An unrepeatable podium in F1: Senna, Prost and Schumacher

It was a day like today 29 years ago. Formula 1 landed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for its fifth round of the 1993 season, as it will do in two weekends.

Ayrton Senna (McLaren) arrived at Montmeló in his 10th year in the category. The Brazilian had won two of the four races so far and his second place finish in South Africa saw him arrive two points clear of an Alain Prost (Williams) with whom he had battled beyond the limit in the late 1980s-early 1980s. the 90s.

On the qualifying day, the Frenchman from the Grove team set the fastest time, which meant that he started from first position on Sunday. The 1:17.809 was enough for him to overtake his teammate Damon Hill and get what was the fifth of the 13 pole positions of that year 1993, which is still the fifth best streak in history in a single season.

Although at the start Damon Hill overtook Prost ahead of Senna and Michael Schumacher (Benetton), on lap 11, after both Williams FW15Cs – the rival to beat that year – escaped, the then three-time French world champion overtook to the British.

Thirty laps later and with Hill putting pressure on his teammate, whose car had begun to behave strangely, the Briton’s engine said enough. Prost won with a 16-second advantage over Senna and Schumacher, who had come to put pressure on the Brazilian, but who had to settle for the third step of the podium after going off in a sand escape.

At that time, the three protagonists of a single podium “only” added up to six world championships. Today, there are 14. Legends of Formula 1.

We would have liked to have seen more duels between unrivaled champions in this category, but Prost’s retirement at the end of that year and Senna’s untimely death at Imola the following campaign left us wanting to know what would have happened.