Ferrari’s only victory in 1988 prevented McLaren from winning every Grand Prix.

Three and a half decades ago, McLaren, driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and powered by a reliable Honda engine, nearly won every race of the season. However, just like in 2023, a single victory by Ferrari prevented any team from finishing the year undefeated.

When the checkered flag fell at Monza on September 11, 1988, the roar that rose from the tifosi was not for the triumph of a champion, but for a moment of collective revenge: for the first time in sixteen races, McLaren's dominance throughout the season had been halted. That Italian Grand Prix would become the culmination of a trend that has only been repeated twice since: Red Bull's near-perfect campaign in 2023 and Ferrari's sole victory that same year, each ending a streak that seemed, at the time, unassailable.

The 2023 season was the first since 1988 in which a team other than Ferrari managed to win a single race, preventing the sport from sweeping all Grand Prix victories. It was Red Bull, not the Scuderia, that failed to set a perfect record. Thirty-five years earlier, it was McLaren that stumbled at Monza, thanks to a Ferrari triumph on its home turf.

From 1984 to 1991, McLaren wrote most of the championship script for the modern era. With the exception of the title won by Nelson Piquet with Williams-Honda in 1987, the British team provided all the drivers' champions: Niki Lauda in 1984, Alain Prost's first three titles in 1985, 1986, and 1989, and Ayrton Senna's three titles in 1988, 1990, and 1991. The 1988 season, in particular, epitomized McLaren-Honda's dominance. Senna arrived from Lotus, already a six-time Grand Prix winner, and teamed up with two-time champion Alain Prost after Stefan Johansson left for Ligier. The duo, nicknamed “The Professor” and “Magic Senna,” were paired with the legendary MP4-4, a car that would become the benchmark for technical excellence.

Their contrasting temperaments defined their rivalry: Prost, methodical and points-focused, charted his route to the championship by taking advantage of every possible advantage; Senna, raw and aggressive, sought pure speed. The season consisted of sixteen races, and McLaren's superiority was absolute. Prost won seven races, Senna eight, and the team racked up 199 constructor points, eclipsing Ferrari's 65 points. Under the 9-6-4-3-2-1 scoring system of the time, which only counted the eleven best results and gave no bonus for fastest laps, Senna won his first title with 90 points, three more than Prost (87). But even such dominance could be challenged. At Monza, the front row was once again occupied by McLaren: Senna on pole position, Prost alongside him. Behind them, the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto occupied third and fourth places. The race started as expected, with Senna in the lead and Prost in pursuit. On lap 30, however, the Frenchman's engine began to sputter, and five laps later, a broken ceramic piston forced him to retire, McLaren's first technical failure of the season.

Senna managed to maintain his lead despite early attacks from the Ferraris, but on the penultimate lap, the Brazilian's car collided with the Williams-Judd of French rookie Jean-Louis Schlesser, who was making his only F1 appearance as a replacement for Nigel Mansell, who was ill. The contact spun Senna onto the kerb, stalling his engine. He crossed the finish line in tenth place, scoring no points, and for the first time that year, McLaren left Monza empty-handed. The jubilation of the tifosi was palpable. Berger took the lead, ahead of Alboreto to claim his fourth Grand Prix victory, while Alboreto completed the Ferrari one-two. This victory marked the Scuderia's 94th in the premier class of motorsport and, poignantly, the first major success since the death of Enzo Ferrari on August 14, 1988, a loss that had cast a shadow over the team's morale.

This singular Italian Grand Prix remains a reminder that even the most dominant machines can be humbled by circumstances, technical problems, or the sheer will of the local crowd. The echoes of the upheaval at Monza in 1988 resonated for decades, resurfacing in 2023 when Red Bull's near-perfect streak was interrupted and Ferrari's lone victory underscored the fragile nature of supremacy in Formula 1.