Constructors' Championships as a designer at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull) combined with a Judd V8 engine (derived from the Brabham-Honda CART engine and the Judd/Honda F3000 unit). March had hoped to be the favoured development partner for this engine, but they found themselves sharing it with the French Ligier team as well as the defending F1 Constructors' Champions Williams who had lost their supply of turbocharged Honda engines to McLaren. Capelli was joined in the team by the British Formula 3 Champion, Brazilian rookie Maurício Gugelmin. They made a strong team and the March 881 was the surprise of the year. At Spa-Francorchamps he scored his first podium with a third place behind Ayrton Senna's and Alain Prost's McLarens (though this was not known until after the season when the Benettons were disqualified for fuel irregularities). Capelli's best finish was second place at the Portuguese Grand Prix where he finished behind Prost. Even better was ahead for the Italian when he became the first non-turbo driver since to lead a World Championship Grand Prix. This happened on lap 16 of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka when Prost missed a gear coming out of the final chicane and Capelli was able to get ahead before the start/finish line and officially lead the lap. However, Prost used Honda's superior power and was ahead before turn 1. His Judd V8 suffered an electrical failure just three laps later. However, the momentum did not continue. March had financial problems and a sponsor, Leyton House, acquired a controlling interest. Gugelmin finished third in his home race at Jacarepaguá in 1989, but this was done in the 1988 car. The definitive 1989 Leyton House March was a disappointment, and neither driver challenged for the top in the rest of the year. Capelli in particular only finished once throughout the season (12th in Belgium) and went far enough to be classified on one further occasion (Monaco where he dropped out from 6th place near the end and was classified 11th). Despite this, he was one of only six drivers to start in all of the 16 races of the 1989 season (the others were the McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the Williams duo Riccardo Patrese and Thierry Boutsen, and Benetton's Alessandro Nannini). Team spirit remained intact despite the death of Gariboldi in a car crash and midway through the season Capelli felt happy