Ayrton Senna was blocked from joining Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 team after being called a ‘taxi driver’

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Ayrton Senna had his fair share of rivalries and feuds in his Formula 1 career, even with his own countrymen. Nelson Piquet was not fond of him, and it cost him a seat at Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham.

Senna made his F1 debut with Toleman in 1984 and went on to win three world championships with McLaren. Widely regarded as one of, if not the greatest, F1 drivers of all time, he had quite a few bust-ups in his career.

The most notorious one was, of course, with Alain Prost, with the pair battling out tense title fights that ended in collision in 1989 and 1990. Prost blocked Senna from joining Ferrari, as the Frenchman did not want him to be his teammate.

The Brazilian had further drama with teammates in his career, including Mika Hakkinen, whom Senna would not speak to after an ill-placed joke from the Finn.

He even had falling-outs with would-be teammates. Before his F1 debut with Toleman, he was invited to test with Brabham in 1984 by Ecclestone, and Piquet did not take kindly to his fellow Brazilian.

READ MORE: All to know about Ayrton Senna including Alain Prost rivalry and Imola crash

Nelson Piquet told Brabham not to sign Ayrton Senna

Talking about Senna’s test with Brabham, Ecclestone told the Beyond The Grid podcast back in 2019 that he saw the talent that the Brazilian had. However, Piquet was not a fan of him and told the team not to sign him.

He said: “I mean, he was, you could see then, what he was going to become. He took the car out, just a run to see how it was, and I think it was Charlie Whiting said to me, ‘Christ, we should have done something with the front dampers’ or something like that.

“So I said, ‘What effect will that have?’ He said, ‘Well, he won’t know anyway, he won’t notice it.’ And Ayrton another lap, come in and stopped, spoke to Charlie and told Charlie what was wrong with the car.

“We never took him because at the time, I think that was when he still had Nelson, and Nelson wasn’t too happy with him, called him a taxi driver.”

Ayrton Senna’s iconic 1984 Toleman is heading to auction 🏎️

But if you could own ANY of his cars, which are you choosing?

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Ecclestone then explained how Piquet went to the team to complain about Senna: “Nelson had spoken to our sponsor at the time, he said we shouldn’t have him because it would be nothing but trouble in the team and he’s not quick anyway.

“So the sponsor said we shouldn’t have two Brazilians together, really, it’d be wrong. So we didn’t take him.”

Despite losing out on Senna, Ecclestone said he was not annoyed with Piquet over the ordeal.

When asked that question, he replied: “Not really because we didn’t know how good Ayrton was. We knew he was bright, but we didn’t know how bright and how good. I thought it’d be good to have two Brazilian drivers.”