4 replies to this topic

[John B]

There are two races that struck me as strange about that year.

Senna had the edge over Prost most of the summer, winning a number of races, in the process wiping out a huge early points deficit and building a decent lead.

Then there were two back-to-back races, Portugal and Spain, that Prost won. In these events, Senna was suddenly well off the pace, finishing 4th and 6th (I think). In one race, he was passed at least once on the straight by a normally aspirated car, including the March. As a result, the championship tightened up considerably.

I'm just wondering if anyone else read anything about this. It's been years, but I remember a magazine hinting that Honda was out to prove that it was not favoring Senna.

[The Fazz]

I have a theory on this.

Those races you talked about were came after the race at Spa when Senna won, and Prost happily conceded the championship to Senna. IMHO, I think that this transferred alot of the pressure to Senna (Prost was good at playing the pressure game) and his performance suffered significantly... it is not many times you saw a normally aspirated car (March designed by Newey) overtake a McLaren Honda Turbo in 1988. It appears that this was the kind of pressure that Hakkers sufferred in the second half of 1999 (that everybody expected him to win the WDC).

The pressure struck Senna again at the next race after Spain: Suzuka 1988. Senna stalled on the grid, and when he got going again, he was well down. Senna's race at Suzuka 1988 to me must go down as one of his best... not so much for the skills he showed, but of the way he overcame all the pressure to win the race and the WDC.

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[Haddock]

Another possibility: Honda wanted to ensure that the championship battle was still on when the teams got to Suzuka in Japan.

Cynical ? perhaps.....

[Rediscoveryx]

Senna himself blamed his poor performance in Portugal on mechanical problems, but ofcourse, Senna (and Prost) always complained about something with the car...

At Jerez there was something wrong with Sennas fule-readout according to the man himself. Personally, I believe that he was trying to play Prost's game of scoring points rather than win races. After Jerez he probably realized that this didn't suit him as well as it suits Prost, hence his drive at Suzuka (where Prost had some problems with his gearbox...)

[Phoenix]

I think I remember hearing once that Senna had damaged his chasis in the crash with Schessler in the previous race to Portugal in Monza and that caused him to be uncompetitive