mikeyg123 wrote:
pokerman wrote:
sandman1347 wrote:
Honestly I'm getting sick of these supposedly accurate models that people create to try to tell us what "would" happen "if" blah blah blah. Isn't it enough to watch what actually does happen? These people who attempt to deconstruct the sport into some kind of abstraction almost always have an agenda underneath what they do.
For me, the idea that Schumacher was some kind of massive leap forward from Senna is totally unsubstantiated. Hakkinen (Michael's greatest rival) was no match for Senna as a teammate (although he was respectable). Damon Hill (arguably Michael's second biggest rival) was also nowhere near Senna in the same car. Michael is less than a decade younger than Ayrton. I don't think he represents some kind of quantum leap forward. In fact, I think the vacuum left behind after Senna's death contributed substantially to the amount of success in Michael's career.
Yes indeed 7 years after Senna's death Schumacher's nearest rivals were drivers that Senna was superior to in the same car, the likes of Hill, Hakkinen and Berger, also in his final 3 races Senna out qualified Schumacher every time in an inferior car.
How can Hakkinen be judged as no match as a team mate to Senna. They had 3 races together. Hakkinen out qualified Senna once and was very close on the next race. Not bad for a driver coming in mid season.
Hakkinen was the test driver when there was unlimited testing, he spent plenty of time in the car, enough time for McLaren to assess that Hakkinen was quicker than Michael Andretti.
The last race Senna out qualified Hakkinen by 7 tenths so representing an average 0f 0.24s, the only race were they both finished Senna won and Hakkinen was third 26 seconds behind being 0.5s a lap slower.
In the 3 races they competed together Senna won 2 races and Hakkinen had one 3rd place, fair enough a very small sample size but still...
Very much expanding on the limited Hakkinen matched Senna in his first two qualifying sessions, I believe Berger out qualified Senna first time out, how did that turn out?