Racing Incidents

[Liz]

You have hit the nail on the head - it is the respect the pilots used to have for the skills of the others - and for their sportsmanlike behaviour. Mario always said that he trusted Gilles implicitly although he did not always agree with what he did. But that was when pilots were sportsmen and not public relations robots.

As for Senna squeezing Prost into the wall at Estoril, that could very easily have killed not only the two pilots but, had their wheels touched, sent the cars over the wall into the pitlane and killed any number of people there as well. Prost was enraged after the race, and said "I am your friend and you tried to kill me!" and Senna gave him some kind of cold blooded flip reply - and that was the end of any relationship on that team. That was not the same as Dijon. That was a deliberate, cold-blooded act that by the grace of Prost's skills did not result in carnage.

But Senna has doubtless had time to repent of that by now.