The winter months had seen a lot of changes in the Formula 1 field with the increasingly restrictive turbo regulations convincing many teams to switch to normally-aspirated engines a year before turbos were finally banned. McLaren, Lotus, Ferrari, Arrows, Osella and Zakspeed all stayed with turbo engines. McLaren had hired Ayrton Senna to join Alain Prost with Honda engines replacing the TAG turbos for the 1988 season, while work pushed ahead for a normally-aspirated Honda engine for 1989.

World Champion Nelson Piquet had left Williams to join the Lotus-Honda team where he was partnered by Satoru Nakajima. Ferrari retained Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto while Benetton continued with the Ford turbo but replaced Teo Fabi with Sandro Nannini. Arrows resigned Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever and continued to use the Megatron engines with a B version of the Arrows A10. Osella had Nicola Larini and went on with the old Alfa Romeo engines while Zakspeed continued to do its own thing for Piercarlo Ghinzani and new boy Bernd Schneider. Martin Brundle decided to race Jaguar sportscars instead of F1.

The normally-aspirated teams were joined by Williams, which used the new Judd V8 engine. Nigel Mansell stayed with the team and was joined by Riccardo Patrese. The new engines were also used by Ligier which took on Stefan Johansson as replacement for Ghinzani and used Judd engines. The Leyton House March team also used Judds, expanding to two cars with Maurício Gugelmin joining Ivan Capelli.

The Cosworth teams had swelled in number with Tyrrell (Philippe Streiff having been replaced by Julian Bailey), Larrousse (Philippe Alliot and Yannick Dalmas) and AGS (Streiff) being joined by Minardi, which had hired Luis Pérez-Sala to partner Adrián Campos. Coloni reappeared for a full season with Gabriele Tarquini while there were three new teams: Rial, EuroBrun and Scuderia Italia. Rial employed Ferrari designer Gustav Brunner and Andrea de Cesaris, EuroBrun had Argentine Oscar Larrauri alongside Stefano Modena (the Italian being left in the lurch when Bernie Ecclestone decided that the Brabham team would sit out the 1988 season) and Scuderia Italia employed Alex Caffi and the season began with an uprated Formula 3000 car.

Qualifying in Brazil resulted in pole position for Senna with Mansell surprisingly quick in the Williams in second place ahead of Prost, Berger, Piquet, Alboreto, Boutsen, Patrese, Capelli and Nakajima. Senna was in trouble even before the start as his McLaren was jammed in first gear on the final parade lap. On the grid he put his hands into the air and the start was delayed. Senna went to the spare car and had to start from the pitlane.

At the start Mansell went away ahead but he was engulfed by Prost and Berger and in the early laps the order remained the same. Senna charged back up through the field but was to be disqualified for switching to the spare car against the rules. Berger finished second while Piquet third, Derek Warwick (Arrows) fourth, Alboreto fourth and Satoru Nakajima (Lotus) sixth.