Racing“F1 contracts are not important,” Ayrton Senna told Jean Todt. Ferrari would not tear up its 1994 deals, so Senna went to Williams. That is how Todt set it out on the High Performance podcast, describing talks that began at Monza in 1993 and a near-miss that later shaped Ferrari’s move for Michael Schumacher.
Todt said Senna came to his hotel room during the 1993 Italian Grand Prix and pressed to join Ferrari right away. “The first driver I truly dreamed of was Ayrton Senna,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast. “We spent a long night talking about him coming to Ferrari.”
The timing broke it. “He wanted to come already in 1994,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast. “It was not possible because we already had contracts with Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi.” Todt added that Senna pushed back. “He told me, ‘F1 contracts are not important.’ I replied, ‘But I think a contract is important.’ That is why he chose Williams in the end,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast.
According to Todt, they even floated a delayed plan. “There was a discussion in September 1993 about him coming in 1995, but he wanted to come in 1994,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast. Senna’s fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix ended any chance of a future Ferrari drive, Todt said on the show.
The context inside Maranello mattered too. Todt described a team trying to steady itself through 1994 and 1995. “In 1994 we still had the same drivers at Ferrari, but we were rebuilding the team,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast. He recalled finger-pointing between departments and a driver lineup that, in his view, did not stop the noise. “To end that, we had to make sure we had at least a very good driver,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast.
That is where Schumacher came in. “Michael was the best driver at that time, so we had to convince him to come to Ferrari,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast. Todt placed the talks in the first half of 1995. “We spoke at the beginning or middle of 1995, and after a day in Monaco with Michael and Willi Weber, we signed the contract immediately,” Jean Todt, former Ferrari team principal, said on the High Performance podcast.
Todt’s account draws a straight line from that Monza night with Senna to the decision to go all in for Schumacher. Ferrari chose to honor its 1994 lineup, Senna chose Williams, and the next move set the path that defined the Scuderia’s late-1990s future.