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MCLAREN MP 4/4, THE STORY THAT FEW PEOPLE KNOW

MCLAREN MP 4/4

Anyone who looks from the outside and sees that the 1988 McLaren MP 4/4 won 15 of the 16 races of the season, thinks that everything was wonderful and extremely easy, but things were not as easy as they seemed...

The car was fast, but had a chronic problem with the gearbox breaking, had consumption problems on several tracks (Bra, San, Can, Fra, Hun, Ita, Por, Esp and Aus) and was very unstable (rear) if it used little downforce.

The Honda engine was lower than the Porsche, so the McLaren team built a new 3-shaft gearbox with a lower height, and fitted a clutch with a reduced diameter so that the floor at the rear of the car could be curved upwards. Compared to the same Honda engine installed in the Lotus car, the McLaren engine was mounted 2.5cm lower, which gave it an advantage in the Center of Gravity. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 20)

At the Brazilian GP, Senna's shifter rod came loose, forcing him to change cars on the grid, and for this reason, he was disqualified. This was resolved by installing a bulkhead on the rod fitting (Source: Neil Trundle, McLaren Chief Mechanic), but other problems persisted throughout the season.

Consumption problems were mitigated by the driver himself during races. In those days, there were no multiple engine maps, so on top of a single map, the driver had to make changes to the fuel mixture and turbo pressure to save fuel. This often led to engine failure.

Unlike other dominant F1 cars, whose dominance began in previous years (Williams 1991 and 1995, Red Bull 2009 and 2021), the MP 4/4's predecessor wasn't as good. In fact, the MP 4/4 was born good and proved competitive on every track, thanks to the work of Prost and Senna, along with McLaren's engineering team.

Senna was an excellent engine tuner and a great tire choice. Prost was an excellent car tuner, great at suspension and aerodynamic setups. They both worked together on the MP 4/4 and explored all the possibilities of this car, making it seem much better than it really was.

Examples of this situation were the Hungarian GP and the Spanish GP, where the naturally aspirated cars were faster than the turbo cars. At the Hungaroring, Senna only took pole in the last qualifying round by just 1 tenth of a second, and at Jerez Senna and Prost only managed to beat the naturally aspirated cars after changing the tire pressure at the very end of the session, and also by just 1 tenth of a second.

MP 4/4 CONTROVERSY

Many people think that the MP 4/4 design was authored by Gordon Murray, but Steve Nichols and several engineers who worked on the MP 4/4 design disagree.

Steve Nichols gave a recent interview saying that Murray suggested making a McLaren based on the 1986 Brabham BT 55 "Skate Car", but in fact the Chief Designer of the car was Steve Nichols and not Gordon Murray. Working with him: Matthew Jeffreys (front suspension), David North (gearbox and rear suspension), Bob Bell (aerodynamicist), Mike Lock (brake and monocoque design) and Peter Burns (manufacturing jigs). (Source: 1988 FS Yearbook pg 19/20)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDE2XzqGV6s&t=4215s (Steve Nichols: An Oral History of Formula One's Greatest Era (1 hour 8 minutes and 1 hour 48 minutes)

Steve Nichols, the true "creator" of the MP 4/4, details the behind-the-scenes of McLaren in an interview

Steve Nichols also said that all the cars created by John Barnard, former designer of the McLaren MP series (4/1, 4/2, 4/3) driven by John Watson, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Keke Rosberg, had a tendency to oversteer, but all he had to do was change one of the chassis mountings and the new car stopped this behavior.

Prost and Senna, in their first test with the MP 4/4, said that the "front end wasn't connected to the rear end." This suggests that the car was oversteering, despite being very fast. This is why this car required a setup with significant downforce.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mz9nAzsLXU (Minute 34 to 35, unfortunately this video is no longer available)

REGULATION CHANGE

The 1987 to 1988 regulations underwent important changes:

Reduction in turbo pressure from 4 atm to 2.5 atm,
Reduction in fuel consumption from 195 liters to 150 liters for turbos,
The weight of naturally aspirated engines would be 500 kg while turbos would weigh 540 kg.

Reducing turbo pressure would make their final power drop considerably, and reducing the amount of fuel would force factories to build more economical engines and control the racing pace or risk not completing the races. It was a radical change for TURBOS.

These FISA changes were motivated to balance turbocharged cars with naturally aspirated ones. The 40 kg weight reduction would help naturally aspirated cars to compete with turbocharged cars on tighter tracks, which is what happened in Hungary and Spain.

PROBLEM WITH FISA POP-OFF VALVES

There was a general complaint across all turbo engines (Honda, Ferrari, Megatron and Alfa Romeo) that the FISA pop-off valve opened before 2.5 atm and this premature opening caused the engine to lose all power. So teams with turbos had to use pressure around 2.35 atm below 2.5 atm to avoid opening this valve (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 73) and with that they lost 30 to 40 HP of final power.

Only after San Marino would Honda solve the problem of premature pop-off valve opening by using two throttles before the valve. This avoided the inertia of the gases that caused the pop-off valve to open, and they were able to use 2.5 atm of pressure (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 20), which is why they were 3 seconds faster than everyone else.

Grid GP San Marino 1988:

Senna 1m27s148
Prost 1m27s919
Berger 1m30s683 (almost 3 seconds slower)

And Ferrari only solved the pop-off valve problem in Mexico, releasing an extra 30/40 HP in the engine and with that, it took an incredible 3 seconds (!!) of difference to McLaren. Compare with the difference between both in the San Marino GP and then in the Mexican GP, after the engine improvement.

Grid GP Mexico 1988:

Senna 1m17s468
Prost 1m18s097
Berger 1m18s120 (1 tenth of a second slower)

On tracks that required straight-line speed (Mexico, France, England, Belgium and Italy), Ferrari was close to McLaren and on several tracks during the season: Silverstone, Hockenheim and Spa, Ferrari had the TOP SPEED on the track.

There is an understanding that the Honda engine was the most powerful in F1, which was true for part of the season, but then the Ferrari team made several upgrades to its engine, and in the middle of the season it surpassed the power of the Honda engine, but the Japanese engine, being more economical, could be used with more power in the races, apart from that it had more torque at low revs than the Ferrari engine.

The big truth is that the Honda engine was the best in 1988 for several reasons, without necessarily being the most powerful in F1.

FERRARI'S IMPROVEMENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Ferrari made a series of improvements to the car, but it still managed to do little to compete with the MP 4/4.

Five engine updates:

In Mexico, they installed a venturi tube before the FISA pop-off valve and the cylinder heads were redesigned, which allowed them to use 2.5 atm of turbo pressure for the first time. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 21 and 73)
In Canada, Ferrari revised the engine again, installing valves and pistons with a larger diameter and new materials. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F1/87), which resulted in 20/25 more HP. (Jean Jacques Hiss, Ferrari's head of engine development, in an interview with Jornal O Globo, 07/06/1988 pg 24)
In France the new version of the 033A engine debuted, with new pistons and intercooler. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 21)
In Belgium, they made new changes to the engine. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F1/87)
In Italy, they used a new engine mapping, favoring low revs. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 22)

Improvements to the car:

In England, improvements to the car's aerodynamics and suspension.
In Belgium, they brought in new spoilers. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 22)
In Italy, they used a new chassis and electronic height adjusters (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 22).

Ferrari made a tremendous effort to catch up to McLaren and it seemed that if their two drivers (Berger and Alboreto) had been a little better, Ferrari could have won more races in 1988.

GP BRAZIL

In the Brazilian GP, Senna was disqualified because part of the gearbox shifter came loose on the starting grid and he switched to the reserve car after the green light, which was not allowed by the regulations. Alain Prost won the race, but Gerhard Berger could have put more pressure on the Frenchman if Ferrari had not miscalculated fuel consumption. His Ferrari arrived with 4 liters in the tank, while Prost arrived with only 1 liter, on the verge of running dry.

All turbos had a problem with premature opening of the pop-off valve, for this reason they ran with pressure well below 2.5 atm, with less power than normal. (FS Yearbook 1988 pgs 20 and 21)

McLaren 1 x 0 Competition

GP SAN MARINO

Before the San Marino GP, Honda engineers had a brilliant idea. They placed two butterflies before the FISA pop-off valve, which prevented the inertia of the gases that caused the pop-off valve to open, and they were able to use 2.5 atm of pressure and all 675 HP of power from the Honda engine in practice. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 20)

Result: McLaren beat everyone by 3 seconds and lapped everyone on the track, including Piquet's Lotus, which used the same Honda engine. It was a great ride, but both McLarens had to pull over after the finish line because they were close to running out of fuel.

McLaren 2 x 0 Competition

GP MONACO

In Monaco, McLaren's overwhelming dominance continued, but Lotus did not perform as well as it did in San Marino, as its chassis was problematic in Monaco. Senna would have easily won this race with a one-two finish, but the Brazilian crashed alone and Prost won.

McLaren 3 x 0 Competition

GP MEXICO

Starting at the Mexican GP, Ferrari surprised and closed the gap of 3 seconds to McLaren. How did they do this?

Ferrari came up with a solution similar to Honda's and installed a venturi tube before the FISA pop-off valve, thus releasing all the power of its engine, coming close to the power of the Honda engine. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 20 and 73) The proof of this is that Berger was 23 thousandths of a second behind Prost, but in the race Ferrari had to "take its foot off the gas" to save fuel and finished well behind. But it already showed good progress.

McLaren 4 x 0 Competition

GP CANADA

At the Canadian GP, Ferrari revised the engine chamber, with valves and pistons with a larger diameter and new materials, which gave them 20/25 more HP from the engine, but on the Montreal track, engine torque is needed and that's why Ferrari didn't do so well. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F1/87 and Jean Jacques Hiss, Ferrari's head of engine development in an interview with Jornal O Globo 07/06/1988 pg 24)

McLaren won again, but both of its cars had to ease off at the end to complete the race.

McLaren 5 x 0 Competition

GP USA

In the USA GP, in terms of speed, Ferrari was close to McLaren, so much so that Berger and Alboreto were faster than Prost in qualifying, but in the race, McLaren's consistency spoke louder, the Ferraris retired and Senna and Prost made another one-two.

McLaren 6 x 0 Competition

GP FRANCE

In France, Ferrari debuted a new version of the 033A with new pistons and intercooler. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 21) The Ferrari gained engine speed and this new maximum power may have reached close to 700 HP. Berger was only 2 tenths behind Senna in practice. The two Ferraris completed the race, but had to slow down due to excessive consumption. Another one-two finish by Prost and Senna, even though they had to save fuel at the end.

McLaren 7 x 0 Competition

GP ENGLAND

In 1988, Silverstone was the F1 track with the highest average speed, where the engine and aerodynamics were fundamental and naturally all the cars used little aerodynamic drag. McLaren had difficulties because precisely by using little downforce the car became very difficult to drive at the rear. (Information confirmed by Steve Nichols Jornal O Globo 21/07/1988 pg 28)

The recipe for Ferrari's success was the improvements in the chassis (source: Jornal O Globo 11/06/1988 pg 29) and the engine was already in its 3rd evolution, together with the McLaren being unstable in the curves. McLaren gave the excuse that the new aerodynamic package did not work, but they went back to the old package and it did not work either, that is, the explanation of the English team was not the real cause of the poor performance...

In practice, Berger and Alboreto did a one-two and Senna and Prost finished in 3rd and 4th place on the grid. Ferrari was clearly better at Silverstone, while McLaren was struggling and Senna spun twice in practice.

Qualifying Silverstone 1988:

Berger 1m10s133
Alboreto 1m10s332
Senna 1m10s616
Prost 1m10s736

TOP SPEED at the end of the straight (dry):

Ferrari 316 km/h
McLaren 288 km/h

The race was in the rain and Senna only won because he was a master in these weather conditions. If it had been in the dry, McLaren would have had difficulty beating the Ferraris. What leads us to believe that McLaren was not doing well at Silverstone is the fact that Prost retired from the race in 15th place, one lap behind Berger and Alboreto, who were respectively in 2nd and 3rd place, and said that the car was bad on the corners. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 89).

McLaren 7 x 1 Competition

McLaren only won this race because Senna was brilliant in the rain, because in the dry Ferrari was clearly better.

GP GERMAN

The Hockenheim track is high speed, but requires a good engine to recover speed because of the chicanes, and a well-balanced car in the stadium section, which was not the case for Ferrari. McLaren was much better and once again left Ferrari in the dust. Another one-two punch between Senna and Prost.

In Germany, Berger managed to reach the highest top speed of the season of all cars: 328 km/h (Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F1/87), a clear sign that the Ferrari engine was very powerful.

McLaren 8 x 1 Competition

GP HUNGARIAN

The naturally aspirated cars were very strong in Hungary, as the Hungaroring is a track where the engine is not so important and the lighter weight of the naturally aspirated cars (500 kg) compared to the 540 kg of the turbos, helped the naturally aspirated cars when exiting the curves.

Senna took pole position, followed by Mansell, 1 tenth behind Senna, and 5 other naturally aspirated cars were behind them, with Prost in 7th place. The Lion put Senna under heavy pressure at the start of the race, and if it weren't for the Englishman's mistake, he could have won the race, as Senna forced his pace to escape Mansell and ended up having fuel consumption problems. The other naturally aspirated cars had to change tires and in the end there was a fierce battle between Senna and Prost, with the Brazilian scoring an "X" over the Frenchman.

Another one-two finish for McLaren, thanks to the talent of its two drivers, but McLaren wasn't the best car on this track.

McLaren 8 x 2 Competition

GP BELGIUN

Spa is a selective high-speed track with all types of curves, so the car's setup is essential for good performance. McLaren managed to improve performance by changing the suspension geometry, even though it was at a power disadvantage compared to Ferrari. Ferrari brought in new spoilers and made its 4th engine evolution. (FS Yearbook 1988 pgs 20 and 22) The power was not disclosed by Ferrari, but it is estimated to have reached 700 HP.

Ferrari's evolution was not enough to beat McLaren, Senna and Prost working together took McLaren to another level. Easy one-two for McLaren.

McLaren 9 x 2 Competition

GP ITALIAN

Ferrari won with a one-two finish in Monza, but believe me, nothing happens by chance...

Ferrari had fuel consumption problems in most of the year's races. John Barnard proposed from the beginning of the year that they use a mapping in the engine with lower revs, but with more low-end power and less top-end power. Ferrari's engine engineers always denied this recommendation, but in Monza, they decided to follow John Barnard's suggestion and used the engine with mapping for low revs.

In the race, the McLarens came out ahead, but Honda had serious reliability problems: Alain Prost and Satoru Nakajima broke their engines, due to using a lean fuel mixture. McLaren informed Senna that he could not lean the mixture, but would have to ease off at the end of the race. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 20)

With that, Berger and Alboreto caught up with Senna, taking 3 seconds off the lap, the Brazilian got tangled up with Schelesser and Ferrari took the one-two. Senna was reckless in sharing a corner with an F1 rookie, but Schelesser was the one most to blame, as he received the blue flag, went straight on under braking and should have let the Brazilian pass.

Prost said that Honda's fuel consumption problem was worse in Monza than in Montreal. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 109). In other words, for the first time this year, the situation was reversed, Ferrari would not have consumption problems, while McLaren would have serious problems.

IMPORTANT: Even if Senna had won the race, Ferrari would have scored more points than McLaren, as Berger and Alboreto in 2nd and 3rd places would have scored 10 points, compared to Senna's 9 points. A simple new engine mapping made all the difference. Ferrari was better on this track.

McLaren 9 x 3 Competition

The Schelesser x Senna accident that prevented McLaren from winning every race in the 1988 season.

GP PORTUGAL

McLaren was doing well in Estoril, but the naturally aspirated cars were very close. Senna and Prost started in front, but the naturally aspirated cars (Capelli and Mansell) started to put pressure on Senna, who had a poorly tuned car and a lot of rear end (oversteering) and was easily overtaken by them. (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 21) Then Senna had to stop in the pits, fell back in the race and finished in 6th place.

Prost won this race, saving fuel as only he knew how to do. But we must mention that the March team made a mistake by putting 23 liters more gasoline in Capelli's tank, so he raced harder, otherwise the Italian driver could have pressured Prost and even won the race. (Source: O Globo 09/30/1988 pg 30)

TOP SPEED at the end of the straight (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 113):

Berger 298 km/h

Alboreto 295 km/h

Prost 293 km/h

Senna 292 km/h

McLaren 10 x 3 Competition

GP SPAIN

Jerez was a track that would favor the naturally aspirated cars because they could race with 500 kg against the 540 kg of the turbo cars. Senna and Prost were only able to start in the first row after changing the tire pressure at the end of qualifying, because the naturally aspirated cars were already very strong in practice. If the naturally aspirated cars showed potential in practice, their performance in the race would be even better, given that the turbos need to save fuel and the naturally aspirated cars did not.

In the race, Prost and Mansell jumped to the front, while Senna fell behind, with one less fuel mark on the on-board computer and was unable to recover in the race. The battle was between Prost and Mansell, but the disastrous pit stop on lap 47 took away all of the Lion's chances of victory. Prost had no prospect of winning this race, but he knew how to drive hard and save fuel, trusting the on-board computer that indicated a lack of fuel. This was one of the greatest victories of Prost's career, as Williams was better. A race of GENIUS from the Frenchman.

Honda's Osam Goto said: "Here (Spain) there is no difference between turbo and naturally aspirated engines."

Steve Nichols praised the Frenchman: "Prost's victory was simply miraculous, I think it was the best victory of his entire career." (FS Yearbook 1988 pg 21)

McLaren 10 x 4 Competition

GP JAPAN

Suzuka is a selective track and the car's overall performance counts a lot. McLaren was much better than the rest, Ivan Capelli's March was up against Alain Prost at the beginning of the race, but they say that the March was lighter (with an empty tank), to show off for its sponsor, which is why it bothered the Frenchman at the beginning of the race.

McLaren one-two and Senna's GENIUS race.

McLaren 11 x 4 Competition

GP AUSTRALIAN

In this race we can see how Ferrari had more final power in its engine, despite the McLaren car being better.

Berger lost 2 seconds to Senna and Prost in qualifying. But in the race he drove without worrying about fuel consumption, opening maximum power on the turbo, passed Senna and Prost and took the lead driving about 0.5s per lap faster than them, until he crashed with René Arnoux on lap 24. (Source: Berger's Book on the Finish Line pg 33 and FS 1988 Yearbook pg 127)

Another McLaren one-two, again saving fuel.

FINAL RESULT: McLaren 12 x 4 Competition

CONCLUSION

The McLaren MP 4/4 was undoubtedly the dominant car of the season, but much of that performance was due to the talent of two geniuses: Senna and Prost. They worked hard on the car, made the most of its performance and made the competition seem much further away, when in fact it wasn't.

F1 fans have to understand that if Nakajima and De Cesaris had been McLaren drivers in 1988, no one would say that the MP 4/4 was the dominant car, because the performance of any car consists of the performance of the CAR + DRIVER. Average drivers undervalue the car, while brilliant drivers overvalue the car.

McLaren had the best car in 12 of the 16 races, but in the 4 races in which the English team did not have the best car, Senna and Prost managed to win 3 of them on talent and technique: England, Hungary and Spain. So even though McLaren won 15 of the 16 races, that doesn't necessarily mean it was the BEST CAR in history as some say, but rather that its two drivers came close to perfection and knew how to get everything out of the car.

I personally think that the Williams 92/93 was better than the MP 4/4, as it was around 2 seconds faster in qualifying than any car on the grid and in almost 100% of the races it was the best car of its respective seasons.