Alain Prost returned with emotion to his relationship with the Brazilian Ayrton Senna during their years together in Formula 1. The four-time world champion notably revealed that his former rival was afraid of being less competitive by becoming his friend.
Rivals in the paddock and then teammates at McLaren for two years, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna wrote the history of Formula 1 with a fabulous fight for the world title for several years. On the sidelines of a documentary series on his career for the Canal+ channel, Alain Prost recalled the immense respect he had for the Brazilian pilot. But above all, the Frenchman confided in their very special relationship.
“This is one of my favorite photos of Ayrton and me, certainly taken a little off guard like that,” slipped the four-time world champion when commenting on a photo of him and Senna chatting. “We were always discussing the settings of the car and what could also be improved a little bit. He never talked about anything else, he only talked about the car.”
“By being friends, he could make himself weaker”
True motorsport legends, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna battled against each other for first place in the standings for several years before the Frenchman's retirement at the end of 1993 and the Brazilian's tragic death at Imola in May 1994. Rivals and competitors despite mutual respect, they were never able to become friends. Alain Prost explained it with a nice anecdote.
“We're at the Geneva Motor Show, together for Honda. I tell him: 'we'll have some time, come on, I'll invite you to the house and come have lunch'. He tells me that's ok. We have lunch and not much,” said the Frenchman, now 69 years old. “I tell him to come and take a walk with me in the garden and he replies that he is a little tired then sits down on the sofa. And he sleeps. My partner tells me that he is still not very polite. I reply that maybe he has jet lag and I don't know.”
Before continuing on the moment when he understood the reasons for this strange behavior: “Then we returned to the show but we had hardly spoken. I saw Claude Sage who was the boss of Honda Suisse and I told him that We went to lunch with Ayrton Senna. He tells me that Ayrton told him: 'I know why (he behaved like that), don't worry. told me that he didn't want to become friends with Alain'. He definitely shouldn't be friends because by being friends, he could make himself weaker.”
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