driver Damon Hill in second on 55. Behind them were Hill's teammate David Coulthard on 39, Schumacher's teammate Johnny Herbert on 38, and Ferrari driver Jean Alesi on 34 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Benetton were leading with 100 points, with Williams second on 88 and Ferrari third on 62. There was one driver swap heading into the race: Gabriele Tarquini replaced Ukyo Katayama at Tyrrell, the latter driver choosing not to race on doctors' advice following a crash at the earlier in the year. Katayama had sustained a strained neck and bruising in the crash, in which his car had rolled several times following a start line collision with Luca Badoer's Minardi. Prior to the race weekend, Coulthard announced that he was moving to the McLaren team for the 1996 season. He had first signed a contract with McLaren in October 1994 before his full-time Williams drive for 1995 was confirmed, and his one-year deal with the latter was not renegotiated due to his McLaren commitment. McLaren also confirmed that Mika Häkkinen and Jan Magnussen would continue in their existing roles as race and test driver for the team respectively, leaving Mark Blundell without a team for 1996. Coulthard's deal was officially confirmed on the day of the race itself. Meanwhile, Coulthard's prospective replacement, Jacques Villeneuve, had tested a Williams for the first time since being confirmed as Hill's teammate for 1996, running for two days at the Monza circuit. The Jordan team had also announced that it would keep its driver pairing of Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine for 1996 in the week before the race. However, Ferrari then announced that it had bought out Irvine's contract, and that he would be partnering Schumacher at the team for 1996. Jordan subsequently announced that Martin Brundle would move from the Ligier team to partner Barrichello instead. Some teams brought upgrades to the cars into the race – the Williams team used the upgraded "B" versions of the FW17 chassis for the second time, after its début at the previous race in Portugal. McLaren also brought upgrades to coincide with the home race of their engine supplier, Mercedes. The team opted to amalgamate the "B" and "C" versions of its troublesome MP4/10 chassis, with a rear end and gearbox from the former. In addition, the Ferrari team brought a revised rear wing and sidepods for its 412T2 car, which both