F1

Senna rewarded for hitting Prost

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  • #127882
    Slr
    Participant

    Simple question: Why was Senna allowed to get away with hitting Prost at Suzuka 1990? Why was he not disqualified from that years World Championship?

    #142753
    RobR
    Member
    #142754
    SoLiDG
    Participant

    I think in the end it was a ‘racing accident’ even if it was clear Senna would go for it. Senna put his car on the inside and prost didn’t lift.. sure he didn’t have to :) But in those days they weren’t so strict with those moves I guess.

    #142755
    KevinC
    Participant

    Why was Prost allowed to get away with hitting Senna at Suzuka 1989? The precedent was set by Prost the year before

    #142756
    TomD11
    Participant

    I think it’s called karma

    #142757
    Tom L.
    Participant

    What Senna did to Prost in 1990 was far more dangerous than what Prost did to Senna in ’89. ’89 was a slow-speed accident with no risk to the drivers’, marshals’ or spectators’ wellbeing; in ’90 it was fortunate no one was hurt.

    In one discussion I compared this incident to the Piquet one in Singapore; in my view what Senna did was just as bad, if not worse due to the higher risk in those days of drivers being hurt. With all due respect to Senna, I think the fact that he was killed means that people tend to overlook his faults. If the likes of Alonso, Schumacher or Hamilton were to take their championship rival off in order to win themselves, there’d be outrage.

    #142758

    What Senna did to Prost in 1990 and what Prost did to Senna the year before differed only by degrees. Senna’s move was obviously more dangerous – though let’s not pretend Prost’s was risk-free.

    Once the FIA (or FISA as it was then) had allowed Prost to get away with taking Senna out to win the 1989 championship, they could hardly penalise Senna for doing the same 12 months later.

    #142759
    Tom L.
    Participant

    No, of course not – no accident is risk-free – but as far as they go, 1989 was a lot less risky. For a start both drivers were braking into the chicane in 1989 whereas in 1990 they were accelerating into a high speed corner; I don’t know what speeds they were travelling at (does anyone have that information?) but I imagine it was considerably higher in 1990. There was very little chance of wheels being ripped off the cars or flying debris in 1989.

    Also, a few things to bear in mind: as far as I’m aware (please correct me if I’m wrong) Prost’s block on Senna wasn’t premeditated in the way that Senna openly admitted his taking out Prost was; it could therefore be argued that 1989 was a ‘racing incident’, as the two drivers came together when one attempted an overtake, the other tried to defend the position and neither was prepared to back off. Also, had Senna not rejoined the track using the escape road, he would have won and the title race would have continued (whether this would have been possible with the respective positions of the two cars is a debate for another day!)

    #142760
    KevinC
    Participant

    They were at something like 160mph…

    Oh, and I believe Prost’s move was also premeditated

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