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Alain Prost has claimed that Ayrton Senna lost his self-confidence six months prior to his fatal crash at Imola in 1994. Claiming that the Brazilian's motivation came primarily from the desire to beat him, Senna lost some of his self-confidence when Prost announced his retirement at the end of 1993.
Speaking on former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg’s podcast, Prost said:
“When I retired six months before his accident, I completely realized that will change. You know, his motivation was really based on myself a lot, not completely, but a lot. And also, he lost some of his self-confidence. And he was not the same. He was not the same at all. No. So, in a way, he was trying to build this character, to the to be at the top, and without that, he was a little bit more fragile.”
Ayrton Senna moved to the Williams team for 1994, replacing Prost, who retired from F1 at the end of 1993. However, the much-celebrated move failed to yield any results, with Senna failing to score any points in the first two races of the season before crashing heavily in the third race, at Imola.
Prior to that, Prost had partnered with Senna for two years at McLaren, in 1988 and 1989. Their relationship broke down at the end of 1989 after several controversial incidents that eventually caused Prost to leave McLaren for Ferrari.
“Ayrton Senna was so committed to F1 that didn’t want to be friends with me”: Prost
The rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost has often been described as the greatest in F1 history, but also the ugliest.
The intense acrimony between Senna and Prost led to them doing everything they could to win races and championships for themselves, including crashing into each other to decide the title, not once but twice.
Prost has revealed that Senna was always intent on beating him and therefore preferred to maintain a distant relationship with the Frenchman. Speaking to Nico Rosberg, he said:
“When I invited him to my home, he didn’t talk to me much during the journey. He had a good meal, talked to my wife for a few minutes, and then took a nap at my home. And then, we went back to a show, and he took another nap in the car. Later, I was talking to a friend and mentioned it to him, and he said, ‘Yeah, Ayrton told me – he doesn’t talk because he doesn’t want to be a friend.’”
Prost has often criticized the media, including the movie Senna, for projecting a hateful and acrimonious relationship between the two drivers. On a number of occasions, he clarified that although he and Senna were intense rivals, they didn’t outright hate each other.
