Prost and Senna add Formula One flavour to fledling Formula E series

Two of motorsport’s most iconic names will go head to head on track in the new Formula E electric racing series, adding a vital dose of nostalgia to a brand new championship with no history to call its own.

Bruno Senna, nephew of the late great Ayrton Senna, and Nicolas Prost, son of his on-track nemesis and four-time Formula One world champion Alain, will race each other on track 21-years after their famous ancestors last went head-to-head.

The two have raced against each other in endurance racing before, but it will be the first time they go head-to-head in single-seaters.

They may not be competing in Formula One and the stakes may not be as high, but watching the Senna and Prost names fighting inch for inch for the same bit of tarmac is sure to rekindle memories of one of the most titanic rivalries in sporting history.

“I think you should not live in the past and you know it will probably not be the same, but I think it’s always nice and maybe if the fans like it then it’s good you know,” said 32-year-old Prost during a break in testing at England’s Donington Park circuit, where drivers and teams were preparing their cars ahead of the first race of the series in September.

“It is a different thing, but for sure if we fight together for the lead there will be something you know, so hopefully it will be like this. I will love it,” Prost, who will be driving for the e.DAMS team, added.

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s rivalry was one of the fiercest ever seen in the sporting world. Team-mates at the dominant McLaren team in the late 1980s, the two often had only each other to contend with and each became obsessed with beating the other.

Between them they won 58 of the 96 races and five of the six world championships between 1988, when they first went head to head for the title, and 1993 when Prost retired.

Their on-track feud to definitively prove themselves as better than the other beyond question became all-consuming, spilling over into their off-track lives, and both Bruno and Nicolas remember the rivalry being a part of their childhood.

“Yeah, of course I was aware of it, you know,” said Prost, who was less than ten years old when the rivalry between his father and Ayrton Senna was at its peak. “It was part of every discussion.

“I always say that my dad was no angel and probably his uncle was not an angel either,” he said.

Bruno Senna, driving for India’s Mahindra Racing, also remembers the rivalry being spoken about at home when his uncle would return to Brazil at the end of the season to spend time with the family.

“I was aware of it when I was home, there was always some chatter about it. But I was under ten years old when Ayrton was racing so obviously all the deeper discussions were not with me there, it was just stuff that was going on,” he said.

Though they bear a striking resemblance to Ayrton and Alain, Bruno Senna and Nicolas Prost have had very different careers to their multiple world champion predecessors.

Both started racing late: Prost at the age of 22 while Senna resumed his career – which had been brought to an abrupt halt by Ayrton’s accident in 1994 and his own father’s death in a motorcycle accident in 1996 – after a gap of several years.

Bruno raced in Formula One for two-and-a-half seasons between 2010 and 2012 while Nicolas is on the Lotus team’s rolls as a test driver.

Also in contrast to Alain and Ayrton, whose relationship only started improving once Prost had retired, the two are good friends off track.

Therefore, as exciting as the prospect of watching a Prost battling a Senna may be, it’s unlikely the fight between the two will get anywhere near as fierce as the rivalry shared by their predecessors.

“Me and Nico are friends, we’re not enemies, and as much as we are competitors on the track we have vastly different personalities from our relatives so it’s each person to their own,” Senna said.

“It’s just speculation of people that makes a difference but for us it’s pretty much the same,” he said.

“I think we’re nicer people, both him and I, so I don’t think it will be that bad,” Prost agreed. “I hope we stay friends and it remains quite nice.”

Prost also pointed out that though it was the rivalry between the two that defined their careers, Ayrton and Alain actually started warming up to each other once the latter retired, a fact often left out in the telling of the Senna-Prost story.

“Yes, he was his big nemesis on the track but my dad had a lot of respect for Ayrton and how fast he could drive,” Nicolas said.

“I think to be honest, they had some really bad times… but at the end when everything was over they became really nice and they started to create another relationship.

“I can’t say that they ended up friends because unfortunately they didn’t have the time, but I’m sure they would have ended up friends if Ayrton had not had his accident.”