European round of the championship, whilst Tyrrell would be getting an upgraded Mugen-Honda engine.

### Entry list

The full entry list for the 1993 European Grand Prix is outlined below:

## Qualifying

### Pre-qualifying report

The headline from pre-qualifying was Sauber's failing to qualify for the first time. Despite Karl Wendlinger setting the quickest time (and a time that would have put him eighth on the starting grid for the race), JJ Lehto's car suffered a failure with nine minutes left, leaving both he and the team scrambling to assemble the T-car. The team were defeated by the clock, and they would not advance to qualifying proper. Team boss Peter Sauber stated that after an investigation, it was a gearbox failure for Lehto, although they were unable to find the cause.

After being the victims of a mechanical malaise at the previous round, Larrousse - and Éric Bernard in particular - were happy to return to qualifying proper, with Bernard second fastest behind Wendlinger. Although there were visual struggles for Mark Blundell, there were loud cheers from the grandstands when Brabham's progress to qualifying was confirmed. A mistake from Mika Salo at the Old Hairpin in the closing moments of the session denied him and Pacific a maiden attempt at making the race. Less than one second covered the runners from seventh to twelfth in the classification, but, Andrea Moda, Pacific and Zakspeed's weekends were over, and BMS Dallara were the beneficiaries of Sauber's misfortune.

### Qualifying report

Friday would see the Williams pair on their usual good form, with Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill the only two to achieve a sub-1:19.000 lap. Joey Davies' best time on Friday was only good enough for 7th, with team mate Gerhard Berger setting a better time. The Joest-Porsche pairing of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Michael Bartels would finish the day a respectable 11th and 12th.  Meanwhile, Éric Bernard would also impress in his Larrousse-Peugeot with a respectable 15th, a substantial improvement on the first race of the year.

Saturday would see little improvement at the top of the order, with only Davies seeing a substantial improvement, going 4th fastest for Qualifying. The Joest pair did not improve their times, but they retained their starting position, securing an impressive sixth row lockout. Having gotten into qualifying the Brabham pair of Mark Blundell and Cor Euser were hopeful of getting into the race, having out-qualified the Scuderia Italia pair on Friday. Ivan Capelli gave his all to secure a place in the race, but just missed out, being just two thousandths of a second slower than Euser's time. The result would see Euser make his race debut at the age of 35 years, 351 days.

### Qualifying classification

The full qualifying results for the 1993 European Grand Prix are outlined below:

Notes

* **Bold** indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

## Race

### Report

A front row lock out for the Williams pair looked ominous for the race, but there was excitement from the start as Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill were bogged down, with Jean Alesi taking the lead and Senna dropping to 5th behind Joey Davies and Alain Prost. Before the end of the first lap Prost would get ahead of Hill so that by the start of lap 2 the Ligier-Prost cars were running 1 and 2. Williams' misery was compounded when Davies slipped past Hill on the opening lap to take 3rd position. By lap 3 Senna had passed Hill and was in pursuit of Davies, eager for a third straight victory in 1993. By lap 5 Davies had managed to pass Prost but he would find it difficult to get past Alesi just as quick. The first retirement would come would come with Alex Zanardi's Lotus-Ford pulling off the track on lap 5, but would soon be followed by Satoru Nakajima on lap 7 when his Mugen-Honda engine gave out. Gerhard Berger would also retire the same lap after debris from Zanardi's car caused the Ferrari driver to have a puncture. Only a few laps later on lap 11 Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Porsche would give up on him, in what was proving to be a race of high attrition.

On lap 15 Davies was finally able to get the pass done on Alesi and the Frenchman was soon preoccupied battling Senna for second, the Brazilian having got past Prost a few laps earlier. Unfortunately for Alesi, his race would soon come to an untimely end. As he went off the track on lap 17 and while trying to return, he found himself facing the wrong way on the straight only to be collected by the unfortunate Michael Bartels, in a horrifying shunt. Miraculously both drivers walked away uninjured, but Alesi was called to account for himself after as Bartels was enraged by the seriously dangerous way Alesi had re-joined the track. The retirement of Alesi and Bartels now promoted Martin Brundle to 6th and Éric Bernard to an unlikely 7th.

Senna would be first of the front runners into the pits on lap 18 followed a lap later by Davies, with the lead now going to Prost. Coming out of the pits close together, Davies and Senna were battling closely for the effective lead of the race, until contact at the Esses saw Senna collect the rear of Davies' Ferrari, putting him into a spin and allowing the Brazilian through. Prost would pit at the end of lap 24, giving the lead to Hill now who would hold it until he eventually pitted on lap 31. To the end of lap 25 Davies made a late move on Senna to retake the position he'd lost several laps earlier and put himself back in the effective lead of the race. On lap 30 Johnny Herbert had a dramatic exit from the Grand Prix when a sudden tire delamination sent his Lotus spearing off the track and into a tire barrier, mercifully the gravel trap had reduced much of his momentum. The accident was later determined to be the result of debris from Philippe Alliot's Larrousse-Peugeot which retired with transmission failure on the same lap. Davies would pit on lap 39, giving the lead to Senna and making him the fifth different driver to lead the race. Davies would be restored to the lead when Senna made his second stop on lap 42.

The order would remain largely unchanged for several more laps until a late pitstop by Davies on lap 53 gave the lead back to Senna. On this same lap Éric Bernard, who had raced his Larrousse-Peugeot to an impressive 8th, would retire with engine failure. French hopes in the race were further dashed four laps later when Prost, on course of a podium finish, retired with transmission failure, the team owner / driver seemingly unable to catch a break this year. While chasing down Senna for the lead Davies would appear to have tire trouble on lap 56, forcing him off the track and handing second position to Hill. Davies would be in that lap for fresh rubber, but seemingly out of contention for the win down in 5th. However, Davies was soon back into 3rd and was charging hard after the Williams pair who were on old rubber. On lap 61, an uncharacteristic error on worn tires saw Senna spin off the track and while he was fortunate to avoid retirement, he did lose the lead and sustained damage. Senna was in the pits the next lap, acknowledging the tires would not make the end of the Grand Prix. Hill too was struggling with grip but was aware a late pitstop would put him too far behind Davies and so he carried on in hopes he could hold off the charging Briton. Hill's struggles passing backmarkers showed how much he was struggling and he would eventually spin off the track on lap 66, with Davies going through into the lead.

The race appearing over, it would be a surprise when Davies now began to slow as he was forced to save fuel and while Hill was clearly struggling on old rubber, it was apparent the race was not over and he stayed out to see if the chance would come to retake the lead. Meanwhile, Senna was making full advantage of the new tires to chase down the leading pair and it was clear the race was far from over. On lap 73 of the race, Mark Blundell in the Lola-Ferrari was force to retire with engine failure, a credible effort by the Brabham car, and Blundell was still classified as he completed 90% of the race distance. Blundell's retirement would be fifteenth of the race and Donington would have a reputation as a 'car-breaker'.

With two laps to go, Senna reached the battle for the lead, but there was no way past and the top three would finish within less than a second of one and other for one of the closest races in F1 history. The final order of the podium would be Davies 1st, Hill 2nd and Senna 3rd, with the top six being completed by Michael Schumacher 4th, Brundle 5th and Michael Andretti taking 6th. Aguri Suzuki would have something to celebrate, coming home an impressive 7th in the Footwork Mugen-Honda, while Davies would have more to celebrate than just his first Ferrari victory as his Brabham cars came home in 11th and 12th for Cor Euser and Blundell respectively.

### Results

Notes

* † – Driver(s) did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

## Milestones

* 100th entry for Satoru Nakajima as a driver, and Larrousse as an entrant/team.
* First non-start for Ilmor since their entry into the sport in 1989.
* Maiden start for Cor Euser.
* 53rd career pole position for Ayrton Senna.
* 16th career win and 27th fastest lap, and overall lap record at Donington Park, for Joey Davies.
	+ With this victory, Davies ties Stirling Moss as the ninth winningest driver in Formula One history.
	+ This was Davies's first victory driving for Ferrari. In doing so, this is the third different constructor for which Davies has won a race (having also won races with Williams and McLaren), tying with Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Carlos Reutemann, Niki Lauda, and Jody Scheckter.
* 112th win for Ferrari as a team, 113th win as a constructor.

## Aftermath

Joey Davies delighted the Donington crowd with his victory, and spoke from the top step of the podium:

> "This is for all these fans! What a race! We did it! I want to thank Ferrari for giving me a great car - now, lets win some more!"
>
>

It was a double celebration for Davies, as Brabham team not only qualified both cars for the first time this season, but rookie Cor Euser completed a positive weekend by completing the race and finishing 11th after starting last. Euser said after the race:

> ""I want to thank UnRacedF1 and Joey for giving me my break and to the Brabham team for all they have done - Wow!"
>
>

Hill was despondent, as he felt he threw a maiden victory away. In the post-race press conference, he said:

> "I feel gutted and want to say sorry to the team. It was my fault, no excuses…"
>
>

Championship leader Senna was also dispirited, stating that gearbox issues compromised his race.

> "My car was poor today. I made a poor start and then struggled with the gearbox before spinning on lap 62, but 4 points is OK I guess."
>
>

Meanwhile, a third straight double DNF for the Ligier-Prost outfit brought tension in the team to the fore, with Alain Prost declaring, once more, before storming off for a series of behind-closed-doors meetings with team management:

> "C'est inacceptable !"
>
>

Days after the race, *L'Équipe* reported that Alain Prost had reached out to Gordon Murray - former technical director at Brabham and McLaren, who is currently head of McLaren's fledgling roadcar division - to offer him a position as a team boss.

Michael Bartels would suffer a broken toe from his collision with Jean Alesi, but given the severity of the accident and the comparative slightness of injury Joey Davies coined the nickname "Million-dollar Mick", referencing the American Military slang term of a "Million-dollar wound" and the fact the crash was so spectacular that to walk away with only a broken toe was a million-to-one chance.

The event was also a victory for the organisers, especially Tom Wheatcroft, whose long held ambition to hold a race at the Leicestershire circuit was vindicated. Over 120,000 fans packed the circuit on race day, and the much feared traffic chaos that local press had expected failed to materialise. Wheatcroft gave a pre-race demonstration run of a 1938 Mercedes-Benz W154, as driven by Hermann Lang in the 1938 Donington Grand Prix, a part of the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition. Wheatcroft admitted that Donington Park lacked the financial power and infrastructure to hold a Formula One race on a regular basis, but was nevertheless proud of the weekend's events. Wheatcroft's dream realised, he is already targeting a new venture: "The Great Warwickshire Oval" - a 1.8 mi (2.9 km) oval to attract Stock car racing, but, most of all, IndyCar.

### Alesi-Bartels collision

On 16 April, Jean Alesi was summoned before the FIA to answer a charge of dangerous driving, in relation to his crash with Michael Bartels on lap 17 that forced both drivers to retire from the race. Alesi claimed that a marshall directed him back onto the track moments before the incident, and that it was visible on his on-board footage. After some deliberation, the FIA announced that Alesi was handed a two-race ban the following day. Team Principal Alain Prost called the ban "outrageous", and on 18 April, Alesi was quoted in *L'Équipe*:

> "J'ai été fait bouc émissaire par la FIA et cette interdiction est une blague ! J'ai été pénalisé pour quelque chose qui n'était pas encore délibéré l'année dernière, Davies et Mansell n'ont rien eu malgré leurs affrontements ?! C'est une putain de blague !"
> (*"I've been made a scapegoat by the FIA and this ban is a joke! I've been penalised for something that wasn't even deliberate last year, Davies and Mansell got nothing despite their clashes…! It's a fucking joke!"*)
>
>

These comments earned a swift rebuke from Max Mosley, who demanded Alesi apologise for the remarks or else have his ban increased. As several drivers reportedly began contacting Ligier-Prost regarding their availability, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone expressed a preference for Nigel Mansell to return to the sport, as the next two races would not clash with Mansell's ongoing 1993 PPG Indy Car World Series campaign.

## Standings

*Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.*

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741435335836397585
2. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Track owner reveals secret summit with F1 boss Bernie". thisisderbyshire.co.uk. 8 July 2008. Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Tremayne, David (10 November 2009). "Tom Wheatcroft: Motor racing promoter who fought the sport's governing body to bring Formula 1 to Donington Park". *The Independent*. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1736949493092749564
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1737086191164330425
6. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"The month in MOTOR SPORT". *Motor Sport*. Teesdale Publishing Company Limited. 1993-05-01.
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1738774200465137795
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1740531963407339959
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1740486775699861609
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1740488335423050193
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1740890493054337302
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741210005653581849
13. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741446383427625449
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741510252430811540
15. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741548110097023179
16. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741518818382417946
17. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741518889916174487
18. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1741543860923207924
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1742211349420101744
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Tremayne, David (1993-05-01). "How the Grand Prix of Europe was won". *Motor Sport*. Teesdale Publishing Company Limited.
21. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1743696897670263186
22. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1743713776149405794
23. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1743977898984304680
24. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1744007499445887108
25. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1744013422335807571
26. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1744099651437969836
27. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1744102154992746876