1991 F1 Season

Of the three championships Senna won, this is the one that gets told the least and the one that suits him best, because it is the only one where the car handed him nothing. McLaren took the constructors' title with 139 points and Williams scored 125: fourteen points apart across a whole season, which back then was as good as a tie.

With the two cars that close, the difference came on Saturdays and in the first half of the calendar. Senna finished with seven wins and eight poles against Nigel Mansell's five victories, and closed the championship 96 to 72. The constructors' figure says the machinery was good enough to fight with; the drivers' figure says who fought better.

It is, in fact, the strongest argument Senna has in the endless debate about whether he won because of the car. In 1988 and 1990 you can point at the McLaren. In 1991 his rival had one that was practically as good, and the gap still came out at twenty four points.