Ayrton Senna’s rookie season with Toleman in 1984 was exceptional. The Brazilian youngster had built a reputation in England the previous year having edgded out highly-rated British driver Martin Brundle in a titanic duel for the 1983 British Formula 3 Championship.

This was enough to convince Williams, McLaren and Brabham to offer Senna a test drive, yet it would be the lowly Toleman team that would take a chance on the 23 year old, giving him a race seat alongside former motorcycle champion Johnny Cecotto.

From the outset, Senna had the measure of his more experienced teammate, and at Round 6 in Monaco, Senna showed the first signs of being a future world champion.

Senna outqualified Cecotto by nearly a second to line up in 13th, but on race day, the notorious street circuit was soaked with rain. This only served to inspire the rookie, with Niki Lauda and Nigel Mansell unable to handle the atrocious conditions.

Senna charged through the field to claim 2nd and was gaining on the leader Alain Prost, when the race was controversially called off due to the weather.

By Round 9, the Dallas Grand Prix, it was already clear that Senna would be moving to a more competitive team for 1985 (this would turn out to be Lotus-Renault). Toleman were looking relatively competitive at this track and this was backed up by the Brazilian qualifying in an impressive 6th place, splitting the McLarens of Lauda and Prost and way ahead of Cecotto in 15th.

Despite this, things did not go accordingly to plan. Senna did have a great start, shooting up two places to 4th, and on lap 2 was already putting pressure on Derek Warwick for 3rd when he lost control of his Toleman and spun.

By the time he was able to rejoin, he was at the back of the field and needed to make a pit stop to change tyres. Senna needed to charge if he had any chance of scoring points in what became a miraculous recovery.

By Lap 47, incredibly, Senna had made it all the way back up to 4^th, albeit helped by several drivers crashing out of the race. Unfortunately for the Toleman team, it was on this lap when Senna would hit the wall himself, damaging the rear wheel and the driveshaft, forcing him out of the race.

The Brazilian came back to the pits in a rage, furious at letting a great finish slip away. Senna quickly spoke to young engineer, Pat Symonds, convinced that unbelievably the wall had moved, causing him to clip it.

Senna persuaded Symonds to go to the track after the race to have a look at the place where he had crashed. Being a street circuit, the Dallas track was surrounded by concrete blocks. What had happened was earlier in the race, with tyre marks as evidence, a car had hit the far end of the block, moving it barely a few millimetres onto the race track.

Such was the precision at which Senna drove his Toleman, that had been the difference between hitting the wall or not, so the rookie’s claim was correct!

Symonds and the team’s respect for Senna only grew after this story, as it highlighted Senna’s talent at maximising every inch of the racetrack. The fact that Senna would go on to win three world championships and earn a then record 65 poles would surprise no one, not least those watching him master the streets of Fair Park on July 8, 1984.