The 2024 Sao Paulo GP was tough for Lewis Hamilton, as the Mercedes W15 wasn’t performing as he would have liked. However, beyond his F1 performance, the weekend was a memorable one: Hamilton had the chance to drive the very same car his idol, Ayrton Senna, competed in during the 1990 season.
Hamilton took the MP4/5B for a spin—the very model Senna used to defeat Alain Prost in the World Championship that year. Presenter Tom Clarkson also pointed out that this was the exact car Senna drove in the 1990 Japanese GP, where he had a rather infamous crash with Prost.
“…the actual chassis that crashed into Alain Prost at Suzuka. It’s got Ayrton’s original seat in it, Ayrton’s original steering wheel, it’s the original gearbox, and the original engine, and Lewis looked really moved,” said Clarkson on the F1 Nation Podcast.
The incident narrated by Clarkson is widely regarded as one of the most infamous moments in F1. The 1990 title fight came down to Senna and his arch-rival, Prost, who was then driving for Ferrari. As they approached Turn 1 at the Suzuka Circuit, they made contact, resulting in a retirement for both drivers.
Senna sempre ♾️ pic.twitter.com/eFilq3yOTF
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 3, 2024
Fortunately for Senna, the fact that they both finished with zero points allowed him to become the World Champion that year, albeit controversially.
As Clarkson revealed, Hamilton was deeply moved—and understandably so. He got his hands on a legendary car that has miraculously remained intact over the years, a rarity since components like steering wheels and seats belonging to top drivers are almost always auctioned off individually.
For the seven-time World Champion, it must have been a breath of fresh air to finally experience something truly stimulating and inspirational that weekend. Otherwise, the #44 driver faced a horror show, struggling to tame his own Mercedes F1 car.
Hamilton would choose Senna’s car over the W15
The real extent of Mercedes’ problems was apparent during the race in Sao Paolo. Unlike his teammate George Russell, Hamilton struggled to handle the car, with onboard footage suggesting that he had to fight exceptionally hard just to keep it on the line.
Labeling it as the worst car he has ever driven, Hamilton was in a completely different mood when he buckled himself into Senna’s MP4/5B. “I would race with that car today if I could,” said Hamilton.
That said, Hamilton couldn’t help but express a bit of regret that he couldn’t race in Senna’s car itself. Taking a sly dig at the W15 and his lack of connection with it, he joked that he’d probably enjoy driving a car from the ’90s far more than his own modern GP machine.
After a tough battle having started all the way down from P16 on the grid, Hamilton finished the race in tenth, earning a solitary point.
