This story first appeared in the May 2015 edition of SPEED SPORT Magazine.
Monaco 1984: A heavy rain drenched the circuit during the grand prix. Deep puddles formed on the track. The rain hit the surface with such force that the drops bounced into the air. The cars kicked up a wall of spray that made visibility difficult.
Out on the track, Alain Prost was leading in his McLaren. Nigel Mansell, driving a Lotus, had earlier led a grand prix for the first time only to slam into the barriers.
Rookie driver Ayrton Senna had qualified 13th in his Toleman, but charged through the field and overtook veteran Niki Lauda for second place on lap 19. Senna then began to close on Prost.
Amazingly, another rookie, Stefan Bellof, had started last in his Tyrrell. He climbed to third by lap 27 and was closing on Senna and Prost.
At the end of lap 32, Clerk of the Course Jackie Ickx decided the conditions were too treacherous and stopped the race. Just at that moment Senna came up right behind Prost and prepared to pass him for the lead. But it was too late. According to the rules, the race results reverted to the lap before the race was stopped. Prost was declared the winner.
Yet Senna would have been in trouble if the race had continued. He had damaged his suspension hitting a curb and it would have broken sooner rather than later.
What that race proved was that Senna, in only his sixth grand prix start, was a going to be one of the best drivers ever. The rain and street circuits are great equalizers because they require great finesse, accuracy and skill from the driver and these things override advantages such as horsepower.
Senna went on to win the Monaco Grand Prix a record six times. His first win came in 1987 and he won it five successive times beginning in 1989. Michael Schumacher had five wins in Monaco through 2003. Graham Hill won in Monaco five times and Prost won the prestigious race four times.
During his 10 years in F-1, Senna won 41 times and finished on the podium 39 other times. He was world champion in 1988, ’90 and ’91 and never finished lower than fourth in the championship after his rookie season.
Many of those victories came on street circuits, not just in Monaco but also in Detroit, Phoenix, Montreal and Adelaide. Between 1986 and 1991, he won the United States Grand Prix five times in six attempts and scored two victories in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Senna was as articulate and mesmerizing off the track as he was on the track. In press conferences and interviews, Senna held his audience spellbound with his intense, compelling and lyrical way of speaking.
His Monaco magic was portrayed with fabulous insight by Senna in an interview with author Gerald Donaldson, who was writing a book called “Grand Prix People.”
“Monte Carlo, ’88, the last qualifying session,” Senna related. “I was already on the pole and I was going faster and faster. One lap after another, quicker and quicker and quicker. I was at one stage just on pole, then by half a second, and then a second … and I just kept going. Suddenly, I was two seconds faster than anybody else, including my teammate with the same car. And suddenly I realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously.
“I was kind of driving by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, only not in the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit was for a tunnel. I was just going, going — more, and more, and more and more. I was way over the limit, but still able to find even more. Then, suddenly, something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and realized that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are. Immediately my reaction was to back off, slow down. I drove back to the pits and I didn’t want to go out any more that day.
Click below to keep reading.