Although Ayrton Senna did not win that race in Monaco in 1984, it was impossible not to notice his talent, James Hunt, for example, spoke very flatteringly of the newcomer. Soon Senna received a sponsorship contract from the tobacco giant Philip Morris, and then received an invitation to the Lotus team, which he accepted, despite the fact that he had been involved in the contract with Toleman for another year, and, of course, he was quite satisfied with them, Was not painless. However, after receiving an offer from the new team, Senna did not relax, but continued to struggle at the limit of the car's capabilities, still rising to the 3rd stage of the podium for the 84th year.
In 1985, Lotus was not the strongest team, but they prepared very well, and that was enough for Ayrton. Already in the second race of the season, in the grand prix of Portugal, the Brazilian who competed only in the second season could win the pole, then hold the lead throughout the race, and also show the best lap time for the race, the first victory simultaneously made him the owner of a large helmet. Alain Prost started following, but on the 30th lap flew off the track and did not reach the finish line. In this season Ayrton has repeatedly started from the first place on the grid, but the technique was constantly failing. However, he went up to the podium five more times. Twice in the third place, twice in the 2nd and in the first in Belgium, where the pole started with Prost, but finished on the 3rd. Whatever it was, this season Senna finished in 4th place, and Prost first received his champion title.
In many respects, his success was due to good knowledge of the car, its settings and potential, the team members noted that while Senna's rivals were resting in hotels or having fun, Ayrton could spend his time in the boxes with mechanics until the morning, completely immersed in the process of setting up the car . He knew everything about his car and squeezed out more of it than he could. His team-mate Elio de Angelis was also quite good, behind Senna only 4 points per season, the Brazilian insisted on being replaced by another team-mate, as the team could not provide proper attention to two strong pilots.
The 1986 season started in a promising way, the first race of the season - the second place, the second race - the first place, but then again a number of technical problems, and, despite the 8 poles - only the 4th place in the championship, and the title of this year again took Alain Prost.
In 1987, Lotus started using Honda engines, but the reliability of the cars was still suffering. It should be noted Senna's first victory in Monaco. In general, it became clear that Lotus can not provide the proper quality for such a successful pilot, however, Senna became the third by the results of the season. Ayrton received an invitation to the McLaren team, the initiator of which was the manufacturer of engines for both teams - Honda.
In 1988, two-time champion Alain Prost became a teammate, and at the same time the most serious rival. Given this status, the newcomer was assigned the role of co-pilot, with which Ayrton did not intend to put up, fortunately, the team was not against internal competition.
Already on the first race, Senna fought like a lion, it was a home race for him! He qualified first, but on Sunday, on the warm-up circle, his car refused the selector gearbox, and he was forced to start from the boxes in the spare car. By the 20-circle, the Brazilian managed to break from the last place to the second and was sitting on the tail of Prost! However, soon he was shown a black flag for a car change, the triumph of youth over the experiment was postponed again.
But the full Senna was able to recoup in San Marino. Senna and Prost qualified in the first and second places, the same order lasted the entire race, there was no struggle between them, the Brazilian consistently kept the distance in 5-10 seconds.
For Ayrton it was important to get around Prost at the Monaco Grand Prix, he knew this route very well, was confident in his abilities and needed a rematch for 1984. Here's what he said about the qualification: "As if I was in a tunnel - not only in the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole route was for me a tunnel. I was already far beyond the known limits, but on every lap I could find the opportunity to go even faster. Then, as if something struck me, I woke up and realized that I was not in the atmosphere in which people usually are. I slowly reached the boxes and did not go anywhere else that day. This frightened me, because it was beyond the bounds of reasonable understanding. " On Sunday, Senna started from the first place and the entire race kept the lead, and, despite the 50-second lead from Prost, he continued to drive to the limit. For 11 laps before the finish, the boss of the McLaren team contacted him and advised him to slow down in order to confidently reach the finish line. Ayrton, he said, relaxed, lost concentration and in a corner crashed into the bump. This disgusted him, and right from the scene of the accident Senna walked home on foot, to an apartment in Monaco, without going into the boxes. Simple, he won his fourth victory in the grand prix of Monaco.
The fate of the title was decided on the penultimate race of the season - the grand prix of Japan. Senna had seven higher levels, in Prost - six, but more stability. Standing on the pole position, Senna stalled with a green light, fortunately the Suzuka Circuit route has a slope to the straight start-finish and Senna managed to start, nevertheless, he rolled back to 14th place, but by the fifth round he had already played 10 positions, And then it began to rain. "Rain Man" got his chance. At the 27th round, Ayrton overtook the team mate, first came to the finish line and got the deserved title. Prost conceded not only the championship, but also the place of the first rider in the team.
The season of 1989 began very hard, at one point two riders even stopped talking with each other. Alain was a very experienced and politicized athlete, on a short leg with many cones from the administration of racing, Senna was only interested in racing. Fortunately, their team was on the rise and could provide due attention to such strong pilots.
Prost was sure that he was faster and more technical than the opponent and claimed that in all races he missed Senna for one reason - in order to avoid a collision. Many noted that the Brazilian brought in the Formula 1 karting style - an uncompromising ride, when it seems that the clashes are not terrible and completely permissible, but in reality, in the Formula of those years, any contact could lead to tragedy, and racers of the old school in every way avoided such a violent onslaught .
During the whole season, Prost walked steadily, regularly rising to the pedestal, Senna still struggled only for the first stage, as a result of which he was mistaken, the machine could not stand it. The fate of the title was again decided at the grand prix of Japan. Senna needed only a victory, while Prost was enough to reach the finish line ahead of his team-mate. On this scandalous race I'll tell you in the next post.