Lewis Hamilton has often cited his respect for Ayrton Senna as a man and a racing driver. With that in mind, it's interesting to make a comparison between events in Malaysia last Sunday and those following the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix.
In a race run under atrocious conditions (it would have been stopped today or, at the very least, run under a Safety Car when the teeming rain was at its worst), Senna had given us an absolutely exquisite display, running slicks for many laps at a time when others could not manage on full wets. Nineteen (19!) of the 26 starters did not make it to the finish, several of them finishing in the wall.
Senna's performance that day ranked among the best of many in a spectacular career and merited the victory coming his way as he completed lap 66 with three to go. Then, without warning, his Honda V10 failed in a cloud of smoke similar to the moment of Hamilton's demise last weekend. Senna pulled over to the left, parked the McLaren on the grass, climbed out and walked away without so much as a backward glance.
I have to tell you that not only did the press room cheer, but one or two of our more excitable North American cousins jumped to their feet and applauded. To be fair, this was not so much a dislike of Senna as a reflection of weariness with McLaren's consistent success, 1989 coming off the back of total domination the previous year. It was also the first time that neither McLaren finished in 1989, Alain Prost having stopped with broken suspension earlier in the race.
Senna pushed through a phalanx of photographers assembling at the end of the pit lane in preparation for the finish of the race and made his way briskly to the McLaren office. He spoke to no one, but his thoughts could be imagined.
This was Senna's second retirement in a row (an electrical misfire having cost the lead in Phoenix two weeks before). Now, a golden opportunity to gain nine points (awarded for first place) had literally gone up in smoke and left Senna two points behind Prost in the championship.
It would get worse. At the next race in France, Senna's differential broke as he accelerated off the line, the race being won by Prost, a result the Frenchman would repeat at Silverstone on a day when a sizeable number in the crowd cheered as Senna, struggling with his brakes, spun out of the lead and into the gravel at Becketts. Prost now led by 20 points.
Even allowing for a complicated scoring system in which a driver could count only his best 11 results (from 16 races), Senna would never get back in front. But at no time did he complain. Or, at least, not to the media.
You can be sure, however, that Osamu Goto would have received an earful in Montreal as Ayrton let Honda's project leader know about his views on the failure. But there was not a word of dissention reported in either the specialist or national press during the following weeks.
In fact, the only complaints in public would come from Prost once he had decided to leave McLaren for Ferrari in 1990 and let it be known that, in his view, Senna was receiving priority treatment from Honda. Which is an interesting twist on today's stupid suggestion that Mercedes is somehow out to knobble Lewis.