1993: Senna's last win

There was not actually a whole lot of racing at Adelaide; unusual at this, a track with a reputation for incident and skirmish. Prost and Hill gave serious chase all afternoon, but never truly looked like getting on terms with Senna. It was that simple. In the season's home stretch, McLaren assuredly came up on the rails.

For Benetton, it was another poor race, with no points, as at Suzuka, for Michael Schumacher and Riccardo Patrese. Ferrari, though, had what may be termed a good day, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger finishing fourth and fifth. If the red cars were not terribly swift, they were at least reliable. And Martin Brundle thoroughly deserved the final point, strong all weekend in the Ligier.

In its own way, the most dramatic moment of the afternoon came when Senna, Prost and Hill climbed to the podium. At Suzuka, in similar circumstances, Ayrton looked resolutely the other way, but now that Alain was a retired racing driver, shaking hands, even a show of some affection, was suddenly acceptable. If it inevitably seemed a little calculated, a little cynical, still it pleased the crowd, this display of harmony.

For Senna, it was the end of McLaren, of course, but for Prost, the end of racing. He had a strange feeling, he said: happy, but still strange. It would take time to adjust. The rest of us too.


The 10 days between the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka and the Australian race in Adelaide are traditionally a time when the Formula 1 circus goes on holiday. Tired after eight months on the road, they invade beaches all around the Pacific, from Bali to Bondi to Bora Bora.

The aim for most people is to get away from all but a few pals. One or two nutters fly back to Europe, but the rest of the circus drinks, plays golf, goes diving or molests locals.

Those who headed straight to Australia this year found a country in a lather about the Ayrton Senna/Eddie Irvine incident in Suzuka. Frankly, the whole thing was a media bonanza. If Ayrton had gunned down Eddie with a sawn-off shotgun, or nailed him to a table and hit him with a crowbar, it might have been a good news story, but a clip round the ear does not a crisis make.

Good Lord, if F1 wants a rumble, let's get some ice hockey players drafted in and do the thing properly. But in Australia, 'Smoking Joe' Senna was big news.

Of course, big news is an abstract concept in the Antipodes. The burning issues in Australia in the days leading up to the GP were a scandal over a Thai teak dining table, which PM Paul Keating had bought using money from a fund designed to preserve Australian historic artefacts.

There was also a fearful to-do over a dead aboriginal person called Eddie Mabo who, before departing this life, had won a law suit proving that land borrowed by white settlers from the indigenous population actually belonged to him. He probably died from shock when the court found in his favour.

The ruling upset white Caucasian Australians, who are now suddenly faced with a precedent of aborigines taking possession of land - and that's not cricket mate.

Down in Adelaide, Dame Edna Everage was in town, while all the local politicians were throwing things at each other in the run-up to a local election.

Then, the minute Eddie Irvine arrived, every film crew rushed to the airport to meet him and talk about Senna. Eddie's big performance was to be a promotional run at a shopping centre, but this was overshadowed when a sprint-car crashed into a crowd.

Suddenly the news teams were looking for someone to blame. Nothing just happens in Australia, someone has to take the blame - whether it is French farmers, Scottish trade union officials or the aboriginals.

But all these issues and scandals were forgotten again two days later, when Australia stopped working to concentrate on something really important, the Melbourne Cup - the country's biggest horse race.

Then Ayrton Senna arrived in Adelaide, and the city went into Grand Prix overdrive.

It is a lot of fun being in Adelaide at such a time. More than any other race city, it is alive with enthusiasm. Everyone likes it - although this year Bernie Ecclestone didn't bother coming, reportedly grumbling that it would be 'a non-championship race'.

All the titles may have been settled before Adelaide, but there was still the fight for second place (in Fl terms, for the honour of being 'top loser').

There was also the much more interesting battle to see whether Ayrton Senna could end his McLaren career by giving Ron Dennis a win - and securing a record 104 wins for the team in the process - or if Alain Prost could finish his illustrious Fl career with a victory. These were the matters of the moment as the cars burst out of the pitlane, screaming at the world, on Friday morning.

It was cool and overcast, and the track was as slippery as a second-hand car dealer, so the first session saw a lot of spins and wall-banging - not least from Mickey Schumacher, who spun, and Gerhard Berger, who stuffed his Ferrari big time at the first chicane.

'I was pushing hard,' Berger said. 'It was my last lap and I wanted to do a proper time. I went a little wide, touched the kerb and went into the wall on the other side. It was a very hard impact and I was lucky that there were tyres where I hit, because they took a lot of the impact out of it. It was a bad angle to hit.'

Despite the shunt, Gerhard was right up there with the Suzuka pole-chasing gang, who were all pretty close together. Prost led Senna, Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi, Berger and Hill.

As the morning wore on, the temperatures rose and it was warm, bright and sunny by the time the afternoon session began. Erik Comas was very excited for the first 20 minutes as he held pole position, but eventually the big boys came out.

Alesi was the first, and he blotted his copybook by clonking a wall. 'I wasn't even brushing the kerbs,' he said, 'but the car slid on the dirt and I could do nothing.' Jean dragged the poor injured car round to the pits, and it was repaired in time for him to have another run at the end of the session.

It was Mark Blundell's Ligier which finally tipped Comas from provisional pole, before he too spun and hit the wall. 'I went for it too soon,' he said. 'What I should have done was a series of six laps or so, building up my speed progressively.'

Next up was Damon Hill, and now we started to witness some serious times, as he and Berger chipped their way into the 1m14s. They were joined by Senna and Prost - suddenly the pole time was on the move. Senna clocked 1m14.200s, then hammered in a lovely lap of 1m13.564s, followed by a 1m13.371s. It was reminiscent of the good old days, when Senna used to take his qualifiers out to the limit. He might clip the odd Irish ear and occasionally appear petulant, but he drives like an angel.

'It was a tremendous lap,' he said. 'A pretty special one. But I would have done even better if there had not been traffic. We were also having trouble with the radio: I was wondering if I should come in for fuel, but wasn't getting a reply. I was shouting.'

His radio button was stuck. 'The result of this was that I couldn't concentrate in the usual way,' he said.

Perfectionists!

The chasers were not even close, with Prost more than half a second in arrears and complaining that the car was not well set up. Schumacher was third quickest after a last-minute squabble with Hakkinen, who ended up fourth ahead of Berger, Hill (still learning the track) and Alesi. Martin Brundle, Riccardo Patrese and Aguri Suzuki completed the top 10.

Missing from action all day was Suzuki's team mate Derek Warwick, who had a nasty chest infection and was sent off to bed with a bucketful of antibiotics by Fl village doctor Professor Sid Watkins.

Footwork decided to keep its options open and, although Christian Fittipaldi was fitted into Derek's car, the team felt it would be better to wait until Saturday morning to see how Derek was doing before replacing him.

As it turned out, Derek was a lot better, if not exactly in perfect condition as he coughed like a coalminer on Woodbines. But he would drive on Saturday.

It was a much hotter day, and it quickly became clear that grip was very much reduced from Friday's levels. Cars were once again flying off the road at every opportunity, with Berger, Schumacher (twice) and countless Tyrrell gyrations the order of the day.

As on Friday morning, Prost was fastest, with Hill improving to second place behind his team mate. However it never looked like being much of a fight in the afternoon as the temperatures rose, though the huge crowds - who don't always know these things - enjoyed themselves with oohs and aahs as the cars came hurtling unsteadily by.

Several drivers decided not to bother trying qualifiers, and opted to use their 12 available laps to do race testing. Gerhard Berger adopted an even more unusual policy, completing 18 laps - knowing that his times would be cancelled, but not caring. The Ferrari had driven clean through a big loophole in the rules.

A few folk tried to improve, and some who had done badly on Friday did make progress - notably Hill, who did a splendid job moving up to third on the grid. Warwick also showed what a fine trooper he is, battling his bugs to qualify 17th.

But for the most part, the session was not an earth-shattering one. Up in the press room, a lot of interest was focused on dozy Japanese journalists fighting to stay awake.

The Fl press room is a cynical place, and it is only too easy to say that the Grand Prix scene is boring. Those who do must never leave their motorhomes and press rooms. Out on the track, thousands of Australians enjoyed the greatest motor racing spectacle on earth - F1 cars through the streets of a city. And when the dust had settled they hurried down to the back straight, where 30,000 of them watched dragsters hurtling backwards and forwards.

Finally, they sauntered off to the bars to get hammered, and talk about whether or not Senna and Prost would be colliding for old time's sake...



Adelaide, being the final round of the World Championship each year, inevitably means the last time around for certain drivers, teams, partnerships, so that if the Australian Grand Prix is essentially a relaxed, easy affair, so it is also necessarily sometimes poignant.

In the days building up to the race, it was no surprise that Prost should be the focus of attention. Come Sunday afternoon, after all, the most successful Grand Prix career of all time would be coming to a close. Throughout the week Alain was at his most laid back, chatting readily, signing endless autographs, posing for pictures.

For him, the thing was definite, the decision his own, firmly taken. Yes, he repeated, for the umpteenth time, Ron Dennis had asked him to drive for McLaren in 1994, and, no, he would not be changing his mind. He was looking forward to retirement.

It was the same for Niki Lauda here, in 1985; for Keke Rosberg the following year; for Nigel Mansell 12 months ago. All were voluntarily taking their leave of Fl after Adelaide.

For others, though, the place has a different significance. Over time many Grand Prix careers have ended in Adelaide, because the gentlemen concerned have failed to secure employment for subsequent seasons.

At present, drivers such as Warwick and Patrese, though they very much want to continue in F1, have nothing fixed for 1994. 'I'll continue if I get a competitive car,' shrugged Riccardo. 'Otherwise I stay home.'

On Sunday morning both men figured well in the warm-up, Patrese fourth and Warwick 10th. 'I still feel lousy,' said Derek, 'but I want to race - just hope I can go the distance.'

Senna, as expected, was fastest in the warm-up, confirming his qualifying status, but Schumacher was only three-hundredths away, the pair of them well clear of the rest, who were led by Berger. The big surprise was that the Williams-Renaults were only fifth (Hill) and seventh (Prost).

'The car went OK,' Alain said, 'but it's just not quick enough. Over the bumps we're bad, and there's a general lack of grip.' On top of that, he added, Renault's extra horsepower seemed to be making little difference on the long back straight.

All that being so, Prost decided to change his car quite radically, going to stiffer springs and damping, and taking off some wing. It was a gamble, in that he would have to get the feel of the car in the early laps of the race itself, but he knew that, in its current set-up, it would not be competitive.

As two o'clock approached, Alain picked up helmet, balaclava and gloves for the last time. 'It was a difficult moment,' he said later, 'but I really felt motivated today. I wanted my last race to be good. And, in fact, it was a curious sensation - when it's your last race, you want to do well, but at the same time you desperately don't want to make a mistake.'

The starting procedure was messy. First of all, Brundle's Ligier refused to fire up as the cars left for the parade, although - maddeningly - it did so just as the last car went past. Martin, it seemed, would be obliged to start from the back.

Round they came, forming up on the grid, but then a yellow flag was furiously waved, to indicate that Katayama had stalled his Tyrrell-Yamaha. The start was aborted, a five-minute delay ordered, which meant that Brundle could take his rightful grid position again - and that Katayama, the cause of the problem, would be demoted to the back of the grid.

Another parade lap, more warming of tyres, on to the grid - and another yellow, another
signal to shut down engines.
This time the man at fault was
Irvine, who had halted his
Jordan-Hart a few feet beyond
his grid slot. Now Eddie would
have to start from the tail.

Finally, at the third attempt, they all got it right. Prost made a fine start, but so did Senna, who led into the first left-right, as expected, with both Williams-Renaults tucked in behind. The unfortunate Lamy was immediately punted out of the race by Katayama, but there were no other casualties in the opening scrum.

At the end of the first lap Senna led by a second, and he soon extended this to three, but there it stabilised a while, as Prost grew accustomed to his heavily revised set-up.

Behind them Hill had Schumacher to worry about, although the pressure eased somewhat on lap four, when Michael made a mistake, and lost time. The first four, however, were starting to move into a race of their own, for the only man who might have joined them - Hakkinen - had made a bad start, and was trapped for the moment behind Berger's fifth-placed Ferrari.

As the 10-lap mark approached, Senna and Prost were trading new fastest laps, while Lotus's cataclysmic season ended when the hydraulic pump driveshaft failed on Herbert's car.

Not long afterwards Irvine locked up his brakes, and slid wide into a tyre barrier. He got the Jordan back to the pits, but a front wishbone was broken, and the car was pushed away. Team mate Barrichello plugged on to the end of the race, but found his car low on grip, his traction control system intermittent.

Senna said he had gone into this race, as usual, with no fixed tyre strategy in his head. The team had suggested a single change, but Ayrton preferred to see how the race developed. Both Williams drivers intended to stop only once, but Schumacher rather shook everyone by coming in as early as lap 15.

'We'd planned it that way,' Michael said, 'and I think it would have worked perfectly. By the time the others had changed, I'm sure I would have been able to get past at least two of them, and I felt confident I could catch Senna, maybe even pass him.'

The Benetton was stationary for only 4.8s, and initially, when he came out again, Schumacher indeed went very fast on his fresh Goodyears, quickly gaining on Hill's third place. But on lap 20 his day was done: engine failure. Perhaps Senna's only true rival was gone.

At this point the order was Senna, three seconds ahead of Prost, then Hill, six seconds further back, then Hakkinen, Alesi, Berger, Brundle, Suzuki, and the Saubers of Wendlinger and Lehto.

Damon stopped on lap 22 (6.4s), but although he rejoined immediately in front of Hakkinen, the McLaren driver got by him before Damon's tyres could get up to temperature. For a couple of lurid laps Mika then held him off, before being neatly overtaken into the first turn.

Lap 24 saw Senna in (5.3s), which put Prost into a temporary lead. At this stage Alain quite liked his chances, and thought to make a break while Ayrton got the requisite heat into his new tyres. It was unlucky for him, though, that at precisely this moment he came up on a bunch of slower cars, which took time to negotiate on this twisty circuit.

By the time Prost made his stop, on lap 29, his lead was down to seven seconds - by no means enough. On top of that, the change itself was slow, at 7.4s, which further hampered his cause. By the time he got out again, Senna was a quarter of a minute down the road.

Traffic, though, always plays a central role at Adelaide. For the most part, the leaders agreed, backmarkers were less obstructive than at Suzuka, but there were exceptions - notably Mr de Cesaris, who appeared to be circulating in blinkers, with a blithe disregard for anyone behind him.

Still, Andrea was democratic about it, you had to say that, giving Senna, Prost and Hill equal treatment - and doing it regularly, for they lapped him frequently as he struggled round in his V9 Tyrrell-Yamaha.

As the three leaders forced a path between the slower cars, the gaps between them necessarily opened and closed, sometimes quite dramatically. And now the Williams pair, running in close formation, began to look like a real threat to the McLaren, Prost trimming Senna's lead to under nine seconds by lap 40. If they could make it through without stopping again for tyres, Ayrton might be in strife.

They couldn't. On lap 44 in came Hill, but again it was a slow change, at over six seconds, while Prost's second stop, four laps later, took seven. It is an abiding mystery that Williams, in all other respects such a consummately professional and efficient outfit, has never matched McLaren or Benetton or Ferrari in the art of changing wheels with alacrity.

Now Senna had a huge lead, with the Williams duo more than half a minute back. Immediately they set about pulling it back, but really the main focus of attention was on their personal duel, rather than any realistic hope that they might catch Ayrton. Their lap times - given the combination of fresh tyres and light fuel load - began to tumble. Time and again Prost would set a new lap record, which held for less than a second; the time it took for Hill also to cross the line.

Lap 55: Senna in. 'Although I'd expected only to stop once, the sun came out later in the race, and as the track got hotter, I began to lose grip. Fortunately, I had a good lead, and could afford to stop.' The change, needless to say, was perfectly executed, in five seconds flat. Ayrton rejoined, still 20 seconds clear.

Prost and Hill, though, did not give up, each continuing to set new lap records, and when Senna got caught in traffic - de Cesaris again - his lead was cut to around 12 seconds.

'Damon,' Prost said, 'gave me quite a hard time, because he had even less wing than I did, and was quicker on the straight. In fact, I expected his car to be quicker than mine in the last part of the race, because he had a much softer set-up, and when the fuel lightened, my car began jumping badly on the bumps. Still, it was fun, and I enjoyed it.'

On lap 68 the two cars were closer than ever before, and at the end of the long straight Prost left his braking to the very latest, to the point that he ran a little wide. 'I had a half-baked go at passing him,' Hill said. 'Sort of poked my nose in. I had to come out on a tight line, and must have got the power on too early.'

The second Williams spun. Eventually it got on its way once more, but now any thoughts of second place were gone for Damon, just as any of first were gone for Alain. Given the two aborted starts, the race had been shortened, from 81 to 79 laps. Time was running out.

At the flag, nine seconds separated Senna and Prost, the two giants of the age, in their final confrontation. Hill capped a very fine season with another four points, and Alesi just held off Berger in Ferrari's in-house battle for fourth place. The final point went fittingly to Brundle, and Warwick deserved some kind of special award simply for making it to the finish.

Once on the podium, Senna was all smiles and emotion, seizing Prost's hand, slapping him on the back. It was good to see. It had been too long coming.