"Ayrton Senna lost his bearings without me," reminisces former F1 rival and teammate Alain Prost

Alain Prost believes that his F1 retirement led to his rival Ayrton Senna losing motivation in the sport.

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Prost retired at the end of the 1994 season, winning the title with Williams Racing. While he made the most of a dominant car, Senna was with a McLaren-Ford team that failed to put together the right car.

Despite that, the Brazilian did his best to challenge for podium finishes, even winning five times. The two, in fact, were teammates at McLaren in the 1980s. Their relationship wasn't the warmest, with both clashing several times over the years.

Both drivers last shared a podium at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix before Senna replaced the retired Prost at Williams in 1994.

Despite the evident animosity at their peak, they mellowed down by the end of Prost's career. In the Frenchman's final career race, Senna addressed him from his cockpit saying:

“A special hello to my dear… our dear friend Alain, in France. We all miss you, Alain.”

Prost, in an interview with L’Equipe, stated that Ayrton Senna 'lost his bearings' following his retirement. He said (via PlanetF1):

“We communicated so much with Ayrton the days after my retirement. I felt he was not well. He called me often. Sometimes twice a week. He never phoned me while I was still racing. He had, without me, lost his bearings. I was probably his source of motivation. It’s hard to understand…”

Looking back at their careers, Prost said:

“We both lived an incredible human and psychological story. You have to stay on the beautiful memories.”

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Veteran F1 journalist compares Ayrton Senna to Lewis Hamilton

Veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor has claimed that Ayrton Senna had a Lewis Hamilton-like driving style, though the Brazilian driver was at a 'higher level'.

Explaining his statement, Windsor stated that while the Brazilian had a 'Hamilton-like' linear style of driving, he was better than the seven-time world champion in certain areas. He said (via SilverArrows.net):

"I think Ayrton Senna was fairly linear actually in the way he drove, which was very Lewis-like, but his corner entries weren’t as early as Alain Prost’s to my eye."

"And Ayrton always had that business of the throttle blipping where he just wanted to feel that moment to get the power on, whereas Lewis and Michael never had to do that in order to find that moment. So you may think, what made Ayrton so great? Well, what made Ayrton so great was his incredible precision."