Scrub Era F1: 1990 - A New Decade Begins

[dr-baker]

Giovanna Amati is a free agent to anybody who wants to borrow her from First Life if anybody wants to give her a Second Life in the sport.

For a nominal fee to First Life of course.

[Aislabie]

Alain Prost wins the 1990 World Drivers Championship


Prost's McLaren team is sponsored by Camel for the first time this year.

France's Alain Prost has won his fourth Formula One World Drivers Championship, continuing McLaren's reign of dominance at the top of the sport.He did so by claiming his 46th Grand Prix win, further extending his lead at the top of the all time list ahead of Jackie Stewart (27), Jim Clark and Niki Lauda (both 25).

The McLaren-Honda driver said after his victory that "Yes, well I am [thrilled], but I was not very happy with the car. We had a lot of problems and the car was not so good."

[Rob Dylan]

Giovanna Amati is a free agent to anybody who wants to borrow her from First Life if anybody wants to give her a Second Life in the sport.

For a nominal fee to First Life of course.

How much do I have to pay to get Life back on the grid for the next round?

[dr-baker]

Giovanna Amati is a free agent to anybody who wants to borrow her from First Life if anybody wants to give her a Second Life in the sport.

For a nominal fee to First Life of course.

How much do I have to pay to get Life back on the grid for the next round?

Aislabie, answer please?

[Aislabie]

How much do I have to pay to get Life back on the grid for the next round?

In other news...

Ellen Lohr accepts the drive with Rial, and would bring £130,000 of funding for a full season. This amounts to £16,250 for the remaining two races.

Allan McNish accepts the drive with Lotus (as discussed on Discord), and would bring £118,000 of funding for a full season. This amounts to £14,750 for the remaining two races.

[Collieafc]

Tyrrell are very pleased with Hakkinens outing with the team and will be exploring the possibility of signing Mika for 1991 in some capacity. We would also formally invite Mika to drive for Tyrrell at the indoor motorsport competition - Tyrrell will provide this without the need for the Flying Finn to take a budget to The indoor trophy

[SeleneGomas]

How much do I have to pay to get Life back on the grid for the next round?

In other news...

Ellen Lohr accepts the drive with Rial, and would bring £130,000 of funding for a full season. This amounts to £16,250 for the remaining two races.

Allan McNish accepts the drive with Lotus (as discussed on Discord), and would bring £118,000 of funding for a full season. This amounts to £14,750 for the remaining two races.

Can you please drop the link for the discord server where this took place?

[Frogfoot9013]

Can you please drop the link for the discord server where this took place?

https://discord.com/invite/6YDQ3aV

This should be it.

[Collieafc]

Due to Tarquini's injuries not being healed (or rather, having just looked at the previous RNGs on Discord), Tyrrell would like to rquest an additional medical for De Cesaris. if De Cesaris is not fit to return (ether because the medical says so or he does not feel up to a return just yet), Tyrrell will ask Hakkinen if he wishes to stand in again.

Tyrrell would also like to offer Hakkinen a seat for 1991 if possible.

[Forti]

May I take Fondmetal Larrousse? If not, can I join the waiting list?

Edit: If I do take control of Fondmetal I will send both Marco Apicella and Geoff Brabham to the Indoor Trophy, essentially taking the place of Williams. The Indoor Trophy will serve as an evaluation for if I keep them next year and if so, which driver I select to stay.

[Aislabie]

Well I certainly never meant for our first season to take longer in real-life time than it did in in-game time, but here we are for some Scrub Era in-season RNGs

Tyrrell would like to rquest an additional medical for De Cesaris. if De Cesaris is not fit to return (ether because the medical says so or he does not feel up to a return just yet), Tyrrell will ask Hakkinen if he wishes to stand in again.

First things first, Tyrrell have asked that Andrea de Cesaris receives a full medical before he gets back into the car, citing what happened with Gabriele Tarquini's recent outing where he returned from an injury very off the pace

1-40 - he's fully recovered, the doctor finds that there's nothing wrong with him
41-70 - he's in some discomfort but is passed as being fit to race
71-90 - he's evidently still in pain, but the doctor leaves the decision up to Andrea and the team
91-100 - still obviously injured, the doctor stands him down from this race too

92 - When Ken Tyrrell goes to de Cesaris' hotel room later on, he finds both the Italian and his luggage gone. Later that evening, Tuttosport publishes an interview with de Cesaris where he accuses Tyrrell of "finding an excuse to push me out of the door" and suggesting that "if the medical had been clear, he'd just have found another reason". De Cesaris says that he'll never race again for the British team, but that 1990 has showed he still has plenty to offer another team in Formula One.

Tyrrell would also like to offer Hakkinen a seat for 1991 if possible.

On an entirely unrelated note, the reason Ken Tyrrell took so long to meet with de Cesaris was because he was busy in an important meeting with Mika Hakkinen. The Finn just so happened to be in Suzuka this weekend.

In addition to asking him to step in for the last two races of the season, Ken would like to arrange a handshake deal with the Finn to race for the team in 1991 too. Hakkinen responds with:
1-40 - "Of course Mr Tyrrell, I hugely appreciate the opportunity you have given me to race in Formula One."
41-70 - "Thank you so much Mr Tyrrell, but surely Andrea and Gerhard are the team's drivers until the end of the year?"
71-90 - "Thank you for the offer Mr Tyrrell, but please could we have this conversation again at the end of the season?"
91-100 - "I think I'd rather keep my options open next year, Ken. Top teams have been talking about paying me."

63 - Hakkinen shakes Ken's hand to drive for the Japanese Grand Prix and the 1991 season. Later on, when he hears about the circumstances of the Italian driver's departure from the team he...
1-50 - shrugs, accepts the Australia drive too and carries on with his day
51-100 - phones de Cesaris to hear his side of the story

17 - All is well in the Tyrrell garage.

May I take Fondmetal Larrousse? If not, can I join the waiting list?

Edit: If I do take control of Fondmetal I will send both Marco Apicella and Geoff Brabham to the Indoor Trophy, essentially taking the place of Williams. The Indoor Trophy will serve as an evaluation for if I keep them next year and if so, which driver I select to stay.

I'll pop you on the waiting list for the time being, but I will autopilot Fondmetal to the Indoor Trophy with the same driver pairing you've requested.

[Aislabie]

There were a lot of shenanigans coming into this race, which have led to some very different line-ups up and down the grid. First and most unfortunate, two drivers whose careers have apparently been ended by injuries: Williams' Sandro Nannini and Lotus' Luis Perez-Sala. They have been replaced by Michael Schumacher (the German prospect racing this year for Rial) and Allan McNish (fresh off an exciting season for DAMS in F3000).

Elsewhere, Mika Hakkinen will keep the second Tyrrell seat to the consternation of its incumbent Andrea de Cesaris; Ellen Lohr replaces Schumacher at Rial and Toshio Suzuki replaces Oscar Larrauri at EuroBrun Subaru to get a local driver in the event for the Japanese engine marque
Not that they will be making it past...

Pre-Qualifying
The EuroBrun Subarus are bottom and second-bottom of the Friday session, as has been their position since First-Life ran out of money. There were a couple of shocks in who else missed out along with them though: Stefan Johansson came 11th in the session for Monteverdi, and Lotus-Isuzu's Allan McNish failed to get to grips with the car after being thrown in cold without practice.

That meant that both Minardis sneaked into the main event (8th and 10th), as did the Fondmetal of Geoff Brabham, the Onyx of Volker Weidler and the Rial of Bernd Schneider alongside a host of usual suspects. Some drivers were very unimpressed by the amount of traffic they encountered on their hot laps, as the EuroBruns in particular got in far more track time than usual for the smattering of local fans who'd arrived unreasonably early.

Main Qualifying
As always four drivers have to miss out on the show. Those four are Eric Bernard (Leyton House), Gabriele Tarquini (Scuderia Italia), Erik Comas (AGS) and Ukyo Katayama (Lamborghini). This meant that an ecstatic Bernd Schneider was able to take his place on the grid for the second time this season - last time, he bagged an 8th place result.

At the front, Alain Prost took pole position ahead of Thierry Boutsen and - on his Williams debut - Michael Schumacher. Ayrton Senna was the leading Ferrari, but he could manage only eighth just behind Stefano Modena. Of course, points aren't given out until...

Race Day
The race was a couple of minutes late in getting going as the Fomet-1 of Geoff Brabham failed to get away from the first startline he'd been on all season. Once he was pushed out of the way, the race got going for real and four more drivers were quickly knocked out of it.

Thierry Boutsen made an over-ambitious lunge into Turn 1 and could not find adhesion around the outside of a McHonda. Instead, he found gravel and was beached. Further around the lap, a small pile-up around the Casio Triangle saw the end first of Jean Alesi, then also of Blundell and Nakajima who were unsighted by battling cars ahead of them. One person who did notice the unfolding mayhem was Philippe Alliot - he saw the opportunity to make up for a poor start by diving up the escape road and straight-lining the chicane. He would be shown the black flag by some very unimpressed stewards.

At the front end, Gerhard Berger managed to spin out of the race from third place on the road - he underestimated just how stoutly the young Schumacher would defend P2. Ironically, he was then asked by his team to give up the position as 90MANSELL was right behind him. He played the team game to favour the most desirable racing driver in the history of F1.

Mansell then took an early first pit stop, forcing the World Champion elect to pit to cover him. This put Schumacher in clean air and in the lead of the race. Stefano Modena had climbed all the way to second place, ahead of the two drivers who had both boxed. After another dozen laps, it was clear that Williams were splitting their strategies. By the time Schumacher made his one and only stop, both Prost and Mansell's tyres were starting to wear and the British driver had started to fall back.

The battle for the win came down to the now four-time World Champion and the young German who had never once been in this position before. There was still chaos happening further back in the field, but the TV director could not have given less of a shite. Prost pitted for the second and final time and came out 12 seconds behind the race leader and marginally behind the one-stopping Footwork of Modena. Mansell was now out of contention.

On Lap 44, Prost dived past Modena into 130R with the benefit of a strong slipstream and a stronger Renault engine. On Lap 45 he closed on Schumacher by three tenths. On Lap 46, it was four tenths. On Lap 47, three again.

It wasn't going to be enough. The young German driver had done what nobody had expected - he had turned a tragic accident for Sandro Nannini into a fairytale story for the team. On Lap 53, he crossed the start-finish line for the last time, six seconds ahead of Prost's McLaren. In third place, Stefano Modena also made the one-stop work. Mansell, Brundle and Mika Hakkinen rounded out the points positions.



There were no injuries, and no changes to the PreQ teams following this race.

[Aislabie]

Pre-Qualifying
The event starts as always with the all-important Pre-Qualifying session, where some competent teams will be trying to drive around the traffic well enough to set one of the top 10 laptimes. One driver who shocked everyone was Heinz-Harald Frentzen: the Lotus man hasn't missed a single race start this season, but after running into traffic several times, he pushed too hard on his final flying lap and went off the track. He was fine, but he missed out on the rest of the weekend by one 20th of a second.

His teammate McNish was much more successful, and his P2 showed what Frentzen could have done if not for the vagaries of traffic. The Arrows Lola cars were P1 and P3, and stood as one of only two teams to get both cars through the Friday session - the other being Minardi, whose drivers Caffi and Capelli booked themselves into P7 and P9 respectively.

Much much further back, Paolo Barilla put in a superb drive, outpacing Toshio Suzuki by almost three seconds. And that was really all the drama before...

Main Qualifying
In a very normal session indeed, 90MANSELL claimed the very last pole position of the season, with a slender lead of 0.135 seconds from the sport's Frenchest driver, Philippe Alliot. Behind them, Boutsen, Alesi, Prost and Senna rounded out a top six that contained five different teams
The Tyrrells, who might have expected to do very well at such a twisty circuit, found themselves all the way down in 11th and 15th - by no means out of Sunday points contention, but far lower than they would have liked.

The drivers on "row fourteen" who would be watching the race from the paddock despite their best efforts were Footwork's Aguri Suzuki, Leyton House's Eric Bernard, Arrows' Hitoshi Ogawa and Monteverdi's Stefan Johansson.

Australian Grand Prix
This race began, as so many Grands Prix do, with a pile-up at the very first attempt. This one happened right at the back as Mark Blundell tried to defend against the fast-starting Alex Caffi through the opening chicane. In fairness to Blundell, Caffi did not get past. In fairness to Caffi, that was because Blundell drove into him.

At the same time, Gerhard Berger found himself on the outside of Gabriele Tarquini, and all three of the unfortunate cars ended up in a nice little line against the tyre barrier. Tarquini carried on unscathed.

Philippe Alliot made a quite different kind of start: he pulled past Nigel Mansell's Williams and drove away at full throttle. The 36-year-old Frenchman has already won one race in what is proving to be quite the Indian summer of his racing career. Could another one be on the cards?

The Grand Prix settled into a bit of a rhythm at that point. It was what the purists would call a "slow burn", and what everyone else would call "incredibly boring". All of that changed quite suddenly on Lap 31 when Jean Alesi emerged from the pit lane with a loose wheel. Even if he had managed to coax it around a lap, he'd've dropped out of contention. But he didn't: he parked it instead - but not before Thierry Boutsen wasted about three seconds being very confused by the wobbly McLaren.

That was enough for the battling Prost and Senna to emerge from their pit stops ahead of him, now fighting for the third place on the podium
Mansell had overcut Alliot in the pit sequence, but the fast Frenchman was still hot on his tail, and no wonder - on low fuel at the end of his first stint, he set what would remain the race's fastest lap. Unfortunately for Alliot, his Ferrari power unit was made of finest Italian engineering: it exploded, ending his race just before the halfway point.

Prost and Senna were now the fastest cars on track, gaining on Mansell's Williams. The British driver still held all the aces, but was having to drive flat out to stay safely ahead. The two rivals closed on him, a fragile détente held together by a mutual desire to challenge for the win. With 23 to go, they both loomed large in the Williams' mirrors.

But of the three, Mansell had to take his final stop first: without even the opportunity to put up a fight, he lost two positions that he may well have held onto in a straight fight. Prost and Senna pitted line astern, and emerged line astern, but with the red car in front! Ayrton Senna led the Australian Grand Prix from his bitterest rival.

It took him four laps, but Prost bullied his way back past with a staggering move into the Dequetteville Hairpin. Two laps later, Senna barged back through into Wakefield Corner. Five more laps after that, Prost faked left then dived right to make the pass at Brewery Corner. With neither driver able to establish a decisive lead, this would all be about making the right pass at the right time.

Senna stayed in second, not challenging, until Lap 80 of 81. Then, he tucked himself right under the rear wing of the McLaren and got a huge slipstream. He tried to pull out, but Prost blocked him, covering the inside line at Dequetteville. It cost him a difficult run through the three left-hand kinks, but he stayed ahead with one lap to go. 3.8 kilometres left to decide a winner. (Mansell, despite not battling for position, couldn't keep up with the two leaders).

Senna again tucked himself into the slipstream. Again he ducked out, faking to the inside line. Prost covered him. Senna dived left, but there's no way around the outside of the hairpin. Prost's line was awkward, but Senna's was optimal through the left-handers. He stayed close and dived into the Foster's hairpin. Now Prost had the better line. The two cars drove for the line, seemingly neck and neck. Which one is ahead?

The timing screen says that AYRTON SENNA DO BRASIUUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIIINS the Australian Grand Prix! Prost is in second, just 0.031 seconds back. Mansell is in third. Fourth is Eric van de Poele. Fifth is Boutsen, six tenths ahead of Footwork's Stefano Modena

While the broadcast was focussing on the battles between the frontrunners though, there were big accidents that got very limited airtime. Fortunately, both Hakkinen and Brundle proved to be fine, and the gloss would not be taken off a momentous Ferrari victory.



Mika Hakkinen sustained a sprained ankle, but it's the end of the season and there's plenty of time to heal before the Indoor Trophy.

[Aislabie]

Please note that we currently have 10 of the possible 16 entries for the Indoor Trophy. This is absolutely fine, but if you have any last-minute entries then now is the time: I'm planning to run the event tomorrow afternoon.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Monteverdi will enter the Indoor Trophy with Stefan Johansson as our driver

[Aislabie]

Winning Elsewhere in the 1990 Season

Formula 3000

International F3000

1. JJ Lehto (DAMS) - 52 points (4 wins)
2. Allan McNish (DAMS) - 35 points (3 wins)
3. Martin Donnelly (GA Motorsport) - 33 points (3 wins)
4. Eddie Irvine (Eddie Jordan Racing) - 33 points (1 win)
5. Andrea Chiesa (Paul Stewart Racing) - 23 points
6. Andrea Montermini (Madgwick International) - 16 points
7. Jean-Marc Gounon (Madgwick International) - 14 points
8. Antonio Tamburini (Roni Motorsport) - 11 points
9. John Jones (Paul Stewart Racing) - 10 points
10. Vincenzo Sospiri (Eddie Jordan Racing) - 8 points

Japanese F3000

1. Kazuyoshi Hoshino (Team Impul) - 58 points (6 wins, 8 points dropped)

British F3000

1. Pedro Matos Chaves (Mansell Madgwick Motorsport) - 62 points (5 wins)

- - - - -

Formula Three

British F3

1. Mika Hakkinen (West Surrey Racing) - 116 points (8 wins, 1 point dropped)

French F3

1. Eric Helary (West Surrey Racing) - 101 points (4 wins)

German F3

1. Otto Rensing (Volkswagen Motorsport) - 135 points (4 wins)

Italian F3

1. Roberto Colciago (RC Motorsport) - 38 points (3 wins)

Japanese F3

1. Naoki Hattori Le Garage Cox - 49 points (3 wins)

Mexican F3

1. Carlos Guerrero (Dasatec)

F3 Sudamericana

1. Christian Fittipaldi (Fittipaldi Competicion) - 49 points (3 wins)

- - - - -

Notable Races

Indianapolis 500
Arie Luyendyk

Le Mans 24 Hours
Martin Brundle,
Price Cobb,
John Nielsen

Macau Grand Prix
Mika Salo

F3 European Cup
Alessandro Zanardi

Macau F3 Grand Prix
Laurent Aiello

[Aislabie]

Hello and welcome to the very last event of the 1990 Formula One season, the Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show, the biggest carpark-based F1 event since the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. The circuit layout is this rinky-dink nonsense:



The format is that of a knockout tournament, with each head-to-head being contested in the form of a best of three hot laps And we have eleven entries for this prestigious event:

• Michele Alboreto (Equipe Ligier Lancia)
• Giovanna Amati (First Life Racing Engines)
• Marco Apicella (Fondmetal SpA)
• Paolo Barilla (EuroBrun Subaru)
• Geoff Brabham (Fondmetal SpA)
• Ivan Capelli (SCM Minardi Team)
• Fabrizio Giovanardi (Lucchini Coloni Racing)
• Mika Hakkinen (Jagermeister Team Tyrrell)
• Stefan Johansson (Monteverdi)
• Bernd Schneider (Rial Racing)
• Ayrton Senna (Scuderia Ferrari FIAT)

It's a real cross-section of society, and the first thing to do will be to put them into a completely random, unseeded draw:


Preliminary Round

1. Marco Apicella vs Ayrton Senna


There are no surprises here as Senna wins this clash 2-0.

2. Giovanna Amati vs Paolo Barilla


The EuroBrun driver also progresses easily against one of the worst F1 cars ever devised.

3. Geoff Brabham vs Bernd Schneider


This one goes to a decider, but ultimately Bernd Schneider narrowly takes it from the Australian.

Quarter-Finals

4. Ayrton Senna vs Ivan Capelli


This one is basically a walkover and Ayrton Senna is our first semi-finalist.

5. Paolo Barilla vs Mika Hakkinen


Another comprehensive win for the favourite.

6. Bernd Schneider vs Fabrizio Giovanardi


Another one that goes down to a decider, and it's a comeback win for Giovanardi!

7. Stefan Johansson vs Michele Alboreto


That Ligier-Lancia has been a really good car all year, just too good for the Monteverdi.

Semi-Finals

8. Ayrton Senna vs Mika Hakkinen


And in an absolute thriller, the nimble Tyrrell just narrowly edges the Ferrari by 0.021 seconds in the deciding round!

9. Fabrizio Giovanardi vs Michele Alboreto


An error from Alboreto in Round 2 briefly gave his opponent a sniff, but he got the job done in the end.

Grand Final

10. Mika Hakkinen vs Michele Alboreto


And the young Finn comes from behind to get the job done! Mika Hakkinen wins the Formula One Indoor Trophy.

[Aislabie]

Satoru Nakajima, 37, retires from F1 to return to Japan

Nakajima waves to his fans at Suzuka

Satoru Nakajima, the Zakspeed driver who formerly drove for Lotus, has announced his retirement from Formula One racing. The 37-year-old has entered 64 race weekends, making 57 starts and scoring 18 career points. His best results of 3rd and 4th came at the 1990 San Marino and French Grands Prix respectively, although by the end of the season it seemed that his reflexes might be slipping as he couldn't get his car to the finish line again.

Nakajima will return to Japan, where he has previously won five national titles, for what many expect to be a victory lap of sorts before his complete retirement.

Barilla switches focus to business interests

Barilla has driven for Minardi and EuroBrun

After a difficult season in which he never made it out of pre-qualifying with EuroBrun, Paolo Barilla has announced that he will be "stepping back from full-time driving" to focus on his business interests with the Barilla Group, one of the largest food companies in Italy.

"My interest in racing has not waned," said Barilla, "but to continue when I can't dedicate myself properly to my craft would be to disrespect the great sport of Formula One." He follows the lead of compatriot Riccardo Patrese, who intimated during the season that he would not be seeking a return to the Formula One paddock in 1991.

[dr-baker]

2. Giovanna Amati vs Paolo Barilla


The EuroBrun driver also progresses easily against one of the worst F1 cars ever devised.

The least surprising result of the event! I'm surprised the car even finished the heat!