1991 German Grand Prix – Turbos & Tantrums

Into the woods as the forests of Germany play host to the start of the home straight of the season, with Mansell and Williams in the ascendant and the opposition apparently all at sea. A bumper crowd at least have a local driver to cheer for this year, but all is not well at the track as a series of accidents in testing and qualifying raise questions over safety…
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] in the weeks between the British and German Grand Prix the banking world was rocked by the leaks of a damning report into the bank of credit and commerce International BCCI founded in Pakistan in 197 2 BCCI had become a major player in World Finance the seventh largest private bank in the world registered in Luxembourg and with head offices in Karachi and London it had long had a reputation in the financial industry for being badly regulated with impenetrable internal accounting and there were persistent rumors that it secretly held a controlling share in First American Bank while law enforcement and intelligence communities nicknamed it the bank of crooks and criminals International as it was widely believed to be laundering money for and lending money to an array of less traditional customers such as Saddam Hussein Manuel Nora the medine drugs cartel and the Abu Nadal terrorist group a sting operation had led to a trial and a guilty ple over money laundering in 1990 but little had actually happened except BCCI being forced to pull out of Florida but in March 1991 the bank of England asked price Waterhouse to do an investigation the so-called Sandstorm report which had also involved MI5 proving that the bank had directly dealt with the Abu Nadal Group which was the first time the bank had been directly connected to terrorism boxer Mike Tyson was arrested for the rape of the 18-year-old Desiree Washington Miss Black America on the 19th of July Tyson had been a meast star of boxing throughout the late 1980s but by 1990 he’d lost the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship to a relative unknown Buster Douglas among rumors that all was not well in his personal life his training had taken a nose dive and he was addicted to cocaine the trial was scheduled to take place in Marian County Indiana early in 1992 and would result in him being convicted and jailed for six years in India the Finance Minister Man moohan Singh announced a new industrial policy which the ra government intended as the start of a complete overhaul of the country’s economy moving away from a centrally planned economy to a free market model incentivizing foreign investment privatizing the big state monopolies and removing licensing restrictions in the vast majority of Industries alongside promoting both exports and imports not everyone was happy with the idea with the opposition calling it a budget set by the IMF and arguing that its Provisions would hit smaller farmers in the lower and middle classes with India having a minority government what they could do would largely come down to Rouse’s ability to persuade and conol the other parties to support his measures the weekend before the German Grand Prix a private test was arranged at hackenheim by foler and on the Friday Senna had a massive CR crash when he had a left rear puncture at nearly 200 mph 320 km an hour his nose lifted and the car took off briefly before smashing into a tire barrier rolling and disintegrating the Brazilian was taken to Manheim hospital and kept in overnight with some bruising to neck and shoulders but once he’d recovered from the shock he affirmed that he was fine and would be driving in the German Grand Prix adding that risks a part of my job if I didn’t accept them I wouldn’t be able to drive competitively between this his big Smash in Monaco and his jet ski accident po must have been feeling a bit knocked around and headed off for a bit of RNR in Portugal Before the Race a week after being introduced to the Press at the British Grand Prix Nigel manel’s prote Paul Warick was involved in an accident of his own leading round five of the British Formula 3000 championship at Alon Park a front Wishbone broke at a right-hander sending him head on into the barrier at 140 mph 230 kph demolishing the rard chassis and throwing Paul from the car he was airlifted to hospital but died of his injuries that evening the race had been stopped after his accident and as he was leading he was posthumously awarded the victory taking him to five wins from five he was just 22 so as the teams arrived in Germany Nigel Manel was still deeply affected and wasn’t talking about the incident either to medor or others in the team Williams had recently completed their new full-size wind tunnel something Adrien NE had asked for and sold their old quarter scale one to Lotus who set Argentine Enrique scalon to work designing their 1992 Challenger using it with the team also announcing the return of Nigel Stepney as racing director they also had a new driver with Johnny Herbert honoring his Formula 3000 commitments in Japan local driver Mikel Bartles Took the Wheel in exchange for a substantial pile of deut marks the car had also acquired some more sponsor stickers too with liqu moly Tommy Hilfiger and Tic Tacs among others ruining the lines of delivery but helping out with the bank balance no end interestingly two of the sponsors in fact were direct competitors with liqu Moy and BP both producing fuels and lubricants car number 12 Mikel Bartles born in the town of platenburg in Northwest Germany son of German Hill Climb Legend villy Bartles Michael began cting in the early 80s and won the championship in 1985 before going into Formula Ford 1600 and winning the title at his first attempt in 1986 in 1988 he moved up again to German F3 he spent two years in that series coming fourth and fifth in the Championships that were won respectively by Joe vinl Hawk and K wendlinger he’d been taken under the wing of manager K rosberg and despite his relative lack of results in F3 was regarded as one of the coming men of ostrog German Motorsport along with Michael schumacker Cal vender and Hein h fransen a move to International f3000 continued his frustrations the Cobra Motorsports team turning out to be not on the pace and battles with a rotating cast of teammates Richard Dean jaavan amarti and Alan Manu failed to make much impact Bartles finished the year with just one point at the final race to add to Dean’s two points from the first 1990 was even more frustrating for Bartles who began the season with GA Motorsport then switched to First racing after failing to qualify for race one he did at least qualify for the next three races finishing eighth and 15th with the dnf in between but his Stars seemed to be waning when Lotus pitched up looking for a substitute driver for Germany and Hungary and his sponsors were willing to arrange the drive to get him on the radar and give him some valuable experience he thus became the first driver in F1 to represent the United Germany sator Nakajima had announced that he was retiring at the end of the season now 38 years old he was becoming tired of constantly traveling to and from Japan had never settled in Europe and wanted more family time he’d also never quite been physically strong enough for the demands of an F1 car which was why he always went better in the wet when speeds were lower and hated Street circuits with their tight high G Corners he’d given Kent and his son Bob who was taking on more of the work at the team plenty of notice to replace him and names were already being thrown around including McLaren test driver Allan mcnish and Michael schumacker a potential German link for sponsors Brown less Goodwill was forthcoming at footwork where Alex caffy was back in the cockpit but things were still touchy between him and his team boss Jackie Oliver which wasn’t help when Alex asked for his bonus for the four races he’d missed and he wasn’t invited to come to the hackenheim test all smiles at larus though where the boss had returned from Japan with a big sponsorship packet from Yoshi toosi DOI the head of the Central Park Consortium already sponsoring the mod Lamborghini team their boss Carlo petrucho meanwhile was said to be talking to Adrien rard about a merger rard himself thought to be preparing an F1 Works team while a Moder team were desperately in search of a rescuer no such worries at McLaren but the team are still having their own problems shell have brought a new fuel which ought to be more efficient and prevent any repeated Center running dry at silverston and while hry dur works on a new Arrow package for 1992 Ron Dennis had promised an impatient and bruised Center that the team’s new semi-automatic gearbox will be ready for the next race in Hungary here to offset williams’ handling Advantage the mp46 would feature a more cambered rear wing which ironically seemed to have increased fuel consumption the new gang for pre-qualifying headed out on Friday morning with Martin brundle setting the pace over a second ahead of second place tarquini with Alberto third and Blundell taking the last place 4 seconds ahead of guah who had another engine failure with a rusty Alex caffy missing out alongside bar batzer and Chavez fridly qualifying proper then was dominated by Nigel Mansel half a second ahead of burger and then on Saturday morning Eric Comas had a terrifying crash at the OS he said afterwards that he’d always put off getting in contact with Philip straff but knowing he’d got away with it in a big way today he’d make a point of visiting his less fortunate compatriot most drivers including Eric improved their times on Saturday after afternoon but nobody could touch Mansel who took pole the team’s fifth in a row with Center improving to Second 0.187 seconds behind with burer and Petra on row two then the ferrar’s nearly 2 seconds off Mansel and 1.6 seconds behind Petra on Row three dezar celebrated his Friday lion by putting his Jordan seventh ahead of the beneton with the same engine and with Martini rounding out the top 10 the tis were bang in the middle of the field just ahead of brundle the delas 8 18th and 20th after their own escape from PQ hackin was 23rd after demolishing his car on Friday so much for that new sponsor money alongside Nicola lorini the Moder team also delighted to make race day again with the two French Erics bringing up the rear lier driver edging Alberto out by just 8/10ths bartal struggled manfully with the Lotus on his debut and was at least faster than tarquini and Vander pole following Co Master’s accent and after his own in Mexico in similar circumstances sna called at the driver briefing for the tire walls at chicanes to be replaced with cones to eliminate the possibility of hitting them and rolling over tempers got heated between race director Roland Bruner Rider sna and joh Marie ballestra The Exchange making its way into the sna movie released in 2011 as ballestra proclaimed the best decision is my decision before announcing a vote among the drivers which unanimously agreed on the cones and Briner Rider had his orders the automobile club from Deutschland the circuit owners were already being warned that the track needed improvements though with the customary huge turnout a record 120,000 this year it seemed unlikely that the track was in any danger of losing the race back to the nurburg ring so with all that done it was time to line up for the race itself most drivers were starting out on soft sea compound tires or their parelli equivalent except for a lazy who opted for the harder bees and was hoping to run nonstop as it was obvious from qualifying that the Ferraris couldn’t hope to beat Williams or McLaren in a straight race Prost meanwhile was trying the opposite approach soft tires minimal Wing to get the best top speed in the warm-up the fw1 14s were speed trapped at 338 km an hour 210 mph with the Ferraris at 302 206 and the McLarens at 326 202 A2 so it seemed to be working at least partially there had also been a series of drivers reporting cut tires on the OST curve and S and berer on the behalf of the rest of the drivers went out to inspect it and get it swept Before the Race began it was looking like it would be a scorching race with engine overheating driver overheating and tire overheating all potential factors in the race and indeed Ian Capelli missed the warm up with a stomach complaint and though he would take the start he might well not make it all the way so with Suzuki starting from the pit Lane in the spare Lola after a technical glitch the remaining 25 cars lined up on the grid for the start and it was time to go Mansel slued right away from the lights to block Senna who was also passed by burger with PR Petra and aazy following along while the unfort Nicola lini was Ned into a spin before the first corner and his race came to a premature end partway around lap one komas and burnard had a minor coming together which sent the Lola down the Escape road but up front it was Mansel leading Senna Burger Prost a laaz Petra and dearis with the two beneton right behind Petra swiftly got back in front of aazy as his teammate Manel was already beginning to leave burer behind a 2C Gap by the end of lap two as off camera hacken and collected one of those new chicane Mar cones under his front wing and had to come in to have it extracted a la on his hard ties was dropping behind Petra but still building up a gap from PK who had overtaken deszaras to go back up to seventh and Prost meanwell was climbing all over the back of Sen’s McLaren as he seemed to be dropping off burger with petroy close behind the Ferrari and hoping for another Prost senta collision and whenever Prost dropped back from Santa slightly Petra was attacking him giving him no rest bite the perelli runners were all struggling with their tires and PK lost seventh to dzus again while nikima peeled in for a new set as early as lap six of the 45 Burger had now pulled away from Santa a bit and there was a fierce three-way scrap between Santa Prost and Petra over third through fifth places aazy was still in touch though and if the three ahead of him all had to change tires and he didn’t he could be in a very good position indeed Eric Bernard was the first retirement other than lorini the Crown wheel and pinion the culprit as they had been in silverston and still Santa PR and petroy were running close together with burer not too far ahead and aazy not too far behind Martini dropped out of 10th place after his engine dropped oil on his own rear wheels and he exited the track at the OS curve morbidelli and the other minardi meanwhile had worked his way up to 13th by lap 15 one3 distance when his own Ferrari V12 expired not a good day for the men from fena PK made his t stop just before that rejoining 12th several of the plli runners had changed early but this was just at the started the expected Pit Stop window for the Goodyear Runners and a lap later Burger came in for his change nearly catching the McLaren team on the Hop a cross threaded wheelnut on the front right saw the Austrian stationary for 16 seconds dropping him back to 11th between Capell and botson so the sros PK battle was now won for second place as the Ferrari and McLaren Crews both got ready in neighboring pits at the end of lap 17 Center and pross peeled in at the same time both Crews excelled themselves but it was CNA back at out in front as Petra storm throw into second and ay into third next time round it was manel’s turn with the 17sec lead a good stop putting him out in third behind petroy and delazy petroy would still need to stop but Manel would have to get back past aazy on the road assuming that those B compound tires lasted the race Ricardo was in next and another great stop spat him back out on the track in the tire tracks of Senate and Prost still hard at it and that three car battle resumed where it had left off Manel was tearing lumps out of a lazy’s lead while we watched the entertaining battle as Senna continued fending off Prost making his McLaren as wide as humanly possible on lap 22 Petra took Prost for fourth at the first chicane as hackin and pulled in with the dud engine no joy for Lotus this time either and back on the track Manel had got past a lazy without too much trouble or any TV coverage and then Petra snuck past Center to at the start of the stadium Senna seemed to be having some trouble in fact as Prost was now all over him again but meanwhile had recovered to sixth and was some 8 seconds behind proston gaining once passed Manel fairly left a lazy in the dust pulling out 3 seconds on just his first lap p with Petra now putting his foot down to Real L Jean’s 13sec lead at 2 seconds a lap and setting a new lap record which was promptly broken by Manel again the Benetton meanwhile were plugging away together in eighth and nth still suffering with their parelli tires as half distance came and went PR dropped off center as his engine was starting to overheat a bit and needed to break himself as both lapped Piro and soon PK’s frustrating weekend came to an end as his engine gave out and he parked up in the woods so as he began the long walk back the race had settled down a little with Petra’s pursuit of a lazy the main interest on track at least until CER and PR renewed hostilities Petra caught a lazy who put up a brave fight weaving a little on the straight but he wasn’t going to be able to keep the Williams Behind for long and Ricardo was through at the first chicane without too much drama at about the same time Prost began attacking sener again with with just eight laps to go impatient to get past Prost lunged at the entrance to the first chicane but Senna shut the door forcing Prost off down the Escape Road and as he frantically toggled the downshift paddle his gearbox waved the white flag and the engine stalled putting Prost out Furious once again with Sen’s driving remarkably he was actually the first of the top six on the grid to retire so with the laps ticking down to the Finish Mansel and Petra were looking at a one-w finish with a lazy third Center fourth and apparently unable to make much of an impression on the remaining Ferrari Berger was up to Fifth and only 5 seconds behind sen now with the chesus and gash sixth and seventh with the Belgian fighting off Moreno and bsen by now the only question seemed to be whether anyone who would have a last minute breakdown and if Burger would hold station behind Senna or go for fourth in the closing laps Manel came around to begin his final lap in formation with the brondell brothers in the Brams now two laps back but still going and then suddenly Santa was pulling off out of fuel again as Nigel Manel took the checker flag with brundle and Blundell right behind to take his third win in a row and to be the first Brit to win the German Grand Prix since James Hunt at that race at the Newberg ring in 1976 but unlike silverston Senna hadn’t lapped enough other cars and he dropped out of the points finally classified as seventh Petra took second alazia fine third burer fourth and those green Jordans fifth and sixth their second double points finish of the year and their fifth points finish in a row it was Burger’s turn to play taxi this time taking a still unwell Ivan Capelli home after the Italian had stopped out in the forest after 36 laps with a dud Elmore again so Manel closed up to eight points behind Center in the title race with Petra also pulling seven points clear of Prost in third place after the professor’s retirement and burer taking fifth from PK and 16 points for another onew meant that Williams took the lead in the Constructors Championship by a single point with Ferrari some distance behind McLaren on 33 points [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music]