Senna display raises questions

Press, 6 October 1989, Page 42

Senna display raises questions

By GEORGE TANNER The Portuglese Grand Prix incident involving Britain’s Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna, of Brazil, has been much discussed in recent weeks.

Mansell seemingly ignored three official directives to stop after an alleged breach of the pit lane rules, before dramatically resolving the matter by crashing off the circuit in a collision with Senna.

No blame can be put on Mansell for the collision, which eliminated both his Ferrari and Senna’s McLaren Honda.

In my opinion, the Englishman clearly had the

correct racing line at the point of impact, and the manner in which Senna disastrously attempted to shut the door left me questioning the Brazilian’s mental approach to his profession. Anyone who saw the television coverage of the .event would have to agree that the pit-stop infringement' was rather petty. It could also be fairly argued that the blame for the accident rested squarely on the shoulders of Senna, and not on those of the Englishman.

The allegations of bad sportsmanship from the team managers of Formula One racing’s two main rivals heightened the tension existing between the Marlboro McLaren Honda team and Scuderia Ferrari. It also drew the news media’s attention away from the season-long personal feud between Senna and his team-mate, Alain Prost, of France.

There seemed to be the prospect of some tranquillity at last when a document signed by Prost was issued by theMcLaren team expressing the Frenchman’s regret over recent public outbursts of unfair treatment from his team.

For reasons best known to himself, however, Prost failed to attend the postrace press conference.