F1 Season Reviews Reviewed: 1990
Ayrton Senna described 1990 in hindsight as a “bad year” that was the direct result of the politics that he felt robbed him of the title the previous season.
In 1989 a clash with his “teammate” Alain Prost in Japan and then subsequent disqualification when he tried to rejoin the circuit cost Senna the title and Alain Prost was champion for the third time in his career.
For 1990 the two were separated, Prost not willing to stay in the same team as Senna, went to Ferrari but the bitterness between the two remained.
In Japan Senna started on pole position but there was a problem. Pole position was on the so-called dirty side of the track. What happened next depends on who you believe, the FIA will tell you that no discussion was made about moving pole position to the clean side.
Others claim that the FIA agreed to move the pole position to the clean line but then changed their mind. Interesting side note, pole position had always been on the “dirty side” of the Suzuka circuit for every year up to that point so this was nothing new.
At the start of the race Prost from second on the grid got ahead. Senna didn’t wait to see if the move was temporary or not and placed his car on the inside of the corner. When Prost turned in the two collided and both went into the gravel trap. That was it. Senna was champion but not in the most glorious of circumstances.
A year later he admitted that this incident was deliberate but at this time the debate was raging even in the off-season. This was the one moment that dominated what was a great season of racing.
Jean Alesi in the Tyrrell produced numerous giant-killing acts most famously in the first race at Phoenix where he held the lead from Senna for over 30 laps. Other things of note included exciting races in San Marino, Mexico and Hungary the latter of which saw Senna involved in a controversial moment again when he clashed with Alesandro Nannini’s Benetton. That race was won by Theirry Boutsen in the Williams.
So the end of season review then. And this review is a special one as it’s the first review that I ever watched having received it as a Christmas present in of all years 1994.
This is also the first one of the 1990’s and on the face of it nothing much has changed in terms of style. Tony Jardine makes his third and final appearance in the reviews and he’s joined this time by Matthew Lorenzo who a few years later would front Sky’s F1 Digital Plus coverage in 2002.
The review feels more basic than the previous year in some cases and in fact is an hour shorter than 1989. It starts with a brief rundown of who’s doing what and where, a couple of pre-season interviews which are pretty low-key and basic.
And then we get an on-board view of Schnieder’s practice crash which surprised me at the time somewhat given that Duke video’s reputation for onboard camera usage wasn’t that great having, before this, only seen their review of the 1993 British Formula 3 season and the 1991 British Rally Championship review, neither of which had much in the way of on board camera action, but it was obvious that they knew what they were doing by the time the first race was done on the review.
We do get a race-by-race results run down and every 4 races we get a rundown of the championship standings and we get a complete look at the standings at the end of the video review.
The footage follows the tried and tested formula and the balance between extra footage that was shown on the original TV coverage and that which was not broadcast from a bespoke camera team. It feels much better in terms of the balance between the two than previous seasons and there are times when this special footage comes into its own.
The obvious candidate is the first lap of the Mexican Grand Prix where on the original TV coverage you only get an onboard shot with Michele Alboreto for virtually the whole lap.
So in the review, you get a better idea of what happened. Senna took second from his teammate Gerhard Berger at the first corner then from Senna’s onboard camera we see his attempt to get the lead at turn 3 from Patrese all of this is missed by the Mexican director.
Other footage of note is Senna’s botched attempt to lap Nakajima in Brazil an incident that was seen on TV but from a very long distance helicopter shot.
From this new ground-based footage you see Senna go for a gap that was always going to close. You also get an onboard of Nannini crashing the new Benetton at Imola and the numerous practice and qualifying mishaps that happen during the season especially at Monza with a few drivers having moments.
The events of the season are well captured but then we get to that incident in Japan. This is interesting because you only see the footage that was shown on TV which is a surprise given that in the race Prost had an onboard camera, but we don’t see the incident from this angle which is a shame given how interesting this would have been to see.
What you do get is a somewhat cringe interview with Senna conducted by of all people Ron Dennis and a victorious-looking Senna. Looking at the interview knowing what we do now he does look like someone is fully aware of what he has just done. In the context of what we know now this interview is very hard to watch at times.
But overall it’s the same formula as the previous 2 seasons and the extra footage doesn’t take over too much, it feels like the right formula has been struck.
The audio has nothing too special to report on. Other than how clear it is compared to the slightly muffled quality of the 1989 review. It’s not perfect and Matthew Lorenzo does at times still sound like he’s eating the microphone but it’s not too bad.
One thing I did note is that there seems to be a slight audio balance issue where the audio is a bit more to the left speaker than centre. I don’t know if that is done to give a rudimentary stereo effect or (as I suspect) it’s just an issue with my VHS version but that aside it’s pretty clean audio-wise. Not as immersive as it could be but it does the job.
The commentary is as mentioned done by Tony Jardine. His third and final appearance in the season reviews and Matthew Lorenzo, his one and only appearance.
The commentary formula follows the same tropes as the previous season with both commentators saying a paragraph or two each before the other takes over. There’s no interaction between the two of them and they seem a little detached from each other.
The good thing about the commentary however is that Tony Jardine does not do any silly voices or accents which after his last two performances is frankly a godsend and actually becomes his best and least cringe-worthy performance of the three reviews he narrated.
So the overall verdict. I wouldn’t say this is a remarkable review and there’s nothing of note as such (proof of which is the fact that this review is so short) but the only real reason for that is because it follows the same formula as 1989.
The big changes to both the reviews and the TV coverage start in 1991 (and there was a big change in 1991 that no one remembers). But this is still a solid enough review that I would give 4 out of 5.
Why not 5? Because I didn’t like the way the review handled the events in Japan.
The interview by Ron Dennis with Senna wasn’t one I enjoyed and there wasn’t much more said about it. It was very much “this happened, then Berger spun on his team mates oil 2 laps later” It was the biggest event in the championship and a huge event in F1 at that time but it felt a little, brushed aside. But don’t let that put you off, the rest of the video is actually really good.
And that sums up the 1990 F1 season review video. Up next of course is 1991 and a change of style for the reviews and some TV coverage changes one of which would not be allowed to happen in the modern era.
I’ll talk you through all these things and more next time. To finish however here’s the music that ended the 1990 season review, thanks for reading. More from me very soon.
