1989 F1 Season

The 1989 Season was the Twelfth Season of the Sim Series. It featured the 1989 Drivers Championship and the 1989 Constructors Championship

Driver Changes for 1989

* Ferrari completed the signing of British driver Nigel Mansell, taking the place of Michele Alboreto alongside Austrian Gerhard Berger
* Williams recruited Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen from Benetton as Mansell's replacement, alongside veteran Italian Riccardo Patrese. The team had also done a deal with Renault, returning to F1 after a three-year break, that would see them have exclusive use of the French company's V10 engines.
* Lotus kept their 1988 line-up of triple World Champion Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima, but lost their Honda engines. The new Lotus 101, designed by Frank Dernie, used the Judd V8 engine instead.
* Benetton retained Alessandro Nannini and signed British rookie Johnny Herbert to replace Boutsen.
* Tyrrell retained Jonathan Palmer and took back Alboreto, who had previously driven for the team between 1981 and 1983.
* The Brabham team returned after missing 1988, with Stefano Modena and Martin Brundle (fresh from winning the 1988 World Sports Prototype Championship) driving the Judd-powered BT58. Both drivers were forced to pre-qualify for the first half of the season.
* The French Larrousse team continued running Lola chassis, but ditched the Ford Cosworth V8 engines in favour of the new Lamborghini V12, designed by Mauro Forghieri. The team started the year with their 1988 line-up of Yannick Dalmas and Philippe Alliot.
* Zakspeed, having produced their own turbo engines since their debut in 1985, were forced to switch to an outside supplier in the form of Yamaha, the Japanese company appearing in F1 for the first time with its own V8 engine. West German Bernd Schneider, in his second year with the team, and Japan's Aguri Suzuki were both forced to pre-qualify the new 891, designed by Gustav Brunner.
* Osella were one of several teams to expand from one car to two, with Nicola Larini being joined by veteran Piercarlo Ghinzani, returning for a third stint with the team. The all-new FA1M was powered by the Ford Cosworth DFR
* Ligier retained French veteran René Arnoux and signed newcomer Olivier Grouillard, who replaced experience Swede Stefan Johansson. The team also switched from Judd engines to the Ford Cosworth DFR, powering the new JS33.
* AGS had retained Philippe Streiff for 1989, but the Frenchman crashed heavily at Rio while testing prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, suffering spinal injuries which left him as a quadriplegic and ended his racing career. His place was taken by Gabriele Tarquini, who had planned to drive for the Italian FIRST team that year before they pulled out. AGS also expanded to two cars, the second originally being driven by Joachim Winkelhock, younger brother of the late Manfred Winkelhock.
* After FIRST Racing withdrew from the championship, the only entirely new team for 1989 was Onyx Grand Prix, who had previously enjoyed success as the semi-works March team in Formula Two and Formula 3000. The Onyx ORE-1, designed by Alan Jenkins and powered by the Ford Cosworth DFR, was driven by Johansson and Belgian rookie Bertrand Gachot.

Techincal Changes for 1989

* Turbocharged engines had been banned at the end of 1988, as the governing body felt them to be making the sport dangerous and expensive.

Grands Prix

Drivers Championship

World Constructors Championship