From Newsgroup: rec.autos.sport.f1
On 2025-06-03 08:30, a425couple wrote:
On 6/3/25 05:20, Sir Tim wrote:
Typical of Max that he says, “It shouldn’t have happened” rather than, “I
shouldn’t have done it.”
Motorsport.com has a story titled "Why is it so difficult for F1
drivers to say 'I'm sorry' "
IMHO many of them are just so hyper focused on winning "it" all
in F1. Senna was a leader in a very bad trend.
I'm sorry, but I'll have to disagree with that.
When you would rather crash out in crashing your team mate
into the pitwall in the middle of 'start/finish' straight
rather then finish 2nd in one GP - it's crossed over into
ridiculous.
Are you referring to Rosberg and Hamilton at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix?
First (and a minor nit), it didn't happen on the start/finish straight.
It happened after turn 3 on the 3-4 straight.
Second, it was never a matter of "rather" crashing. Rosberg started an aggressive defence, and Hamilton thought he could try the pass anyway.
Neither driver was doing it because they rather crash, but because in
those instants they were making the decisions, the believed they were
making the right one.
Now coming back to Senna, what Prost did at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix
was what set Senna on a course to do something very similar the very
next year.
I've watched the video of the 1989 incident in the final chicane, and
there is no doubt in my mind that Prost deliberately turned in so early
that if Senna hadn't been where he was, Prost would have been four
wheels off the track driver's right; missing the correct line through
the first half of the chicane entirely. In other words, the only reason
he did what he did was to drive into Senna, because he knew that if he
took them both out, he would win the WDC.
That set the terms of engagement for the next year where the shoe was on
the other foot.
I don't think Senna would have deliberately (and yes: I believe it was absolutely deliberate, too) driven into any other driver to win the championship. But it was Prost and Prost had done it to him just one
year before.
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