Indeed. I guess its easy with hindsight but I feel like he should have known better. History has never been kind to drivers who refuse a straight fight with their rivals.
Five Comebacks We Could Have Done Without
- Thread starter RasputinLives
- Start date
RasputinLives - With the ironic thing there being his list of team-mates (Watson, Arnoux, Cheever, Lauda, Bellof, Rosberg, Johansson, Senna, Mansell, Alesi, Hill) is possibly the greatest set of team-mates one driver has ever had to come across, and not one of them really got the better of him.
Irishgreen
Banned
Well done Rasputin, one of the best F1 threads I've read. 
I'm a Senna fan and disliked Prost's " No Senna " clause. But I would be kidding myself if I thought Senna wouldn't have jumped at the chance to drive the Williams that year.
I'm a Senna fan and disliked Prost's " No Senna " clause. But I would be kidding myself if I thought Senna wouldn't have jumped at the chance to drive the Williams that year.
aaron8831
Podium Finisher
I'm not so sure about that. Senna may have loved the opportunity to beat Prost within the same team again. It was clear that Williams had the best car so why not prove who the best driver is?
Also, maybe it's speculation on my part, but do you think there's a chance that Schumacher reached the realization at some point that he wasn't going to win with Mercedes and viewed his comeback as a way to repair his reputation?
aaron8831
Podium Finisher
Would that be the one for punting people off the road?
Or did he want to leave livable, huggable, Schema?
Well I didn't say it necessarily worked that way, he did seem to have a thing for running people over.
Il_leone
World Champion
teabagyokel
I disagree with your views on Prost as Senna was the one who drove him out of Mclaren and out of F1 for a season because Senna wanted to prove he can do anything better . Even Prost admitted Senna wanted to destroy him to prove who was better.
Without the fall out with Senna at Mclaren and his subsequent fall from grace ( in my opinion) at Ferrari we probably would be talking about Prost as the greatest ever
The fact that Prost made sure Senna was not his teammate at Williams speaks volumes
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It was clearly in 1993 a year out of F1 made Prost rusty and he was making a lot more errors than he would usually
I disagree with your views on Prost as Senna was the one who drove him out of Mclaren and out of F1 for a season because Senna wanted to prove he can do anything better . Even Prost admitted Senna wanted to destroy him to prove who was better.
Without the fall out with Senna at Mclaren and his subsequent fall from grace ( in my opinion) at Ferrari we probably would be talking about Prost as the greatest ever
The fact that Prost made sure Senna was not his teammate at Williams speaks volumes
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It was clearly in 1993 a year out of F1 made Prost rusty and he was making a lot more errors than he would usually
Il_leone Do you, like I do, think Prost was a little scared of the cars when he came back in 93? There was lots of talk at the time of him 'losing his bottle' especially the way he raced in the rain but with hindsight this was just a year before Imola 94 and probably when the sport had been at its most dangerous since the early 80's. Maybe, after a year out, Prost wasn't prepared to risk his life in the way he used too.
Il_leone
World Champion
RasputinLives
Prost has always been known to be a bit careful when making overtakes and taking risks but 1993 it was not convincing Prost.
When it came to rain he always circumspect. The off at Brazil was very unlike Prost and he simply did not have an answer for Senna at Donington
He seemed to win by just doing enough but it was not convincing and he always seems to benefit from other drivers misfortune
and he never seemed to have a clean race and made more mistakes than expected
The active suspension car was great for Mansell because he was willing to throw the car into corner and let the suspension do the rest with full confidence the car would stick to the road..it was something Patrese struggled with because he needed that gentle feel in the car
Mansell did think Prost may struggle a bit from not being able to have that feel for the car in what the suspension does when he turns into the corner
at his age he knew he did not have the speed of Senna or Schumacher and was grateful neither had a more competitive car to challenge him
He was supposedly thinking about going to Mclaren in 1994 before Williams pointed out he signed a contract for 1994 and chose to retire instead..so it was more to do with the fact another battle with Senna in the same team might have pushed him to risk his life which he already stated he was not prepared to do
Prost has always been known to be a bit careful when making overtakes and taking risks but 1993 it was not convincing Prost.
When it came to rain he always circumspect. The off at Brazil was very unlike Prost and he simply did not have an answer for Senna at Donington
He seemed to win by just doing enough but it was not convincing and he always seems to benefit from other drivers misfortune
and he never seemed to have a clean race and made more mistakes than expected
The active suspension car was great for Mansell because he was willing to throw the car into corner and let the suspension do the rest with full confidence the car would stick to the road..it was something Patrese struggled with because he needed that gentle feel in the car
Mansell did think Prost may struggle a bit from not being able to have that feel for the car in what the suspension does when he turns into the corner
at his age he knew he did not have the speed of Senna or Schumacher and was grateful neither had a more competitive car to challenge him
He was supposedly thinking about going to Mclaren in 1994 before Williams pointed out he signed a contract for 1994 and chose to retire instead..so it was more to do with the fact another battle with Senna in the same team might have pushed him to risk his life which he already stated he was not prepared to do
Incubus
Champion Elect
The active suspension car was great for Mansell because he was willing to throw the car into corner and let the suspension do the rest with full confidence the car would stick to the road..it was something Patrese struggled with because he needed that gentle feel in the car
Mansell did think Prost may struggle a bit from not being able to have that feel for the car in what the suspension does when he
turns into the corner
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Not sure this is a totally valid comparison. The Williams in 93 was still comfortably the most technologically-advanced car car but it wasn't quite the unbeatable beast it had been the previous year probably due to the changes in technical regs that took place in 93, and most notably the 3" reduction to the width of rear tyres, which meant a reduction in exploitable grip for everybody. The idea was to make cars more spectacular to watch by reducing traction levels. Not sure it achieved that anyway but there you go.
Mansell did think Prost may struggle a bit from not being able to have that feel for the car in what the suspension does when he
turns into the corner
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Not sure this is a totally valid comparison. The Williams in 93 was still comfortably the most technologically-advanced car car but it wasn't quite the unbeatable beast it had been the previous year probably due to the changes in technical regs that took place in 93, and most notably the 3" reduction to the width of rear tyres, which meant a reduction in exploitable grip for everybody. The idea was to make cars more spectacular to watch by reducing traction levels. Not sure it achieved that anyway but there you go.
Il_leone
World Champion
Incubus
The car still had about 1-1.5seconds a lap clear advantage given Mclaren had a customer engine, Ferrari were still in a mess and Benetton in terms of development were not as quick as Williams at it
Prost is a sensitive driver like Button and needs to feel for what the car does and the active suspension takes away that sensitive because its all done automatically. This is where Mansell had an advantage of Patrese in that he did not mind throwing the car into a car and letting the suspension do the rest whereas Patrese was not fully sure about the suspension
Now some say Hill would have done better than Patrese in the same car as he was responsible for the car's development as tester in 1992
Coming back to Prost he manage 13 poles that year but his gap to Hill was much smaller than Mansell to Patrese the previous year
The car still had about 1-1.5seconds a lap clear advantage given Mclaren had a customer engine, Ferrari were still in a mess and Benetton in terms of development were not as quick as Williams at it
Prost is a sensitive driver like Button and needs to feel for what the car does and the active suspension takes away that sensitive because its all done automatically. This is where Mansell had an advantage of Patrese in that he did not mind throwing the car into a car and letting the suspension do the rest whereas Patrese was not fully sure about the suspension
Now some say Hill would have done better than Patrese in the same car as he was responsible for the car's development as tester in 1992
Coming back to Prost he manage 13 poles that year but his gap to Hill was much smaller than Mansell to Patrese the previous year
