The latest episode of our Bring Back V10s classic F1 podcast revisits two crazy weeks either side of the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix.
The F1 driver market was in full swing at this time, with Ayrton Senna’s Williams deal pushing Alain Prost into (paid) retirement, Bernie Ecclestone trying and failing to get newly-crowned Indycar champion Nigel Mansell back on the F1 grid, and McLaren dumping Michael Andretti and trying to sign Michael Schumacher for 1994!
On track at Estoril, Mika Hakkinen made a memorable debut for McLaren in Andretti’s place by outqualifying Senna, Jean Alesi sensationally took the lead in the difficult Ferrari F93A, and Schumacher used clever strategy to defeat Prost in a battle to the flag, on the day the Frenchman claimed his fourth world title.
Ex-F1 driver and Sky Sports F1 expert Karun Chandhok joins Glenn Freeman and Edd Straw to look back at a remarkable couple of weeks, as it was after this race that Jos Verstappen made an impressive F1 test debut with Footwork that started a chase for his services, and McLaren tested with a Lamborghini engine before upsetting Chrysler by deciding to pair up with Peugeot for 1994.
You can listen to the episode below, or find it on your favourite podcast platform – including Apple Podcasts and Spotify – by searching for ‘Bring Back V10s – Classic F1 stories’.
