1988 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1988 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 12 June 1988 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. It was the fifth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship; the 69-lap race was won from pole position by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with French teammate Alain Prost second and Belgian Thierry Boutsen third in a Benetton-Ford. The Canadian Grand Prix returned to the Formula One calendar after a year's absence. In the meantime, major changes had been made to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve: the start-finish line, pit lane and facilities had been moved from the top end of the track to the bottom end, necessitating the removal of two turns, while other turns had been re-profiled slightly; the McLarens once again dominated qualifying, with Ayrton Senna taking his fifth consecutive pole position by just under 0.2 seconds from Alain Prost. The Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto filled the second row, while the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini was the fastest of the naturally-aspirated cars in fifth, just under 2.3 seconds behind Senna.
Nelson Piquet was sixth in his Lotus, followed by Thierry Boutsen in the second Benetton, Eddie Cheever in the Arrows and Nigel Mansell in the Williams, while Philippe Streiff put in a strong performance to take tenth, which would turn out to be the best-ever grid position for the AGS team. Achieving its best-ever grid placing was EuroBrun, as Stefano Modena took 15th; the Saturday session saw. Turning into the chicane into the new start-finish straight, Warwick slid on dirt kicked up moments before by Streiff's AGS; the Arrows spun onto the inside kerb and became airborne bounced several times before hitting what is now known as the "Wall of Champions" at unabated speed. Warwick was knocked unconscious and hurt his back. However, Warwick took up his 16th position on the grid. During qualifying, Williams team owner Frank Williams announced that he had concluded a deal with Renault that would see the team have exclusive use of the French company's V10 engines from the 1989 season onwards. Williams said that "for better or worse you need an association with a major manufacturer to be successful in Formula One".
At the start, Prost led away from the Ferraris and the Benettons. After ten laps, Berger began having issues with the fuel system of his Ferrari. On lap 19, Senna passed Prost at the L'Epingle hairpin as they came up to traffic, the Brazilian driver thus taking a lead he would not lose. Nannini retired from fourth position on lap 15 with electrical trouble, while Berger retired with similar problems on lap 23. Meanwhile, Mansell passed his old rival Piquet in the Lotus, before his Judd engine failed on lap 29. On lap 34, Alboreto retired with an engine failure. With many of the front runners out, minor teams had a clear chance of scoring points. By the middle of the race Philippe Streiff had brought his AGS up to fifth place, ahead of Andrea de Cesaris' Rial in sixth. However, Streiff retired on lap 41 with a rear suspension failure, while de Cesaris ran out of fuel with three laps to go; this promoted Ivan Capelli in the March to Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell to sixth. Senna finished just with Boutsen a further 45 seconds back.
Piquet was fourth in the Lotus, albeit a lap down on Senna, with Capelli and Palmer completing the top six. Warwick, despite his injury, finished just outside the points in seventh, having battled with teammate Cheever until the American retired on lap 31 with a broken throttle cable. Senna set the fastest lap of the race on lap 53 with a time of 1:24.973. Boutsen's third place marked the first time since the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix that a naturally-aspirated car had finished on a Formula One podium. Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings
Perry McCarthy
Perry McCarthy is a British racing driver, who drove for the Andrea Moda team in Formula One in 1992, though never making it into a race, before moving into sportscars, including driving in the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times between 1996 and 2003. McCarthy portrayed The Stig in the first two series of BBC motoring show Top Gear. Born in Stepney, East London, McCarthy grew up to work for his father's company servicing North Sea oil rigs. Unlike most Formula One drivers, McCarthy did not start racing in karts, he worked his way through the junior categories of motor sport in Europe, such as Formula Ford, Formula 3 F3000 and various touring and sports car races in the US, including drives for Spice Engineering. In 1991, McCarthy was chosen to test for the Footwork Formula One team. Although he impressed the team, his break did not come until the eve of the 1992 Formula One season, when he was signed by the independent Andrea Moda team run by Andrea Sassetti who thought that entering Formula One would be a good way to advertise his shoe business.
The team was uncompetitive and poorly managed, after a lengthy battle to gain an FIA Super Licence the season soon descended into farce. McCarthy denied more than a handful of laps in which to prepare, failed to qualify for any Grand Prix, his Grand Prix debut at Spain lasted eighteen metres down the pit lane in pre-qualifying. The team folded before the end of the season in controversial circumstances and McCarthy was left without a drive. In a July 2004 interview with The Times, McCarthy discussed how this period in his career had contributed to him being dubbed the world's unluckiest racing driver, saying "Dick Dastardly had more luck than me". McCarthy did not race in Formula One after 1992, but tested for both Williams and Benetton teams during the 1990s, he was denied a permanent role as test driver at Benetton because he was covering for their normal test driver, Alessandro Zanardi, unwell. He had little success at Williams because he did not see eye to eye with the engineers and the position was given to David Coulthard.
After a brief retirement, McCarthy returned to sports car racing, appearing at Le Mans in 2002 and numerous other events. In 2002, he released his autobiography entitled Flat Out, Flat Broke, in which he spoke candidly about his time in Formula One and, in the second edition, his work for the BBC's Top Gear motoring show as The Stig, a masked, racing driver who evaluated the latest high performance cars. McCarthy was the black-suited Stig, who left after the first two series, he provided commentary on F1 races for the BBC in 2009. McCarthy now works as a corporate ambassador and after-dinner speaker for corporations around the world. In 2002, McCarthy wrote an autobiography, titled Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!. In the second edition of this book, McCarthy revealed that he was Top Gear's The Stig
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, it employs over 20,950 staff in total. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time and fixed-contract staff are included; the BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee, charged to all British households and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up; the fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has funded the BBC World Service, which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, online services in Arabic and Persian.
Around a quarter of BBC revenues come from its commercial arm BBC Studios Ltd, which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC World News, from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd. From its inception, through the Second World War, to the 21st century, the BBC has played a prominent role in British culture, it is known colloquially as "The Beeb", "Auntie", or a combination of both. Britain's first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920, it was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.
But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast; the company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform and entertain"; the financial arrangements soon proved inadequate. Set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee.
The Committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the BBC's immediate financial distress, an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the GPO. This was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired; the BBC's broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, as was the prohibition on advertising. The BBC was banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00 and was required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee. By now, the BBC, under Reith's leadership, had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise.
The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production, with restrictions on news bulletins waived, the BBC became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis; the crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position. On one hand Reith was acutely aware that the Government might exercise its right to commandeer the BBC at any time as a mouthpiece of the Government if the BBC were to step out of line, but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently; the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PM's own. Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the Government's objectives in a manner of its own choosing; the resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the PM had broadcast to the nation from Reith's home, using one of Reith's sound bites inserted at the last moment
Scuderia Coloni
Coloni Motorsport known as Scuderia Coloni, is an auto racing team from Italy. Formed by Enzo Coloni in 1982, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems between 1987 and 1991, they made 82 attempts to take part in a Formula One race but only qualified 14 times. Since under the management of Enzo Coloni's son Paolo, the team has been successful in Formula Three, Formula 3000 and GP2 Series. Between 2006 and 2009 the team ran under the name of Fisichella Motor Sport, with support from Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini; the team was founded in 1983 by a racing driver from Perugia, Italy. It is located in Passignano sul Trasimeno. Coloni competed during the 1970s and after participating in the Italian Formula 3 series for several years, he won the drivers' title in 1982 when he was 36 years old. Before that, called "the wolf", had taken part in two Formula Two races, one in 1980 with the San Remo team and another one in 1982 with the Minardi team.
At the end of 1982, he gave up active racing and started managing his own team in Italian Formula Three. Success came immediately: the team won the 1984 Italian Formula 3 championship with Ivan Capelli. In 1986, Coloni Motorsport appeared in Formula 3000, entering an out-dated March 85B with drivers like Nicola Larini and Gabriele Tarquini; the Formula 3000 attempt was unsuccessful. Nonetheless the team progressed to Formula One the next year; the FIA's announcement that turbos would be banned from Formula One from 1989 - making the sport more affordable — was the trigger for Enzo Coloni to enter the category. Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems made its first appearance in Formula One at the 1987 Italian Grand Prix in September 1987; the yellow painted FC187, powered by a Novamotor-prepared Cosworth DFZ, was a simple machine designed by former Dallara apprentice Roberto Ori. Coloni himself had carried out the shake-down drive but Nicola Larini was the race driver; the car was not ready and Larini did not qualify.
The Italian recorded Coloni’s first Formula One race start at the 1987 Spanish Grand Prix, although mechanical problems meant that he did not finish. The team did not fly to the end of year overseas races that year, so Larini’s retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix that year ended their first season, they were, of course, 16th and last in the Constructors Championship, because they were the only team without a finish. The 1988 season started well. Although the "new" FC188 was identical to its predecessor, Coloni's new driver Gabriele Tarquini qualified and finished 8th at the Canadian Grand Prix; this turned out to be Coloni's best result in Formula One. Due to a shortage of funds little development work was carried out during the year; the team’s performance suffered as a result and qualification or prequalification were no longer certain. The team scored no points this year, finishing again 15th, ahead of Osella, the new EuroBrun and the suffering Zakspeed Team. Although money was tight for 1989, Coloni entered two cars for Roberto Moreno and French newcomer Pierre-Henri Raphanel.
The FC188Bs were another update of the 1987 car, but were hard to handle and about 20 km/h slower than the rest of the grid. Both drivers were able to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix; this was the only race participation of a Coloni in the first part of the season. In Canada, Coloni presented a new car, penned by former AGS engineer Christian Vanderpleyn; the C3 was a good design but the team suffered again from a complete lack of testing. This meant that the team failed to find the right setup for the races; the team failed to qualify for most of the rest of the season — only in three cases, the debut of the Coloni C3, the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix, the 1989 British Grand Prix and at the Portuguese Grand Prix did Moreno qualify, in 26th, 23rd and 15th place after a developmental front wing was fitted for Estoril. For the team, he collided with Eddie Cheever in the warm-up and had to use the spare car, he did not finish the race. As results failed to arrive, the team was cut back throughout the year.
After Vanderpleyn had left the team in September, Enzo Coloni took over the engineer's job himself but unsurprisingly this brought no improvement. The team finished equal 18th and last with Zakspeed, because the EuroBrun team never qualified that year; the Portuguese Grand Prix proved to be the last qualification for a Coloni car. An unexpected contract with Subaru, the automobile branch of Fuji Heavy Industries, brought substantial financial backing and additionally an exclusive "works" engine for free; the Japanese took over 51% of the Coloni team, paid the team's debts and supported the new alliance with a brand new, unique engine. It was a flat-12 engine. Chiti's Motori Moderni company at Novara had supplied V6 turbo engines for the Minardi team from 1985 to 1987, in 1988 Chiti had penned a aspirated V12 engine that attracted Subaru. In late 1988, the Japanese commissioned Chiti to design a new Formula One engine with a "flat" layout — as used in their road cars —, ready in the summer of 1989.
The engine, now with a Subaru badge, was tested in a Minardi M188 chassis but due to a severe lack of power Minardi soon lost interest. After a few months of searching, Subaru found the Coloni team; the "Subaru Coloni" Team was founded with Enzo Coloni st
1992 Formula One World Championship
The 1992 Formula One World Championship was the 46th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 1 March and ended on 8 November. Nigel Mansell won the Drivers' Championship, Williams-Renault won the Constructors' Championship. Mansell won the first five races of the season and went on to become the first driver in Formula One history to win nine races in a single season, he sealed the Drivers' Championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix in mid-August, with five races still to run, becoming the first Briton to win the championship since James Hunt in 1976. Reigning champion Ayrton Senna won three races for McLaren-Honda but could only manage fourth in the championship, with Mansell's Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese finishing second and young Michael Schumacher third for Benetton-Ford. Schumacher took the first of his 91 Formula One race victories at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1992 FIA Formula One World Championship. The four major teams all kept at least one driver from 1991, with the two main title challengers both fielding unchanged driver lineups. McLaren kept reigning World Champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Gerhard Berger from the 1991 season Williams retained Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese. Ferrari replaced Alain Prost with Ivan Capelli Benetton retained Michael Schumacher, now paired with Martin Brundle. Further down the grid, the Jordan team took a risk by replacing both drivers after their successful debut season. Jordan switched from Ford V8 engines and ran Yamaha V12s instead. Brabham went on to hire the first female F1 driver since Desiré Wilson in 1980 season as the experienced but struggling British marque hired Giovanna Amati as its second driver; the impoverished Coloni team had been sold and renamed Andrea Moda Formula, a team that itself would become part of Formula One infamy. This was the first of 2 seasons in Formula One's history where the calendar had races on all 6 inhabited continents.
In terms of safety, this season saw the introduction of stricter pre-season crash tests and the official use of a Safety Car in the sport. The season started off in South Africa at the newly rebuilt Kyalami circuit near the high altitude city of Johannesburg where Mansell took pole ahead of Senna, Patrese and Schumacher. At the start, Patrese overtook both McLarens and Berger lost out to both Alesi and Schumacher as well; the order was: Mansell, Senna, Alesi and Berger. Mansell pulled away from Patrese, under no pressure at all from Senna. Brundle spun off on the first lap in the Benetton and retired with a broken clutch. Alesi was well behind Senna and had a comfortable gap to Schumacher, whom Berger could do nothing about; the pit stops left the order unchanged, it held until Alesi's engine failed on lap 41. Andrea de Cesaris was sixth. Mansell won the race with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 ahead of Senna, Schumacher and Johnny Herbert. Mansell had won the previous South African Grand Prix, held in 1985, in a Williams-Honda.
3 weeks after the South African race and with the cancellation of the United States Grand Prix in Phoenix having supposed to have been held 2 weeks after South Africa, there was some controversy surrounding the next race in Mexico: the venue for this race, the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome in Mexico City had an appallingly bumpy track surface, thanks to the circuit being located on a geologically active area. It had a dauntingly fast final corner called the Peraltada, 180 degrees and banked. Although the banking had been eased from the previous year, making the corner slower, the bumps were still disastrous as Ayrton Senna hit a nasty bump in the Esses and crashed into a concrete wall, receiving severe bruising, he was cleared fit enough to race. The Williamses were 1–2 in qualifying in Mexico ahead of the Benettons and the McLarens with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, Brundle and Senna. At the start, Senna blasted past his teammate and the Benettons with Brundle getting ahead of Schumacher.
The order was: Mansell, Senna, Brundle and Berger. Schumacher passed Brundle on lap 2 and soon afterwards there was a big queue behind Senna, having some sort of trouble. Schumacher got past on lap 7 and the rest were relieved of being stuck up when Senna retired with transmission troubles on lap 11. After the stops, Berger got ahead of Brundle only to be passed two laps later. Berger repassed Brundle on lap 36. Brundle got back ahead on lap 39 only for Berger to repass him two laps later. Brundle was back in fourth on lap 44 but retired with engine trouble three laps ending the battle for fourth. At the front, Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 again ahead of Schumacher, Berger, de Cesaris and Mika Häkkinen. For the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, the Williamses were ahead of the McLarens with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese with Senna third in front of his home crowd ahead of Berger and Alesi. On the parade lap, Berger had to start at the back. At the start, Mansell was poor and Patrese blasted ahead of him with Brundle getting ahead of Alesi.
The order was: Patrese, Senna, Schumacher and Alesi. Berger had to retire after only 4 laps in the pits with electrical failure; the Williamses pulled away while Senna was holding
1992 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1992 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 31 May 1992 at the Circuit de Monaco. It was the sixth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship; the 78-lap race was won by Ayrton Senna. Drivers' Championship leader Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Williams-Renault and led until lap 71, when he suspected he had a puncture and made a pit stop for new tyres, he emerged behind Senna, closed up to the Brazilian and tried to find a way past but without success, Senna holding on to win by 0.2 seconds. It was Senna's fifth Monaco Grand Prix win, equalling the record set by Graham Hill. Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese was third, half a minute behind, with the top six completed by the Benettons of Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle and the Larrousse of Bertrand Gachot; the first five races of the championship had ended with Williams driver Nigel Mansell leading the Drivers Championship by 26 points having achieved five race wins in a row. Team-mate Riccardo Patrese was second having with 24 points.
Their Williams team was leading the Constructors Championship with 74 points. Reigning World Champion Ayrton Senna of McLaren was only in fourth place, having accumulated eight points. However, the Monaco Grand Prix had only been won in the last eight years by either Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost, but Nigel Mansell was looking to achieve his first win at Monaco having won the previous five races. There were no changes to the driver line-up from the previous race, however before the race Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo had to publicly announce Ivan Capelli's position within the Ferrari team was "safe" in response to criticism from the Italian Autosprint magazine about Capelli's recent performances. Autosport had reported on the Thursday before the race that Capelli was "about to be replaced" according to "Italian rumours", highlighting the fact Gianni Morbidelli had carried out most of Ferrari's testing work at the Imola circuit before the Monaco race. Ferrari had released a statement in response to Morbidelli's testing of the Ferrari F92A saying Capelli had been "on holiday" but Capelli denied this was the case.
Team Lotus brought a second new 107 chassis for Mika Häkkinen at Monaco as only one 107 had been available for Herbert at San Marino. The car had been "shaken down" at Hethel in Norfolk by Olivier Beretta before being taken to Monaco The pre-qualifying session on the Thursday morning lasted for one hour and started at 8:00 local time, in warm and sunny weather conditions. Michele Alboreto ended up fastest in the session. Bertrand Gachot pre-qualified without drama and finished second fastest with a best time of 1:25.980. Roberto Moreno finished third fastest promoting the Andrea Moda team into the main qualifying session for the first time. Andrea Chiesa was the final pre-qualifier in fourth place with a best time of 1:27.756. Ukyo Katayama was slowed by a slight oil leak and only managed a 1:28.310 before crashing at Tabac in the final minutes of session, finishing with the 5th fastest time and becoming the only driver other than Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy to not pre-qualify in 1992.
Perry McCarthy in his Andrea Moda S921 only managed two laps at the beginning of the session and subsequently did not record a time. The team wanted his Andrea Moda S921 car to be ready as a spare for his team mate Moreno, should he have needed it. Two practice sessions were held before the race. Both sessions lasted 45 minutes; the first practice session took place under hazy weather conditions. Nigel Mansell was fastest in the first practice session, 0.883 seconds ahead of Ayrton Senna in second, with Gerhard Berger in third and Michael Schumacher fourth. Michele Alboreto took advantage of his extra running in the earlier pre-qualifying session by finishing sixth fastest, with Andrea de Cesaris's Tyrrell in seventh and Karl Wendlinger's March eighth. Ferrari tried out a new traction control device and electronic differential on Jean Alesi's F92A car and he finished the session ninth fastest. Alesi still said the engine "needed better response" though. Stefano Modena who qualified on the front row of the grid in the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix achieved the tenth fastest time and showed improvement with the Jordan 192 having failed to qualify for two races with Jordan in 1992.
The qualifying session was split into two one-hour sessions. The fastest time from either sessions counted towards their final grid position; the Thursday afternoon qualifying session was held under overcast conditions. Nigel Mansell finished Thursday qualifying fastest with a 1:20.714. Ayrton Senna was second fastest ahead of Ricardo Patrese in third. Gerhard Berger was fourth fastest with a time of 1:22.359, but halfway through the session his McLaren's front suspension broke at Massenet causing him to crash into the barriers. Berger commented: I was pushing hard and the car just didn't turn into the corner. I think, it was a big shunt. I'm surprised. Jean Alesi had a spin in the session and was forced to use the spare Ferrari F92A on used tyres, however he still finished with the fifth fastest time. Michael Schumacher rounded out the top six with Andrea de Cesaris up in seventh place in the Tyrrell 020B. Having pre-qualified for the first time with Andrea Moda, Roberto Moreno continued to show improved speed by posting a 1:25.185 in the first twenty minutes, which put him 11th on the grid
Alex Caffi
Roberto Moreno
Perry McCarthy
