PROST VS SENNA

Alain Prost

Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna are undoubtedly two of the greatest drivers. Fortunately their peaks overlapped for several seasons and for two years they shared a team. This has seldom occurred amongst top-rated drivers. Judging by the intensity of argument and the number of posts on the Planet-F1 Forum, the Alain versus Ayrton battles remain highly topical.

Using my Ratings System, which is based on time differentials in pre-race/qualifying/race laps and finishing times, Prost’s and Senna’s driver ratings, car neutral, are compared throughout their careers.

Ayrton Senna

In reading the Table below, bear in mind that 100.0 is the fastest, with increments of 0.1 ascending being slower. The figures can be read as percentages or as a fastest 100.0 second lap time.

Season
1	1980	Prost	100.5	1984	Senna	100.7
2	1981	Prost	100.4	1985	Senna	100.3
3	1982	Prost	100.3	1986	Senna	100.0
4	1983	Prost	100.2	1987	Senna	100.0
5	1984	Prost	100.1	1988	Senna	100.0
6	1985	Prost	100.0	1989	Senna	100.0
7	1986	Prost	100.0	1990	Senna	100.0
8	1987	Prost	100.0	1991	Senna	100.0
9	1988	Prost	100.0	1992	Senna	100.1
10	1989	Prost	100.0	1993	Senna	100.2
11	1990	Prost	100.1	1994	Senna	100.2
12	1991	Prost	100.2
	1992	retired	-
13	1993	Prost	100.5

Very few rookies started with a 100.5 Rating as Prost did in 1980. This is 0.5 second off-pace on a 100.0-second lap. In a 60 lap race this would add up to 30 seconds behind the winner. Sounds a lot, but for such World Champions as Graham and Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Emerson Fittipaldi, 100.5 was their peak driver rating in their championship years! Alain was immediately exceptional: fast, diligent and mechanically-sensitive. He shaded talented and experienced team-mate John Watson, who rated at 100.6. But McLaren in 1980 were no longer the winners they used to be and were now struggling with overweight, inferior cars.

Renault poached Alain for 1981 and paired him with the fast-qualifying Rene Arnoux. Alain soundly outraced and out-rated Rene in speed at 100.4 to 100.7. For 1982 Arnoux ramped up his performances, and although Prost improved his speed rating to 100.3, Arnoux was almost equal at 100.4. The fastest driver of all in these two seasons was Gilles Villeneuve at 100.0. Prost’s last season with Renault in 1983 had him paired with the under-rated Eddie Cheever: they rated 100.2 and 100.5 respectively. Piquet now top-rated at the ultimate 100.0.

In the Kyalami pits in 1982, I asked Prost how he thought he and Piquet compared with earlier greats Stewart, Clark, Moss and Fangio. He replied:  “Today there are about four or five of us who are very good. But for you fans, it is unfortunate that none of us stands out like them. They were really great drivers”

After some public criticism of Renault’s not winning the 1983 championship, Prost was fired. He was immediately snapped up by the newly-formed McLaren team under Ron Denis, with de-retiree Niki Lauda as team-mat for 1984. The two drivers gelled. Both were rational-thinking experts at car development and set-up. Although not as fast as he was 1975-1977, Lauda rated at 100.3 against Alain’s 100.1. Niki was experienced, shrewd and crafty enough to take the championship by half a point from his faster young team-mate. The 1984 Championship was one of many to have been wrongly awarded due to being based on an arbitrary points system: Prost took seven wins to Lauda’s five. 1984 was however crucial to Prost’s development into one of the greatest drivers: he learnt so much from Lauda’s organised, precise, thoughtful behaviour and approach to racing, mostly outside the car. Lauda too was generous with his knowledge and experience.

Senna, then a little-noticed rookie, first featured this season when his Toleman-Hart TG184 finished an outstanding second to Prost at the storm-washed Monaco GP. The Brazilian went on to score two third places that same year with this very fast Tolemen-Hart model TG184. Senna started at much the same rating as most great drivers, including Michael Schumacher: 100.7. However he got to ultimate pace within just three years! Only John Surtees in 1961 and Auto-Union driver Bernd Rosemeyer back in 1937 were as precocious.

In 1985 and now fastest of all, at the ultimate 100.0, Prost completely overshadowed Lauda, who retired at year-end, good-naturedly and humourously blaming “that French pain-in-the arse.” The McLaren-Porsche was no longer the fastest car, being slower than the Lotus-Renault and the Ferrari 156/85. Prost still walked the title with five wins to Lauda’s one. Niki had slowed markedly and also suffered appalling bad luck all year with niggling mechanical troubles.

For 1986-87 several other cars were faster than the McLaren-Porsches, yet Alain’s brilliance managed four and three wins respectively. The dominant Williams-Hondas of Mansell and Piquet won nine races in each of those seasons.

From 1985 to 1987 Senna joined the Lotus team, now improved under the direction of the brilliant ex-Ligier designer Gerard Ducarouge. Ayrton managed two wins in each of the three seasons, his first being an outstanding drive in rainy Portugal. Lotus were however struggling to stay with the top teams, dropping pace each year.

For 1988 McLaren had secured Honda engines and employed Senna as Prost’s team-mate. Although Ayrton had top-rated since 1986, Alain generously welcomed him and, like Lauda, was quite open to helping and sharing. Senna was so intense in asking his team, “What’s he doing now?”, “Why’s he doing that?”, etc. His sole aim and passion was directed very personally at beating the acknowledged best driver of all: Prost. The Brazilian was then 28, the Frenchman 33.

So was born probably one of the strongest driver pairings, matched only a few times since 1894. With top-rated drivers in the fastest cars, 1988 was a McLaren-Honda walkover: Prost and Senna won 15 of 16 races, almost even-scoring at seven to eight respectively!

Still both top-rated for 1989, Senna took six wins to Prost’s four. Apart from Prost agreeing that Senna was faster and prepared to take more risks, being younger, the relationship had broken down. Before the start of one race Alain approached Ayrton and they agreed that, because they were unchallenged, they should not risk crashing at the first corner. Whoever got the best start would have the corner. Prost did so and was braking to enter when Senna charged up the inside and took the lead. Another factor that added to the inter-driver friction is that Honda were supplying Senna with superior engines. Prost left at the end of 1989 after six seasons and 30 wins.

Prost joined Mansell at Ferrari for 1990. Nigel had been there since 1989 and was a popular two-time race winner, admiringly called Il Leone for his fighting spirit.

Totally shading Mansell with 5 wins to 1, Prost just could not take the title from Senna in his faster McLaren-Honda with the Brazilian managing six wins. Never did Prost fight harder against the odds than in this year.

Under Fiat-mismanagement for 1991, Ferrari went downhill fast and Prost did not win a single race. Alain expressed his frank opinion to the media at year’s end and was fired. Senna continued to thrive at McLaren-Honda, taking another seven wins. But Williams-Renault cars were fast improving, with drivers Mansell and Patrese winning six races.

After much convoluted, inter-season contractual wrangling among Frank Williams, Prost, Senna, and Mansell, Alain decided not to race in 1992, Ayrton stayed with McLaren-Honda and Nigel re-signed with Williams-Renault.

Only McLaren-Honda’s experience and Senna’s superiority as a driver gave him three wins for 1992. The most advanced GP car of all time, the Williams-Renault FW14B driven by Mansell and Patrese, won ten times.

A very human side of Senna was related to me by Mrs Margie Stephens, the librarian-archivist for the AA of South Africa, the new owners of Kyalami. Margie was struggling to move several cartons of documents from a storeroom at the back of the pits to another. Senna saw this, and immediately came over and insisted on carrying the rest of them!

Prost returned to F1 for 1993, replacing Mansell at Williams-Renault. After his 1990 Ferrari experience with Alain, Nigel opted out of F1 and went Indy Car racing. The loyal, hardworking and under-rated Patrese was replaced by Damon Hill in only his first full season. Senna remained with McLaren, who had lost their Honda engines, replacing them with less powerful, less efficient Cosworths. His team-mate was Indy star but F1 rookie Michael Andretti.

In the superior Williams-Renault FW15, Prost cantered to the 1993 title with 7 wins added to the 3 Damon took late in the season. Alain was now racing at 100.5, taking no chances. He sincerely praised Damon’s abilities, while Hill wryly said he thought Prost was showing some talent! A good team atmosphere. Senna railed against his off-pace McLaren-Cosworth and cheekily offered to drive a Williams-Renault without pay. Yet Ayrton managed five great, fighting wins, including that phenomenal performance at rainy Donington when he dominated the field in one of the greatest ever wet-weather displays. It was reminiscent of Rosemeyer in 1936 at the Nurburgring. Prost retired after the 1993 season.

Senna joined Williams-Renault for 1994 alongside Damon Hill. Now 34, Ayrton had dropped slightly in sheer speed - perhaps due to team contracts and personal reasons. In competitiveness, motivation, experience, race craft, team-management-pull and car development, he was still supreme. But there was a new threat: young Michael Schumacher in a Bennetton-Cosworth that handled better initially than the Williams-Renault FW16. Senna took pole in the first three events by really trying hard. He led the season-opening Brazilian GP for 21 laps before losing the lead to Schumacher during a pitstop. Chasing hard but not being able to close the gap, Senna spun off near the end. Schumacher won. In race two at Fuji, Schumacher got a better start to led from the flag while Senna was punted out at turn one. The third race was at Imola. Senna led from the start until the race was slowed behind the safety-car while others’ crash debris was cleared. Senna leapt ahead again as the safety- car pulled off. With Schumacher’s Benetton-Cosworth right on his tail and the Williams-Renault bottoming and sparking, Senna went straight on at the 270kmh Tamburello into the wall...

It was the virtual performance equality between the Senna/Williams-Renault and Schumacher/ Benetton-Cosworth packages, coupled with Ayrton’s fierce competitiveness, that caused Ayrton to overdrive his not-yet-warm-tyred car at Imola. He was rattled by having Michael so close behind. Damon Hill always maintained that “Ayrton just made a mistake.”

Exceptionally, both Senna and Prost raced at the ultimate pace of 100.0 for five to six seasons - something only Alonso, Schumacher, Clark, Stewart and Moss achieved in the F1 era. Alain and Ayrton were very different characters, and they remain as two of the greatest of all time.

© Patrick O’Brien 2011. Nothing from this page can be used without the permission of Patrick E. O’Brien.