1990 Season

The 44th season of FIA Formula One motor racing runs over sixteen rounds, from Phoenix on 11 March to Adelaide on 4 November. Ayrton Senna and McLaren-Honda are the defending champions in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.

Driver changes

The winter’s defining move sees Alain Prost leave McLaren for Ferrari after a stressful rivalry with Senna and an overall unhappy 1989 season, despite winning the championship. Gerhard Berger makes the reverse switch, joining McLaren from Ferrari to partner Senna.

Nelson Piquet leaves Lotus after two disappointing seasons, joining Benetton on an incentive-based deal worth $100,000 per championship point scored, plus a season retainer. Satoru Nakajima also departs Lotus for Tyrrell, replacing Jonathan Palmer, who moves to McLaren as test driver. To fill the vacated seats, Lotus signs Derek Warwick from Arrows and promotes test driver Martin Donnelly to a race seat.

Nine drivers in total have left the grid since the final race of 1989, among them Eddie Cheever, who embarks on a career in IndyCar racing, and René Arnoux, who retires. Three drivers make their Formula One debuts at the season opener: Paolo Barilla at Minardi, Claudio Langes at EuroBrun, and Gary Brabham at Life.

Team changes

Rial and Zakspeed have left Formula One after the 1989 season. March is re-registered as Leyton House Racing after the team’s main sponsor completed their takeover. Lotus switches from Ford-Cosworth to Lamborghini engines. The new Life team enters the sport with an unconventional W12 engine. Coloni has sold 51% of its shares to Subaru, who supply a new flat-12 engine.

Calendar

The United States Grand Prix moves from June to March as the season opener to avoid the intense heat experienced at the previous year’s Phoenix race, which was held in June at short notice. The Brazilian Grand Prix returns to the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo for the first time since 1980 following a major renovation that shortens the track from 7.9 km to 4.2 km. The Canadian Grand Prix is rescheduled to run before the Mexican Grand Prix.

Regulation changes

Three safety-related changes take effect: rear-view mirrors are enlarged, a quick-release steering wheel is now mandatory, and all marshals and medical staff must practise driver extrication exercises.

This is also the last season in which drivers may drop their worst results. The best eleven scores from sixteen races count towards the Drivers’ Championship; from 1991, all results will count.