think prost was very unhappy with senna's continued breach of team orders and politics within mclaren and honda. he made a statement on this before suzuka that he was not going to give way for the likes of sennaJust_a_fan wrote: ↑03 Feb 2021, 11:00Massa is on record saying that Schumacher later told him that he deliberately parked the car on that corner. So there isn't really an argument about that one.gshevlin wrote: ↑02 Feb 2021, 23:18Ditto Rascasse-gate, which was so blatant that the race organizers put him to the back of the field. Everybody with a functioning brain saw what he did there to prevent anybody setting a faster time.
I regard Schumacher's 1994 championship as suspect, not because of the Benetton shenanigans, but because Schumacher drove a rival off the track to win the title. This, to be fair to Schumacher, was the inevitable consequence of Ayrton Senna not being banned for driving Alain Prost off the track at Suzuka to win the 1991 title, which sent the message to other drivers that driving your rival off the circuit could get you a title if all else failed.
If Senna had been penalized and forfeited the 1991 championship, and damn the consequences, we might have seen a different outcome in 1994.
As for Senna's move, it was in reaction to Prost's much more subtle turn in the year before that gave Prost the title. Prost was definitely helped by Balestre at the time - Senna wasn't the paranoid that some thought he was - so Senna just put his car in the way and the rest is history.
If you look at the 1990 move by Senna, today that would be claimed by many as Prost's error because Senna had a significant part of his car alongside as Prost turned in.
Both situations could have been dealt with better - if Senna hadn't been excluded by Balestre in 89, he wouldn't have done his 90 move and that would also have changed history. Whether it would have altered the outcome of 1994 is anyone's guess - I think Schumacher would always have done what he did irrespective of what may or may not have happened in 1989/1990. It was just his way.
then of course at suzuka prost made a very early entry into that final chicane taking senna out. what was magnificent about balestre's involvement came when prost was racing senna, before that he had a fantastic record as a racer and teammate. only reason why lauda hated him as a teammate was because he was very good...none of the prost senna drama...dramatizing prost relationship with balestre only came about from his senna days. so senna taking prost the following years is simply nothing short a mirror of his own self