Alain Prost's ex-engineer has pinpointed the moment his iconic F1 rivalry began to turn sour.
While now well known as the best example of how competitive teammates can turn bitter and ruthless towards each other in their quests for individual glory, the start of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s relationship at the dominant McLaren team in 1988 actually proved quite straightforward.
“It was a fairly friendly atmosphere. I’d worked with Alain the previous year on the MP4/3 and, literally, the first time I ever met Alain was actually for the Brazilian Grand Prix that year.
“But I think also Ayrton had a slight problem with his engine settings, so there may have been a slight detriment to the performance of Ayrton’s car, which helped, because there was a reasonable difference in Jerez as well, but nothing like as it was in Portugal. Prost was furious afterward, revealing that an agreement had been put in place that whoever led into Turn 1 could win the race – an agreement he felt Senna had ignored.
Despite their animosity, Oatley explained that the two drivers didn’t set out to cause each other problems in terms of setting up their cars.
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