Oct. 21 is the date of one of the greatest Formula One points showdowns. The thing is, is that the year of that date may differ by which generation you come from.
Oct. 21, 1984:
Twenty-eight cars took to the grid for a 70-lap race in Estoril, Portugal for the final Grand Prix of the 1984 season. It was Formula One’s first visit to the country in 24 years and the race that would determine the 1984 Formula One World Champion: Alain Prost or Niki Lauda.
Of the two McLaren teammates, Lauda came in with a four-and-a-half-point advantage … that needs some explaining. The 1984 Monaco Grand Prix had been red flagged prematurely due to torrential rain. Alain Prost, leading the race at the time, had signaled to the officials that he wanted the race to be stopped. The red flag flew right before rookie-driver Ayrton Senna passed him for the lead. Prost was awarded the win and, due to the shortened distance, half points (4.5 as opposed to 9 for a full-race win). Had the race gone its full distance and Prost finished second behind Senna, he would have actually scored 6 points in a race that Lauda failed to finish.
Alain Prost started on pole and dominated the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix in a race that saw championship rival Niki Lauda start 11th. With Prost winning, Lauda needed to finish second to win the title.
Lauda methodically worked his way up through the field until he found himself right behind Nigel Mansell’s Lotus on Lap 52. Mansell, suffering from brake trouble, spun out of the race, giving Lauda second place and the championship by half a point.
Oct. 21, 1990:
Ayrton Senna won pole position for the penultimate race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship race at Suzuka. The McLaren driver was already a full race ahead of his championship rival Alain Prost in the Ferrari, meaning if they both failed to finish, Senna would win the World Championship.
A political battle broke out overnight between the race organizers and McLaren as, with the way things stood, Senna would be starting from pole position on the undesirable, dirty side of the circuit. The grid was not changed.
In the 1989 Japanese GP at Suzuka, the same two drivers had infamously collided together while racing for McLaren, ultimately giving the title to Prost. Senna, still disappointed with Formula One’s handling of the incident, made it clear that either he would lead into the first turn of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix … or neither of them would.
The rest, as they say, is history:
Oct. 21, 2007:
Kimi Raikkonen was a long shot to win the 2007 Formula One World Championship. Rookie Lewis Hamilton came into the finale in Sao Paulo, Brazil with a four-point lead over his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, while Raikkonen was seven points back in third.
Kimi Raikkonen powers his Ferrari in the second place at the start, followed by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton (L) and Fernando Alonso (R), at the 2007 Brazilian GP.
Lewis Hamilton started from second on the grid, but got off to a poor start and then ran off course, dropping him back to eighth position on the opening lap. Hamilton made it back up to sixth when he lost drive on Lap 8. By the time the McLaren recovered, he was in 18th position.
Meanwhile up front, Raikkonen had worked his way into the lead from third on the grid while pole sitter and teammate Felipe Massa rode in second behind him. Fernando Alonso’s third place in the McLaren was not enough to beat Raikkonen while Hamilton only made it back as high as seventh … not enough for the title.
After the race, however, the legality of the fuel in Nico Rosberg’s Williams and the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld came into question. The three drivers had finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, and any penalty would’ve likely given Hamilton the title. However, the FIA concluded that there was not enough evidence to prove with certainty that the fuel had been illegal and so the positions held.
