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ALAIN PROST on AYRTON SENNA'S passing

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Prost: "We saw each other outside the racetracks, although this happened rarely. He knew how to be so attractive... When we used to look for each other, call to see each other, talk, he quite openly admitted that he missed me, that he wanted so that I would always remain close. I didn't even dare to think that this could be said out loud somehow! We always respected each other, sometimes we hated and loved... This is the special subtlety of our relationship, which we both recognized and which was so difficult, practically unacceptable in the world in which we both lived. Press, it was difficult also because we were still very different and, despite everything, we still got along poorly, without building any illusions on this score, neither he nor I. These were fantastic years, very difficult to survive. Us. It was a beautiful war between two individuals, between two men, between two... Almost gods, so to speak! But we could not live this war, this battle only on trusts, only in some episodes, often ostentatious for the press. We lived it every day, every hour. Lord, how unbearably hard it was! And today it has become... almost poetically beautiful, I would say. What's wrong? It became fantastic. Never before have we been so close to each other as at the very end. And now we are getting closer and closer..."

Alain spoke with an amazing expression of some kind of guilty tenderness in his eyes. And - in the present tense. And when the author of the film, Pierre Jouvet, gently corrected him, he fell silent, and then smiled: - "Yes. .. but I can't say otherwise, because everything is alive for me. And everything goes on."

- Senna vs Prost. Test of Tensile Strength (Formula 1: The Great Decade on Canal+)

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This is the same man who wouldn't show up to winter testing because he didn't want to leave Brazil, and even after Ron begged him to come to help with the testing, he still refused to go. But just one mention of Alain got him leaving Brazil to go to Bercy lmao

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Mmm, it's something 'bout that feelin' you give me I can't resist them butterflies...

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F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Love of the Last Tycoon

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Alain Prost and Aytron Senna / [x]

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Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost | 1990

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ALAIN PROST, 1994

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f1blr edit challenge: 1/3 rivalries + 1/3 friendships → Senna & Prost

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ALAIN PROST chewing some food at the 1986 GERMAN GRAND PRIX

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F1 RACING, 01.06.2001

Murray Walker's interview with Alain

The last is the inevitable one, Ayrton Senna. But before you answer, I want to tell you a little story. One year at Monaco, I waited four and a half hours outside the Marlboro motorhome to do an interview with Senna. The two of you were having a debrief. When the door opened, the first person who came out was you. I said: "You've been in there for four and a half hours. What on earth do you talk about for all that time?" You said: "Well, Murray, we talk about this and we talk about that, but I do not like to be the first to leave!" Did that sum up your relationship with Ayrton?

Yes and no. The team were very professional. Everything we could get from each other was important. If you left too soon, you would miss learning something.

But the way you said it, I had the impression that once you left, Ayrton would say, "And put another two pounds in the tyres."

We were very professional. Even when we had the big fight. It was a funny situation because we only talked to each other in the briefings. There, it was like we never had any problem. We were sharing set-ups and things on the car. I promise you – and I don't know whether the same is true for him – that I never, ever lied to him.

As someone who had enormous admiration for Senna, I never forgave him for lying about Japan in '90.

The only problems I have today are Imola '89 and Japan '90. I really suffered over them. Everybody lies in life, but when you lie for your own benefit... I suffered a lot. I almost stopped at the end of '90. For a few days I wondered whether it was worth carrying on, especially when I saw the comments in the papers that it was almost my fault! I remember one of the Honda engineers coming to me on the evening of the race and saying, "We have looked at the telemetry. It is unbelievable, Senna stayed absolutely flat until the impact." I thought, "Shit." Why didn't the truth come out? Living with that was very difficult. You must understand that Ayrton's motivation was to beat me. All he wanted to do was beat me. Being world champion was one thing, but that was almost second to the challenge of beating me. I was his obsession. As soon as I retired, he changed totally. We talked on the phone as if we had been friends for a long time. After I stopped, our new relationship made me forget about everything else. I remembered only the best of Ayrton and not the worst. It's like in school.

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But you know what I am.

Jane Austen, Emma

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To love is to deal with nonsense

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AYRTON SENNA and ALAIN PROST JAPANESE GP 1988

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The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

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Prosenna + text posts