On December 20, 1992, I was driving my Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale to a job interview in Phoenix. It was my day off and I was keen to make headway in my quest to move to the Valley of the Sun. As I approached Chandler on I-10, I passed Firebird Raceway on my left. I noticed that the Team Penske transporters were there and that one of their cars was doing a lap of the track. A quick glance later, I saw that the driver was wearing a yellow helmet.
Nah, couldn’t be…
I kept driving and didn’t think too much about what I saw. CART teams would regularly test at Firebird, especially from November to March. Sometimes they would even have an oval test at PIR near Avondale, then drive about 20 minutes to Chandler to conduct a road test at Firebird. Nothing out of the ordinary really. But as I found out a few days later, this was a significant event and I was witness to history.
Newspapers and magazines (remember those?) carried the story that three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna had tested one of Roger Penske’s cars at Firebird! He took turns with two-time World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi evaluating the PC21 and turned in some fast laps. Once he got familiar with the car, Senna put in a lap that was over 0.5 seconds faster than Emmo! This was on a track not even 2 km long… At the end of the day the team, including new driver Paul Tracy, packed up and headed out. Yet the story created a sensation due to all that was happening between Formula One, CART/IndyCar, McLaren, Marlboro, Ayrton Senna, Ron Dennis, Bernie Ecclestone, and others.
1992 was a rough year for Ayrton Senna and McLaren in Formula One. The combination of Nigel Mansell and Williams was dominant, winning both Drivers and Constructors’ Championships easily. That year was also the last season Honda would supply McLaren, the team had to switch to customer engines for 1993. Senna knew that upcoming season was likely to be a struggle given how strong Williams was, despite having lost Mansell to CART. They had signed his arch-rival Alain Prost and retained all the other key players on the team. Most important, the team had refined all their technical innovations and incorporated them into the FW15C. Team Williams was set to dominate again, and did.
Not long after the 1992 season ended, Senna and Ron Dennis (Team Principal at McLaren) were engaged in delicate negotiations about his contract with the team. Would he remain, take a sabbatical, or go to CART? Dennis had signed CART Champion Michael Andretti as well as (future World Champion) Mika Hakkinen for 1993. Where would Ayrton fit in? Stories were circulating that Senna was demanding $1 million per race as well as more money from Marlboro to fund car development. Nobody knew what was going to happen at the time, so there was genuine suspense over how this drama would play out.
In the following weeks though, the picture became much clearer. McLaren secured Ford engines for 1993 and had developed their own advanced car, the MP4/8. Ayrton Senna signed for one more season and was initially partnered with Michael Andretti. Marlboro continued to send large checks to the team and Senna had one of his best seasons. Meanwhile in CART, Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy would drive for Team Penske and each would win multiple races in 1993. Fans were left wondering what could have been though.
Marshall Pruett created a documentary on this test a few years ago. If you have the time, watch it and learn a bit more about this small, yet significant, bit of motorsports history.
I’ll dive into the 1993 F1 season in future posts because it warrants attention. I regard it as Senna’s best despite Williams’ technical superiority, he put in some amazing performances. Today though is another reminder of how fast time goes by and to cherish the memories we gather during our journey.
Special thanks to Matt Bishop over on X for helping me remember when I saw this. You can count on “The Bish” to be the institutional memory of F1 happenings.
