Barcelona 1991

Race start © Rainer Nyberg

In Greece, F1 only started to be a bit famous in the last couple of years. Earlier in the nineties, some people only knew who Schumacher was and even earlier in the eighties, they knew Prost and Senna. The only people who knew a few things more than the above, were the people that were F1 fans...And there weren't many of them around here those days.

The reason I am analyzing all this, is to excuse myself for not being really able to start with a background of the race's qualifying, or even describe how the situation was back then in the championship. As every 12 year-old kid in Greece back then, my F1 knowledge was pitiful. This however, makes the fact that I remember the moment I am going to describe even more remarkable!

It was the Spanish GP in Barcelona, in 1991. I don't recall Senna's position. I don't really recall anything from that race (pole sitter, winner, results...). I only recall the most brilliant F1 manoeuvre I have ever seen until now. What is more, Senna didn't even manage to keep the car on the track...But keeping the car on the track was not the case. What he really did was, more or less, to keep the car...off the track!

Barcelona's last corner is of the type of corners that combine skills and bravery. It's a fast right hander, very similar to Suzuka's 130R, only tighter. Lateral forces could get as high as 5g back then. Modern F1 cars take this corner at around 3.5g, due to less mechanical grip.

Senna came out of that corner, maybe a bit faster than he should have or maybe he made a mistake. It doesn't matter. The way he lost control was a very common case of oversteer. But what he did, is a true sign of what only Senna's mind was capable of: as his McLaren started loosing its back, he put on reverse gear. The car was still traveling with its left side and Senna had already put reverse gear and the rear wheels had already started to turn backwards! The car stops only for a moment and quickly starts moving backwards and Senna brilliantly moved the car off the track to clear the road for the oncoming cars (I remember Schumacher being about 2 seconds behind). If Senna hadn't done this, then the McLaren would have stayed in the middle of the racing line and the situation could really get bad as the cars get out of this corner at around 250Km/h (155mph).

So what? Was that all? Actually, if you think a bit deeper you'll see why this move is so brilliant. First of all, reverse gear had a safety switch to prevent the driver selecting it by accident. This means that Senna had already thought to put reverse gear about 2-3 seconds before his wheels started to turn backwards. In addition, it was clear that the reverse gear was on a lot before the car stopped spinning. This shows us that the whole scenario of the spin and the reverse gear was already processed by Senna's mind as soon as the car gave the first sign of the spin. He thought in a matter of tenths of a second 1) how the car was going to react, 2) where on the track it would stop and 3) the problems that this could cause to the drivers following right behind.

There was/is no other driver in the world that could actually perform such a maneuver before the car would be immobilized. Senna's amount of concentration during a race was legendary. As he said once about himself: "I drive through a corner and my mind is already thinking of the next one"! I believe that he really proved himself that Sunday in Barcelona! A 12 year-old boy's hero was just born!

Video Senna's great recovery from a spin [2.1 Mb MPEG]

In my mind this is the best Race ever for Senna, although it was a street circuit, it was what he did that stuck in my mind, from start to finish, no one can do that today, no matter how good they seem to be, but little did we know, at this time, this was the last race Senna would ever win, his Long rivalry with Alain ended, with Hill aswell, on the 1st step of the Podium, it was something to remember. The end of Ayrton at McLaren, to move to bigger, and better things.

It was the end of the season, Alain Prost scored 7 wins and the world title, Senna scored 5 in all with his McLaren, Hill had scored 3, and Schumacher just 1, Senna then, was the 2nd best driver ever to grace a Formula 1 race, just Fangio had scored more wins, Truly this was something that a person only see’s once a lifetime.

The race will never leave my mind, as being the one Senna fought most for, from qualifying, start to finish, he was the best there ever will be in a race, it didn’t matter to Senna, the car was to the limit, powerful or not, he was skilled, I couldn’t name another driver like that today.