“You see an amazing situation ahead of you,” shouted commentator legend Murray Walker – and did not exaggerate. Ivan Capelli held back Alain Prost’s Ferrari and was only a few laps away from winning the 1990 French Grand Prix for Leyton House, a team that failed to qualify on half of their attempts in the last six races of the season. Impossible, certainly …
Things could hardly have been less promising for the Leyton House-Judd team on the way to France. Young technical director Adrian Newey had left the team (“it was clear it was going to go under, he said of the worsening financial situation) while team principal and former Autosport editor Ian Phillips recovered from life-threatening meningitis racing in Mexico neither Capelli nor Mauricio Gugelmin qualifies.
“We had problems generating downforce,” says Capelli, who is still a regular F1 driver due to his Italian television work. “Then we modified the center tunnel of the rear diffuser before the French GP. Because of this and the fact that the track was flat and without bumps, we were able to drive the car very low and finally achieved the downforce that we knew from the wind tunnel data. “
Newey, who almost saw the first F1 win for one of his cars from home, blames wind tunnel problems for the team’s failure to start after a spectacular 1988 season (then called March).
“It wasn’t until the first half of 1990 that we started looking at the wind tunnel ourselves,” Newey says of that time. “We found that the moving floor had actually bent over time and gave us completely wrong aerodynamic values. This led to the new underbody for Paul Ricard, who changed the car.”
Although the car was improved dramatically, there was no sign of it fighting for victory. Capelli qualified seventh, a second behind the pace, ahead of Gugelmin in 10th. But Gustav Brunner, who was later named Newey’s successor as technical director, had a plan that challenged the team.
Leyton House engineer Andy Brown processes data with Gugelmin and Capelli
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“Paul Ricard was very aggressive and all teams were planning a tire change,” explains Capelli. “We created a set-up so that we could use the same set throughout. We also made a small modification to the front wing before the start to increase the downforce on one side because we wanted to take the fast Signes corner and only have to lift a little to help protect the tires. “
Both drivers started the race on a set of the C-Compound Goodyears (the same as Ferrari drivers Prost and Nigel Mansell, with Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger’s McLarens on the harder Bs), and when the others stopped they switched to and to the front.
Capelli, who had survived a collision with Jean Alesis Tyrrell that left both of them with pronounced tire marks on the side pods, took the lead at the end of lap 33, with Gugelmin finishing second. Prost was only 10 seconds behind and with 47 laps to go it seemed inevitable that he would regain the lead.
“I was very happy to finish the race. But then shortly after the checkered flag I realized that I had lost my chance to win. It was the only chance in my career to win a race” Ivan Capelli
But it wasn’t until lap 54 that Prost prevailed over Gugelmin, who was eliminated four laps later. At this point he was only five seconds behind Capelli. With 20 laps to go, he was only half a second away from Capelli – and that’s where he stayed.
“I saw Maurice’s car stop with smoke coming out of the engine, so I watched the temperatures closely, but everything was fine,” says Capelli. “I only fought Prost. He caught me, but he couldn’t overtake me.
“We had mounted mirrors on the side pods that Newey had designed the year before. In the middle of the race, the mirror inside the case fell out on the right side. So I couldn’t see Prost when it was on the right. But I could always open the left. When we got to the end of the pit straight for the right-hander, I didn’t know if he was there or not, so I just had to take a very sharp turn. Alain thought I was very aggressive but I couldn’t see anything! “
With less than three laps to go, Capelli almost won. Yes, cheers was still there, but the Italian had done the hard work. Then the fuel pressure dropped.
Capelli fended off Prost and seemed to be able to win until the oil pressure problems arose
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“As I approached Signes, the oil lamp blinked and I realized I had a problem. I had to drive back immediately to make sure the engine didn’t stop. Of course Prost could overtake me, but I couldn’t go on with the engine.” runs cleanly. As I approached the checkered flag, Ayrton almost passed me. “
Officially, the gap was three seconds. Had the line been a little further away, Capelli would have lost second place. But he was still satisfied with the result.
“On the one hand, I was unlucky because I didn’t win,” he says. “But on the other hand, I was lucky, because I was still second between the two big champions – Prost and Senna. I was very happy to finish the race. But then shortly after the checkered flag I realized that I was the Had lost chance “win. It was the only chance in my career to win a race. “
Capelli finished in the top three at Silverstone, but there were no more points this year. Today he best remembers not having finished his only season – 1992 – as a Ferrari driver, victim of one of the worst cars the Scuderia has ever produced.
As for Leyton House, it was already financially on the brink and only lasted until the end of the 1992 season.
Capelli celebrates with Prost and Senna. on the podium
Photo by: Motorsport Images
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