1988 Benetton B188

Gaining an edge is the name of the game in Formula One. It always has been and always will be the case. However, when Benetton unveiled their Cosworth-powered B188 at the beginning of the 1988 season many thought the decision was ill-advised, that both Benetton and Ford had forgotten what it took to be successful in Formula One. In hindsight, the decision would be an amazing show of trust and unity between the two entities and would be a model of partnership heading into the 1990s.

The mid-1980s was the turbo era in Formula One. Thin carbon-fiber chassis would be powered by absolutely beastly engines capable of producing well over 1,000 bhp in qualifying trim. Unfortunately, the Benetton Group would be late arrivals to the party as they would purchase the Toleman team late in 1985.

Ever since Toleman's debut in Formula One in 1981 their chassis had been powered by privateer Hart engines. While these engines were good they were no match for the Honda and the Cosworths powering other teams at the time. However, unlike Toleman, the Benetton Group had the funds to be able to pay for a better engine package. As a result of the extra capital, the newly-named Benetton Team would be able to purchase the use of BMW engines for the 1986 season. Even still, what Benetton would get would be BMW's ugly and underperforming step-child.

The deal with Toleman and BMW would leave designer Rory Byrne very little time to design a whole new car. In fact, he would wait to start until he knew the deal with BMW would be done. As a result, Byrne would not focus so much on creating the most efficient and best handling design. He would create a stable platform, and then, would focus on creating enough spares for the whole of a season. Development of the chassis really would be relatively minimal throughout the year.

Of course, the greatest design challenge Byrne faced would be in the cockpit as he had two drivers that could not have been any more different in height. Teo Fabi was one of the team's drivers and he was quite short. The team's other driver would be Gerhard Berger, and he stood 6 feet tall.

Aided by an engine capable of producing well in excess of 1,000 bhp, the B186 would be competitive at every single race and were usually one of the fastest cars on the circuit. This would more than overcome the deficiencies in the design. In fact, it would overshadow the car's deficiencies so much that Berger would manage to take the victory in the Mexican Grand Prix toward the end of the year. Speaking of the power and the sensation Gerhard Berger would recall an experience in Zeltweg when, 'down the long straight to the Bosch Kurve, the car was throwing out 1400 bhp and just kept on pushing—you felt like you were sitting on a rocket.'

Berger would use this rocket to great effect at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. So while the team may have been late to the ball, it would certainly make a splashy entrance with its brightly-colored livery and victory in its first season as a team. The performance of the Benetton team would be a surprise to just about everyone, including BMW themselves as they believed Brabham would be the fastest team

Benetton had stormed into Formula One surprising just about everyone, especially since memories of the Toleman team still floated through the minds of those in and around Formula One. This debut performance would cause Ford to take notice and they would approach the Benetton team about becoming the work's team for the turbocharged Ford TEC V6 engine. Benetton would agree to the proposal. Again, Byrne would be forced with a late decision to switch engines and would be pushed to respond similarly to the previous season.

Sticking with the same basic design of the B186, just with some evolutions, the toned-down livery of the B187 would be symbolic of the performance of the car throughout the 1987 season. The car would perform well and would be consistently challenging McLaren, Williams, Lotus and Ferrari, but unfortunately, the best result the pair of Teo Fabi and Thierry Boutsen would manage to garner throughout the season would be a 3rd place result apiece. Fabi would earn his 3rd place in the Austrian Grand Prix while Boutsen would earn his at the Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the season.

However, the 1988 season would see these powerful beasts roam free one more time. Benetton had been late to the party before. And were it not for the sheer power of the BMW and Ford engines it was more than likely they would not have been as competitive as they were. So the team had a very important decision to make, heading into both the near and distant future.

Thankfully for Benetton, Ford would be onboard in helping the team make the decision. In a world where results mean the difference between an engine supplier staying with a team or not, the decision by Ford to look toward the future certainly had to be comforting heading into what would end up being an absolutely demoralizing season.

The 1988 season wouldn't be demoralizing due to anything Benetton did on the racetrack. In fact, it would only be demoralizing for what McLaren-Honda was able to achieve on the racetrack. With its MP4/4 McLaren-Honda would go on to win all but one race throughout the whole of the 1988 season. Every other team looked like an also-ran. This would help to hide the fact Benetton would be the only team in all of Formula One to line up on the grid with normally-aspirated engines during the season.

The decision to switch and run normally-aspirated engines wasn't much of a bad pill for Benetton to swallow. Looking toward the future, both Benetton and Ford believed they would be arriving early for the party to come the following season when the turbo-powered car would be banned. In addition, the last victory by a normally-aspirated engine in Formula One during the turbo era would be by a Cosworth engine. This would offer even more confidence heading into the 1989 season.

Therefore, 1988 would be something of a dress-rehearsal for the team's real assault on the World Championship the following year. Cosworth's new engine, branded the DFR, would be a derivative of the DFY engine that scored the last victory for a normally-aspirated engine. And, of course, the DFY was merely an evolution of the famed DFV V8 Cosworth that had powered so many championship and race winning cars of earlier decades.

Cosworth would set about building a competitive Formula One engine. Eventually, by the end of the 1988 the engine would be producing around 620 bhp at about 12,000 rpms. Produced with a 3.5-liter displacement and the usual 90 degree V8 layout, Rory Byrne would have his engine around which he would design his car. And what he and his drivers would have to work with was an engine capable of producing more than 60 percent more power than the original 1967 DFV.

Each evolution of Byrne's chassis would still bear quite a bit of similarity with its predecessor. The B186 would feature a side-profile shape similar to that of a triangle with the nose rising steeply from the low-positioned front wing, to the roll-over hoop and back down over the turbo-powered engine.

The B187 would follow along the same lines as the B186. However, the nose would be much more narrow and pointed compared to the relatively flat and wide nose used on the B186. One other very small change would concern the air scoop and their positioning along the car. The B186 would feature just a single air scoop directing air to the turbocharger. In the case of the B187, another air scoop would be added to the side of the chassis on top of the radiator sidepods and behind the cockpit. These air scoops would actually be a little further forward of the single one used for the BMW enginemoved slightly further forward. And instead of the dominant triangular shape when viewed from the side, the bodywork covering the engine would fall similarly to the B186 but would flatten out over the top of the engine. The turbocharger and the exhaust itself would actually be exposed along the side of the car's bodywork just ahead of the rear wheels.

Throughout the last few years the teams' designers really didn't have to concern themselves with anything protruding above the head of the driver with the exception of the roll-over bar. Gone were the extravagant, tall and massive air scoops that had dominated the Formula One landscape throughout the 1970s. However, normally-aspirated engines were coming back, the desire to feed ram air to the engine had returned. This meant many designers having to incorporated air scoops in their designs for the first time in a while.

As Byrne set about designing his new car for the 1988 and 1989 seasons he would quickly come to realize he had already made plans for such a move in regulations. The B187 featured air scoops on either side of the car. This would seem like the perfect solution for sending air flowing to the engine. This also meant the area above the driver's head would be kept relatively clear, again with the exception of the roll-over bar.

To ensure the maximum amount of airflow to the engine, Byrne would move the scoops even further forward up along the top of the radiator sidepods. Byrne would stick with this design to keep the turbulent area above the driver's head clear. The air scoops would be dramatically rounded and would blend back along the top of the engine bonnet feeding air to the V8 engine lying underneath.

Byrne would keep the narrow and pointed nose with sharp rise in the bodywork. This design would help to direct the airflow up and over the driver sitting tall in the cockpit. Aerodynamics would be very important with the new engine's output at a little more than 600 bhp. Therefore, Byrne would curve and contour the design of the bodywork along the nose of the car to the much less boxy and large radiator inlets. Otherwise, the B188 would bear a good deal of similarity to the B187 and B186 that had come before it.

The B188 would retain the single piece main-plane front wing. The front suspension of the B188 would be the same as that used on the B187 and B186. All would use a double wishbone arrangement with push-rod springs and dampers. The same arrangement would be utilized on the rear suspension as well.

Braking power for the B188 would come from the use of carbon ceramic disc brakes on all four wheels. Cooling these brakes would be very important as their temperature range ran quite high. Therefore, in order to provide the cooling that would help the brakes maintain their effectiveness the front wheels would have tall rectangular air scoops. These scoops would protrude ahead of the wheels to ensure undisturbed airflow to the brakes.

One final, and unusual, feature of the B188 would be the layout at the back of the engine. The fully-stressed engine would attach straight to the back of the carbon-fiber monocoque chassis. However, attached to the back of the engine Byrne would fit the gears in between the engine and the final drive. This would prove to be a smart move as it would help maintain the overall balance of the car giving the B188 some rather friendly handling characteristics.

The rear wing would be practically the same as that had been used over the previous couple of seasons. It would feature a main plane, as well as, a lower plane. This lower plane would be the attachment point for the twin-pillar supports. However, under load, the rear wing had a tendency to flex a little beyond what the pillars could handle over the course of a race. Therefore, stability stringers would be used to resist the forces acting on the rear wing.

Heading into the 1988 season Benetton knew the outlook didn't look that good competing against other turbo-powered cars. A season of frustration lay ahead, but, Benetton would find themselves not alone as McLaren made all comers look entirely out-classed. Still, Benetton would be encouraged about the future as they would still end the season 3rd in the Constructors' title fight behind McLaren-Honda and Ferrari.

Benetton and Ford were looking to the future and they seemed poised for a strong run. Unfortunately, heading into the 1989 season, the other teams had time to develop new cars and engines for the upcoming season. Still, Benetton had all of its keys in place well ahead of time, and that would include its drivers.

Alessandro Nannini would be back with the team. However, the team's choice for the number two driver would be highly controversial. The choice of Johnny Herbert wasn't necessarily a bad one as most believed he had been on course to be the next great in Formula One. However, many would question the decision when Herbert, just about seven months earlier, had been involved in a terrible accident and nearly lost one of his legs as a result of the terrible event. Many didn't think Herbert would be up to the task.

Herbert would have his opportunity to prove everyone wrong heading into the first round of the 1989 Formula One World Championship. And despite having a car designed one year earlier and being down on power compared to some of the other teams, Herbert would not only out-qualify Nannini in his Formula One debut, but, would drive a truly splendid race to finish 4th, nearly nine seconds ahead of his teammate.

While the B188 would allow Benetton to arrive early for the ball for once, it was clear it was still lacking the power and the ability of teams like McLaren-Honda, Scuderia Ferrari and Williams. Besides Herbert's 4th place result in the Brazilian Grand Prix in the first round of the World Championship that year, the best result the B188 would give the team would be a 3rd place finish by Alessandro Nannini in the San Marino Grand Prix.

Benetton had been poised in great position to start the 1989 season. However, by the early part of the season it was clear their B188 was already lacking compared to some of the other teams. Still, it served as a strong foundation for the B189 that would come on about halfway through the season. The B188 would lead to the B189 scoring a victory and another podium result before the end of the season. Unfortunately though, the Cosworth would not be the first to score victory for a normally-aspirated engine. And in any case, the B188 would allow Byrne to focus on updates to the design since the basic package was already present and accounted for. This would eventually lead to a victory at the end of the 1989 season and two the year after that.

Those meeting with Ford throughout the 1987 season would be instrumental in Benetton making its rise during the early 1990s. However, were it not for the partnership of Benetton and Ford, the trust in each other and the commitment to look forward to the future, the team may never have experienced the success it would in time. In many ways, the B188 would be evidence of Benetton having its eye toward the future and would be indirectly involved in the success of Michael Schumacher. And when Johnny Herbert returned to the team in 1995, he would have the opportunity to experience the fruits of the B188's labor during those later-days of the 1980s.

Sources:
'Benetton B188 Ford', (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/4819/Benetton-B188-Ford.html). Ultimatecarpage.com: Powered by Knowledge, Driven by Passion. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/4819/Benetton-B188-Ford.html. Retrieved 31 May 2012.

Wikipedia contributors, 'Benetton Formula', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 April 2012, 14:11 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benetton_Formula&oldid=485904964 accessed 31 May 2012

Wikipedia contributors, 'Benetton B186', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 February 2012, 00:20 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benetton_B186&oldid=475314008 accessed 31 May 2012

By Jeremy McMullen