SUPER TEAM FEUD
WHOEVER SAID THAT IT’S NOT ABOUT WHO WINS BUT ALL ABOUT THE COMPETING WASN’T AWARE OF JUST HOW SERIOUS FORMULA 1 WOULD BECOME
Thirty years ago, Mclaren was unquestionably the best team in Formula 1 (F1) — and by some margin. The team had completed 1988, winning 15 of the 16 rounds — eight by Ayrton Senna and seven by Alain Prost — a record that will probably never be bettered. Mclaren boss Ron Dennis had managed to keep the peace of the ‘super team’ throughout the year, but undercurrents were developing as the title race intensified.
Senna won the championship, but battle lines were drawn for the all-new F1 of 1989, for which turbos were out and all cars would have 3.5-litre normally aspirated motors. Perhaps as expected, Ford favoured a V8, while Ferrari went for a V12; Renault and Honda — it was Honda’s 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 that had powered Mclaren to its 15 from 16 in 1988 — both made F1 history by producing a 10-cylinder engine, powering Williams and Mclaren, respectively. Honda proved its turbocharged gem was no fluke, and Mclaren again started the year as favourite. However, against all expectations, the apparently under-prepared Ferrari team prevailed in the season opener, with new recruit Nigel Mansell winning on debut in Brazil — Senna’s home turf. The local lad had been on pole but clashed with Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger at the start and finished well out of the points; Prost was second.
Round two
This took place at Imola in late April for the San Marino Grand Prix (GP) — technically some 90km from the tiny state but an opportunity to give Italy a second GP and for the tifosi to shout themselves hoarse cheering for red cars. The Mclaren-honda dominance of 1988 resumed with a front-row lockout — Senna, as he had to, secured pole, and it was all relatively peaceful, so far. To avoid a starting clash, Senna suggested that there be no fight over the first corner; Prost agreed. Senna won the start, and appeared to have the race under control early on, until Berger’s Ferrari crashed violently on lap four. Initially, there was serious concern because of a lack of action in the cockpit, but then there was some hint of movement from the lanky Austrian; thankfully, he escaped with little more than superficial injuries. The car had gone straight into a concrete wall at 270kph and burst into flames. Berger missed the next race at Monaco but was back, and on the pace, at Mexico at the end of May. The crash highlighted how far that F1 had come in terms of driver protection.
No holds barred
The race was stopped. At the restart, Prost got the jump. Senna, seemingly forgetting the deal he’d suggested, placed his car in a space that the Frenchman wasn’t expecting to find occupied. Prost gave him room, but the feud was now public knowledge — the ever-political Frenchman stating, “He thrives on conflict, where I am the opposite”.
There were suggestions that each was waking earlier each morning, just so he could hate the other for a few moments longer in the day. At round three in Monaco, team principal Dennis called a press conference to convey that, yes, there’d been a misunderstanding but now it was all sorted — except that no one believed him. Senna won Monaco and Mexico — it took until the US GP, round five, for Prost to get a victory, by which time he led his ‘teammate’ by two points. That race was run on the streets of Phoenix in front of, it was claimed, 70,000 spectators — one British journalist, on hearing this, wrote, “Most must have come disguised as empty seats”.
Both fighters on the canvas
Neither Mclaren finished in Canada, where the Renault V10 had its first of many wins, then Prost won on home soil, and again at Silverstone. With Senna failing to finish either, the gap was now 20 points. To add to the drama, Senna had a contract with Mclaren for 1990, whereas Prost’s was expiring at the year’s end — meaning that the pairing would almost certainly terminate after the Australian GP. Indeed, rumours of ‘Prost to Ferrari’ were circulating before the end of July.
Senna won in Germany, but Prost was second. Mansell won the Austrian GP, with Senna next up, so, after 10 rounds of 16, it was Prost on 56 points and Senna on 42. They were one-two in Belgium, with Senna the victor, but the margin was back to 20 points after Monza, when Prost won and Senna failed to finish. Just prior to the race weekend, the announcement was made: Prost would be a Ferrari driver from 1990.
Prost the winner
As if buoyed by the announcement that Prost would be joining, Ferrari had the initial edge on Mclaren in Portugal. Mansell and Senna disputed second place until they crashed. Berger — now fully recovered — won, with Prost a grateful second and the title now within his grasp. Senna gave himself an outside chance with victory in Spain and Prost third, and, with points to drop — the result of a ridiculous rule that penalized consistency — the gap was now 16 points, with 18 points on offer for the final two races.
The events of the penultimate round at Japan are a blight on the sport and will be closely canvassed in a future Motor Sport Flashback, such have been their ramifications on what are considered acceptable, and unacceptable, racing standards. However, the headlines were that the Mclarens touched; Senna recovered to take the chequered flag but was subsequently disqualified; Alessandro Nannini won for Benetton-ford; and Prost was world champion, irrespective of what had happened in Adelaide.
In more recent years, driver pairings that have turned sour have been likened to the ‘Prost–senna feud’ — generally by people looking for a headline and who were presumably in nappies in ’89. The Lewis Hamilton–nico Rosberg ructions at Mercedes-benz a couple of seasons ago were likened by some to that of the Mclaren pairing in the late ’80s; the reality was that that was like comparing a sandpit scuffle to trench warfare. There hasn’t since been a ‘super team’ of the level that Ron Dennis created in 1988 with Prost and Senna — probably for a very good reason!
The first Monaco
It is the most famous race on the GP calendar, and for that reason alone, being the first winner would secure William Grover-williams’ place in history — even if that success would be the summit of his life’s achievements. When Grover-williams lined up for the first-ever GP around the streets of the principality — on 14 April 1929 — he was 26 and had been racing throughout France for three years under the alias ‘W Williams’. He’d won the French GP in 1928 — his 2.3-litre Bugatti 35B painted a dark shade of vert that some incorrectly refer to as ‘British racing green’. Grover-williams was born in France to an English father — a horse breeder — and a French mother. In 1914, at the age of 11, he was sent to live with relatives in England; he was already fluent in the native tongue of both his parents. At
In more recent years, driver pairings that have turned sour have been likened to the ‘Prost–senna feud’ — generally by people looking for a headline and who were presumably in nappies in ’89
the end of the war, the family moved to Monte Carlo, by which time the winner of the inaugural race was already besotted with bikes and cars. In fact, he used his pseudonym to keep his initial foray into motorized competition on his Indian from his family. When the portrait painter William Orpen became the official artist of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Irishman purchased a Rolls-royce and hired Grover-williams to ferry him around Europe — the chauffeur eventually marrying the artist’s mistress.
Through the streets
Discussions about a ‘race around the houses’ in Monte Carlo had been kicking around for a while, then, 90 years ago this month, the dream of Antony Noghès, founder of the Monaco GP, was realized when 16 cars — all there by invitation — faced the starter. Mercedes was heavily favoured, with its 7.1-litre straight-six SSK in the highly capable hands of Rudolf Caracciola, but he would face eight Bugattis, three Alfa Romeo 6C-1750s, a pair of Maseratis, a Delage, and a La Licorne.
Starting positions were determined by ballot — a system employed until 1932 — with Williams near the front and the gargantuan white Merc at the back. On offer for the first man to complete 100 laps — 318km — was ₣100,000. Williams led early on as the German leviathan moved up the field — Caracciola balancing pace with the need to prolong tyre wear. The Mercedes hit the front prior to a middistance stop of four-and-a-half minutes that included a tyre change. Caracciola never recovered and stayed in third, with Williams winning from another Bugatti, after just under four hours of racing.
Off to war
Grover-williams continued with Bugattis but, despite racing at Monaco until 1936, he was never again a contender. By then, he was financially secure — exactly how he became so wealthy has never been confirmed — and he and his wife were a high-society couple. After he retired from
racing, they could have continued living a glamorous life — dancing, and playing golf and tennis — based in their villa not far from Monaco. However, all that changed when war broke out. Grover-williams, despite having lived most of his life in France, was a patriotic Englishman, and left for London to join the Royal Army Service Corps.
However, due to his fluency in both English and French, he was soon recruited for the Special Operations Executive. Such was his daring and athleticism that he entered training for the establishment of Resistance cells, arms supplies, and the sabotage network in and around Paris. He was parachuted into France in 1942. Along the way, he recruited fellow Bugatti racer Robert Benoist, but, in July 1943, they were betrayed and Groverwilliams was captured. He was interrogated and tortured at the Gestapo’s Paris HQ. Refusing to give anything away, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was executed in the early months of 1945.
Mike Barney
Another of the group which was a crucial part of the career of Bruce Mclaren has passed away. Englishman Mike Barney was the Kiwi’s mechanic at Cooper. Soon after the establishment of the Mclaren team, he joined Wally Willmott, Tyler Alexander, and co. in the early days of the young team.
Wally recalls that it was with Mike that he travelled to Italy after the team’s F1 debut at Monaco. That had been with the overweight and gutless Ford quad-cam, after which, “Count Volpi contacted Bruce and said, ‘Boy, have I got the engine for you’ — so Mike and I were despatched with the car to Venice where we fitted this little sports-car engine.”
As it turned out, the Count’s three-litre Serenissima V8 was no more likely than the big Ford, but Barney — all 1.94m of him — became an essential part of the foundation period.
Barney came to New Zealand for the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing Celebrating Bruce Mclaren in 2010, along with fellow Mclaren man Ray Rowe. The pair were astonished at how much they were revered because they’d worked with Bruce. Barney said, “It’s hard to take it all in — in England we’re nobodies, but we come out here and they treat us like bloody rock stars”.
Amon and Andretti
In 2003, when I was gathering messages for my role as MC for Chris Amon’s 60th birthday party — something he knew nothing of, incidentally — I got accustomed, for a week or so beforehand, to receiving emails from famous names. Some messages were somewhat bland, most were wonderful, and a handful were standouts. One from Mario Andretti was in the latter category: “Chris, there’s one thing that’s been bugging me — remember we shared that Ferrari at Monza in ’69. I remember the banking, the fans — I did the first stint because I had to get a plane to a USAC [United States Auto Club] race back in the States. You said you’d let me know the result — when I handed the car over, we were leading … but I never heard from you. Did we win?”
The reading of this was followed by the familiar Amon chuckle. “Mario must have over-revved the engine just before the handover, because I did about a lap and a half before it went bang,” Chris said.
“It’s hard to take it all in — in England we’re nobodies, but we come out here and they treat us like bloody rock stars”