Alain Prost has led the tributes to Ayrton Senna on the 31-year anniversary of his death. Prost and Senna were involved in one of Formula 1’s great rivalries.
They were teammates at McLaren for just two seasons, but the partnership instantly became iconic. After Senna won the title in 1988, Prost struck back a year later.
The Brazilian was disqualified from the penultimate round of the season in Japan in bitterly controversial fashion, confirming Le Professeur as the champion. Senna took Prost out at the start on F1’s next visit to Suzuka, a move that won him the 1990 title but fostered lasting regret.
Prost was a Ferrari driver at that point, and he bowed out as a champion at Williams in 1993. Senna was a distant runner-up.
At the 1994 San Marino GP, the third round of the season, Senna suffered a fatal accident. Roland Ratzenberger had lost his life during qualifying.
Alain Prost leads Ayrton Senna tributes 31 years after Imola crash
The sport marked the anniversary on Thursday, with F1’s official account writing ‘Ayrton Senna. Forever in our hearts’.
McLaren, Senna’s home for five of his 10 seasons, said he was ‘gone but never forgotten’. Damon Hill, who was his teammate in ’94, shared two photos without any caption.
Prost only used one word on his Instagram story – ‘remembering’. He attached an image of the pair laughing during an interview.
Senna was a three-time F1 world champion who ranks in the all-time top six for race wins (41) and the top three for pole positions (65). Lewis Hamilton, who tops the tables, has idolised the Sao Paulo-born racer since he was a child.
The unseen ‘camaraderie’ between Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher
Having raced against him in both the junior categories and Formula 1, Martin Brundle named Senna on his ‘Mount Rushmore’. He also picked Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark.
Like Hamilton, Schumacher called Senna his idol. He declared him the fastest driver ever to race in F1.
The 1994 season was shaping up to be a Senna vs Schumacher title battle. The former had taken the first three pole positions, the latter the first two victories.
According to former Benetton mechanic Jonathan Wheatley, Senna used to shake his head in disbelief at Schumacher’s lap times in qualifying. That spoke to the unseen ‘camaraderie’ between the two legendary drivers.
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