The Benetton B188 was a Formula One racing car designed by Rory Byrne and raced by Benetton team in the 1988 Formula One season and in the first half of the 1989 Formula One season.

Benetton was effectively the Ford works team as they had exclusive use of the Ford DFR V8 engine for 1988. Driven in 1988 by Belgian Thierry Boutsen and Italian Alessandro Nannini, the B188 was a consistent performer and was usually the class of the atmospheric cars. Boutsen scored 27 points, including 5 podium finishes, to claim 4th in the Drivers Championship while Nannini scored 12 points, including his first ever podium with 3rd at the British Grand Prix. Overall with the B188, Benetton finished 3rd in the constructors championship with 39 points.

The team would have in fact finished the season with 46 points but both cars were disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix for using irregular fuel. The disqualification of the Benettons was not made official until long after the season had finished, so many published records list Boutsen and Nannini as having finished third and fourth respectively.

Thierry Marc Boutsen (born 13 July 1957 in Brussels, Belgium) is a former racing driver who raced for the Arrows, Benetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan teams in Formula One.

After winning the "Volant V" in 1977 at the André Pilette Racing School, Zolder, Boutsen entered the Belgian Formula Ford 1600 championship and won it in 1978 with 15 victories in 18 races. He also entered the 1978 Spa 24 Hours race, the very last auto race on the old 14 km (8.7 mi) Spa-Francorchamps circuit- driving a Toyota Trueno. For 1979 he moved to Formula 3, winning three races in 1980 and second place in the European title race, behind Michele Alboreto. In 1981 he moved to Formula 2 and was again second in the European championship, including winning at the 14-mile Nürburgring- this time behind Geoff Lees. He also entered the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race started at 3pm – one hour earlier than usual due to the Parliamentary elections held on the same weekend.

At 4:06pm Boutsen suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink, some 400 metres (0.25 mi) before the Mulsanne bosse (the "hump") when his WM P81-Peugeot was travelling at some 350 km/h (217 mph). A suspension piece had failed and the car hit the guard-rail losing the entire rear end. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over 150 metres (490 ft). Three marshals were struck by the debris. One of them, Thierry Mabillat was killed, struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail. Two of his colleagues, Claude Hertault and Serge David (who lost an arm), were seriously injured.

Ayrton Senna da Silva (pronounced [aˈiɾtõ ˈsenɐ da ˈsiwvɐ] ( listen); 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver. Senna was a three-time Formula One world champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He died in a crash at Tamburello corner while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and is the most recent driver to die at the wheel of a Formula One car.

Senna began his motorsport career in karting, moving up to open-wheel racing in 1981, and winning the British Formula 3 championship in 1983. He made his Formula One debut with Toleman-Hart in 1984 before moving to Lotus-Renault the following year and winning six Grands Prix over the next three seasons. In 1988, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, they won all but one of the 16 Grands Prix that year and Senna his first World Championship. Prost claimed the championship in 1989, and Senna his second and third championships in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, the Williams-Renault combination began to dominate Formula One. Senna nonetheless managed to finish the 1993 season as runner-up, winning five races and negotiating a move to Williams in 1994.

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnɛwsõ piˈke], born August 17, 1952), known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987. He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna (3 each), Alain Prost (4), Juan Manuel Fangio (5), and Michael Schumacher (7). In 1983, he became the only driver to win the F1 championship in a BMW engined car.

Piquet was born in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, the son of Estácio Gonçalves Souto Maior, a Brazilian politician. His father moved his family to the new capital, Brasília, in 1960 and became Minister for Health in João Goulart's government (1961–64). Piquet started kart racing at the age of 14, but because his father did not approve of his racing career, he used his mother's maiden name Piquet (of French origin and pronounced as "Pee-Kè") misspelt as Piket to hide his identity.