Gallery 1991-1992 Benetton-Ford B191/191B
Formula One cars don't come up for auction often, and fewer still can advertise a roster of drivers like this 1991-1992 Benetton-Ford B191/191B. The car hails from a momentous year in the racing series, having been piloted by Michael Schumacher, Nelson Piquet Sr. and Martin Brundle, and Bonhams will try to find it a new owner at its Monaco auction on May 13.
How important is this car? Schumacher scored his first-ever podium finish in chassis "06." Nelson Piquet drove his last Grand Prix race in it at the Australian GP at the end of 1991. And this car was Martin Brundle's first ride upon joining Benetton.
Engineered by John Barnard, chassis "06" features the 72-degree 3.5-liter Ford V8 engine connected to a Benetton-made six-speed gearbox. This Ford unit produces 730 hp and can rev up all the way to 13,800 rpm.
"When it first came out, everyone was jumping up and down about the nose," Barnard recalls. "It was similar in concept to that of the Tyrrell 019 -- very swept up at the front to improve the aerodynamics. However, I didn't think it needed the gull-wing arrangement used by Tyrrell, so we built a model and tested in the wind tunnel, and it worked well. We had curved mounting pylons, which freed up the middle of the wing and made a more solid mounting point."
Chassis "06" debuted at the 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, just outside Budapest on Aug. 11 of that year. Piquet drove it in that first race, qualifying 11th out of 34 cars, and drove it again at the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril on Sept. 22 of that year, finishing fifth.
"Nelson Piquet took first place in the Canadian Grand Prix of 1991 driving the B191, which was very pleasing," Barnard recalls. "Every car I had designed up to that point had won in its first season -- and Piquet maintained that record. I left the team at about that time, so I missed out on Michael Schumacher's arrival, though he did drive my car in the last five races of '91 and the first three of '92."
Piquet drove it at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona just a few days later, finishing 11th, and almost a month later the car gave Piquet a seventh-place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Piquet made his last Grand Prix appearance in this car on a rain-drenched track at Adelaide, finishing fourth as the race was cut in half due to weather.
"The Benetton team were in a state of flux when I started with them, so I didn't want to do a car that was too way out because we had enough on our plates with everything else," Barnard recalls. "That said, the chassis was interesting; for the most part it was conventionally molded from the outside, but the front third was molded from the inside, allowing us to mount things like the pedals directly onto the monocoque without complicated machining. We then bonded a thin aerodynamic skin to the outside."
Early in 1992, a rising star from Germany made his Benetton debut in chassis "06." Schumacher qualified third and finished third in his first-ever F1 outing. In the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Schumi qualified fifth and once again finished third, collecting another podium. The race at Interlagos was the last time the car was raced; it was retired from service at that point and it retains the livery as Schumacher raced it in Brazil.
Bonhams says that the car itself is easy to run. Whether it's easy to drive is another matter. The auction house notes it has been maintained by the consignor's specialist race preparation company and kept usable. It's ready to race, if its new owner dares to do so. Pieces of art can certainly be driven, but this is also a piece of history.
Bonhams will offer chassis B191 at no reserve and estimates that it will bring between $250,000 and $320,000 on auction day.
(Before you lose sleep over this car and livery or try to sell your house, allow us to gently remind you that a large 1:18-scale model of this car by Minichamps is about $100 at the door, if you can find it).
Jay Ramey grew up around very strange European cars, and instead of seeking out something reliable and comfortable for his own personal use he has been drawn to the more adventurous side of the dependability spectrum. Despite being followed around by French cars for the past decade, he has somehow been able to avoid Citroën ownership, judging them too commonplace, and is currently looking at cars from the former Czechoslovakia. Jay has been with Autoweek since 2013.
