The Chicane That Decided Everything: Senna, Prost and the Collision That Changed F1

The 1989 World Championship had been a season of escalating tension between two men sharing the same car, the same garage, and an increasingly irreconcilable view of each other. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, in the McLaren-Hondas, had been the class of the field all year. Their relationship had collapsed so completely that communication between them was conducted largely through intermediaries. The Japanese Grand Prix was the race that would decide the championship, and both men understood the weight of what was coming.

Prost was on pole position, Senna alongside him. At the start, it was Senna who led. Prost found a way past and led the majority of the race. Into the chicane with six laps remaining, the two McLarens arrived together. The precise choreography of what happened next has been debated by the participants, the sport's administrators, journalists and fans ever since. Prost's version: Senna drove into him, an act of deliberate aggression to remove his championship rival. Senna's version: Prost closed the door, taking a move that Senna had already committed to.

Both cars came to rest at the chicane escape road. Prost climbed from his Ferrari — which he had moved to for 1989 — and walked away. Senna's McLaren was push-started by marshals, which was against the regulations in force, and he rejoined the race. He drove the remaining laps as though nothing had happened, cutting the chicane to rejoin quickly and then producing lap times that nobody else in the race could approach. He crossed the finish line in first place.

The celebrations were brief. He was excluded from the results for cutting the chicane and receiving illegal assistance during the restart. Alessandro Nannini, who had been running behind the McLarens when the collision occurred, was declared the winner. Prost was World Champion. Senna's fury at the decision — and at the FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre, who he accused of favouring Prost — defined his next twelve months and contributed to the events of the following year's Japanese Grand Prix.

Alessandro Nannini was declared the winner of the Japanese Grand Prix in his Benetton-Ford after Ayrton Senna's McLaren was excluded from the results. Thierry Boutsen was classified second in the Williams, with Riccardo Patrese third. Alain Prost, who had retired at the chicane collision, was declared World Champion by virtue of his points accumulation across the season.

The result gave Prost his third championship. His exclusion of Senna from the same results sheet — achieved through regulation rather than performance — was immediately controversial and remained so. Senna paid a fine and received a suspended race ban that the FIA imposed and subsequently appeared to enforce selectively. He never forgave the institution for what he saw as its conduct that afternoon.

The 1989-1990 Senna-Prost dynamic produced two consecutive championship decisions at Suzuka in circumstances that were, in each case, disputed. In 1989, Prost's version prevailed through the disqualification process. In 1990, Senna's version prevailed on the road — in a manner that was deliberate, admitted, and in direct response to what he considered the injustice of 1989.

The rivalry between the two defined an era and produced, in its intensity, some of the greatest racing the sport has seen. It also produced two championship decisions that remain the most contested in the sport's history. Their relationship never recovered — they were civil to each other in public when required and nothing more.

October 1989 was a month of extraordinary historical acceleration. The Berlin Wall would fall on November 9 — just eighteen days after the race — an event that most observers had expected to be years or decades away. The revolutions in Eastern Europe were gathering pace: Hungary had opened its border with Austria in September, and East Germany was in the grip of mass demonstrations. The Cold War was ending in real time.

Japan in 1989 was at the peak of its economic bubble. The Nikkei stock index was approaching its historical maximum, reached in December of that year. Land prices in Tokyo had reached levels that made the Imperial Palace grounds theoretically more valuable than the entire state of California. The Honda engines powering the McLarens to victory were a source of national pride in a country that was, briefly, experiencing a moment of extraordinary self-confidence.

Dry and mild at Suzuka in late October, temperatures around 20°C with clear skies. The track was in good condition throughout, the weather contributing nothing to the events of the day. The collision at the chicane occurred on a dry track under clear skies in full view of the cameras. Whatever happened, happened in circumstances that removed any ambiguity of conditions.