1993 Brazilian Grand Prix

Interlagos in 1993

## Lap Leaders

The **1993 Brazilian Grand Prix** (officially known as **XXII Grande Prêmio do Brasil**) was a Formula One motor race held on 28 March, 1993 at Autódromo José Carlos Pace (also known by its former name *Interlagos*) in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the second race of the 1993 FIA Formula One World Championship, and the 21st running of the Brazilian Grand Prix in the Formula One World Championship.

## Background

The city of São Paulo prepared a homecoming party for one of its favourite sons, Ayrton Senna, whilst also lauding two new heroes. Rookie Rubens Barrichello made history, becoming the youngest driver to score points on their Formula One debut in Kyalami, and he was followed home by another young Brazilian, Christian Fittipaldi. The three *paulistanos* were fêted by the local media in the build-up to the event. The ever popular *cariocas* Roberto Moreno (from Rio de Janeiro) was also given a warm welcome home. Senna, in particular, was optimistic about adding to his two previous Brazilian Grand Prix wins (in 1990 and 1991), whilst also hoping for some divine intervention, stating:

> "Se Deus estiver comigo, sei que vou vencer em Interlagos. Então, vamos ver!"
> (*If God is with me, I know I will win at Interlagos. So, let's see!*)
>
>

The double World Champion had every reason to be confident; Williams was one of only three teams to have both cars finish the previous race, along with title rivals, Ferrari, and Italian minnows Minardi. The Brazilian national hero had landed the first blow in the title fight for 1993 by taking victory in the first race of the season. Ligier-Prost were left to fume at a double DNF through failure of the new Renault *RS5* engine that they had just taken delivery of before the first round. Sauber's impressive debut weekend ended on a sour note as both their cars suffered with engine failures, which was a source of some embarassment for Mercedes-Benz, after the German marque had talked up their involvement in both the new team and improving the Ilmor powertrain. A spectacular engine failure for Michael Andretti's McLaren-Chevrolet gave the American auto giant some press coverage, but not in the more positive manner in which they were hoping.

Between the first and second rounds of the championship, FISA's World Council met and rubber-stamped the impending bans on driver aids and telemetry. Derek Warwick also tested the new Footwork FA14 for a second time, but was thwarted by transmission problems. Therefore, there were no changes to the entry list from the previous round.

### Entry list

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

## Qualifying

### Pre-qualifying report

Once again Sauber were easily the best performing team in pre-qualifying, with Wendlinger topping the time sheet ahead of team mate Lehto. The nearest driver from another team was Nakaya who was over 7 tenths slower than Wendlinger. Zakspeed were able to secure the second spot in the session and placed for the main qualifying sessions. Solid runs from Blundell and Euser would also ensure Brabham would take the final team spot in the main qualifying sessions and both Zakspeed and Brabham were hopeful of making it into the full race. Both Pacific and Andrea Moda stunned by placing 4th and 5th in pre-qualifying classification, with BMS Scuderia Italia and Larrousse surprisingly failing to put in competitive performances. Larrousse were the biggest surprise of the session, as Alliot put in the 4th best time, but a dreadful run by team mate Bernard let to the team finishing bottom of the classifications. The team later confirmed that Bernard's session was dogged by issues with his Peugeot engine.

### Qualifying report

Friday afternoon's qualifying session would see Ayrton Senna again struggle with the Williams package and it would be his team mate, Damon Hill who would set the fastest time and secure provisional pole. Mika Häkkinen would impress with 6th place in Session 1.

For Session 2 Senna would improve his time, but would still be unable to dislodge Hill and would be displaced from the front row by an impressive lap from Joey Davies. Hakkinen would also fail to improve in the session and would lose out to Jean Alesi, who secured 6th on the grid. Karl Wendlinger in the Sauber-Ilmor would again impress with a strong 11th place. Akihiko Nakaya would return Zakspeed-Yamaha to the grid, securing 24th, but team mate Naoki Hattori would again miss out, failing to qualify. Mark Blundell in the Lola-Ferrari would also qualify, but team mate Cor Euser would miss out by 3 hundredth to the underperforming Stefano Modena in the Tyrrell-Mugen Honda.

### Qualifying classification

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

Notes

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

## Race

### Report

Damon Hill in the Williams-Renault would be on pole on Sunday, with an impressive performance from Joey Davies in the Ferrari ensuring he kept Ayrton Senna off the front row for his home Grand Prix. A good start from Davies would see him leapfrog Hill into first, while Senna would briefly lose position to a charging Alain Prost before regaining 3rd on the run down to turn three.  Davies would trade the lead with Hill in the opening laps before a resurgent Senna would take the lead on lap 8 when a mistake by Davies at turn 15 saw him hit the wall and drop down to 3rd, though it seemed he had avoided serious damage.  However, a mistake in turn 1 meant Senna lost the lead to Hill on lap 9. Davies was back in front of Senna by lap 10 and took the lead back from Hill on lap 13.

The first retirement of the day would be for Jean Alesi on lap 14 when a transmission issue would force his Ligier Prost-Renault into retirement. In a tight battle between Davies and Hill, the pair would make contact at turn 1 with Hill coming off the worst and losing 2nd to Senna. It was clear Davies was down on pace at this stage of the race as less than 2 seconds separated the top 5. Senna would be first of the top runners to pit on lap 23, Davies blocking efforts ensuring this dropped the Brazilian out of the top 10 and with Martin Brundle also pitting, Mika Häkkinen and Karl Wendlinger would be promoted to the top 6. With Hill eager not to be stuck behind Davies before his pitstop he went for an audacious move on turn 15, only to be surprised by Davies going for the pits, sending Hill into the wall and out of the race on lap 24. Prost would now lead the race for Ligier Prost-Renault for the first time this year, but by the next lap he would be in the pits promoting Michael Schumacher to the race lead, the fifth race leader of the event. Amazingly, with most of the race leaders having pitted, home town boy, Christian Fittipaldi was now in an astonishing 3rd. The top three of Schumacher, Wendlinger and Alex Zanardi in the Lotus-Ford would all pit on lap 29, giving the lead back to Senna.

After the first pit stops Rubens Barrichello in the Jordan-Hart would be back in the points in 6th. Meanwhile Michael Andretti in the McLaren-Chevrolet was having an impressive recovery drive after an early spin, getting back into the top 10 on lap 33. Prost’s misfortunes were compounded on lap 43 when he was again forced into retirement, the Ligier Prost team still without a race finish in 1993. On lap 46 Andretti would get into the top 6, taking 6th place off Fittipaldi. A lose wheelnut after the second round of pitstops forced Davies to return to the pits on lap 52 and putting him out of contention for the race win, but the gap was such to 4th place Barrichello, that he would only lose one place.

Towards the latter stages of the race Barrichello and Andretti would battle for 4th with the American securing the place on lap 60. The final points scoring position would go to Martin Brundle in the Benetton-Ford after passing Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari for 7th on lap 67 before finally catching Fittipaldi for 6th on lap 70. It would be an impressive if somewhat melancholic drive from Fittipaldi, who had recovered from an early shunt with Johnny Herbert in the Lotus-Ford to just miss out on the points, finishing 7th. Another impressive drive from the Brazilian drivers in the sport was capped as Senna would come home 1st in another impressive home win, Schumacher driving to an impressive 2nd and a somewhat disappointing 3rd for Davies. Andretti 4th, Barrichello 5th and Brundle 6th completed the top 6.

### Results

Notes

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

## Milestones

* Maiden pole position for Damon Hill.
* Maiden grand prix start for Akihiko Nakaya.
* First start for Zakspeed since 1989 Japanese Grand Prix.
* 50th start for Tyrrell for Satoru Nakajima.
* 34th career victory, and 76th podium finish for Ayrton Senna.
* 26th fastest lap for Joey Davies.
* 56th pole position, and 56th victory for Williams.
* Maiden points finish for Chevrolet.

## Aftermath

Post-race, Senna was jubilant with his performance, and thanked his fellow *paulistanos* for their support. Senna declared:

> "Eu não esperava vencer hoje, pois o carro era uma mão na roda, mas Deus queria que isso acontecesse para todos nós!"
> (*"I didn't expect to win today as the car was a handful, but God wanted this to happen for us all!"*)
>
>

Michael Schumacher celebrated his first podium for new team Benetton. Schumacher said:

> "We are making strong progress and today's result is another step for us in the right direction for sure!"
>
>

Title rival Joey Davies was also pleased with his race, in particular believing that Ferrari are closing in on Williams. He stated:

> "We didn't have the pace to beat [Senna] today but we led a few laps and are getting closer!"
>
>

Another double DNF for the Ligier-Prost squad led one pundit to state that their 1993 car was in danger of becoming a "blue teapot", a reference to engine partner Renault's revolutionary RS01, the first turbocharged Formula One car that was dubbed a "yellow teapot" by Ken Tyrrell. Alain Prost fumed:

> "C'est inacceptable. Nous devons trouver des solutions et aller jusqu'au bout des courses !"
> (*"It is unacceptable. We need to find solutions and get to the finish of races!"*)
>
>

## Standings

*Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.*

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1726746154480586870
2. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"The month in MOTOR SPORT". *Motor Sport*. Teesdale Publishing Company Limited. 1993-05-01.
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1729270023795978280
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1729270023795978280
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1729272396933210393
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1729807734055317860
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1731322708208603631
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1732089933106491733
9. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1732312820576817296
10. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1732331210863419683
11. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1732366360271810734
12. ↑ https://twitter.com/rhyse/status/1732117910687035504
13. ↑ https://www.paddock-legends.com/en/news/forgotten-legends-renaults-yellow-turbo-teapot-2020-02-07/b-119/
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/Gp2Joey/status/1732680586110570541