Senna smiled. It was not a kind smile. "Then don't get in my way."
What happened next is the stuff of myth. Senna drove like a man possessed. Lap after lap, he broke the track record. He unlapped himself. He unlapped himself again. By lap 27, he was in second place, directly behind Prost. 1988 f1 season
The story began not at the first race in Brazil, but in a cold Honda factory in Tochigi the previous winter. Alain Prost, the Professor, sat calmly as engineers showed him the telemetry. "Fourteen percent more downforce than last year's car," they said. Prost nodded, already calculating. He knew the car was a masterpiece. He also knew that his new teammate, a fierce-eyed Brazilian who prayed before races, would treat it like a weapon, not a tool. Senna smiled
At Silverstone, Prost complained of a "lack of grip" and finished second to Senna. At Hockenheim, Senna's engine blew while leading, and Prost won again. The points gap widened. Prost, the mathematician, knew that even with Senna winning the remaining races, he could clinch the title by finishing second. Senna, the artist, only knew that he had to win everything. Senna drove like a man possessed
By mid-season, McLaren had won every race. The constructors' title was a foregone conclusion. But between the two drivers, a cold war had turned hot. In private, Ron Dennis, the team principal, tried to play peacemaker. "You are driving for McLaren," he said. "Not against each other." But Senna had stopped sharing setup data. Prost had stopped acknowledging him in the briefings.