The MP4/4 won 15 of 16 races in 1988. The Senna-Prost rivalry that powered McLaren's Constructors' Championships became, four decades later, the reference point every other teammate dynamic gets compared to. Suzuka 1989, Suzuka 1990 and the long Brazilian-French paddock cold war between them rebuilt how Formula 1 understood the inside of its own teams.
What's easy to forget now is that the era was driven primarily by Honda's V6 turbo engine — the most dominant power unit of its kind ever produced — and by McLaren's chassis discipline under Ron Dennis and John Barnard's successor Steve Nichols. Senna and Prost were the surface; the architecture beneath them was everything.
1988: 15 wins, one defeat
The MP4/4 was the last car of the V6 turbo era and the most successful single-season McLaren chassis ever built. Designed in just six months after Steve Nichols took over from John Barnard, it paired the Honda RA168E (~640 horsepower in race trim, more in qualifying with the boost turned up) with a chassis built tighter and stiffer than anything else on the grid.
The single defeat came at Monza, where Senna's car suffered an engine failure — and even then, the McLarens led until that moment. Prost won seven races, Senna eight, and Senna took the title 90 points to 87 under the system that counted only the best 11 of 16 results.
Suzuka 1989, Suzuka 1990
By 1989 the Senna-Prost relationship had broken down completely. The cars were now naturally-aspirated 3.5-litre V10s after the FIA's ban on turbos; the chassis was the MP4/5, less dominant than its predecessor but still the class of the field. The championship came down to the penultimate race of the year at Suzuka — and to the chicane on lap 47 where Prost closed the door on Senna's overtaking move and the two cars ended up locked together in the run-off. Prost retired immediately. Senna restarted, won the race, was disqualified for cutting the chicane on rejoin, and lost the title in the stewards' room.
One year later, almost the same circuit, the same corner. Senna in pole, Prost on the front row. At the start, Senna drove straight into the side of Prost's Ferrari at the first corner. Both retired; Senna took the title at the very moment of impact. He explained the manoeuvre in a press conference 12 months later as a deliberate response to a 1989 grid-position grievance. The candour wasn't well received.
1991 and the end
Williams-Renault arrived at the front in 1991 with the FW14 and active suspension; McLaren's MP4/6 with the new Honda V12 was still the title-winning combination, but the gap to second place had collapsed. Senna won his third title that year, then McLaren entered an aero-dependent era they were not best placed to win. By 1993 Williams was a clear class above; in 1994 Senna left for Williams and the era was definitively over.
The McLaren-Honda partnership ended after 1992. Honda would not return to F1 as a power-unit supplier until 2015 — and that re-entry, with Honda back at McLaren, did not go well.
What it left behind
Senna's three world titles and 41 wins, all with McLaren, established him as the modern era's most-mythologised driver. Prost's four titles (one Williams, three McLaren) gave him the highest career win-rate of any multi-champion until Hamilton.
More than the records, the cultural footprint is what endures. Suzuka 1990 made the precedent that intentional contact between championship contenders is a tactic, not just an outcome — a precedent the FIA has been re-litigating ever since (Spa 1998, Jerez 1997, Brazil 2008, Abu Dhabi 2010, on and on).
Other eras
- Ferrari · Schumacher · 2000–2004(2000–2004)
- Mercedes hybrid era · 2014–2021(2014–2021)