1988 F1 Season

Of the sixteen races held in 1988, McLaren won fifteen. The only one that got away was Monza, where Gerhard Berger took Ferrari to victory a month after Enzo Ferrari died, and he did so because Ayrton Senna collided with Jean-Louis Schlesser while heading for the win. The Honda-powered MP4/4 was not simply the best car that year: it was something else.

Inside the team, the championship was settled between the two best drivers in the world in identical machinery, which is the only clean way to compare them. Senna won eight races to Prost's seven, and Senna took thirteen poles out of sixteen, a level of one-lap dominance nobody has matched since.

And here is the detail that makes this season unique: adding up every point scored that year, Prost had 105 and Senna 94. The Frenchman outscored him. But the rules of the day counted only each driver's eleven best results, so the official standings finished 90 to 87 in Senna's favour. Prost scored more and lost the title, and it was a first championship for a Brazilian who had been waiting two years for it.