Their driving styles couldn’t have been more antithetical. Alain Prost playing all the angles, racing for points, living up to his nickname, “The Professor.” Ayrton Senna, the romantic, racing for speed, not just pushing his car to the limits of its design but making it wiggle and dance on the red line. They were teammates at McLaren when they had their first crash. It came on lap 46 of the 1989 Japanese GP, with Prost leading and Senna, the reigning world champion, sitting in second and needing a win to keep the points race alive. Senna made his move on the Casio chicane, spotting and diving at the smallest of windows, which Prost promptly closed by turning into his teammate. Senna recovered and won the race, but was later disqualified. Prost, swearing the accident was unintentional, took his third driver’s championship.
Prost bolted for Ferrari ahead of the 1990 season, so the two were no longer teammates when Senna got his revenge. Ahead in the points race and sitting on the pole at the Japanese GP, Senna was beaten to the first turn by Prost. When Prost opted for the inside line, Senna did the same, colliding with the Frenchman, sending both cars spinning off the track and out of the race and securing the world championship. Though he’d risked both their lives, Senna showed little remorse: “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.” Prost was equally blunt: “I wanted to punch him in the face, but I was so disgusted I could not do it. He revolts me.”
Incredibly, the two reconciled after Prost retired in 1993. And when Senna was killed at Imola a year later, Prost was a pallbearer at the funeral.