1992 South African Grand Prix

As the revised Kyalami circuit was new to the Formula One calendar, there were two acclimatisation sessions held on the Thursday before the Grand Prix weekend. A pre-qualifying session was to be held on Friday morning to eliminate two cars, allowing the other 30 to take part in the main qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday.

The entrants required to take part in pre-qualifying included the Larrousse team with their new Venturi LC92 chassis, driven by Bertrand Gachot, who had driven for the team in the season-ending 1991 Australian Grand Prix after losing his seat at Jordan; and the reigning Japanese Formula 3000 champion Ukyo Katayama. Also due to take part were one car from each of the Fondmetal and Footwork teams. They had chosen Swiss debutant Andrea Chiesa and Italian veteran Michele Alboreto respectively. The other two cars taking part were from the new Andrea Moda team.^[2]

The Andrea Moda fashion company, owned by Andrea Sassetti, had bought the Coloni team, which had failed to pre-qualify at every race of the 1991 season. They had signed ex-Footwork driver Alex Caffi, and Enrico Bertaggia, who had driven for Coloni during the 1989 season, and had brought the Judd-engined Andrea Moda C4B to South Africa. This car was an adaptation of last season's Cosworth-powered Coloni C4. Caffi drove in the second of Thursday's acclimatisation sessions, although the car's battery failed on the first lap. Bertaggia did not run, and it was unclear if a second C4B had been built, or brought to Kyalami.^[3] However, a Stewards' Meeting on Thursday afternoon ruled that Andrea Moda was a new team, not a continuation of Coloni, and were therefore liable to pay a $100,000 guarantee according to Article 41 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations. The stewards also noted that the C4 cars were originally built, and had been raced, by another constructor, i.e. Coloni, not Andrea Moda, thus the cars were likely to be ineligible, as a new team must use an original chassis. In any case, failure to pay the guarantee meant exclusion from the event.^[4]

Sassetti believed that he did not have to pay the guarantee for new teams as he had purchased an existing team, but officials decided that he had not purchased Coloni's entry into Formula One, or the constructor itself, only its cars and facilities.^[5] Sassetti lodged an appeal, citing the fact that several other teams, such as March, Fondmetal and Footwork had not been required to pay the guarantee when the teams changed hands.^[6] In any case, Andrea Moda's exclusion meant that pre-qualifying was cancelled.^[2]

Mansell took pole position with a time almost three-quarters of a second faster than that of Senna in second, and over a second and a half faster than that of his teammate Patrese, who was fourth. Berger was third in the other McLaren, nearly half a second slower than teammate Senna but over three-tenths of a second faster than Patrese. Jean Alesi was fifth in his Ferrari, and was the only other driver within two seconds of Mansell's time. Michael Schumacher was sixth in his Benetton, followed by Karl Wendlinger in the March, who in turn was ahead of Martin Brundle in the second Benetton and Ivan Capelli in the second Ferrari. Andrea de Cesaris completed the top ten in his Tyrrell.

Three of the five debutants failed to qualify: Paul Belmondo in the second March, Andrea Chiesa in the Fondmetal, and Giovanna Amati, the first female F1 driver in over a decade, in the Brabham. They were joined by Stefano Modena in the Jordan, whose Yamaha engine suffered reliability problems. Of the other two debutants, Katayama was 18th in the Venturi Larrousse and Christian Fittipaldi 20th in the Minardi.

The race was fairly uneventful as Mansell led from lights to flag, finishing nearly 25 seconds ahead of Patrese. Martin Brundle spun off on the first lap but was able to continue until his clutch failed as a result of the spin and was forced into retirement when he pulled into the pits. Senna drove well to ensure he remained on the podium with a 1991 car, as did Schumacher, who gained from his qualifying position to complete the race in fourth place after Jean Alesi had retired with engine failure on lap 41 who was behind Senna and ahead of Schumacher. Berger finished in fifth place and nearly 40 seconds behind his teammate; he was the last driver to finish the race on the lead lap. Johnny Herbert finished in sixth place and took the final point for Lotus after the Tyrrell of Andrea de Cesaris like Alesi had retired when his Ilmor engine failed on lap 42. Interestingly, all of the top 6 finishers drove cars that were either evolutions, or direct carryovers, of cars designed for previous seasons.

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

• Henry, Alan (1992). AUTOCOURSE 1992-93. Hazleton Publishing. ISBN 0-905138-96-1.