1989 French GP - 5 debutants

[BootsOntheSide]

From browsing on Wikipedia, I see that five drivers made their F1 debuts in this race - Jean Alesi, Eric Bernard, Martin Donnelly, Bertrand Gachot, Emanuele Pirro. Is this a record for a mid-season race in the modern era, and why was it so high?

[JohnMiller]

I think:

Alesi relaced Alboreto who left Tyrrell becasue of he thought there was a Camel/Marlboro clach, although Marlboro then dropped him.

Bernard replaced Dalmas at Larousse, Dalmas having had Legionaires Diseas.

Donnelly replaced Warwick who was injured.

Pirro replaced Herbert, who supposedly couldn't brake hard enough.

Gachot wasn't really a debutant, it was just the first time all year he'd managed to qualify.

[chunterer]

Yep think John's pretty much covered this one!

Alesi, Donnelly and Bernard were pretty much the stars of that year's F3000, (the series at that time was easily equal to anything GP2 has provided us with competition and quality wise so far, plenty of talent and plenty of good races.)

There's a passage in EJ's new book about circumstances surrounding the build up to the Ricard round as both Jean and Martin were his 3000 drivers and also under his management wing as well. Johnny may well also have been too.

If I remembr at the time Michele and Ken simply fell out though, not sure if it was sponsor related or not?

Alesi was official star of the show to come 4th on his debut but Donnelly should've got more credit as he started from the back and finished 12th, probably higher if not for one or two problems along the way.

[nycuk]

To shed a little more light on this one, I seem to remember that Derek had injured himself in a karting accident at home on Jersey. I also remember reading that Ken Tyrrell hadn't even heard of Alesi at the time - when he needed a replacement for Alboreto he reportedly looked at who was leading the F3000 championship and said 'he'll do'! Incidentally, Ken needed another replacement for Alesi when there were clashing F1 / F3000 races - that drive went to Johnny Herbert.