Although Senna retired from almost half the races in the 1984 season, he never finished lower than seventh, when the car actually reached the chequered flag. The Brazilian had signed a deal with Toleman that meant he would remain with the team until 1986, but when Lotus came knocking, Senna didn’t hesitate to jump ship. From a legal point of view, everything was pretty much in order. However, the timing of the announcements was a bit of a shit-show. Before Lotus triggered the £100,000 release clause to get Senna out of his Toleman contract, the PR department apparently didn’t get the message and announced that Senna would be joining the team in 1985. Toleman was therefore pretty pissed and as a punishment, suspended Senna for the 1984 Italian Grand Prix. I’m sure he didn’t lose a lot of sleep over it though!
When Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and Harald Frentzen fetched pole position together during controversial Grand Prix in 1997
Ananya Bangera 17/08/2022