The two Senna and Prost accidents - whose fault do you think it was?

'89 was Prost 'trying' to play Senna's often dirty game of closing the door on people and leaving it up to them if they wanted to crash. Silly yes but I think Senna's attitude within the team drove him to this moment of madness.


'90 was just bloody psychotic from Senna - he did it to try to prove a point but he could have killed himself, Prost and even track marshalls/spectators in the process. A moment when he thought he was immortal and F1 was just a game. To be honest he should have been banned for life for that move.


Its a shame this documentary left out perhaps THE most crucial part of their rivalry during the '89 San Marino GP...

In fact, in 89, Senna took Prost in front of his ability after braking in the curve, Prost just appealing to not lose the position. In 90 Senna actually caused the accident on purpose in a clear revenge, I'd say I feel pretty vindicated at the time, but I'm sure if they had not harmed him in 89, he would not have been avenged.

Senna was a good man, but being good is one thing and another is being silly!

First time if you watch the replays you will see that Senna was already beside Prost before Prost starts turning into Senna... Prost was at fault and he probably did it on purpose to make sure he won the title. If that wasn't the reason he did it then why would he have made such a stink and pushed to have Senna disqualified by his friend the head of the FIA (who he also got to stop the Monaco race years earlier to make sure he didn't lose that one).

I would say that up until that point Senna wasn't doing anything out of malice. I would also say that in the following year he did it on purpose as it was a bit of what comes around goes around. Frankly it didn't tarnish my view of him as a driver or person. When you get cheated by the system your only option is to play dirty, he did and it worked for him. Point learned.

The first one was Prost's fault and he KNEW what he was doing.
While Prost still says today he turned in to take the corner....
Look at the footage, imagine Senna was not along side him and look at Prost's line.
He was nowhere near the corner and would had been on the grass if he turned to take the corner.
Senna had Prost there...and Prost knew it.
The only person that still says Prost was right is Prost.

As for the second coming together.
That is a 'grey area'.
I mean swapping the pole position around to give Senna the dirty side of the track?
I'd say Senna caused the second crash...but only cos he was moved. If he had started where he was meant to....there would not have been a crash.
Senna was a pure racer, there was no way he was going to back off.
Senna was wrong...but for the right reasons.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is God.

It's interesting that some people thought the film portrayed Senna as a saint and Prost as the devil as I didn't get that impression at all. I thought the film gave a fairly honest picture of Senna and I left the cinema with the feeling that although he was a great man, he wasn't always the nicest guy in the world.

Anyway, I believe both crashes were a result of desperation felt by the drivers at fault.

1989: I do believe that Prost was at fault, but I also believe that at this point Prost was pretty unhappy and pretty desperate. Prost had more or less been 'the man' at McLaren since 1985 and suddenly Ayrton comes along three years later and beats him in his own team. Suddenly Prost's not the undisputed lead driver anymore, and as a double world champion he must've found that pretty hard to swallow. People also forget that in 1988, Prost scored more points than Senna overall, but because back then only the best 11 results counted, Senna was champion. Prost desperately didn't want a repeat of this in '89, especially as their relationship was becoming increasingly strained, and I believe this ultimately led him to do what he did. Was he wrong? Yes. Do I blame him? Probably not.

1990: Again this was an act of desperation, but also rebellion, this time on the part of Senna. It's pretty obvious that the Frenchman, Jean-Marie Balestre favoured the fellow Frenchman, Alain Prost and wanted him to retain the world title. Making Senna's pole-position grid box to the dirty side of the track proved that. Senna already felt cheated after 1989 when he was disqualified, despite managing to still win the race after the Prost crash, and this was the last straw as far as he was concerned. At this point it was about more than simply winning the world title, it was to show Balestre at whatever cost that he couldn't manipulate the championship. He succeeded. The crash itself was deliberately caused by Senna, no question. He even said before the race that he wouldn't yield at the first corner, no matter what. Was he wrong? Definitely as someone could've easily been killed. Do I blame him? Again, probably not.

I'd feel tragic like I was Marlon Brando

no question the first was all prost.
the second was more prost giving him an opportunity and senna not backing off...prost forced the issue...so the second id say was 60:40 prost fault.

I think it was intentional both times, which is a shame. It was probably the worst thing Senna did in his life, but you can say he was taking revenge from Prost (who started it).
i'm glad the movie didn't try to justify what Senna did, he was a wonderful driver and human but he acted shamefully in that 1990 incident