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<strong> Ayrton Senna Special:</strong> Part 35 - Bad year for the sport - Excellent start (1990)

Ayrton Senna Special: Part 35 - Bad year for the sport - Excellent start (1990)

Published on 26 Apr 2019 18:00
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By: Fergal Walsh

The season started with the United States Grand Prix. There were many changes in the line-up. Alain Prost went to Ferrari, Berger swapped from Ferrari to join Senna at McLaren. Nelson Piquet exchanged Lotus for Benetton.

Williams who was developing the team with the excellent Renault engine was the only team that kept both of its drivers. Patrese and Boutsen who were the two enjoying the benefit of the exclusive Renault RS2 3.5 V10 engine. It was, however going to be a season in which several people would get their breakthrough.

Phoenix (Fight with Alesi)

Saturday's qualifying was rained off, this meant that the grid would be formed from the times set during Friday's practice. Gerhard Berger's pole position, in his first McLaren Grand Prix, was a big shock but was matched by the surprise performances from the rest of the grid. Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi-Ford was only 0.067 seconds slower than Berger.

Andrea de Cesaris drove his Dallara-Ford to third place on the grid. Jean Alesi was fourth in the Tyrrell-Ford and Ayrton Senna fifth. World champion Alain Prost found himself in seventh place, Olivier Grouillard drove the Osella to eighth place on the grid. Nigel Mansell was seventeenth and Adrian Newey's Leyton House cars were lined up for the race in 25th and 26th place with their heels on the finish line. Martin Donnelly was the fastest in the Lotus-Lamborghini during the rainy practice on Saturday, followed by Roberto Moreno's EuroBrun-Judd. Ayrton was third, Mansell fourth. As there was a chance of rain for the race on Sunday, only fourteen drivers decided to enter the track on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday the public wondered if Formula 1 was really interesting. Only 15,000 paying spectators were present in the streets of Phoenix. At the start, the surprising Alesi emerged like a rocket. He was in the lead at the first corner, Berger, the Cesaris and Senna followed. It wasn't long before Ayrton passed the Dallara of De Cesaris for third place.

A third place became second in the ninth round when teammate Berger got into the tyres. Then he closed the gap with Alesi. After thirty laps there was a great fight between the Frenchman and the Brazilian. Their lengthy battle started when Ayrton passed the Tyrrell driver at the end of the straight.

Alesi didn't give up and fought Ayrton to the next corner. The Frenchman was able to snatch back the lead. On the next lap, Ayrton had no mercy and passed Alesi. Ayrton made sure that Alesi didn't have a chance to slow him down at the next corner. Alesi didn't give up and though he tried to take back the lead twice, he didn't succeed. The Frenchman then had problems with his Pirelli tyres and settled for second place. After a challenging race, Ayrton won.

"I'm surprised what this race has brought me. We were only able to test this car two weeks ago and it didn't go well. I didn't expect the car to be so competitive on this circuit. Street circuits are always difficult and there is always a lottery. We have seen that the teams with Pirelli tyres were doing well here, their speed was very good.

It is good for Goodyear that there is competition. I think they have to do a good job to keep their advantage over Pirelli. I've done my best here and I expect a good car for the future." The numbers one and two of the race complimented each other afterwards. "He has all the ingredients to ever become world champion", Senna said about Alesi. Alesi, in turn, told me that: "Ayrton has always been my hero, for many years he has been my example."

Brazil (Arrogance costs Ayrton the victory)

Ayrton was always dreaming of a victory at his home race on the new Interlagos circuit. On Saturday, he achieved his 43rd pole position. During the first stint of the race, there seemed to be no problem for the local driver. For almost forty laps he was in the lead and extended his lead over Alain Prost to more than ten seconds.

Yet it all came undone after one moment of carelessness. That moment cost him the victory. Ayrton thought he had enough room to pass former teammate Satoru Nakajima in the twisty area on the inside of the circuit. Pride came before the fall and the Japanese driver, who was left with nowhere to go, made contact with Ayrton's McLaren.

Ayrton then had to make an extra pit stop to replace his front wing. A weekend in which everything had been going well, where he was the fastest in each session and had hoped to let 150,000 Brazilians go crazy by winning the race, ended in disappointment. Archrival Prost, who started from sixth place with more than one second behind, won the race.

ESPN commentator David Hobbs thought he was able to put his finger on what caused Ayrton's rash move: "Ayrton Senna is the best driver in the world but today it was his arrogance that has prevented him from winning the race. Why couldn't he wait one extra turn to pass Nakajima? He had a great lead but chose to attempt to pass at an impossible point. It's a sign of the great Brazilian's arrogance that he ends up driving against himself at times like these." Alain Prost scored his sixth victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

After starting from pole position and then suffering a punctured tyre Ayrton had to retire after three laps at the Grand Prix of San Marino. Nevertheless, he remained one point ahead in the championship.

Monaco

Ayrton drove perfectly to yet another pole position in Monaco. He was almost half a second faster than Alain Prost. Alesi was third, Patrese fourth and Berger fifth. It was Ayrton's third pole in a row. During the start, Ayrton pulled away from Prost with Alesi in third place. The Tyrrell driver outsmarted his compatriot at Mirabeau. Berger, who was fourth, saw a gap and tried to squeeze through but ended up hitting Prost's right rear wheel.

The track was blocked with a traffic jam and the red flag came out. Prost and Berger came back to the pits to get in the spare cars. Both spare cars were adjusted to the other driver. Mansell had the right to use the spare car that weekend. The McLaren was set up for Ayrton Senna. Berger, however, had an even bigger problem because McLaren still didn't have a decent chassis for him.

James Hunt explained the situation during the report of the race: "There is a big problem at McLaren. Gerhard Berger has been driving a car that doesn't fit him since the first test. The Austrian is very tall and therefore McLaren could not build another monocoque for him at first. At McLaren, they are working on a new cockpit for Berger, which should have been ready before the first race of the year.

The situation is as follows: We have the best Grand Prix team in the world but we are now at the fourth Grand Prix of the year and they still haven't found a decent solution to the problem of Berger. If you pay five million a year to a driver who can't do his job properly because you don't take the problem seriously as a team, what kind of team are you? There is one thing I can tell you, and that is that racing cars are very difficult to drive when you're sitting comfortably in the car, let alone how difficult they are to drive when you're not sitting comfortably.

They just covered up the problems. They put the pedals in front of the suspension during the tests. That just means that Berger drove an illegal car during the winter." The latter is an important theme. It is forbidden to do this during the races, this is because of the safety and the cage construction that must ensure that all body parts are protected during an impact. "After that they had to move the pedals backwards again at the Grands Prix, which still makes Berger uncomfortable in the car. It's a serious situation that just isn't good on McLaren's part."

At the second start, Ayrton kept his lead. Prost followed keeping in front of Alesi and Berger. Ayrton's lead grew per lap and competitor Alain Prost lost out in the 30th lap with a battery problem. Ayrton won a race and at the end of the race he went off his gas, so Alesi and Berger came off the Brazilian within two seconds. During the race, Ayrton drove the fastest lap in 1:24.468.

"Everything was in order. After one-third of the race, I got some problems, it was still okay but I lost power. After that I was worried because the sound changed. I really thought I was going to have a serious problem. I kept the revs low and started to drive more economically. The next problem was the tail-runners, they made it very difficult for me because they sometimes held me up for more than half a lap.

" After managing to nurse his car to the finish and to still emerge victorious Ayrton took a six-point lead in the Championship over Gerhard Berger. Jean Alesi was third with thirteen points, Prost was fourth with twelve points.

Canada (wet race)

Senna was about to take part in his 99th Formula 1 race in Canada where he won the previous year. He knew that he would not get the undivided attention of the Brazilian public that weekend, as the World Cup started on Friday and the Brazilian's opening game took place on Sunday, due to start a few minutes after Senna left his McLaren. "I've never liked football, but it's impossible to stay out of it at times like this. The World Cup football touches the spirit of every Brazilian. It's a pity that I probably won't be able to watch our first game", said Ayrton.

In Montreal, Ayrton started Friday as best and scored the fastest lap of the training session, with 1min20.399, six-thousandths of a second faster than the pole position time of Prost the year before. On Sunday when the lights turned green for the race start the track was wet, but it wasn't raining. Ayrton was surprised by Gerhard Berger's overly spectacular start. And there was, in fact, something wrong: the Austrian made a false start and was punished with an extra minute on his total race time. Drive through penalties had not been introduced at this time.

Ayrton had to combine luck, concentration and skill to fend off the different cars but no competitor was able to threaten him. The fastest man of the day was nevertheless teammate Gerhard Berger, who finished fifteen seconds behind the Brazilian, including the one-minute penalty he received for his false start. Ayrton was flanked by compatriot Nelson Piquet and Ferrari driver Nigel Mansell. Competitor Prost finished fifth. The Frenchman, not a hero in the rain, was passed by Berger at the end of the race. In the world championship, Ayrton was leading with 31 points, and after five races he was seventeen points ahead of Alain Prost in the Ferrari.

"The conditions were difficult for everyone. It was slippery in the rain and it was very difficult to maintain a constant speed. Of course it's always difficult to drive off the dry line in these conditions with slicks, especially if you have to catch up with those who are lagging behind. I had a broken first gear during my tyre stop. So I actually had to drive a lot of the race without a first gear. I was very worried that the gearbox would hold. Luckily the gearbox kept it and was able to win in the race." It was Ayrton's 23rd victory.