Senna VS Prost. Part 1.
Talking about Ayrton Senna is not easy, as well as about any talented person, the more we should not forget that his whole brilliant and short career was held against the background of equally great and talented racers. However, it is impossible to talk about him at all, he left such an important trace in the history of motorsport.
About Ayrton written a lot of biographical materials, made films, kilometers of video chronicles. I would like to recall the part of his life that permeated almost his entire career in F1-Confrontation with Alan Prost.
Acquaintance of two irreconcilable friends occurred in 1984, Senna that year only began to perform in the Formula, he had only three starts, while Prost performed for four years, becoming the vice-champion in 1983. Both the rider, as well as another 18 experienced and titled athletes were invited to the Nurburgring to participate in the race for the new Mercedes 190. The organizers asked Prost, who was by car, to take Senna from the airport. The young Brazilian was very pleased with this acquaintance and noted the dashing driving style of Prost on the highway. Initially, nobody took Senna seriously, and the place in this race he received only because such riders as Mario Andrietti and Emerson Fittipaldi could not take part because of other races. However, unexpectedly for everyone, the debutant broke out ahead and won the race, without even giving the chance to get closer to himself. On the side of Ayrton, who was later nicknamed "Man of the Rain," was the weather.
In 1984, Alan got a place in the strongest team of McLaren-TAG, and debutant Senna - in an unremarkable and rather weak private team Toleman. In the Formula there have always been similar teams. There get young pilots, sometimes with good data, but, so nothing has achieved, leave the Queen of racing for good. And only the most talented and hardworking on such a car can achieve something. Senna was one of those.
Two times in a row, he finished in sixth place, which is already good for a debutant on not the best car, but his true level of the Brazilian showed the sixth race of the season - the Monaco Grand Prix. Classified Ayrton in 13th place. On the front row of the grid on Saturday, the place was staked by Prost and Nigel Mensell on Lotus-Renault.
The rain began in Monaco in the morning, and so strong and prolonged that the launch was postponed several times, in the hope of improving the weather. However, this did not happen, therefore, with a 45-minute delay, the race still started. This city route never differs in simplicity - in the conditions of a rain racers are compelled to storm its artful turns practically blindly. Of course, there were some mistakes.
Prost successfully implemented the green light of the traffic light, retaining the position, Mencel held on to him, in the first corner, both Renault lost all chances. On the 11th round, Mencel managed to overcome Prost, but not for long - soon his back wheel burst and he broke his car, the rain grew stronger, and soon on the track there were only 18 cars out of 26 started. Leadership returned to Prost, followed by team-mate Nicky Laud. Behind Senna's debutant, a part of the opponents dropped out herself, making mistakes, others Ayrton skilfully skirted. It was a delightful sight, visibility in the clubs of water dust from the ahead racing car was about 30 meters, in such conditions the Brazilian managed not only to keep the pace of rivals on stronger cars, but also successfully to fight them.
It was almost incredible, young Senna on a weak Toleman not only caught up with the two-time champion from the strongest team, but also bypassed that on the 20th round in a fair fight! The uncompromising and purposeful racer now saw only one goal in front of him: taking advantage of the situation, squeezing everything out of the car, shortening the 35-second lag and winning the race bypassing the leading Prost.
At first the task looked difficult, the first circle - only one second, the second - three seconds, the third - three seconds, the fourth - again one, and in the same spirit, not quickly, but confidently. By the 31st round the gap between the leaders was only 8 seconds. It should be noted that Stefan Beloff on Tyrrell, who started from the 26th place, was even more rapidly approaching the two leaders.
What happened next, for years to come was the subject of controversy racing fans. Throughout the previous few laps Alain Prost on a direct start-finish something actively showed whether his mechanics, then-whether the judges. However, on the 32nd lap, after a little more than an hour from the beginning of the race, the main judge of the race Jacqui X went to the track with checkered flag. All the other commissars on the track raised red flags, this indicated that the race was completed, and the seats are distributed among the riders in accordance with their positions at the beginning of the circle. To finish reached only 8 cars. All came only half the points.
In official terms, the early finish was justified by security considerations, but there are many political versions of what happened.
Here is what Ayrton Senna himself said on this score: "I knew that I did not win this race, but I still allowed myself to throw my hand in the gesture of the winner. They were not going to give Toleman the opportunity to win, especially in Monaco. However ... Maybe I would have taken the lead, and I would have got into an accident in five and ended up with nothing at all ... But, after all, X did not have to stop the race at the moment when the fate of the first three places was decided. "
Here is the version of his rival Prost: "Yes, Ayrton took offense at me then. Although, I also would prefer that the race lasted three more laps: in this situation we would have passed 75% of the distance. And let him win, but I would get six points for the second place, and not half for the first. Then I would become the world champion that year (at the finish of the season, Lauda and Prosta shared 0.5 points) ... However, I think: if that race were won by any other rider, Ayrton would have made the second place, which was already his best result on This moment. But, since it was about me, it was different for him, I was at the top of the Formula-1, and he always wanted to be higher than the top. "
Many in the incident blamed Jacqui Iks. In 1984, he actively advocated the factory team of Porsche in the class of prototypes, the engine of the same manufacturer was at the McLaren-TAG Prost, in addition, Prost was very friendly with the head of the FIA Jean-Marie Balestere, which could affect any decision during the race. Alain Prost, who was subsequently nicknamed for his calculus Professor, really did not really hold on to his position in the race, given that the title was already in his pocket. However, the victory in this race meant a lot to Senna, who was aimed at the highest step of the podium in every race, regardless of the circumstances.
Perhaps Senna would have overtaken Prost, perhaps he would have been bypassed by the rapidly approaching Beloff (disqualified later for fraud with the weight of the car), and maybe any of them would have got into an accident - it's hard to judge now. Unequivocally, we can say only one thing: the decision on the early completion of the race deprived Alain Prost of the points needed to win the championship in the 84th year, Senna did not receive such a welcome victory, but attracted the attention of stronger teams and terminated the contract with Toleman ahead of schedule. We also got a story about one of the most exciting confrontations between the greatest racers of our time, the development of which, I'll tell you in the next article.
The next part of the confrontation will be in the near future!