Between the Lauda-Hunt duel and the more recent Lewis-Verstappen, Formula 1 has seen an unprecedented rivalry with two of the greatest drivers in its history, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. The particularity of this opposition is that the two men evolved together in the same team. The technological domination of McLaren-Honda led Prost and Senna to compete for the championship title in the late 1980s.
When Senna joined McLaren-Honda in 1988 - the leading team at the time with Williams-Renault - he was a young driver who had had a very good second place with Lotus the previous season. Prost was already a seasoned driver, already a double world champion with his victories in 85 and 86. Together, they will certainly dominate the discipline, but above all they will engage in an intense duel going from public declarations to very tense racing situations. Senna is the speed, the instinctive driving, while the Frenchman is nicknamed the professor because of his tactical sense and his regularity. This theoretically complementary pair will finally generate a poisonous climate in the team in spite of the successes in races. As soon as he arrived at McLaren, Senna brilliantly won the championship but not without some clashes with his teammates, which earned him several statements from Prost criticizing his lack of fair play and his obsession with him. The season 89 marks a turning point in the rivalry between the two pilots, the Frenchman estimating that the Brazilian is advantaged by his direction. Senna leads in the standings, but a risk-taking at the first turn during the San Marino Grand Prix provokes the anger of Prost. Gathered by the director of the team to alleviate the tensions, that will finally be worsened when Prost will say then in the press that Senna was sermonized at the time of this meeting and cried: the Brazilian pilot is furious of this declaration.
This season 89 will be marked by an accident between the two pilots at the time of the GP of Japan, for which Senna is declared responsible and acts the victory of Prost. The following season, the Frenchman leaves for Ferrari, but the rivalry between the drivers persists. Dissatisfied with the position on the grid of the car in pole position, Senna voluntarily causes a collision with Prost, again at the time of the GP of Japan, entraining their double abandonment but acting his victory in championship. Then in 1991, Senna becomes triple world champion, overtaking the competition of Ferrari and its French pilots Prost and Alesi, as well as the Williams-Renault team more and more competitive. In 1992, Prost is fired from Ferrari, and in t h e absence of his rival, Senna fails to win the title in a team on the decline. He even declared that he was ready to compete for free for Williams, the best team on the circuit. But the following season, it is Prost who signs at Williams, and puts its veto with an arrival of the Brazilian, relaunching their rivalry on the public place. Ayrton Senna renounces to a sabbatical year and continues at McLaren despite the end of the collaboration with Honda. This season 93 sees Prost becoming again champion of the world, in front of Senna. The Frenchman then retires, and that starts the appeasement of the relations between the two pilots.
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