The 1988 Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was Round 12 of the 1988 Formula 1 season. This race is well known for being the only race in the 1988 season that was not won by McLaren F1’s dominant MP4/4.
Coming into Monza, the McLaren-Honda MP4/4, driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, had won all 11 races with the Brazilian winning seven to Prost’s four. They would go on to win the remaining four races after the Italian GP, winning 15 out of 16 races in the season.
However, Ferrari came into Monza with a lot of motivation as this was their first Italian GP without team founder Enzo Ferrari who had passed away on August 14th, 1988, four weeks before the race.
The race was held on September 11th, 1988, and the drivers would battle over 51 laps around the 3.603-mile circuit in sunny and hot conditions to see if anyone could deny McLaren a 12th consecutive race victory.
An all-McLaren championship duel
With five races to go in the 1988 season, only Senna and Prost still had a mathematical chance of claiming the F1 World Drivers’ Championship. The Brazilian’s seven race wins put him at a three-point advantage over his teammate coming into Monza.
Thanks to their 11 successive race victories, McLaren-Honda had already claimed the World Constructors’ Championship by the Italian GP as they held a huge 103-point lead over Ferrari in second who were amid a battle with Benetton-Ford for best of the rest.
An inevitability to qualifying
Qualifying for the Italian GP went as many around the circuit had anticipated with Senna claiming pole position ahead of Prost. The championship leader was the only driver to record a lap time under 1:26 as he clocked in at 1:25.974. This was Senna’s tenth pole position of the season, a new record at the time for most poles in a single campaign.
Ferrari did their late team founder proud as they would line-up in third and fourth on the grid on Sunday with Gerhard Berger ahead of Michele Alboreto. Race officials had allowed the two Scuderia cars to take to the track first during Friday’s opening practice session as a sign of respect for Enzo Ferrari.
The two Arrows cars of Eddie Cheever and Derek Warwick completed the top six as 1987 world champion Nelson Piquet qualified in seventh for Lotus. In a remarkable revelation, the Lotus team later discovered that they had unintentionally set up their car for the higher downforce demands of Imola, rather than the power-oriented requirements of Monza.
Senna leads from a damaged Prost
When the race for the Italian GP began, it was Prost who got the better launch of the two McLarens as he briefly took the lead. However, his engine suffered a misfire on the run to Rettifilo, allowing Senna back past. The Frenchman would continue for now, but his engine issue would not go away.
At the start, the two Ferraris held their positions, with Berger remaining ahead of Alboreto in third and fourth respectively. Behind them was Cheever, the fast-starting Thierry Boutsen, Riccardo Patrese and Piquet.
By the end of lap one, Senna had already built up a two-second lead over his teammate which forced Prost into turning his boost up to full as he gave chase to the Brazilian whilst his car was still running.
A seemingly championship-defining moment
There was little action to report from the opening 29 laps of the Italian GP, but on lap 30 there was a big moment in the significance of the Drivers’ Championship. When Prost drove past the pitlane at the end of lap 30, his misfires started to intensify.
Over the next five laps, the two Ferraris overtook the Frenchman, and on lap 35, he headed to the pits to retire from the race. This was his first mechanical retirement of the season and the only time that the omnipotent MP4/4 would suffer a race-ending engine failure all season.
As this all played out, the tifosi roared on Berger and Alboreto as they now had two cars within the podium places. Full of adrenaline and the backing from the Monza crowd, the two Ferraris found some rapid pace and went chasing after the lone McLaren in the lead of the race.
Senna’s costly backmarker
With two laps to go in the Italian GP, it looked like Senna would comfortably be able to hold off the charge from the Ferraris. However, all his hard work came undone when he attempted to lap the Williams of Jean-Louis Schlesser.
Senna approached Rettifilo, taking the inside line, but the Williams braked too late and slid towards the gravel. As Schlesser regained control of his car, he made contact with the right rear tyre of Senna’s McLaren which broke the championship leader’s rear suspension. This sent Senna’s car into a spin which beached him onto a kerb and out of the Italian GP.
The McLaren winning streak would come to an end as they suffered their first double retirement of the season. Meanwhile, the two Ferraris came through and moved themselves into a one-two lead of the Italian GP in front of their adoring tifosi.
Which Ferrari would claim the fabled Monza victory?
Berger, who had been running closely ahead of his teammate all race, managed to fend off Alboreto’s advances to cross the line at the end of lap 51 and win the 1988 Italian GP for the Scuderia. This was an emotional victory for the tifosi as it was their first win since the death of their beloved Enzo Ferrari.
In a great result for Arrows, Cheever came home to cross the line in third and complete the podium places ahead of his teammate Warwick who had recovered after falling back early on. The final two points places were filled up by Italian Ivan Capelli, in the Adrian Newey designed March 881, ahead of Boutsen in the Benetton-Ford.
There would be some nerves for Berger post-race, however, as his car failed three fuel tank capacity checks. But, on the fourth check he was given the all clear by FISA and the Italian GP victory was officially his. There had been a similar issue with the post-race scrutineering of Cheever’s car suggesting that there may have just been an issue with the testing equipment used by FISA.
McLaren set to regroup for Portugal
As both McLaren cars failed to finish, there was no change at the top of the Drivers’ Championship as Senna’s three-point lead remained intact. Berger’s fourth career victory had tightened his grip on third with his teammate now his closest competitor in fourth as the Italian’s P2 finish jumped him ahead of Piquet and Boutsen in the standings.
Ferrari’s one-two finish solidified their second place in the standings as McLaren-Honda were already untouchable at the top of the Constructors’ Championship. Benetton-Ford remained in third as Arrows leaped from sixth to fourth thanks to a double points scoring finish.
This unexpected result left the 1988 season on a knife-edge with just four races to go as Senna and Prost would both head to the next race at the 1988 F1 Portuguese Grand Prix hoping to right the wrongs of their retirements at the Italian GP. McLaren’s aspiration for an undefeated season had concluded but the competition between their two drivers was poised to intensify.
The review of the Senna and Schlesser incident
Speaking after the 1988 Formula 1 season, Schlesser said: “After the race I talked to Ayrton. I am happy now that he won the championship, if he had not won it, for years it would have been said that it was Schlesser’s fault or whatever.
“It was not my fault. I tried to stay out of the way as long as possible. I had to turn then otherwise I would be in the sand. Inside I don’t think he was upset afterwards.”
At the 2013 F1 Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren chairman Ron Dennis was reintroduced to Schlesser and said: “This is the man who ruined my life and our perfect record back in 1988”.
Schlesser responded: “What happened that day at Monza kept you hungry.”
