Schumacher vs Senna

No one would ever know which driver was better, is it Senna or Schumacher. We can only look at their achievements and try to draw a conclusion to see if one has a better edge than the other. This is only in my opinion so I will try to be impartial about this post. It is truly hard to compare two great drivers in their perspective time. Both are successful drivers both won many races and World Drivers Championship. Statistic alone is not a good indication of being the greatest, Schumacher does own all the record in the book but there's more to it than that.

Senna never had the domination that Schumacher had because in his era, Senna had to face the most formidable opponents. Great drivers such as Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, and other midfielders who can snatch couple of wins. But the four that was mentioned were world champions. It was hard to imagine that Senna could win not one but three world championship against these greats. The most obvious of the greats that really gave a hard time to Senna was of course Alain Prost. Alain was his greatest nemesis and probably the greatest competitor he had for all the years he was racing in Formula 1.

Schumacher only raced Senna in 1992, 1993, and 1994. In those days Senna did beat Schumacher and up until the 1994 Schumacher did have the upperhand on Senna. Yet, Senna claimed pole positions in those 3 races. Williams had the best car for 1994 but not at the beginning of the season because they were still trying to sort out the car without their active suspension. The Williams team benefitted from this active suspension a lot thus taking it out was a big blow in their car's performance. Anyway, after Senna's inevitable death, there were no champions left that contended with Schumacher. Now don't get me wrong Schumacher was the best driver at that time so if any great that challenge him at that time, then he would be regarded as the best of the greats. Just as when Senna had Prost in the years he had to race for Mclaren. Schumacher only had Hill and Hakkinen to compete againts, although Hakkinen could give Schumacher a run for his money he never made a serious treat to be his all time nemesis.

Both Senna and Schumacher were aggressive drivers when they raced against their opponents. Senna was regarded as a dangerous man when he ran to Prost's Ferrari in 1990, but Senna did admit it. He had pole so he was entitled to move from the dirty side of the track to the clean side (The dirty side is the right side of the track) of the track. Schumacher did more aggressive tactics when it came to winning the title. In 1994 in came down to the wire, and he had to win in Australia to clinch his first world title. He knew he won't be able to keep up with the Williams of Damon Hill on the straight so he tried to decrease the downforce on his car to be able to match the Williams speed in the straight. Although Schumacher held off the rampant Williams, he couln't keep the lead. Then Schumacher cracked under pressure and ran wide letting Hill slip by. When they were side by side, Schumacher purposely rammed Hill's Williams. Schumacher was out, but Hill was unable to go any further because of the suspension damage that Schumacher caused. So Schumacher won the world drivers champion by 1 point, if he didn't smashed Hill's Williams, Hill could have won.

Fast forward to 1997 when the Williams still had the car capable of winning races. Damon Hill no longer drives for the team, but they had another driver who had what it takes to win. He was Jacques Villeneuve and he was now the leading driver for Williams in 1997. Schumacher had a strong race in this season, but Villeneuve was there to prevent him from taking the title. Then it came down to the wire again, it was the Spanish GP in Jerez. Schumacher got overtaken by Villeneuve and he tried to get even by ramming Villeneuve, but it backfired and Schumacher's Ferrari went to the gravel and unable to get back on track. Schumacher was penalized for that horrendous move and he was thrown out of the championship standing.

Overall Senna had more competition in his era and he didn't do as much underhanded tricks as much as Schumcher. Senna will admit that he did it because he had reason while Schumacher will completely lie about it. So these are some of the factors you should look at when you decide on who you want to choose as the greatest driver between the two. Obviously I will cover more in depth of the quality these two drivers had, but that would be in a separate post.