In 1991, Senna became the youngest ever three-time world champion, taking seven wins and increasing his pole position record to 60 from 127 events. Prost, because of the downturn in performance at Ferrari, the likes of which littered the team's history, was no longer a serious competitor. In preseason testing, Senna made public misgivings about the car's competitiveness with the new Honda V12, stating that the engine was not as powerful as the prior year's V10.
Senna won the first four races in Phoenix, Brazil, Imola and Monaco as his rivals struggled to match his pace and reliability. By midseason, Nigel Mansell in the quick Adrian Newey designed Williams-Renault was able to put up a challenge later in the season, having only scored 6 points by the time Senna had 40 points. Before the Mexican Grand Prix, Senna was injured in a jet-skiing accident near São Paulo for which he required stitches on the back of his head. Senna then had an enormous accident during testing at the very fast Hockenheim circuit in Germany where his car flew 15 feet into the air after a tyre failure, and turned over several times upon coming down onto the track.
The car was destroyed and Senna had to spend the night in hospital in nearby Mannheim. But he was able to compete in the German Grand Prix at the forested Hockenheim circuit soon after, but ran out of fuel mere laps before the end. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Senna and Mansell went wheel-to-wheel with only centimetres to spare, at over 320 km/h down the main straight, a race which the Briton eventually won.
In 1992, Senna's determination to win manifested itself in dismay at McLaren's inability to challenge Williams's all-conquering FW14B car. The FW14B, thanks in part to its aerodynamic-enhancing active suspension and powerful Renault V10 engine was much faster than any other car that season. He had to be extricated from the car by circuit doctors wearing a neck brace; although he raced the next day, albeit retiring from the race due to gearbox failure. During qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, French driver Érik Comas crashed heavily and Senna was the first to arrive at the scene.
His actions won universal praise from within Formula One and seemed to soften his hard-nosed image. Senna finished fourth overall in the championship, behind the Williams duo of Mansell and Riccardo Patrese, and Benetton's Michael Schumacher. Hamilton started from pole but lost the lead to title rival Vettel on the first lap after a straight-line high-speed pass. Vettel eventually won the race with Hamilton second and Verstappen completing the podium with third. Also notable was a first-corner crash that saw a lock-up by Hülkenberg send Alonso over the top of Leclerc, while Räikkönen and Ricciardo had their own incident that eventually ended both drivers' races.
Racing Point Force India qualified 3rd and 4th on the grid during qualifying, and finished 5th and 6th in the race. Prost took the 1989 world title after a collision with Senna at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan, the penultimate race of the season, which Senna needed to win to remain in contention for the title. Prost had managed to leave the grid faster than Senna by removing the gurney flap from his car, which was unbeknownst to Senna.
This reduction in aerodynamic downforce made Prost's car faster on the straights, but slower through corners—a clever choice to make it even harder for Senna to pass on a circuit already difficult on which to pass. On lap 46, Senna had finally come next to Prost and attempted a pass on the inside at the tight last chicane. Prost turned right into the upcoming corner, cutting Senna off and tangling wheels with him. The collision caused both McLarens to slide to a standstill into the escape road ahead. Prost abandoned the race at that point, whereas Senna urged marshals for a push-start, which he received, then proceeding with the race after a pit stop to replace the damaged nose on his car. He took the lead from the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini and went on to claim victory, only to be disqualified following a stewards meeting after the race.
Senna was disqualified for receiving a push start, cutting the chicane after the collision with Prost, and for crossing into the pit lane entry which was not part of the track. Senna finished the season second with six wins and one second place. Prost, who could not stand working with Senna in what he felt was a hostile environment, left McLaren for rivals Ferrari for the following year. Prost had burned bridges even with Ron Dennis after a trophy-related incident in Italy. During Saturday qualifying, Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger was killed after the front wing of his Simtek-Ford broke entering the 310 km/h Villeneuve corner, sending the car into the concrete retaining wall at high speed.
Senna immediately visited the accident scene and medical centre. There he was met by FIA Medical Chief Professor Sid Watkins, who suggested to a tearful Senna that he should retire from racing and take up fishing , to which Senna replied that he could not stop racing. Senna was later called in front of the stewards for commandeering an official car and climbing the medical centre fence, and a row ensued, although Senna was not punished. Senna spent his final morning on Sunday talking to former teammate and rival Alain Prost to discuss the re-establishment of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, a driver's union, with the aim of improving safety in Formula One.
Prost had retired from the sport at the end of the 1993 season and was now a media presenter. As the most senior driver in competition, Senna offered to take the role of leader, starting from the next race in Monaco. During the drivers' briefing, concerns had been raised about the mainly promotional use of a Porsche 911 lead car for the warm-up lap, with organizers agreeing to abandon the practice. Senna was partnered in his first year at Lotus-Renault by Italian driver Elio de Angelis.
He had dominated testing times at Rio, although he retired with electrical issues during the race weekend. At the second round of the season, the Portuguese Grand Prix, Senna took the first pole position of his Formula 1 career. He converted it into his first victory in the race, which was held in very wet conditions, winning by over a minute from Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari and lapping everyone up to and including 3rd placed Patrick Tambay. The race was the first 'Grand Slam' of Senna's career, as he also set the fastest lap of the race. He would later argue it was the best drive of his career, an opinion shared by race engineer Steve Hallam, who recognised Senna's "truly special" talent. One notable incident of the year was at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Senna outqualified Prost by 1.4 seconds and led for most of the race before crashing on lap 67.
Instead of returning to the pit lane, Senna was so distressed by his own mistake that he went back to his apartment and did not contact the team until he walked into the pit garage as they were packing up later that night. After team manager Jo Ramirez called him through his Monaco apartment's cleaner hours after he had crashed, Senna was still devastated by his own mistake. At the Portuguese Grand Prix, Prost made a slightly faster start than Senna, but the Brazilian, as he would a number of times- dived into the fast first corner ahead. Prost responded and went to pass Senna at the end of the first lap.
Senna swerved to block Prost, forcing the Frenchman to nearly run into the pit wall at 290 km/h . Prost kept his foot down and soon edged Senna into the first corner and started pulling away. Prost, normally a calm individual was angered by Senna's manoeuvre, and the Brazilian got away with a warning from the FIA. At the post-race team debrief, Prost voiced his anger at the move which prompted Senna to apologize to Prost for the incident.
Ultimately, the pair won 15 of 16 races in the dominant McLaren MP4/4 in 1988 with Senna coming out on top, winning his first Formula One world championship title by taking eight wins to Prost's seven. Prost scored more points over the season, but had to drop three-second places as only the 11 best scores counted, meaning that Senna bested Prost by 3 points. The high-speed sport is physically demanding; drivers lose weight after their race predominantly because of sweat. A typical Grand Prix race exposes a driver to very high temperatures, excluding the environmental conditions. Because of this, temperatures can hit 50 degrees for the driver.
De Angelis was replaced at Lotus by Scotland's Johnny Dumfries after Senna vetoed Derek Warwick from joining the team, saying that Lotus could not run competitive cars for two top drivers at the same time. The 1986 F1 cars were the most powerful cars in history, with Senna's 98T producing over 1,300 bhp (969 kW; 1,318 PS) in qualifying and 850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS) in the race. Trainers are responsible for creating some of the peculiar-looking exercises that are sometimes pictured on social media, and more often than not these are exercises designed to strengthen a driver's neck muscles. Lots use resistance bands to mimic the forces experienced in high-speed corners, while others use weighted helmets to perform reps and build muscle mass. Capable of shifting up to 40kg with their neck muscles alone, F1 drivers are thought to have the strongest necks in motorsport.
As it turns out, F1 drivers need to stay in peak physical shape, as driving these incredible cars at such breakneck speeds pushes their body to limits that go beyond some professional sports. It is for the safety of the drivers that this time restriction is strictly enforced. The minimum weight of the chassis was raised to 734 kg (1,618.2 lb), in order to accommodate the additional weight of the halo. The mandatory crash tests that each chassis must pass were adjusted to include a new static load test.
In order to simulate a serious accident, a tyre was mounted to a hydraulic ram and fired at the crash structure; to pass the test, the chassis and the mounting points for the halo had to remain intact. The technical regulations were updated mid-season to allow teams to mount rear view mirrors to the halo instead of affixing them to the bodywork. At the start of the Grand Prix, Senna retained the lead from his chief rival Michael Schumacher, but proceedings were soon interrupted by a startline accident.
JJ Lehto's Benetton-Ford stalled and was hit by the Lotus-Mugen Honda of Pedro Lamy. A wheel and debris landed in the main grandstand, injuring eight fans and a police officer. The safety car, a sporty version of the Opel Vectra medium family saloon, was deployed for several laps. However, the Vectra's lack of speed proved detrimental to the racers, as the slower pace allowed the tyres of the Formula One cars to cool, thus decreasing their pressure. Senna pulled alongside the Vectra and gestured to the driver, Max Angelelli, to increase his speed.
On lap 6, the race resumed and Senna immediately set a quick pace, completing the third-fastest lap of the race, followed by Schumacher. Senna was recognised for his qualifying speed over one lap, and from 1989 until 2006 he held the record for most pole positions. He was also acclaimed for his wet weather performances, such as the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, and the 1993 European Grand Prix. He holds a record six victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, is the fifth-most successful driver of all time in terms of race wins and has won more races for McLaren than any other driver.
Why Are F1 Drivers So Skinny Senna courted controversy throughout his career, particularly during his turbulent rivalry with Prost. In the Japanese Grands Prix of 1989 and 1990, each of which decided the championship of that year, collisions between Senna and Prost determined the eventual winner. The driver has to endure the heat generated by the engine and the power unit for two hours. As most races are held in the afternoons, the blazing sun heats the tarmac. As the cockpit of an F1 car is open the F1 driver will feel the direct heat of the sum. Add to that the driver's fire-proof suit and his helmet, if this was not enough, he has to put up with heavy G-forces and drive in dirty air.
At the end of each session, the FIA checks if the car made the minimum weight as mandated. Problems arise for the teams because a driver can lose over 4 kg per race because of the loss of fluids from their bodies. Before the race, teams will often instruct drivers to drink large amounts of water. This is to make sure they don't get dehydrated, as it could lead to rapid weight loss. According to the 2021 Formula 1 Regulations, Article 4.6.2, "... at no time during the event, must this [driver weight+ballast weight] be less than 80 kg." Thus, they need to weigh the car and the driver separately. There are a lot of things going on at any one time in an F1 car and the driver must be fully tuned in to fully make the car perform.
He has the digital displays on his wheel showing everything he needs to see from the cockpit. He is thinking about racing lines, braking points, apexes and acceleration points on the track. He has his team in his ears constantly relaying times, positions, strategies, speeds, sector times and instructions. He is using his trained mind to help reduce heart rates via mental concentration and all of this at 200 mph in over 40 C, when all you want is a nice cold beer. When steering a racecar, drivers are under tremendous pressure. A driver's pulse rate varies from 160 to 200 beats per minute during a race and can reach as high as 220 bpm in peak load conditions.
During braking and acceleration, the weight of a driver's head and helmet increases five-times. A driver feels an overload of 5 g, so the seat's downforce is equal to 400 kg. To put this into perspective, astronauts experience up to 3 to 4 g during a launch, a parachute diver landing at 6 mps feels 1.8 g, and an airplane passenger feels 1.5 g while taking off. In the event that a race is suspended due to a red flag, it would be restarted with a standing start. Drivers would return to the starting grid in the positions they held at the time of the suspension and the race director would repeat the race start procedure.
Given this scenario, Senna secured an IndyCar testing session with the support of compatriot and Penske driver, Emerson Fittipaldi. In December 1992, in fact, Senna visited Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona near Phoenix in the United States to test a 1992 Penske PC-21 CART Indianapolis car. To familiarise himself, Senna initially ran 14 relatively slow laps before completing a further 10 laps on the same tyres and setting a best time of 49.09 seconds. By comparison, Fittipaldi had set a best time of 49.70 seconds, which he later improved to 48.5 seconds, only by using the new 1993 Penske PC-22 at his disposal during this test session.
The following year, the rivalry between Senna and Prost intensified into numerous battles on the track and a psychological war off it. Some controversy also arose after the French GP press conference when Ron Dennis declared that they found consistent differences between the Honda engines from Prost and Senna in the detriment of Prost. A discussion between the two drivers and Dennis during a test session at the Pembrey circuit in Wales effectively confirmed to Dennis and the team of Senna and Prost's personal animosity.
Senna took an early lead in the championship with victories in San Marino, Monaco, and Mexico. Senna also achieved the feat of leading every lap of those races which was not equalled until Sebastian Vettel in 2012. However, unreliability in four consecutive races in Phoenix, Canada, France and Britain, and further unreliability in Italy, together with collisions in Brazil and Portugal, swung the title in Prost's favour. When it comes to the question on how do F1 drivers lose weight, there is actually a lot that they should know about the whole process. For instance, they should know that not all Formula 1 teams allows their drivers to drink water prior to the race.
Most of them, including some of the big spenders like Ferrari and Mercedes allow their drivers to drink water in the pit area, and if they need to eat food, they can eat as much as they want during the break. Of course, drinking water is important because it helps flush the body out, but eating food is also beneficial, especially for those drivers who are leading a very long race. But though the minimum weight of the new breed of cars rose from 642kg to 690kg for 2014, little allowance has been made for the drivers themselves. More weight means less speed in a sport where advantage was yesterday measured as finely as 0.035sec between fastest man Nico Rosberg and closest challenger Kimi Raikkonen and where the top 11 drivers were bracketed by a second. On the 5.543km Sepang International Circuit every extra 10kg can add three- or four-tenths of a second to the lap time.
Force India were placed into administration on 27 July 2018, during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. After speculation of a purchase, any sale of the team in a short time-span was complicated by legal proceedings against certain shareholders and the need for debt settlement. A consortium led by Lawrence Stroll purchased the racing assets and operations of Force India through a company named Racing Point UK Ltd. The original team, known as "Sahara Force India", was then excluded from the Constructors' Championship on the grounds of their inability to participate in remaining races. This allowed a new team known as "Racing Point Force India" to apply for a late entry and start their participation in the championship from the Belgian Grand Prix.
The new team began with zero points in the Constructors' Championship, though their drivers retained the points they had scored in the Drivers' Championship. The other teams later agreed to allow the Racing Point Force India team to retain prize money accrued by Sahara Force India in the preceding years. For 1993, attempts were made by McLaren boss Ron Dennis to secure a supply of the dominant Renault V10 engines that Williams had found great success with. However, despite Senna going so far as to be willing to forfeit his annual salary just to drive one of Williams' Renaults, this too would fail. The only way to remove a racing driver's weight from the equation is to stipulate a minimum weight for both car and driver. NASCAR Cup Series cars have to weigh at least 3200lb without a driver and fuel, as well as 3400lb with those two elements included.
That means teams have to add ballast to make up any shortfall and, while that negates any weight advantage for lighter drivers, that ballast can be moved around the car to improve balance and overall performance. So, even when weight is equalised, there are still gains to be made by being as lean as possible. The cornering forces are equally brutal, with some tracks causing drivers to experience six times their own body weight for brief periods, and between 4-5G in sustained turns. They devote most of their time to their physical and mental fitness. They do this because they know that they will have to be at the peak of fitness for the racing season. Once the season begins, a lot of time is spent travelling to and from each venue, making training and recovery of paramount performance.
