“When Ayrton Senna died, the entire community came together as one”- Alain Prost sheds light on how things changed around him after the death of his fiercest rival

Alain Prost emphasizes on the human side of his rivalry with Ayrton Senna, which he feels outweighs their on-track spats over the years. 

Prost and Senna shared arguably the most heated rivalry in the history of F1. It started with the latter joining McLaren as Prost’s teammate, and ended with a massive meltdown within the outfit. The two shared several battles, both on track and verbal exchanges off it.

However, in a podcast with 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg, Prost talks about how his relationship with Senna evolved. The 67-year old talks about how they always had respect for each other and things between them got better after he left the team.

There was still some animosity in terms of public reaction, but Senna’s tragic death at the 1994 San Marino GP changed everything. It brought the entire fanbase together as one, and fans of both rival drivers united to pay respects.

“When Ayrton died, before we had 50/50,” says Prost. “50 loved you, 50 they hate you. Especially in my side. and I have had a lot of problems in France.”

“When Ayrton died, the community sort of went together. I have a connection with a lot of Brazilians. And in my Instagram, most of my followers from far, they are from Brazil.”

Also read: When Seven times F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher talked about parenthood and his love for football

The friendship with Senna was stronger than one could think, insists Alain Prost

Prost went on to say that today he has a great relationship with the Brazilian fans. He often highlighted how the Senna faithful viciously booed him whenever he visited Brazil, but explained how things changed over the years.

“When i go to Brazil, it’s not my country but I have absolutely no problem,” he continued. “I would never have a security guy with me in brazil, never. Because I have been to Ayrton’s house with the family. I am still member of the foundation. I’m still in contact with Lilian (Senna’s wife).”

The great Senna-Prost rivalry boiled over at Suzuka in spectacular style! 😤

Senna lost the 1989 title to Prost after they crashed – the Brazilian restarted and won but was disqualified for missing a chicane 😧

In 1990 they collided on lap one, giving Senna his second crown 🙄 pic.twitter.com/uZPZvgkJ0J

— Channel 4 F1® (@C4F1) October 3, 2018

The Frenchman then talks about how one’s perspective changes with time. The host of the podcast Rosberg himself shares a heated rivalry with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Prost gives a piece of advice to the 36-year old on this matter.

“All of it’s a part of history and that’s the best because in the end we come back to the human side. And that’s what I wanted to show, the human side. It was stronger than you’d think.”

“I hope you have this same thing with Lewis,” Prost adds at the end.

Also read: “It’s like Hamilton choosing Verstappen to be his teammate at Mercedes!”- Alain Prost reveals how he asked McLaren to bring Ayrton Senna to the team