1991 Canadian Grand Prix

Montréal, June 2: After the first four Grand Prix races of this season, in the USA, Brazil, Italy and Monaco, the domination by the combination of Ayrton Senna, McLaren and Honda with the strong support of Goodyear tyres, Shell fuel and oil and many other branches of the motor racing industry, had the Formula 1 world spellbound. Four pole positions, four race victories, 1st and 2nd at the Imola race, it was all becoming too much domination by one team and some people were ready to give up and start thinking about next year! Fortunately there were some who were not prepared to accept this domination as inevitable, not only drivers, but car designers, engine specialists, fuel companies and even tyre manufacturers. The fact that Gerhard Berger, in an identical car to Senna, could be beaten, and frequently was beaten, gave hope to many, though there were few who were prepared to say how Ayrton Senna was going to be beaten.

Alain Prost seemed to have unwittingly destroyed what morale there was in the Ferrari team, just as he nearly did with the turbo-Renault team and then the McLaren-Honda team, but the only other truly front-running team, Williams-Renault was totally unaffected by the little Frenchman, and were actually encouraged by the fact that Ferrari were opposition that could be dealt with comparatively easily. The Senna/McLaren/Honda combo was something else altogether, but not invincible as far as Patrick Head, the leader of the Williams car-design team, and Bernard Dudot, the leader of the Renault engine design team, were concerned, and these two have been working well together for a long time. A quick look back at the previous four races shows that the Williams FW14 and its Renault V10 power unit could almost match the McLaren MP4/6 with its Honda V12 engine and there was not a lot missing from the efforts of the two Williams drivers. Nigel Mansell we know always gives of his best, and Riccardo Patrese was surprising everyone by his quiet application to the job in hand and lure of possible victory, which was occasionally within sniffing distance.

[caption id="attachment_637416" align="alignnone" width="2000"] The Williams pair lead the field into the first corner[/caption]