dpastern wrote:
F1 MERCENARY wrote:
I call BullDookie on this 1,000%.
NEWS FLASH! Senna was in the best car when he won ALL his titles, as was Prost. So that cancels that theory in your obviously bias assessment.
In 1994 The Williams was pretty damn good, if not a hair better than the Benetton, or are we to believe that was only during qualifying?
The FACT "IS" that the young phenom was simply extreme pressure at all times, and ANYONE would have had to deal with it, INCLUDING Senna.
I realize Senna was a supreme talent, but you guys seem to buy into the James dean effect far too much just because he died prematurely.
James dean was not a superb actor and he only starred in 3 films and they did just ok. Once he died hoever, this mythical status emerged and the guy inexplicably became enshrined in such an exaggerated way, that people believe he had chops the likes of a Marlon Brando, and that seriously isn't the case at all.
And while Senna is among the greatest ever, Michael showed he was the greatest ever, on track and off, via results yielded over a historic career.
When Michael joined Benetton he had a decent car but not the best, yet he was always faster than any teammate by a significant margin, and eventually when the car was capable of winning, HE was the one taking the vast majority of them. Then he moved to a struggling Ferrari and initially the car was decent at best, yet once again, he was outclassing his teammates EASILY, and after his arrival the team began to improve. His ability to communicate what cars needed and where they were lacking to his engineers was uncanny. At the same time, once a car was competitive at the front, he was so good that it didn't much matter what changes were made because he was able to put in near identical times. His teammates on the other hand couldn't replicate his performance which baffled everyone.
Senna's complaining and accusations of cheating, merely because the sound coming from Michael's Benetton was different than his teammate AS WELL AS EVERYONE ELSE was nothing more than a hurt ego. The reality IS that Michael was using Left foot braking which is something that was unheard of at the time, and he kept 10-15% throttle input at all times while under braking to maintain revs in the power train so that upon releasing the brake, the car would not have to build revs in order to power out of corners like everyone else, and holding the revs up provided a bit of a boost to zip through and out of corners.
I'd politely say that you don't know what you're talking about.
The '94 Williams, for the first half of the season, had major handling issues - understeering into corners and oversteering on exit, the worst type of handling you could ever want from a racing car. The car was near impossible to balance for entry/exit - this affecting lap times, tyre performance (warming them up, wear, etc). The Benetton had no such handling issues. True, it had slightly less HP than the Williams, but HP is useless if you cannot put the tyres down to the tarmac and use them to their best performance ability.
Senna had the best car in '88 through to '90. The 91 car was not better than the Williams - he won that WDC only because the Williams was very unreliable for a good portion of the season. But, all of the greats have been in the best car on the grid when they won their WDCs. Schumacher was certainly no different.
There is no "James Dean" effect about Senna. He was the real deal.
I remember Senna smoking Schumacher in his '93 McLaren, which by the way, had at least 25-30 HP less than the Ford engine in the Benetton for a good part of the season.
Schumacher never had a decent team mate. Not even close. None of them were WDC material, let alone race winners on merit and skill.
Senna was renowned for his feedback to his engineers btw. The guy could tell his revs down to 100 revs at any point of the circuit just by listening to the engine whilst he was driving. For an engine that can rev to 19k rpm (mid 80s turbo era), that is absolutely gobsmacking imho.
Left foot braking was NOT unheard of at the time. Berger used it whilst at McLaren and Senna's team mate. It is commonly used in karting, and even FF1600. Senna was a karter himself, he was most certainly familiar with the style. If you actually knew anything, traction control cars had a certain engine sound. In the '94 season, all of the teams engine sounds changed bar Benetton, which sounded exactly like the traction control enabled '93 car (and the rest of the '93 field I might add). An example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERMHCRNB5wI've been watching F1 for a long time, probably longer than you've been alive for.
I'll just add a couple of things here to dpasterns comments.
Senna had the best car in 88 for his first WC. He also had a 3xWC who was regarded as the best in the world at the time as a team mate with no team orders or preferential treatment.
In 91 i'd say he had the best car for the first 5 or 6 races. After that Williams gained the ascendancy. The only reason Macca won the WCC that year was because of Senna.
I doubt most would say Prost had the best car in 86. I think that honour would go to Williams.
Unfortunately in 94 Senna was only around for 3 races.
I'm not 100% here but I have no idea how left foot braking could be mistaken for TC, especially by a racing driver. Senna's complaints were based on what he'd heard & seen. So lets see, the 1994 Benetton sounded like it was using TC, took off like it was fitted with TC, actually had TC fitted & years later Schumachers team mate publicly stated Schumachers car was using TC and his wasn't. Whats that about quacking like ducks?
When Schumacher was at Benetton, he also had a couple of chaps named Ross Brawn & Rory Byrn there to build a team around him. He also went with these characters to Ferrari. I say just as much credit for Schumachers success should be attributed to these guys, as well as Todt & Briatore as much as to Schumacher himself.
Senna had a very accute attention to detail. Just an example of this is the famous "moving wall of Dallas".
http://www.ayrton-senna.net/the-story-of-the-moving-wall/Senna won a lot of his races in what was the 2nd, 3rd & even 4th best car on the grid. I'm not sure Schumacher is able to make such a claim.
That'll do for now.
Oh, & just one last question for F1 Mercenary.
Did Schumacher have ANY faults?
Even the most ardent Senna fan, if they're being honest with themselves, will admit he was a flawed genius.
Spot on.
Both Senna & Schumacher were fantastic drivers. I honestly think Senna was the faster and more talented overall (poles, wet races, wins, etc).
Vettel doesn't even remotely compare to either of them. He has the same amount of talent as Senna's pinkie
That assessment may be a bit blunt or undesirable for Vettel's fans, but it is as I see it.
I can't way for Leclerc to destroy him this year.
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