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It was a disaster for McLaren that Honda pulled out of Formula One. It was not simply that they left at the end of 1992; Honda had decided they were going to leave for a long time, so their engines in 1991 were not really the best they could have produced as well.
Well he got the title in 91 and it was not the best engine. Again he worked wonders with the Ford in 93. No one else could have achieved what he did with what he had.
He had a bit of luck, but, as you say, a lot of it was self-made. Usually, Senna always went flat out, at least until the race win was in the bag. In pushing his car so hard, though, you have to wonder would he have had fewer mechanical failures. In any case, Senna drove very maturely in 1991. Rather than going flat out trying to win races he really had no chance of winning and then spinning out or breaking the car, he was content to take podiums and points. In 1991, Senna showed he had all of the necessary skills for Grand Prix racing.
All of his five wins in the 1993 were season oozed class, but his performance at the European Grand Prix was just on another plain. The MP4/8's engine was dreadful and affected the chassis design, but Prost and Hill in very much superior cars simply didn't have an answer. Traction control should have evened things up for the other drivers, but it didn't. Senna blew everybody away. Before I came back to Scotland after Christmas, I watched the Japanese Grand Prix as well. The weather was pretty changeable. Prost decided to stick with the tyres he had. Senna decided to stop for tyres. Despite the extra pitstop, Senna was able to catch Prost very quickly. Senna is the only driver I've seen who still put in decent times on slicks in wet conditions.
Senna was a pole man. He sought pole at all costs. Once, I understand, he deliberately did not lift at the finish line, to get a good time, knowing he would hit the wall immediately after crossing the line. He saw getting pole as paramount in the quest for a win, and I guess he was right.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
Senna was a pole man. He sought pole at all costs. Once, I understand, he deliberately did not lift at the finish line, to get a good time, knowing he would hit the wall immediately after crossing the line. He saw getting pole as paramount in the quest for a win, and I guess he was right.
Well, you guessed wrong:
AS was pretty bad at converting his poles into wins: out of his 65 poles he got 41 wins. Compare this to AP (32 poles and 51 wins) or MS (67 poles, 91 wins). I didn't check on how many wins were achieved from non-pole positions, but the numbers are pretty clear: AS should have had way more wins if we extrapolate from AP's or MS's ratio.
Race craft is NOT simply being fast, it entails a lot more.
Senna was a pole man. He sought pole at all costs. Once, I understand, he deliberately did not lift at the finish line, to get a good time, knowing he would hit the wall immediately after crossing the line. He saw getting pole as paramount in the quest for a win, and I guess he was right.
Well, you guessed wrong:
AS was pretty bad at converting his poles into wins: out of his 65 poles he got 41 wins. Compare this to AP (32 poles and 51 wins) or MS (67 poles, 91 wins). I didn't check on how many wins were achieved from non-pole positions, but the numbers are pretty clear: AS should have had way more wins if we extrapolate from AP's or MS's ratio.
Race craft is NOT simply being fast, it entails a lot more.
Oh crap everything I say turns out to be wrong!
I gotta stop making things up.
Oh I didn't know there was more to racing than being fast, as I only started following F1 yesterday.
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