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Correct.
People often blame Senna for the 1989 accident but his move was fair when viewed from above, as it shows Prost turned into the carner way, way too early.
Prost argued that it was 'his corner' but he still isn't allowed to move like that under braking. The fact Senna pulled and identical move on Nannini later in the race, successfully, indicates he was not 'out of control'. As the FIA stated at the time.
When you look into this, and there are a number of great podcasts about it, the FIA, and specifically their president at the time, were a joke. THey just kept adding offences one.
He didn't complete the full race distance because the cut the chicane (this was the penalty he was finally convicted for, but there was evidence of other drivers cutting that, and other chicanes in a similar manner previously, with no penalty.)
Oh he cut across the pit entry line
Oh he got assistance starting
Oh he drove back to the pits with a damaged car
It really boils down to Balestre wanting a Frenchman to win the title.
1990 was not quite like the movie made out. The position of pole was not moved to the (dirty) inside part of the track after he qualified on pole. Senna and his team mate lobbied to have it moved to the cleaner, outside part of the track as it is today. The FIA originally agreed but again, Balestre overruled it, also stating drivers could not go over the yellow pit exit sign while making a pass on the way to T1.
Again, feeling he'd been slighted, he had no intention of making it out of T1, along with Prost. Incidentally, when I worked at McLaren, I spoke with some team members about this and they stated that they saw the telemetry that Senna didn't lift off 100% throttle until his car was in the gravel. Utter lunatic.
Anyway, sorry. Back to MotoGP!
People often blame Senna for the 1989 accident but his move was fair when viewed from above, as it shows Prost turned into the carner way, way too early.
Prost argued that it was 'his corner' but he still isn't allowed to move like that under braking. The fact Senna pulled and identical move on Nannini later in the race, successfully, indicates he was not 'out of control'. As the FIA stated at the time.
When you look into this, and there are a number of great podcasts about it, the FIA, and specifically their president at the time, were a joke. THey just kept adding offences one.
He didn't complete the full race distance because the cut the chicane (this was the penalty he was finally convicted for, but there was evidence of other drivers cutting that, and other chicanes in a similar manner previously, with no penalty.)
Oh he cut across the pit entry line
Oh he got assistance starting
Oh he drove back to the pits with a damaged car
It really boils down to Balestre wanting a Frenchman to win the title.
1990 was not quite like the movie made out. The position of pole was not moved to the (dirty) inside part of the track after he qualified on pole. Senna and his team mate lobbied to have it moved to the cleaner, outside part of the track as it is today. The FIA originally agreed but again, Balestre overruled it, also stating drivers could not go over the yellow pit exit sign while making a pass on the way to T1.
Again, feeling he'd been slighted, he had no intention of making it out of T1, along with Prost. Incidentally, when I worked at McLaren, I spoke with some team members about this and they stated that they saw the telemetry that Senna didn't lift off 100% throttle until his car was in the gravel. Utter lunatic.
Anyway, sorry. Back to MotoGP!
