Ayrton Senna had already sealed the 1991 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship by the time the cars headed for Adelaide for the last event of the season. It was to be one of the shortest races in living memory.
It was run in torrential rain with visibility down to the bare minimum. Many of the leading drivers, including rain-master Senna and Nigel Mansell, felt that the race should never have started, even though Mansell’s Williams team still had a chance of lifting the constructors’ championship at the expense of McLaren.
From the start, Mansell tucked in behind Senna’s McLaren. Mansell said it was like groping in the pitch dark: ‘I followed Ayrton round and gauged my driving by listening to his engine, to his gear changes. Then I would do the same, hoping I hadn’t misheard his car. But as far as seeing is concerned, forget it.’ Soon a number of cars went off on the hazardous back straight and while the marshals frantically waved yellow flags (to indicate no overtaking), the rescue services were busily lifting battered cars off the circuit. At one point Mansell poked out from behind Senna to have a look and found himself heading straight for a marshal’s car!
Mansell was expecting to see the red flag signifying the end of the race after only four laps but the organisers kept the drivers out there for another ten circuits. Indeed the race was only finally stopped when Mansell spun off and crashed into a concrete wall, an accident which left him with a badly swollen ankle. As soon as Mansell went off, Senna started gesticulating angrily for the race to be stopped, and the stewards took the hint. Only 14 of the scheduled 81 laps had been completed but, despite the atrocious conditions, the clerk of the course was eager to give the rain a chance to ease off and kept everyone waiting for another 50 minutes before finally calling it a day. The placings were calculated on the last completed lap, which put Mansell second behind Senna despite his spin. Gerhard Berger was third in the other McLaren, a result which gave the team its fourth constructors’ championship in a row. Since there had barely been 25 minutes’ actual racing, half points were awarded to the first six drivers.
The curtailed race was unsatisfactory for all concerned, not least FISA vice-president Bernie Ecclestone who was highly critical of the marshalling and stewarding. He did not share the view that conditions were unraceable and thought that producing a white flag (to indicate there was a slow car on the circuit) together with yellow flags to stop any overtaking, would have given the rescue crews time to clear the debris. Senna, Mansell and co. were just happy to be back in the dry.