Determining who the better driver was in the legendary rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost is difficult. For fans, the advantage always lies with the more favored star. More often than not, that was Senna. But taking nothing away from the Brazilian, Stefan Johansson, a former teammate of both, described Prost as the better title-winner.
Senna was incredibly fast, something Johansson admitted to in a recent interview with Gazzetta. He even labeled the Sao-Paolo-Born as the best talent he had ever seen.
“Ayrton remains the greatest talent seen in F1, he had an impressive ability to push the car to the limit,” said Johansson, recalling his brief two-race stint as Senna’s teammate at Toleman. However, the Swede emphasized Prost’s ability to focus on what mattered more, which was the long game.
“Alain’s advantage was that he understood that you didn’t need to win every battle to win the war. Sometimes it was better to settle than duel with the Brazilian”, Johannson explained.
Senna Prost
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Johansson brought up one of Senna’s famous quotes next — “If you see a gap and don’t try to overtake, you’re not a driver“. But the gap Senna saw was always subjective as he, many a time, also crossed the limits.
“Going beyond the limit is not always the most effective way to collect points,” Johannson further explained. “Prost was not as fast as Ayrton, but he had a greater ability to bring home the titles”.
Senna’s aggression and desire to win was always unmatched. Very few drivers since have had that same ruthless attitude in racing, and Max Verstappen is one of them.
He has been compared to Senna very often because of his desire to do whatever it takes to win races. However, in 2024, when the Dutchman won the crown by maximizing his results with a sub-par car, it became evident that there was a little bit of Prost inside him as well.
Prost was the benchmark
Johansson was teammates with Prost in 1987 and saw up close how calculative the Frenchman was in his approach. The ’80s were when data was not so readily available at the fingertips of engineers, making giving feedback difficult.
The ‘feeling’ a driver had with the car was often the final say, but Prost was very good at it. “He was the point of reference for everyone, he traveled at a higher level in terms of work on the car and with the engineers,” Johannson explained.
“At the beginning, it was hard to keep up, then little by little I began to understand his method, he divided the track into small segments. Learning from him was useful for the rest of my career”.
Prost retired from F1 in 1993 as one of the greatest ever, with four World titles to his name. A year later, his rival Senna tragically lost his life at the San Marino GP in Imola, as a three-time World Champion.
