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On Friday, July 9, 1993, Williams reigns even in the storm. A violent downpour, typical of the English summer, does not prevent the team that dominates the World Championship from taking the lead in the first qualifying round of the British Grand Prix, ninth race of the 1993 season. On the contrary, Williams-Renault even transforms Alain Prost into a sort of king of the wet, a role that until some time ago fell to Ayrton Senna. The Frenchman, without a flaw, scored the best time, turning in 1'34"483, at an average speed of 199.122 km/h. Even his teammate Damon Hill, the long-awaited hero of this race, in place of the emigrant Nigel Mansell, is forced for the moment to bow to the overwhelming power of the French driver, remaining late by 1.8 seconds: an abyss. But Alain Prost preaches peace:
"No, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense. Track conditions changed every lap and I wasn’t necessarily the best. However, I am satisfied because my car is fine, even if the ABSsystem of electronic anti-locking of the wheels is not yet perfect and will have to work a lot to put it in tune".
Some people think Hill is going to win tomorrow, and he runs at home...
"Are we kidding? Damon’s gonna have to get past me. I’m up for the title and I’m not willing to give anything away right now. I will leave to win and each of us will play his chances".
The battle between the Frenchman and the Englishman is hard. Also because all the others, probably will be cut off from the fight for the first place, except for cataclysms. Rain is expected on Saturday, but the British Grand Prix will be sunny. So there should be no weather interference to reverse the forecast. However, in the second round of the World Championship - Williams is a story of its own - there is no lack of interest. Ayrton Senna (with the McLaren finally equipped with the latest version of the Ford engine) precedes Michael Schumacher. The Brazilian star and the emerging German are now in conflict and not being able to take it out on Alain Prost, who is too far away, they challenge each other. Not bad for Ferrari, which brings Jean Alesi to P5 and Berger to P6. Too little to hail as a miracle (also because the rain may have cheated) but enough to hope for a more dignified race than that seen in Magny-Cours. All the more so since the Frenchman was clearly the fastest of all since the track was flooded with water and that the Austrian has always run with the 11-cylinder engine, perhaps due to a problem with a spark plug, discovered too late. Alesi also gambles, using slick tyres when the asphalt dries in the final practice, but then he is forced to remedy in the very last laps to recover. It will be seen if the Maranello team will end the weekend in a crescendo. Meanwhile, Scuderia Ferrari’s new sporting director, Jean Todt, who is already starting to get into some of the team’s mechanisms, says:
"In my opinion, so far there has always been a lot of thought about qualifying and little about the race. I would like our two drivers to spend at least 45 minutes this morning tuning the cars for the race".
When the track is wet, the accident arrives unannounced: little grip, the drivers lose control of the cars flying out in speed. Pierluigi Martini and Mark Blundell, protagonists of two spectacular and dangerous crashes, know something about it. The Romagna driver, on his return to drive the Minardi replacing Barbazza, splits a wing and two suspensions in the morning. Even more serious was Blundell’s road trip with Ligier in qualifying. The Englishman destroys the Ligier at the Abbey bend: a fearful accident, which leads to the momentary interruption of practice. Blundell unharmed. For the record, the Technical Commissioners declare that Ayrton Senna (with the McLaren finally equipped with the latest version of the Ford engine) precedes, albeit a little, Michael Schumacher. The Brazilian star and the emerging German are now in conflict and not being able to take it out on Alain Prost, who is too far away, they challenge each other. For the record: the technical commissioners declare all cars, less Minardi, irregular checks. On Thursday, July 15, 1993, the World Council of the FIA will make a decision.
On Saturday, July 10, 1993, for the Maranello team it could not get worse: while Alain Prost aims for an absolute record of victories, looking for his affirmation number 50, Ferrari, which in 1991 fired the French driver, guilty of having told some secrets about the team, touches rock bottom. Alesi and Berger face the British Grand Prix with the most disastrous starting position of the last thirteen championships. We have to go back to 1980 - when Gilles Villeneuve qualified in P22 and Jody Scheckter stayed out of the grid in Canada - to find an even more mortifying situation.
The cars produced in Maranello, hit by a thousand problems, do not allow the French and the Austrian to go beyond P12 and P13, very far from the best. In front there are not only Williams, Benetton and McLaren, but also Ligier, Lotus and Footwork. Saturday, on a sunny day, on a demanding and selective track like this, the F93A shows all their flaws: precarious road holding, an engine that is not competitive, inconsistent performance, difficulty of insertion in slow curves and driving in fast ones. In short, a real catastrophe that offers very little hope of recovery, even partial, in the British race. At the end of the tests, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger do not hide the difficulties. The Austrian tries to explain:
"The new active suspensions are at the heart of most of our problems. When we think we’ve solved one, we tweak something in the electronics program and three more pop up. Unfortunately with these systems the only solution is to try and try again. We are convinced that we will be able to get out. But it will take time".
In a recent interview, John Barnard, technical manager of Ferrari, said that the Maranello team could perhaps win some races next year, and aim to fight for the title in 1995. Jean Todt, the new boss of sports management, replies that he intends to shorten these times, which is at work precisely to try to start the recovery with less distant deadlines. And for this reason it takes measures:
"Barnard said he will come to Maranello twice a month. We will go to England every two weeks to work together. Meanwhile we will deepen the examination of the field motors. If it is necessary we will take reinforcements".
So the plans are there, but the fact remains that Ferrari at the moment only marches backwards. A very different situation at Williams, where there is only the problem of managing the two drivers. In Silverstone, Alain Prost and Damon Hill fight each other. A battle on the edge of thousandths of a second that sees the Professor prevail over the student. Alain wins his eighth pole of the season, thanks to a time of 1'19"006 at the average speed of 238.129 km/h, the number 28 of his career (equalising Fangio’s record). In the race, the Frenchman will not grant anything to Damon Hill, but the challenge will be thrilling because the Englishman wants to win in front of their fans. Open battle for the third step of the podium between Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna (the German is amazing, driving, after an accident with his car, the Benetton of Patrese and the Paduan finishes 2 seconds behind) Ligier-Renault drivers (Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell) and Johnny Herbert with Lotus-Ford could be added to the points. But beware: Silverstone is a dangerous track, those who exaggerate can end up outside. Alessandro Zanardi knows something about it, he slams, slowing down from 180 to 0 km/h in a second and takes a 10G hit, remaining miraculously unharmed. Sunday, July 11, 1993, at the start of the British Grand Prix, Damon Hill is better than his team-mate and leads; Ayrton Senna does even better, from the fourth place on the grid he leaps to second position. Behind the four, at the entrance of the Copse there are Martin Brundle, Riccardo Patrese, Johnny Herbert and Jean Alesi who gained five positions with the only flash for Ferrari this weekend. While Damon Hill stretches undisturbed, a very spectacular phase begins in which Ayrton Senna, although noticeably slower, tries to repel the attacks of Alain Prost; the battle between the two culminates with the overtaking of the Frenchman at the braking of the Stowe during lap 7. Even without the comfort of an engine advantage, Michael Schumacher succeeds in the same manoeuvre three laps later. After 11 laps Damon Hill is leading the race with 8 seconds ahead of Prost, and 15 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher.
The pit stops do not change the substance but Alain Prost manages to recover something and then to return to contact the teammate, exploiting some indecision of Damon Hill during lapping. On lap 37, the Safety car entered the track following an accident involving Luca Badoer at the Woodcote corner. After the restart, Damon Hill tries to break away getting the fastest lap on lap 41, but has to abandon a lap already late because of an engine failure, saying goodbye to the hopes of winning the first Grand Prix right in front of the English public; Thus, Alain Prost takes the lead of the race, ahead of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Martin Brundle and Riccardo Patrese. Johnny Herbert and ahead of Derek Warwick, who wins the first point of the season with his Footwork-Mugen Honda. Champagne spray for Alain Prost. The French driver had achieved his first success twelve years earlier, Saturday 4 July 1981, winning the French Grand Prix in Dijon with the Renault turbo. The French driver achieved victory number 50, winning with Williams the first place in the British Grand Prix. Unlike what happened in Magny-Cours a week ago, where the Professor had imposed himself with cunning, this time he was helped by a good deal of luck. Damon Hill, transformed from docile companion into fearsome opponent, was eliminated at a crucial moment of the race by the engine failure of his car. And, as if that were not enough, Ayrton Senna, while he was finishing third, stopped at the last lap because his McLaren ran out of gas. Prost now has a 20-point lead in the standings and is heading towards the fourth world title. This goal - after all - seems almost obvious. The race was still spectacular. If, on the one hand, he confirmed the absolute lack of competitiveness of Ferrari (P9 Alesi, lapped Berger out of the race after 10 laps, due to the collapse of the active suspension), he at least reserved exciting duels and a few chilling moments.
The first ones were given to Ayrton Senna with a rocket start that led him to fit between Damon Hill, taken in the lead, and Alain Prost, a little slow at the start, while Michael Andretti ended up off track. The Brazilian resisted well against the attacks of the Frenchman, with a car that was clearly inferior. McLaren and Williams, a few inches away, showed some thrilling things, until the Brazilian had to give up and shortly after he was overtaken by Michael Schumacher who passed him by force. On lap 38, the race director, taking advantage of the stop along the track of the Bms Lola of Badoer in an uncomfortable position, sent the Safety car on track, the car that - according to the regulation 1993 - has the task of slowing down competitors in the event of danger. The ranks, already lengthened, with the two Williams clearly detached, have been reassembled in two slow laps, and they started again from the beginning. When Prost tried to retake Hill, the Englishman attacked again. But his escape did not last long: on lap 42 poor Damon, in a cloud of smoke, had to raise, disconsolate, white flag. So, green light for the success of the French. Behind him a wild Schumacher could not go beyond the second place because he was about to run out of gas. Senna, on the other hand, finished his fuel (he had already done so last year here at Silverstone) and crashed in fifth place, leaving Riccardo Patrese on the podium, for a Benetton pair behind Williams. Fourth came Johnny Herbert with the newfound Lotus, sixth Derek Warwick with a Footwork that will still be interesting, since it has the active suspension (bought) of McLaren and the engine that is still a 10-cylinder Mugen-Honda. At the end of the race, Alain Prost, happier than he looks, says:
"The most beautiful victory is always the last, although I will never forget that of Adelaide, when I won my second World Championship in 1986. Let’s not talk about the championship, it’s still long. I want to win the next two races, Germany and Hungary. In Budapest I will aim for pole position and full success. Then we will discuss and face a more relaxed season finale".
Then he goes on:
"I don’t know if I could have beat Hill. I had a bad start, I managed to hang it up but it’s hard to pass here, so passing it would have been complicated; I would have waited for the right opportunity but I don’t know if I would have had one, Damon was driving very well, he deserved to win in front of his fans, and I would have preferred to win my 50th race differently".
To those who ask him about the duel with Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost responds with polemical vein:
"After the disqualification of Monte-Carlo for the early departure I had a psychological block at the start and I was surprised. But there are drivers who can do what they want. Someone pushed me on the grass and the Brazilian stopped me twice. We were really too close, at 300 km/h; and I, who am thinking of winning my fourth world title, do not want to take excessive risks...".
Maybe he wants to remember that in 1990, when he was at Ferrari, he was thrown out by Senna in Japan and lost the chance to fight for the World Championship. But Ayrton’s answer is quiet:
"I had fun in the early laps fending off the attacks of Prost who had a superior car. Then I didn’t like the ending at all: the on-board computer told me that there was still petrol. Instead... In any case there was nothing to do, even against Benetton".
An admission that makes Flavio Briatore, manager of the Italian team, happy:
"We have shown that even with the same engine we are stronger than McLaren. Schumacher could have attacked at the end of the race, but ended with only 6 litres of gasoline in the tank and was forced to slow down".
Then, when the journalists turn to Michael Schumacher to find out what he expects in view of his home Grand Prix, the German driver tries to playfully bribe Alain Prost, who is by his side:
"He won fifty races and is first in the World Championship, he might even let me win, but maybe we’ll talk about it later in private...".
This time Ferrari did not disappoint anyone. He achieved the result everyone expected, after what had been seen in France and especially in the qualifying of the past few days. Maranello’s cars are worth a P12-P13, and Jean Alesi managed to finish in P9 at the end of a difficult and risky race. In a glowing final the Frenchman was able to overtake Christian Fittipaldi and Rubens Barrichello. The French driver, gloomy, retreats behind a dry statement:
"I have nothing to say to anyone".
Meanwhile, Gerhard Berger is almost desperate. The Austrian had problems with active suspension in the morning. Problems that have been repeated also in the deployment lap with the race car. Then Gerhard took the reserve car but stopped with the second car after 9 laps and always with the same problems. In fact, the faults found have different names: potentiometer, accelerometer, valves, hydraulic circuit pipes: but the end result is always the same. So Jean Todt, just ten days in Ferrari, is forced to give yet another explanation of the troubles of the cars produced in Maranello:
"The problem is a general one and it is not just about suspensions. In this case it is all the complex that does not work: engine, chassis, aerodynamics, lack of speed. You can’t work miracles and I didn’t expect anything good after Magny-Cours. Now we have to think, work and act. Ferrari is the only team to build a full Formula 1 car and this is perhaps our problem. We have to plan the programs better. It won’t be easy, but I realised that there is the capacity and the will to progress. At this point we should not think about the championship immediately, but look to the future. Talking is easy, difficult is reacting in the right way".
Ferrar,i from Tuesday, 13 July 1993, will be on track at Mugello with Alesi, to test the new 4-valve engine and an evolution of the 5-valve one. In the week there will also be tests in Fiorano, on suspensions, with Nicola Larini. At a time when the Italian colours in Formula 1 do not shine, the star of Riccardo Patrese, third with Benetton, is back to shine. But even the Paduan has reason to complain:
"I’m happy with the result, for the first time since the start of the season I could drive as I do. And it was also the first time that someone stopped in front of me. But lately I’ve had terrible days. There was also talk of my departure from the team. And nobody defended me, nobody tried to help me. It’s true, I had problems fitting into a new team, adapting to the car. The real Patrese will be back in the second half of the season".
Alain Prost has won 50 Grands Prix so far, but may be forced to start from 49. The Frenchman, according to rumours, risks a disqualification because his Williams would have used irregular fuel in the Spanish Grand Prix. A decision will be taken on Thursday 15 or Friday 16 July 1993, in Paris, during an important meeting of the FIA World Council. The members of this body (about twenty) will also be called to judge urgently the reports sent by the technical commissioners of the last three races of the championship (Canada, France and Great Britain) according to which almost all the cars examined are irregular. The accusation is to use, through the electronics, systems that modify during the race the aerodynamics of the single-seater removing the drivers’ control of their cars. This is an act of force of the Federation to impose the abolition of active suspension, telemetry (which now allows the teams to make adjustments from the pits) ABS, traction control and many other devices under study and construction such as the four-wheel steering and the Cvt, a kind of intelligent gearbox that would insert the gears alone according to the speed and the number of revolutions of the engine. This state of affairs has never found the manufacturers agree on the solutions to be applied and it is precisely at Silverstone there is yet another split. Bernie Ecclestone, President of FOCA, distributed among the teams a letter to be signed, in which he called for the adoption of other measures for 1994 (refuelling, mandatory stop to the pits to replace the tires and various regulatory innovations). But in the document there is also the request to keep the active suspension. Benetton explains that it would be a little contention for Williams and McLaren, but that the FIA will still prohibit them and everything will go as already established in March by the Federation. Ferrari, however, does not sign the letter. Niki Lauda says:
"On this point we are uncompromising. Active suspension must disappear".
But the most intransigent team, regarding the disappearance of active suspension, is the Williams-Renault, which threatens to withdraw from the World Championship if it is decided to immediately ban the active suspensions. Says the technical director of the British team, Patrick Head:
"If active suspension is banned, we will appeal. If it is rejected, Williams-Renault will not participate in the German Grand Prix".
Ron Dennis, McLaren’s patron, rejects the FISA’s argument that eliminating high technology would lower Formula 1 costs.
"Money has nothing to do with it, it’s an excuse The teams are divided because the less competitive ones want to get closer to the elite".
Ken Tyrrell, on the other hand, is in favour of the immediate elimination of active suspension. All that remains now is to await the decisions of the World Council.
"I was born in a rough region of France, which is marked on maps with the name of the river that crosses it: the Loire. At the foot of the mountains of the Forez massif, the rigidity of the cold and the severity of the appearance of the places have shaped in their inhabitants simple and frank souls...".
So begins the autobiography of Alain Prost, the driver who won his 50th Formula 1 victory at Silverstone. From these lines shines the character of a man (now 38 years old) who is certainly not presumptuous but not even a liar. But the definition that the Frenchman gives of himself seems simplistic: his is a complex and uncommon temperament. It is not for nothing that Prost has marked his thirteen seasons in the world of Grand Prix with a behaviour that has sometimes been inconsistent with his claims. But it is not the time to recall controversies and questionable episodes of a career that has seen Alain Prost protagonist, for better or for worse. Now, after the fantastic success record of the Professor (the nickname was given to him by a Renault technician for his ability to explain how a race car should work, unlike other riders who go only instinctively) people wonder: Is Alain Prost really the best of all ages? The statistics seem to be on his side: he made more points than any other driver who has ever taken part in the World Championship and has climbed several times on the podium of all, leaving behind for number of successes the second in the standings (Ayrton Senna, at 39). But with an in-depth analysis, it is found that Alain Prost, in order to get to 50 victories, had to run 192 races. Better than him were the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart. And Ayrton Senna is just a bit behind. This is an important fact to judge the absolute value of Alain Prost. However, the fact remains that the Williams driver, since his debut in 1980, has remained at the top and that his skill remains unchanged over the years, even if his style and way of dealing with racing have changed.
"In my early years in Formula 1 I was reckless and willing to do anything. It is normal for a driver with experience to drive more with the brain than with the feet. In this I had a master in Niki Lauda".
Opinions on Alain Prost are mixed, but also determined by situations of rivalry, of enmity. Ayrton Senna, his great detractor, says:
"He is above all a politician. Give me his car and you will see what it is worth".
Even Enzo Ferrari, in his book “Piloti, che gente”, in 1985, did not give him an exhilarating judgement:
"Prost is a great item. He has seriousness, style, speed, even if his behaviour in the race, when he is engaged, arouses some legitimate reserve".
Different opinion of Frank Williams, who hired him in his team:
"I knew Alain was a great runner. But many people warned me, because they thought he would bring chaos to the team. Wrong. Prost is a great professional, a driver who devotes himself to one hundred percent, who knows how to make the most of the qualities of a car, who rarely misses. All the teams would like to have him with them".
From the fellow adventurers of these years, Prost receives only praise. The French bow to his passage, Alesi has a huge respect for his compatriot, the British admire him for his determination, the Italians somewhat envy him for the results. The young Michael Schumacher, who spares no one, considers him very loyal. Prost, however, marches on his way:
"Now that I’ve made 50, I’m thinking of 60. Fourth and fifth world titles, though it won’t be easy. I’m moving forward by goals. The rest does not count".
Alain Prost, in this case, does not confess completely. But it is clear that he wants to mortify the ambitions of Ayrton Senna and definitively overcome Juan Manuel Fangio. To be the best, even if, to complete the enterprise, they will have to become even more cautious, with the risk of changing from professor to humble accountant of the steering wheel.