Formula 1

Bring Back V10s: How Prost denied Newey his first F1 win

by Matt Beer
1 min read

The latest episode of our Bring Back V10s classic Formula 1 podcast revisits how the little Leyton House team nearly pulled off a shock victory in the 1990 French Grand Prix.

Ivan Capelli came within three laps of defeating Alain Prost’s Ferrari at Paul Ricard, two weeks after both Leyton House cars failed to qualify for the Mexican Grand Prix.

That performance in Mexico cost the team’s promising designer Adrian Newey his job, but in this episode we explain how Newey’s final act before moving to Williams was to discover the aerodynamic problem that had plagued his cars through 1989 and the first part of 1990.

We also look at the other big stories in F1 around that time, including Jordan getting a coveted engine deal for its F1 bow in 1991 (which briefly caused panic at Benetton), Nigel Mansell laying the foundations to leave Ferrari – and why he and Newey turned down offers from Arrows! – why Williams didn’t announce its deal with Jean Alesi that weekend as promised, and if Leyton House’s future would have looked any different if Newey had stayed.

Remember to submit your questions about F1 from 1989-2005 for our ‘Ask us anything’ season finale using #BringBackV10s on Twitter.

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