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Celebrate over sixty years of F1 - your memories, experiences and opinions.
#67984
I think these have recently be put up on You Tube, certainly the BBC interview. It in particular is well worth watching.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1yEb7sJDk ... re=related (Part 1)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3iDY8bKQVB4&NR=1 (Part 2)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ojoY7b8Sz ... re=related

The greatest ever.
#68253
Possibly not the right place to ask, but...do you have the facts at hand about the Senna/Prost incident and the title rigging comments? What went on there?

I wish I'd seen him race, because everybody talks about how brilliant he was and the first time I had ever heard of him was Murray Walker mentioning it at the San Marino grand prix a few years later.
#68281
Possibly not the right place to ask, but...do you have the facts at hand about the Senna/Prost incident and the title rigging comments? What went on there?

I wish I'd seen him race, because everybody talks about how brilliant he was and the first time I had ever heard of him was Murray Walker mentioning it at the San Marino grand prix a few years later.

In the 1989 season, there was a lot of tension within McLaren as Prost and Senna's relationship went from bad to worse. Prost was very good at playing the little lost boy, claiming that McLaren and Honda were giving Senna preferential treatment, mainly that he was receiving better technical components. The truth of the situation was more that Senna had a good relationship with Honda and Prost got a little bit paranoid over this. When you at the facts and figures, Prost's race pace was very good, he was ahead on points for much of the season and had two technical failures compared to Senna's six. Anyway, at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, Senna had to win the race in order to keep his championship challenge alive. Senna qualified on pole position, 1.7 seconds faster than Prost, who lined up second. At the start, Prost took advantage of Senna's poor start and went into a decent lead, helped by a botched pitstop on Senna's car at the first stop and poor balance on his set of tyres. However, towards the end of the race after the second round of stops, Senna began to eat into Prost's lead (perhaps the new tyres had better balance than the old set) and got close enough to pass him at the final chicane. Senna executed a brilliant move and came from such a distance that Prost didn't even bother to defend the inside line. Senna swept past him and then Prost turned into him. Prost thought things were done and dusted - he was the 1989 champion. But Senna had other ideas. His car was in a dangerous position, so the marshals were legally able to push the car with Senna still in it. Senna then took the initiative and bump-started the car and - critically - used the escape road to get back onto the track. After this, he pitted for a new nose and tyres, overtook Nannini's Benetton and won the race - or at least he thought he had, for he was disqualified for using the escape road to get back on the track. This was simply preposterous, for: a) Prost rammed into Senna and b) Senna had to use the escape road, for revering or going the wrong way around the track is illegal, and c), linked to a), is that he was the one who was wronged anyway, so should have been given the benefit of the doubt for using the escape road. After this incident, McLaren appealed and Senna called the authorities corrupt, particularly Balestre, this getting him his super licence canceled and a fine. Things got so bad diplomats from Brazil and/or France had to get involved. Eventually, McLaren talked Senna into making a pretty insincere apology and paid his fine in order for his licence to re-issued. In the meantime, Prost had jumped ship to Ferrari, unable to work alongside Senna (this was on the cards before the said incident anyway).

The 1990 season was again pretty close between Senna and Prost. Although Senna was well ahead on points, in those days only your best eleven results counted, so Senna would have had to drop more points than Prost, so the result at Suzuka would virtually either lose him or win him the title. Senna again put in a wonderful qualifying lap to claim pole position and Prost lined up second. Pole position was, however, on the dirty side of the track, which at Suzuka means filthy, so it was almost certain you would be overtaken off the line. Senna spoke to the stewards about having the pole and second position sides switched, so he could take advantage of his pole position. The stewards agreed, but Balestre telephoned the track and told them that the positions must not be switched around. As a result, Senna came to the conclusion he did: if Prost made it into the first corner ahead of him, he would ram him off track, just as Prost did to him the year before. And that's what happened: Prost beat Senna off the line and Senna drove him off the track at the first corner. At the time, Senna kept quiet and claimed it was a racing incident and there was nothing to prove otherwise.

Over the close season, however, developments were going on at FISA. Max Mosley was whipping up support against Balestre, claiming, first, that there was a conflict of interest between Balestre being head of FISA, President of the FIA and president of the French motorsport authority, and, second, that he rigged the championship in favour of Prost and what happened to Senna was disgusting (a little ironic, given what we have seen of Mosley's behaviour). Mosley defeated Balestre in the election and became the head of FISA in 1991. After Balestre was gone and with Mosley seeming to support his views, Senna unleashed his famous press conference after the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix. Because of what happened to Senna in 1989 and because it was too long after the incident, Senna was not punished for what he did in 1990.

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