The Ligier JS31 was a Formula One car designed by Michel Tétu and Michel Beaujon for the Ligier team for use in the 1988 Formula One season. It was powered by the new, normally aspirated, 3.5L Judd CVV8 engine and, like the rest of the F1 grid in 1988, ran on Goodyear tyres. Drivers for the team were French veteran René Arnoux in his 3rd season driving for team boss Guy Ligier, and Swede Stefan Johansson who had finished 5th in the World Championship with Ferrari in and 6th with McLaren in. Johansson joined the team late in the off-season in place of Christian Danner, who had originally signed to drive but was unable to fit the car comfortably. Many drivers were considered and held discussions with Ligier for the 1988 season. Among them were Philippe Streiff, Olivier Grouillard, Paolo Barilla and Michel Ferté. The JS31 was the first non-turbo car produced by Ligier since the Cosworth DFV powered JS21 used in the season and it proved to be very uncompetitive. The car's major failure was a lack of downforce, with Johansson in particular reporting several times during a frustrating season that he had to drive the car as if on a wet track. Johansson, a frequent podiumvisitor in the previous three seasons, failed to qualify six times and never finished above 9th while seven-time Grand Prix winner Arnoux failed to qualify twice and never finished a race higher than 10th. Neither driver qualified for the San Marino Grand Prix, the first time in team history that neither of its cars made the grid. The French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard proved to be the lowest point of the season for the French team. On the eve of Arnoux's 40th birthday, neither Arnoux nor Johansson qualified for the team's home Grand Prix, something that did not please the team's ownerGuy Ligier. Ligier did not score a point during 1988, their worst season since 1983, when they also failed to score. On several occasions both Johansson and Arnoux struggled to outqualify the equally uncompetitive EuroBrun. In an effort to optimise the weight distribution of the car, it was designed with an unusual and heavy arrangement of fuel tanks: there were two cells either side of the driver, another between the driver and the engine and a fourth between the engine and gearbox. Ligier only had both cars qualify for a race on 10 occasions in 1988. On 5 of those occasions both cars failed to finish.
