No driver has ever won the Monaco Grand Prix as many times as Ayrton Senna did, even 18 years now since his untimely demise. But one of his most famous drives in the headline event came when he narrowly missed taking the checkered flag in the car you see here.
This is the Toleman-Hart TG184 that Senna drove in the Monte Carlo race for the first time in 1984. And it was a controversial race, to say the least.
Beset by heavy rain, the young Brazilian rookie was closing in fast on Alain Prost, shaving three seconds off the Frenchman’s lead each lap. It was a precipitous start to what would become a legendary rivalry. But with only 31 out of 76 laps completed, race director Jacky Ickx (himself a former F1 driver) called the race early, with Prost still in the lead.
Prost slowed down in celebrating before the finish line, letting Senna by in the belief that he had won. But the results had already been tabulated, and Prost was awarded the win. Both Senna and Prost would go on to win the race several times each – the Frenchman an impressive four times in all, Senna a record six.
Even if the race had been allowed to continue, young Ayrton may not have made it to the finish on the heavily damaged suspension. Regardless of the outcome, the car’s long since been restored to its former glory, and is now up for grabs – and not for the first time, either. But this time, it’s going up for auction in Monaco where its place in history was cemented 34 years prior, and where Bonhams will sell it off to the highest bidder this coming May 11.
“The Senna-Prost joust of the late 1980s and early 1990s was one of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time, with two great champions providing F1 fans with some of the most eye-popping and spectacular racing ever witnessed,” notes Bonhams’ motorsport expert Mark Osborne. “We at Bonhams are delighted to present the very car – the 1984 Toleman-Hart TG184 – that triggered this great rivalry, and which provided the opening chapter for Ayrton Senna’s remarkable and record-breaking story at the Monaco Grand Prix.”
