marilinhazz

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hey ferrari your horses aren’t looking too good

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for my friend

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练习

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A young Ayrton Senna in Macau, 1983

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[Alain Prost] has always remained excellent friends with Niki Lauda whom he considers to have been his mentor. Niki had a certain way to go about life, to talk to people, to kiss the hand of the princess of Monaco when he won the races and so on, and he used to say: "That little Frenchman is always looking at me, he's scrutinizing me!". And Alain was learning! How world champions, how great men act. [...] Alain was like that, he was learning all the time. [...] And did Niki Lauda enjoy helping Alain grow, occupying that role of a big brother of sorts? Absolutely! This is why I say he was his mentor. In official dinners, Niki would always precede Alain. He was the leader. And the Prost-Lauda battle, that must have been something! A story I love about the two of them happened in 1985. Niki had beaten Alain by half a point in the 1984 world championship. On that podium Alain was very happy, he'd gotten out of the "Renault hell" as he says and he had lived an extraordinary period... Come 1985: the only time Niki and Alain fought directly on the track was at the Dutch Grand Prix, and Niki didn't let Alain past. Alain tried everything, but Lauda... ...reminded him who was the boss! Something like that, yeah! And at the end, we were all thinking, that's it, [they're not going to speak to each other anymore]. Not at all! They were sitting there, the both of them, laughing about their antics while Niki smoked a cigarette. Niki, who had told Alain, "When you win Grand Prix, go to a night club and have a whiskey". Don't do it at home!

Jean-Louis Moncet, interviewed here (51:50-54-11)

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Adriane Galisteu and Alain Prost at Ayrton's funeral, 1994

"Prost, anyone who follows Formula 1 knows, was a fierce rival of Ayrton on the track. They had one of those rivalries. They would fight, overtake each other, always kind of arguing, not physically, but there was this “you are my rival” thing. On and off the track as well. I remember once I was walking into a restaurant with him, and Prost was there; he turned around and left. Without causing a scene. They didn’t spend much time together, but Prost was one of the people who carried his coffin. I have this photo with a lot of love. He was distraught. It was on the day of Ayrton’s funeral that I got to know Prost a little better; I could notice the same genius. He had a human side, and in the last months before the accident, he got closer to Ayrton. It’s something few people know. They started talking on the phone because Prost was racing for Williams. And Ayrton took Prost’s place. So, in some way, they ended up talking. They didn’t become friends, but they did things they hadn’t done their whole lives. In the last three months (before Ayrton’s death), they ended up getting very close."

- Adriane Galisteu.

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sauber sideplot:

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He's not even listening, he's just staring...

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One of my fave moments from the 90s season 🇵🇹

So, everybody knows that in 1990, things between Nigel and Alain were a total mess, right? Nigel was SUPER pissed at the way Alain showed up at Ferrari acting like he was already the number one driver (something he still denies to this day), plus all the favoritism Ferrari gave him. And Alain kept brushing it off like Nigel was just “jealous” of him.

So Nigel basically ditched the friendship and switched sides to join Ayrton’s “BFF squad.” And then comes the best part: the Portuguese GP.

At the start, Nigel—who didn’t owe Ferrari a damn thing anymore (since Alain had just arrived and Nigel had already asked to leave mid-season)—went absolutely wild on Alain, almost shoved him into the wall, and left the door wide open for Ayrton and Berger, aka the Emily & Clifford of F1, to sneak past.

That year it was all about Ayrton vs. Alain in the points, so teammates were supposed to help their guys… but I guess nobody sent that memo to Nigel.

The race was pure chaos. Prost dropped to 5th after the start, got overtaken by Nelson Piquet, and it took him 13 laps to finally pass Nelson and line up behind the BFF trio: Ayrton P1, Berger P2, Nigel P3.

Then came pit stops for those four, and who got screwed? Our Austrian golden retriever, Berger, who came back behind Nigel in 3rd.

The Lion then went after the Cheetah to try and pass him. But this time, the cheetah wasn’t up for another fight like last year—so he didn’t resist that much and just let him go. Bad move though, ‘cause our golden retriever couldn’t hold back the Angry French Frog and lost his spot. Now the frog was coming full rage mode at the big cats.

But Alex Caffi, unfortunately, crashed into the guard rail, so the medical car had to come in. The situation ended up helping the cats this time. Red flag on lap 62. The race ended 9 laps early, with the classification rolled back: Mansell P1, ProSenna right after.

Great win for the cats (Nigel scoring a farewell victory with Ferrari, Ayrton stretching the points gap), but a nightmare ending for the frog, who was absolutely FUMING at everyone.

And then came the podium everyone knows—basically like this:

Nigel all 🫂 with Ayrton, and Alain just got the cold 🤝

And of course, you think the little frog just let it slide? Nope. Our “say-what-I-think” frog grabbed the mic and went off, saying exactly what he thought.

"Ferrari doesn’t deserve the world championship. What happened between Nigel and me is unacceptable. I thought I could count on my teammate in this battle. That’s what he told me. I lost the championship, although mathematically I can still win it. After all the enormous work done this year, we weren’t able to make important decisions. Who else needs the title? Ferrari, not me. I give up! I won’t participate in the next tire tests in Fiorano next week. Since Ferrari wants two tied drivers, well, let Mansell go after me! Until now, I’ve done twice as many tests as him. And now I will reconsider my position within the team for next year."

(my baby pookie, has no one ever told you that if this happens to you a second time (hi Arnoux), then it MAYBE means that YOU are the problem??)

anyway BUT for the cats, the frog’s disappointment was pure joy for them

"It was the worst start of my life, it was a slip," claimed Mansell, who still wanted to leave the past conflicts with Senna buried, including the 1989 crash.

"Yesterday he told me not to worry, because he wouldn’t do anything to harm me. That made me feel calmer and very happy. There is peace now. All of that is buried," the Brazilian commented.

the eenndd

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waiter! More rpf doomed yuri

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Alain Prost for a Brazilian interview on Esporte Espetacular, 2007.

Can the rivalry between you and Senna at McLaren be compared to the battle between Hamilton and Alonso?

"It's very hard to compare when you're not inside the team. What I can say is that I had the same feeling that, obviously, Ron Dennis was closer to Ayrton, and Honda was closer to Ayrton as well, and for me, that was very hard to accept. The psychological side of a driver is very important — you need the support of your team — and maybe Alonso feels the same way. Ron Dennis is a fantastic man, a fantastic team principal, but when it comes to drivers, I don’t think he does it on purpose, but he always gives the best to just one driver. He did that with Ayrton and me, giving the advantages to Ayrton, but that’s not great — it’s not easy for the one being overlooked."

Why do you consider the 1986 championship your most memorable title?

"On one side, there was Nelson Piquet and Mansell with Williams, and I was with McLaren. Throughout the whole season, we were behind, but we always believed we had to keep fighting until the end. They were splitting the victories, splitting the points between the two of them, and creating a very bad atmosphere within their team. They fought so much that, at times, they lost focus, stopped being rational. They forgot about me — forgot that I could still win the championship even with a car that was so poor in terms of performance. And today we have a very similar situation: there's Alonso and Hamilton like that, and there's also Raikkonen, who has nothing to lose and maybe he can win the championship."

You have a son who is a racing driver — do you help him in his career? "I'm not helping him much in the beginning because I want him to do things on his own. He's already shown me that he's very passionate about it, and he's doing very well — I'm very proud. I don't know if talent is genetic, but at least he has the same curiosity, the same professionalism, and that's very good."

Is technology more important than the driver today? "The job is still to drive fast. In the past, having a good team and a good car demanded a lot from the driver. He had to set up the car, be careful, sometimes not drive too aggressively to save tires and fuel. As a spectacle, I prefer what we had in the past — and I’m sure the viewers do too."

What memories do you have of Brazil? "Honestly, I’ve always had good memories of Brazil. There was just one really bad moment — maybe I’ll start with that, haha. My worst memory is from 1993, when I was leading the race and a storm hit. I was planning to stop and change tires, and then I received a very unclear message on the radio. I didn’t understand it properly — I thought my team was telling me not to go into the pits. In fact, they were telling me to be very careful because there was a lot of water at the pit entry, but I thought it was a message to stay out for one more lap. Then I spun the car — that was my worst memory in Brazil. I enjoyed going to Brazil, especially to Rio, which was the first race of the season. It was a tough circuit because of the layout and the temperature. You’d come straight from the European winter into really hot conditions — the kind of heat that made it extremely tough inside the car — so physically it was very demanding, and I always loved that kind of race. It was the kind of race where you couldn’t start at 100% and stay that way until the end. You had to manage yourself, manage the car — and I always loved that."

Have you ever felt hostility from the Brazilians? "When I started, there was Nelson Piquet and, in the next generation, Ayrton Senna. I never felt any aggression, never felt bad — I always felt the enthusiasm of the people for Nelson, then for Ayrton, but never any aggression towards me. Honestly... I felt much more hostility when I was battling Ayrton in France. They were cheering for him in my own country. I’ve always been to Brazil and never had bodyguards; many times I walked around alone and never felt afraid. I’ve always found Brazilians to be very respectful."

How did you deal with Senna's death? "I wanted to come to Brazil for the funeral, but I didn’t know if I would be welcomed by the family or the fans. I didn’t want to offend anyone. When Ayrton died, it was, in a way, the end of my story in F1. We made history together — I think I was, more or less, like an idol to him. But he wanted to beat me, he really wanted to beat me and destroy me; that was his motivation. When he died, everyone came to talk to me, and that was very impressive. No one can talk about Ayrton without mentioning my name, and about me without talking about Ayrton."

What memories do you have of Ayrton? "The bad moments I went through were with him on the track, some dangerous moments where I thought he had gone too far. But that’s our history. Two or three months before his accident, I think I got to know the real Ayrton."

Is it true that you spoke to Senna on the day he died? "It was an unbelievable moment — not just on the day of the accident, but also in the days before. In all those years fighting in F1, we almost never spoke on the phone, but in the last two or three months, he started calling me. He talked about his motivation, said he wasn’t happy with his car, wasn’t happy with the team. He was convinced that Benetton and Schumacher were cheating, using illegal electronic aids. So he was very upset about that, and he asked me two or three times if I wanted to join a safety committee at the Drivers’ Association. We spoke on the phone for quite a while, about a week before he died. When I arrived in Imola on Friday to commentate the race for a French TV channel, we had our first conversation about safety. Then on Saturday, after Ratzenberger’s accident, he wasn’t the same Ayrton I knew — he was really concerned. On Sunday, at lunchtime just before the race, I was with the TV crew when he walked in. No driver ever does that — they usually want to be alone, focused — but he came in, walked among the people, and came to talk to me. It wasn’t anything important. Everyone just stood there in silence. It felt like he just wanted to be near me, and I sensed that as a sign of vulnerability. It was the first time I saw him like that.

He was always so strong — when we were rivals, he would always do small things to show me he was stronger, which is normal, part of the game. But that day, I thought: "This isn’t Ayrton." He spent five or ten minutes talking to me about nothing, and then went back to the garage. So I quickly finished lunch and went to see him. I entered the garage and he was getting ready for the race, alone. I spoke with him for two or three minutes, asked what he was expecting from the race. He told me he wasn’t very confident. He talked about the competition, about the suspicions of cheating, and a bit more about safety. But I could tell he was happy that I had come to see him. That was the last time I spoke to him. And I really felt bad for him, because I had never seen him like that. I was certain he wouldn’t be champion that year — even if he fought hard in the car, I felt like he was depressed. But for me, as a person, I’ll always remember that day — that morning when he said to everyone at the TV: 'Alain, I miss you.'

He had said those words to me a few times on the phone before, when he explained how he couldn’t find the motivation to race against Michael and the others. He used to say: 'Please come back!' and I would laugh and say: 'Okay, I’ll come back in a bad car so you can beat me, right?' And he’d say: 'Yes — but I need you.' It was truly unbelievable. A beautiful story — but with a sad ending."

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Eu penso assim

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This has been a topic in one of my discord groups today and I’m so curious what everyone’s approach is as a writer.

Writing linearly means starting at the beginning of the story and writing each scene in chronological order from beginning to end.

Writing non-linearly means you might start midway through the story and write the beginning later, or you might write scenes at random and join them up later, or you add in placeholders as you write to go back to later (like “add action scene here”).

Outlining means coming up with a sequence of plot points to guide the story - i.e. planning/mapping out what the main story beats will be throughout it.

Personally I’m a linear writer, and I don’t outline. I have a loose idea of where the story is going to go, but that’s it. And I can’t skip scenes or use placeholder text — my brain starts shrieking at me lmao.

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VINTAGE FORMULA 1 AESTHETIC: FROM A TIME LONG BEFORE COMPUTERS...