Todt: “Senna wanted to come to Ferrari in 1994. I wanted to bring him in 1995”

Senna in Ferrari, a marriage that never happened Ayrton Senna always declared that one of his dreams was to drive Ferrari. A dream extinguished first by the sudden changes in direction of the market and then by fate. The Brazilian champion should have worn red in 1991 (desired very strongly by Cesare Fiorio, he even signed a pre-contract) but at least one other time he was very close to moving to the Scuderia: in 1993, in fact, he met Jean Todt – who had just been chosen by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo as Ferrari general director – to agree on the transfer. Senna would have wanted to drive Ferrari already in 1994, but Todt wanted to respect the contracts of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger, focusing on the Brazilian ace for 1995. The three-time world champion therefore went to Williams: in the FW16, an unstable car with a very narrow cockpit (to the point of stating “If I eat a sandwich I will never fit in this car again”), Senna unfortunately met his death on the tragic weekend in Imola. Ferrari remained just a dream. Todt’s words: “Ferrari was not having any success and was desperately looking for leadership. A lot of time passed between the time my name was proposed and the time I met them. Everyone told me ‘Don’t go there. You won’t last more than two years’. And for them, taking a foreigner who had no experience in Formula 1 was a big change. I think the discussion started in August 1992 and ended in March 1993. The first dream I talked about was Ayrton,” Todt admitted to the High Performance podcast. “On the occasion of the 1993 Monza Grand Prix I remember that he came to my room at Villa d’Este. We were staying in the same hotel, and we spent part of the night together talking about his joining Ferrari. He wanted to come, but in 1994. But for 1994 we had a contract with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi. And I told him that it wouldn’t be possible, first of all because we wouldn’t be ready in terms of competitiveness and then because we already had Jean and Gerhard. He replied that in Formula 1 contracts are not important, and I told him that for me a contract is important. I would have liked one for 1995.” “I heard that there had been contact before my arrival, but I can’t talk about it, I don’t know anything about it,” he added. “As far as I’m concerned, in September 1993 there was discussion about his arrival for 1995, but he wanted to arrive already in 1994, that’s why he went to Williams. So in 1994 and 1995 we rebuilt the team and we knew that 1996 would be the right year to focus on.”