Toleman TG184

Information

Ayrton Senna's first and second podium car at Monaco and Brands Hatch.
Driven by Stefan Johansson at the end of 1984, and given to him in 1985. The car was firstly re-liveried to Johansson's livery at Monza, his first race with Toleman (he used #19 at Monza and #20 at Nurburgring and Estoril). Later restored to Senna's livery.

This is the car in which the brilliant Brazilian exploded onto the Formula 1 scene, hunting down Monaco Grand Prix race leader Alain Prost, troubled by braking problems in atrociously wet, rain-soaked conditions, to challenge strongly for the race lead. It was only his sixth Formula 1 drive, but Senna was closing so fast it seemed inevitable that he would somehow find a way past the French superstar's leading McLaren-TAG Turbo and potentially win at Monaco in his first Formula 1 season.

However, what then transpired contributed perhaps to the brilliant Brazilian's future and equally legendary personal feud with Prost when they became team-mates together at McLaren in the later 1980s trading the Formula 1 Driver's World Champion title between them.

On Monaco Grand Prix race day in 1984, the local weather conditions were so appalling that it became obvious the event could not run its full distance of 76 laps without exceeding the FIA's strict two-hour duration limit. In his 1½-litre, 4-cylinder, 600bhp Toleman-Hart, Senna was chasing down race leader Alain Prost's more powerful McLaren-TAG Turbo MP4/2. The mercurial Brazilian new boy was catching the established French superstar at the staggering rate of 3 seconds per lap.

Ayrton Senna, in this very Toleman-Hart, had started the race in ninth place. He had then splashed and feathered his way up through the field to establish himself in second place, and he had closed the gap behind Prost to barely 7 seconds and closing at an accelerating rate - when race director Jacky Ickx (the Belgian former Formula 1 driver) and Monaco Automobile Club secretary Michel Boeri controversially had both the red flag and the checkered flag shown simultaneously, bringing the race to what many considered to be a premature end, after only 31 laps. Prost therefore took the win from new boy Senna, the margin of victory being 7,446 seconds.