Canadian Grand Prix – 1984

Expectations were high: after Monaco, Ayrton Senna could no longer be considered just another Formula 1 driver. In Canada, he had won his best grid position until then: 9th.

While the mechanics worked on his car, Ayrton Senna went on a walk through the beautiful Ile de Notre Dame Park, where the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit is located in Montreal, host city of the 1976 Olympic Games.

He wandered the track and walked the water’s edge, taking quite a long walk. Was this a way for him to prepare physically for the race or did the driver simply need some time to think about life?

We don’t know if he really thought of something new, but Ayrton Senna pushed his Toleman passed the finish line in 7th place, a thousandth of a second behind Nigel Mansell, from Lotus. It wasn’t enough to score any new points, but it was solid evidence of his car’s inconsistency.

Ayrton Senna travelled to Canada a week before the race to take part in a congress, in which he talked about sports medicine, performing his exercise routine e helping in the conclusion of a study about physical fitness under stress.

Take a look at the article published in the newspaper “O Popular da Tarde” about the driver’s trip.

“CANADIAN UNIVERSITY COMPLIMENTS AYRTON SENNA ON HIS PHYSICAL FITNESS

Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna is in Canada since last Sunday. He travelled to the country earlier than planned to accept an invitation by the McGill University’s Physical Education Department to take part in a seminar about sports medicine as applied to motor sports.

On Monday and Tuesday, Ayrton went to the campus Research Lab to present the series of exercises he performs daily. After that, he was subject to a complete assessment by Doctors Jacques Dallaire and Jacques Bouchard, who agreed that the driver is in excellent physical and psychological condition.

McGill University, located in Montreal, is developing studies on physical fitness, the influence of stress in motorsports and the physical and psychological effects of a Grand Prix on a driver and how to mitigate them. They have the most advanced research lab in the field, including a computer designed exclusively to that end.

The University’s team of doctors and scientists also congratulated Ayrton Senna’s personal doctor, Dr. Paulo Dauar, and trainer Nuno Cobra, both from São Paulo, for their excellent guidance in terms of diet and health control as well as in terms of finding the right exercise routine to build muscles capable of withstanding the huge effort demanded by Formula One’s training sessions and races.

Since Wednesday, Ayrton Senna has been resting and getting ready for tomorrow’s Grand Prix, in which he hopes to repeat the great performance shown in Monaco.

His team is very confident and doing everything they can to bring out the best of his Toleman TG 184.  Even though it’s no secret that his Halt turbocharged engine is a few races away from being 100% competitive, the track where the Canadian Grand Prix is going to take place is considered one the hardest in the season, and the circuit’s many corners can end up favoring Senna, who’s been making a name for himself as one of the fastest drivers in the slower parts of any circuit”.