Senna vs Alesi: the exhilarating F1 rivalry we only glimpsed

F1

Ayrton Senna and Jean Alesi didn't fight often on-track. But when they did, their wheel-to-wheel F1 clashes showed how electrifying a rivalry would be

Alesi alongside Senna in 1991 Spanish GP

Alesi battles Senna in the 1991 Spanish Grand Prix

Grand Prix Photo

In the latest issue of Motor Sport, we celebrate some of the greatest rivalries that F1 has offered. But more numerous still are those that could have been. And few are more tantalising than the prospect of Jean Alesi fighting for a championship with Ayrton Senna.

Both fierce racers with unworldly car control that came to the fore in wet conditions and on technical circuits, Alesi and Senna only had a few rare chances to pit their talents against each other before fate intervened.

Both made their mark early and in similar fashion: for Senna, it was the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix in his debut season, where wet weather gave the Brazilian’s brilliant Rory Byrne-designed Toleman chassis a fighting chance against the leaders who had more power and superior rubber.

He seized that opportunity. From 13th on the grid, Senna was second to Alain Prost by lap 19 and quickly set upon closing the 24sec gap as the rain continued to pour down. He was on the McLaren‘s tail ten laps later and, on lap 32, overtook for the lead — only for the race to be stopped due to the wet conditions; the lap 31 order restored; and Prost declared the winner.

Six years later, it was Alesi’s turn to threaten the established order, which was now led by Senna. The Frenchman had finished ninth in the 1989 championship, despite only entering half of the races, and was already on the radar of team bosses when he burst into the limelight at the 1990 US Grand Prix at Phoenix thanks to his brilliant Harvey Postlethwaite and Jean-Claude Migeot-designed Tyrrell, which thrived on circuits with slower corners, where its lack of engine power was also less of an issue.

Senna vs Alesi 1991

Senna passes Alesi for the lead in Phoenix…or so he thought

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Alesi catapulted into the lead from fourth on the grid (one place ahead of Senna) and set about building a lead, as Senna cleared Andrea de Cesaris for third and team-mate Gerhard Berger for second.

“You might have expected the gap to start shrinking the moment Senna took second place,” David Tremayne noted for Motor Sport, “but that wasn’t quite the way it happened in Phoenix. True, it was 8.3sec on lap 10, and 7.8sec on 11, but by 14 it was out to 9.41sec!”

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The moment didn’t last long, as Senna soon found his groove and was within 2 seconds of the lead by lap 22, but Alesi wasn’t going to relinquish the place without a fight. Approaching Turn 1, Senna out-braked him and dived down the inside, but as he lined up for Turn 2, the Tyrrell driver bit back, surging around the outside, claiming the inside line for the next left-hander and once more the lead.

“Look at Alesi, that’s cheeky isn’t it!?” roared an amused James Hunt from the commentary booth. “Sloppy driving, [Senna] just didn’t expect it”.

“I thought ‘let’s give him a hard time’,” Alesi told Motor Sport. “I was not weaving, but I was pushing to make it difficult to overtake. I had such a good time…”

A lap later, Senna avoided making the same mistake again, overtaking into Turn 1 and then blocking the line that Alesi had used before. But the Frenchman fought back again, leaping out from behind to go wheel-to-wheel into Turn 3. Only at Turn 4 did Alesi finally have to give way. The former would go on to claim victory — his first of six to come over the season — while the latter finished an impressive second.

“I certainly didn’t expect him to go round the outside of me when I got inside him!” said an enthused Senna after the race. “It was a very exciting battle and he drove really well; very clean and precise, the sort of motor racing I like.”

 

 

In a parallel universe, that rivalry would have escalated into a championship battle in 1991 after Jean Alesi agreed to drive for Williams — a deal that was due to be announced months later at the 1990 French Grand Prix.

Alesi wasn’t short of options, with Ferrari, McLaren and Tyrrell also chasing his signature too. So when the Williams announcement didn’t materialise, Alesi looked to Ferrari, even though Williams had assured him that he would be in its 1991 line-up.

It was a decision that would forever mark Alesi’s career. He replaced Nigel Mansell at Ferrari, who took the vacant seat at Williams and lost out to Senna in a closely-fought 1991 title battle before dominating the following season to take the championship.

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Alesi retired eight times in the Ferrari that following season, and finished on the podium three times — just one more than he had done for Tyrrell. He eventually won with the team at the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix, but never had the car to launch a championship bid.

“I have absolutely no regrets, honestly,” Alesi told Motor Sport in 2017. “The Williams story is part of my life. You cannot look back. It’s like if you had an offer to buy a 250GTO 25 years ago for $10,000, and now it costs $35m. If it didn’t happen, it’s destiny.”

While Alesi may not have had any regrets, we can only imagine the racing that we could have seen. The 1991 Spanish Grand Prix offered another brief teaser. It was a race where the Ferrari 642 was showing its potential, had it not proved so unreliable, as Alesi raced up the running order after starting seventh.

Coming up to Senna in fourth place, he gained down the home straight, lined up his Ferrari for a daring pass into Catalunya’s Turn 1 and lunged for the inside. He hadn’t pulled level, and Senna had left him little more than a car’s-width of asphalt, but he threaded his Ferrari alongside the McLaren mid-corner, and powered past the Brazilian.

Ayrton Senna Jean Alesi 1991

Alesi prepares to pass Senna in Spain

Grand Prix Photo

The timeless image of that move, showing the millimetres of margin between the cars’ tyres is reproduced in the Motor Sport 2024 calendar, which celebrates our centenary with some of the best images from F1 history.

Senna went on to win his third and final championship in 1991, before Williams conquered all in 1992 and 1993. Senna switched to the team and was just beginning another rivalry with Michael Schumacher when he was killed at Imola.

Alesi’s subsequent success in Montreal was only a brief respite from struggle at Ferrari. He left in 1996, moving on to gradually less competitive outfits in Benetton, Sauber and Prost Grand Prix: a driver tipped by Senna himself as a future world champion.

Our limited edition 2024 Motor Sport 100 Years calendar is now available from the Motor Sport shop.

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