When F1 Drivers Raced the SAME CARS (And SENNA Won)

I think this should be a thing in every season in f1, everyone gets the same car, same tires no pitstops

lauda climbing to 2nd sounds pretty impressive as well

One thing that Scott didn't mention but you can read on Senna's biography written by Christopher Hilton: Senna was so committed to win this race that once he discovered what car model would be used, he rented a similar enough Mercedes model and drove it with a friend to a "practice" trip. It is said that it was enough to make Senna understand how the suspension worked, then on the race day he just had to make the adjustments necessary because of the car modifications.

Peak Senna and peak Schumacher in identical machinery would have been amazing, especially having the two rain masters together in a wet race.

My friend told me about this funny race a few days ago😂 Prost the young driver was on pole in this "obviously just for fun race", but was soon pushed off the track by a e~ven younger driver. "Race for fun? No, I race for the win." His name is Aryton Senna.

Some back stories from this race. Alan Jones led the first few laps but his car died and gave Senna the lead. James Hunt kept cutting the first corners just because he wanted to. John Surtees liked his car so much he took the race smoothly as he wanted to keep it. The driver he refers to at 9:39 is Jody Sheckter who set the fastest lap. Although he did not race Juan Manuel Fangio did still attend this event and even demonstrated his 1955 Mercedes W196. The reason for the first two laps being missed was due to the President of the region of Germany delivering a prolonged speech.

Lauda climbing from 14th to 2nd place, without practice, past his prime, sounds way more impressive to me.

This was an epic event. I wish stuff like this happened now but it would never be allowed

The story with the barrier moving 5mm causing him to crash gave me goosebumps

I think nowdays Top Gear's "Reasonably priced car" was the only opportunity to see F1 drivers driving the same car.

I used to work for Daimler and probably one of the most amazing experiences was to visit our classic collection which includes Ayrton's 190 from this race.... Still have the photos of me sitting in it!

If I remember correctly, the people at Mercedes where disappointed that Senna won, because they hoped that a big name would win so they could show off the car at shows etc. In hind sight, Senna was the best winner we could imagined. This may also be the reason why both cars of Senna and Lauda where preserved, because Lauda was one of the big names they wanted and came in second. I never get tired of seeing this footage

I've always considered Lauda's performance during that race to be incredible. Top driver.

That same year, a few months before, I witnessed a bit of "F1 history" for I was standing 2 meters from Senna's Toleman at the pits in the now defunct Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio for the 1984 tyre tests done in January, when he engaged first hear and left the pit for his very first F1 drive in Brazil. Coincidentally Emerson Fittipaldi was also there, for his last F1 drive, in a weird car with a Mickey Mouse livery. I also withessed a bit of history with Fittipaldi, for I saw when he did his very first lap in a F1 car in Brazil on a Lotus 72 in the non championship race at Interlagos in 1972. It was amazing that he was driving the fastest and most advanced F1 of the time in "his" circuit, where only a few years before he had been racing adapted road cars.

SENNA was a true legend.

Senna was a Unique Pilot, he was ahead of his time for sure.

In the 90's and early 00's, the drivers would get together for karting events.

They did several multi-race seasons of the Procar championship in '79 and '80 where they used BMW M1 cars. Lauda won the first season and Nelson Piquet won the second.

Nice video Scott. But those 190E’s weren’t any ordinary 190E’s, they were the special 190E 2.3-16v cars, engines Mercedes developed in partnership with Cosworth. This was the car Mercedes developed to take the fight to BMW’s mighty M3 in the German DTM Championship. So these were very special 190E’s and prices of these cars today highlight that. A Mercedes 190E Cosworth back in the day was basically a Super Saloon. 😎

The organizers were thinking how cool it would be for someone like Lauda to win and for them to put his car to the museum. Imagine the bummer when they saw that the museum car would bear the name of a Brazilian that nobody knew.