Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Goodall
He qualified 7th in his first race for Jordan, in a car far less superior - and that was with all these top drivers you mention? He was 3rd in his 2nd season of F1 behind the two Williams cars that had all the clever active suspension/downforce and paddle shifts etc.
He was 4th in his 3rd season and then started to dominate the next couple of years so i don't think he was only successful only once the good drivers had gone? That's basically saying that Hill, Villeneuve, Hakinen, Coulthard, Montoya, Berger, Alesi, Frentzen, Irvine, Barrichello, Fisichella etc were all just average Joe's then? Not comparable to Mansell, Piquet, Prost & Senna?
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Yup. That motley collection have amassed the precise sum of four WC titles between them, whereas the next four managed to garner eleven drivers titles whilst competing against each other. 'Nuff said...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Goodall
They were just a different generation, not really fair to say Michael didn't match up to them as he was a young gun in the early days of his career and those guys were all coming to the end - The drivers in his generation were all proved to be slower then him in my opinion.
I also think he would have been close to Senna in the 1994 season, it was shaping up to be a good battle between them and I would have loved to see them wheel to wheel as neither would have given in  |
So would I, but we didn't. I agree you can't compare generations - Schui is proving that right now by coming back into a very different situation with regards to Rules, downforce and tyres, and not being able to get the best from them. I always reckoned that Clark in a fully active Williams might have the same issue.
As your first paragraph shows, he was successful. However, he was unarguably racing at a time where there was no one, and no team with the money to make a car, to touch him. Once there was a car and driver to do it (Alonso and Renault) he didn't win a WC again.
If we're talking really, really good drivers, then Alonso deserves a mention. He just didn't put a wheel wrong last weekend in holding off a faster car. Whereas, let's remember, the reason Barrichello managed to get in the slipstream is that this (allegedly) great driver managed to screw up turn 13 and fail to get on the throttle properly. 'Nuff said...