Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Senna,’ we follow the tumultuous career of Ayrton Senna, one of the best-known figures in the history of Formula One racing. The six-episode miniseries welcomes the audience into different aspects of his story, starting from his childhood obsession with racing to the challenges he has to face in Europe due to his South American descent. One of the most highlighted parts of the series is his rivalry with Alain Prost, another F1 racing figure who has his name in the books as one of the best of his times. The competition turns things sour between them, but in the end, they find a way to set aside their differences. This is exactly what happened in real life, as well.
Senna and Prost’s Bitter Rivalry Vanished After the Latter’s Retirement
A lot of things happened between Senna and Prost during a couple of years in which they competed for the title of being the world champion. There were feuds about rules, regulations, and their unfairness; there were car crashes that seemed unwarranted to either, depending on the situation. Things seemed to have gone so bad that Senna would refuse to refer to his rival by his name or even acknowledge him. However, all this bitterness existed simply because of the cut-throat competition they received from each other. In 1993, following the race in Australia, Prost declared that he was retiring from racing. He was the runner-up, as Senna emerged as the winner that year. However, in a gesture of sportsmanship, Senna had Prost join him on the top step of the podium. The duo stood beside each other, arm in arm, as Prost bid goodbye to a decorated career.
This is when Prost said that he saw a change in Senna, and it is the friendship that followed for the next few months, before Senna’s tragic death on May 1, 1994, that Prost still holds on to rather than the rivalry they clung to for years. In hindsight, Prost believes that the rivalry was just a measure of the challenge that he posed to Senna. Prost revealed that following his retirement, Senna asked him to come back to racing to challenge and motivate him again. He said: “For 1994, I had received an offer from McLaren, which had switched to Peugeot as an engine supplier. Two days after the last GP of the 1993 season, Senna called me, asking me to accept: Alain, you have to stay in F1. Nobody motivates me among the other drivers like you do.”
Prost also confessed that it was in the last few months of his life that he really got to know Senna. The version that he met during this time was entirely different from the highly competitive man he would meet on the race track. Prost found that Senna was a much softer man with great ideas that he wanted to work on. The duo majorly discussed the issues of drivers’ safety in F1, which seemed to have gotten worse over the years. The formation of a drivers’ association was also discussed, and according to Prost, Senna asked him to lead it.
Senna’s Death Hit Prost Very Hard
On the day that Ayrton Senna passed away following the terrible car crash, he’d met with Prost twice, once in the TV compound and once in the Williams garage. During the practice lap, Senna even sent a radio message to Prost, saying: “A special hello to my dear friend Alain – we all miss you, Alain.” This shows the measure of the strides they had taken in their friendship in the last few months. So, when Senna died, Prost, like the rest of the world, was utterly heartbroken. In an article about his and Senna’s rocky relationship, he wrote: “When (Senna) died, I felt a part of me had died also because our careers had been so bound together.” He said that despite their differences, they had always respected each other as drivers, and whenever someone asked Prost who was the best driver he had raced against, he would always name Senna.
Following Senna’s passing, Prost met with his family, especially his father. He was also one of the pallbearers at Senna’s funeral, along with Gerhard Berger, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Jackie Stewart. Prost revealed that he also felt a change in the reaction from Brazilian fans towards him, and it wasn’t nearly as venomous as one would imagine (owing to the infamous rivalry), as Prost and Senna’s names were inextricably linked to each other. Prost says that it is the last six months he had with Senna that he keeps close to his heart. Thinking about their rivalry, he sees it as a compliment, considering that Senna considered him competition enough to consider him a potent rival. Still, he is not pleased with the fact that rivalry is the only thing that people seem to focus on when talking about them. He openly expressed dissatisfaction over Asif Kapadia’s 2010 award-winning documentary, ‘Senna,’ which doesn’t show the reconciliation between the duo, leaving the story unfinished, in his opinion.
Read More: Terry Fullerton: Where is Ayrton Senna’s Karting Teammate Now?
