1992 Brazilian Grand Prix

Lore & Background

Going into the race, the two major talking points were Williams' utter domination of the previous two races, as well as McLaren's response to that domination: the new MP4/7A would debut at Interlagos, despite having originally been scheduled to debut at Barcelona. However, the car was still experiencing teething issues, despite an intensive testing programme at Silverstone following the Mexican Grand Prix. The team brought a total of six complete cars to the race, including three MP4/6Bs to be tested alongside the MP4/7A.

Reader's Guide

For the first time in 1992, there was a need for a pre-qualifying hour on Friday morning. The pool consisted of six cars, which needed to be reduced to four to ensure the maximum of thirty cars in the main qualifying sessions. The entrants were the two Lamborghini-powered Venturi LC92 cars entered by the Larrousse team, and driven by Bertrand Gachot and Ukyo Katayama; the Footwork FA13-Mugen-Honda of Michele Alboreto; the Fondmetal GR01 of Andrea Chiesa, and the two Andrea Moda S921s of Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy. Moreno and McCarthy had been recruited by Andrea Moda after team boss Andrea Sassetti had fired both his drivers (Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia) after they had criticised the amateurish way the team had been run thus far. With very little time to prepare, McCarthy had hastily acquired a FISA Super Licence which enabled him to compete in Formula One. However, when he arrived at Interlagos, his licence was rescinded by race director Roland Bruynseraede, who told him there had been an error in the issuing of the licence, so McCarthy was withdrawn from the event. In any case, the team had not finished building his car in time, so he would not have driven in the session anyway. This left five cars in the session, and it became clear which four were to progress when the remaining Andrea Moda of Roberto Moreno managed just two laps before it broke down, having posted a very slow time. The other four cars were over fifteen seconds faster, with Gachot's Venturi topping the time sheets. Alboreto was just under two tenths of a second slower, with Chiesa third in the Fondmetal. Fourth was Katayama, just over a second slower than his team-mate Gachot. Thus Moreno failed to pre-qualify.

Did You Know?

• Nigel Mansell won from pole position, leading a Williams 1–2 finish with Riccardo Patrese second.
• Gerhard Berger stalled on the parade lap and started at the back, retiring after only four laps with electrical failure.
• Ayrton Senna retired on lap 17 with engine problems.
• Martin Brundle and Jean Alesi collided on lap 31, ending Brundle's race.