So in the history of Formula 1, May 8 is the sad anniversary of Ferrari legend Gilles Villenuve’s death at Zolder in 1982, but May 9 also marks a significant moment, because in the 1993 Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya, Polesitter Alain Prost won for Williams, his 47th career win and his third of the ’93 season, with Ayrton Senna 2nd for McLaren, and Michael Schumacher, sporting a mullet that was mysteriously shorn at the end of the year, finishing 3rd for Benetton.

While nothing that major at the time, given Senna & Prost regularly finished on the podium together and Schumacher was a rising star who was racking up podiums, this race would become a piece of F1 history, as it was the only time that Prost, Schumacher and Senna, the 3 greatest Grand Prix drivers from the 1980s to the end of the 2000s, stood on the podium together in their respective careers.

It’s an interesting quirk of history – Schumacher shared the podium with Senna a total of 4 times in 1992 & ’93, and Prost a total of 8 times in ’93, but Spain was the lone race in which the legendary trio made up the podium in their time racing each other (1991 & 1993) and when you consider their final career records, Spain 1993 produces some godly numbers:

World Championships: 14 (7 for Schumacher, 4 for Prost, 3 for Senna)

Race Victories: 183 (91 for Schumacher, 51 for Prost, 41 for Senna)

Podiums: 341 (155 for Schumacher, 106 for Prost, 80 for Senna)

Pole Positions: 166 (68 for Schumacher, 65 for Senna, 33 for Prost)

Looking through the books, the only Grand Prix podium that comes close to Spain 1993 is the 2012 US Grand Prix and the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix, which featured the trio of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, who currently have a combined total of 188 career victories, 403 podiums and 182 pole positions, although they are 1 championship short of Spain 1993 – Hamilton has 7 titles, Vettel has 4, and Alonso 2…

It could’ve been 14, had the FIA not decided that the 2021 season needed 1 last lap of hard racing.

Anyway, that’s my random fact for May 9!