Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost's legendary rivalry and the politics behind it

The second collision in 1990

In the following season in 1990, Prost left Mclaren to join Ferrari. However, the war of words between the two drivers didn’t stop.

“Ayrton has a small problem, he thinks he can’t kill himself, because he believes in God and I think that’s pretty dangerous for other drivers.” – Alain Prost

“Because I believe in God and have faith in God, it doesn’t mean I’m immortal, it doesn’t mean I’m immune, as has been claimed. I am as scared as anyone of getting hurt, especially driving a Formula 1 car. It’s a constant danger.” – Ayrton Senna

Again in the Japanese Grand Prix, a situation arose. If Prost didn’t finish the race then Senna would win the championship, which was the exact opposite scenario just the year before.

Senna was on pole position that weekend and had requested that the starting grid for the man on pole position be shifted to the clean side of the track, which was to the left from the dirty right side of the track.

It should be noted here that Prost had qualified second on the grid and hence was on the clean side of the track. But Senna’s request was denied by the FIA President Jean-Marie Balestre.

Senna and Prost were once again involved in a collision at the Japanese Grand Prix

Prost took the lead when the race began, but when Senna tried to take the lead at the first corner, the Frenchman turned in and so did Senna without backing off, which resulted in the both of them colliding for the second year in a row.

This also effectively made Senna the world champion for the season and led to a lot of speculation that the Brazilian intentionally collided with Prost as he was frustrated with being denied to start the race from the clean side of the track and also because of what had transpired a year ago.

But Senna denied all the accusation and spoke about it in his famous interview with Sir Jackie Stewart during the Australian Grand Prix.

He claimed that he saw an opening to overtake and went for it, and that’s what a driver who is racing is supposed to do. But later on it was found that Senna did indeed collide with Prost’s car intentionally.

Prost’s retirement followed by reconciliation with Senna

In 1991, Senna became the youngest ever three-time world champion, winning seven races and increasing his pole position record to 60. Prost, because of the downturn in performance at Ferrari, was no longer a serious competitor.

The Frenchman openly criticized Ferrari for producing an inferior car, which ultimately resulted in Ferrari terminating his contract as a disciplinary action.

1992 was uneventful for Senna as McLaren weren’t competitive while 1993 was interesting an interesting season as McLaren didn’t have Honda as their engine partner. They had to struggle to get on board a decent engine manufacturer before finally deciding to use Ford V8 engines.

Senna declined to sign a one-year contract but agreed to drive on a race-by-race basis, eventually staying on for a season. Prost, on the other hand, secured a contract with Williams, who had a very competitive car.

Senna and Prost reconciled their friendship following the Frenchman’s retirement

One interesting aspect was that Senna was interested to drive for Williams and was even willing to do it for free! But Prost had a clause in his contract that no matter what, Senna can never be his team mate! Talk about two people having grudge against each other!

Eventually Prost won the championship for the fourth time in the Williams and decided to gracefully retire. On the podium in the Australian GP in Adelaide in 1993, Prost and Senna hugged it out, literally. As Prost was no longer a rival, Senna saw no reason for any more hostility.

Senna’s untimely death a year later

In 1994, Senna moved to Williams to take the place vacated by Prost. The Brazilian driver was paid $1 million a race totaling to $20 million for the season.

But the rule changes that were effected for 1994, which banned active suspension, traction control and ABS, degraded the performance of the car.

“I have a very negative feeling about driving the car and driving it on the limit and so on … Some of that is down to the lack of electronic change. Also, the car has its own characteristics which I’m not fully confident in yet.”

“It’s going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I’ll risk saying that we’ll be lucky if something really serious doesn’t happen.” – Ayrton Senna

Unfortunately, a serious incident did take place during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola; an incident which took Senna’s life.

Senna was on pole for the race, but certain incidents during the weekend played on Senna’s mind.

One was his compatriot Rubens Barrichello’s accident at the Variante Bassa chicane where he suffered from a broken nose and arm and had to withdraw from the race. The other one was during qualifying, when Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed after the front wing of his Simtek-Ford broke hurtling at 305 km/h towards the Villeneuve corner before the car was sent into a concrete wall.

Ironically, Senna had spent his final morning talking to former McLaren teammate and nemesis Alain Prost to discuss the re-establishment of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association in an attempt to improve safety regulations in Formula One. Being the most senior driver, Senna even offered to take the role of leader, starting from the next race in Monaco.

Ayrton Senna suffered an unfortunate crash in 1994

But as fate would have it, Senna had to create the awareness of driver safety through his own death. During the 7th lap at the high-speed Tamburello corner, Senna’s car left the racing line at around 307 km/h, ran in a straight line off the track and hit the concrete wall at around 233 km/h. That was it, Formula One’s most beloved driver was no more.

In the end, all we can say is that Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were two extremely competitive individuals who didn’t like to lose. This has been the trait of all great drivers in the history of Formula One racing.

When Senna died, Prost had said that a part of himself had also died, as their careers were so bound together. Moreover, Prost is a trustee at the Instituto Ayrton Senna, set up by his sister Viviane in 1995, which has educated over 12 million underprivileged Brazilian children.