Did McLaren let Ferrari win the Italian GP
Discussion
Anyone know if the story on this link about the race is true?
"My favourite Alain Prost story, the one that I feel sums up his tactical genius more than any other, surrounds the
Italian GP at Monza in 1988. Prost and Senna are locked in an intense championship battle that is between them alone
- a McLaren in-house affair. It is late in the season and they can indulge themselves in the races because there is
no 3rd party threat - they will finish 1-2 in the championship no matter what. Prost is following Senna closely in
the early stages when Alain realizes that he has an engine problem that will surely prove terminal – realizes with
certainty that he will not last the race. Knowing this, and knowing Senna’s ego and his need to prove he’s fastest,
Prost decides to drive 11/10th’s and push Senna hard, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Senna takes the bait,
and increases his pace to match Prost and maintain or increase his gap. Prost however, is deliberately driving at
such a pace as to put himself the wrong side of his fuel reading, leaving him not enough to finish the race. He is
making Senna do the same. Now if Senna had really thought about it, he would have realized that Prost simply does
not do things like that, that’s he’s too great a thinker to miscalculate his fuel supply. Senna takes the bait
however, thinks only of proving he can match Prost’s challenge, be as fast, stay ahead. Half way through the race,
Prost duly drops out with engine failure, and the damage to Senna is done. In the late stages he is so marginal on
fuel that he’s had to cut back dramatically, and the Ferraris are now breathing down his neck. Senna feels a desperate
need to get by a rookie in traffic at a risky place, they collide, and his race is over. It was a long shot on Prost’s
part, but his actions did, in the end, have a compromising effect on Senna’s race, even long after Prost had dropped out."
http://www.grandprixhistory.org/ramble5.htm
Senna and Schlesser colliding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3e4tRpCKE
"My favourite Alain Prost story, the one that I feel sums up his tactical genius more than any other, surrounds the
Italian GP at Monza in 1988. Prost and Senna are locked in an intense championship battle that is between them alone
- a McLaren in-house affair. It is late in the season and they can indulge themselves in the races because there is
no 3rd party threat - they will finish 1-2 in the championship no matter what. Prost is following Senna closely in
the early stages when Alain realizes that he has an engine problem that will surely prove terminal – realizes with
certainty that he will not last the race. Knowing this, and knowing Senna’s ego and his need to prove he’s fastest,
Prost decides to drive 11/10th’s and push Senna hard, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Senna takes the bait,
and increases his pace to match Prost and maintain or increase his gap. Prost however, is deliberately driving at
such a pace as to put himself the wrong side of his fuel reading, leaving him not enough to finish the race. He is
making Senna do the same. Now if Senna had really thought about it, he would have realized that Prost simply does
not do things like that, that’s he’s too great a thinker to miscalculate his fuel supply. Senna takes the bait
however, thinks only of proving he can match Prost’s challenge, be as fast, stay ahead. Half way through the race,
Prost duly drops out with engine failure, and the damage to Senna is done. In the late stages he is so marginal on
fuel that he’s had to cut back dramatically, and the Ferraris are now breathing down his neck. Senna feels a desperate
need to get by a rookie in traffic at a risky place, they collide, and his race is over. It was a long shot on Prost’s
part, but his actions did, in the end, have a compromising effect on Senna’s race, even long after Prost had dropped out."
http://www.grandprixhistory.org/ramble5.htm
Senna and Schlesser colliding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3e4tRpCKE
ranacc said:
Anyone know if the story on this link about the race is true?
"My favourite Alain Prost story, the one that I feel sums up his tactical genius more than any other, surrounds the
Italian GP at Monza in 1988. Prost and Senna are locked in an intense championship battle that is between them alone
- a McLaren in-house affair. It is late in the season and they can indulge themselves in the races because there is
no 3rd party threat - they will finish 1-2 in the championship no matter what. Prost is following Senna closely in
the early stages when Alain realizes that he has an engine problem that will surely prove terminal – realizes with
certainty that he will not last the race. Knowing this, and knowing Senna’s ego and his need to prove he’s fastest,
Prost decides to drive 11/10th’s and push Senna hard, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Senna takes the bait,
and increases his pace to match Prost and maintain or increase his gap. Prost however, is deliberately driving at
such a pace as to put himself the wrong side of his fuel reading, leaving him not enough to finish the race. He is
making Senna do the same. Now if Senna had really thought about it, he would have realized that Prost simply does
not do things like that, that’s he’s too great a thinker to miscalculate his fuel supply. Senna takes the bait
however, thinks only of proving he can match Prost’s challenge, be as fast, stay ahead. Half way through the race,
Prost duly drops out with engine failure, and the damage to Senna is done. In the late stages he is so marginal on
fuel that he’s had to cut back dramatically, and the Ferraris are now breathing down his neck. Senna feels a desperate
need to get by a rookie in traffic at a risky place, they collide, and his race is over. It was a long shot on Prost’s
part, but his actions did, in the end, have a compromising effect on Senna’s race, even long after Prost had dropped out."
http://www.grandprixhistory.org/ramble5.htm
Senna and Schlesser colliding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3e4tRpCKE
Maybe not then, if the above is anything to go by."My favourite Alain Prost story, the one that I feel sums up his tactical genius more than any other, surrounds the
Italian GP at Monza in 1988. Prost and Senna are locked in an intense championship battle that is between them alone
- a McLaren in-house affair. It is late in the season and they can indulge themselves in the races because there is
no 3rd party threat - they will finish 1-2 in the championship no matter what. Prost is following Senna closely in
the early stages when Alain realizes that he has an engine problem that will surely prove terminal – realizes with
certainty that he will not last the race. Knowing this, and knowing Senna’s ego and his need to prove he’s fastest,
Prost decides to drive 11/10th’s and push Senna hard, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Senna takes the bait,
and increases his pace to match Prost and maintain or increase his gap. Prost however, is deliberately driving at
such a pace as to put himself the wrong side of his fuel reading, leaving him not enough to finish the race. He is
making Senna do the same. Now if Senna had really thought about it, he would have realized that Prost simply does
not do things like that, that’s he’s too great a thinker to miscalculate his fuel supply. Senna takes the bait
however, thinks only of proving he can match Prost’s challenge, be as fast, stay ahead. Half way through the race,
Prost duly drops out with engine failure, and the damage to Senna is done. In the late stages he is so marginal on
fuel that he’s had to cut back dramatically, and the Ferraris are now breathing down his neck. Senna feels a desperate
need to get by a rookie in traffic at a risky place, they collide, and his race is over. It was a long shot on Prost’s
part, but his actions did, in the end, have a compromising effect on Senna’s race, even long after Prost had dropped out."
http://www.grandprixhistory.org/ramble5.htm
Senna and Schlesser colliding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3e4tRpCKE
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ranacc said:
Anyone know if the story on this link about the race is true?
[snip]
I have no idea if that's actually true or not but it's so utterly characteristic of what I know about Prost, Senna and the relationship between the two that I feel it ought to be true and I want it to be true... :-)[snip]
--
JG
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