Ayrton Senna vs. Michael Schumacher

[ShiftingGears]

It could be validly argued...

Jim Clark
Juan Manuel Fangio

I think those four are in the top five F1 World Championship drivers.

[ST205GT4]

These are always pointless discussions which no one enters completely objectively, myself included.

So I'll admit up front I'm a Senna fan and I've never liked Schumacher.

I'd really have liked to have seen the battle between Senna and Schumacher go longer than it did. They were really only just getting into it when Senna passed away in 94.

No one really knows whether one is better than the other. Both sides can bring arguments that "prove" one was better than the other, but really it's all subjective.

Schumacher fans will simply point to the stats as proof, whilst Senna fans will point to the 93 season where the two drivers ran cars with similar engines (although Senna's was a customer Ford whilst Schumacher had the factory engine) and point out how equal both drivers were or Donnington in 93 where he provided a masterclass in wet weather driving or dismiss the stats argument because Senna's career was cut short.

In the end I think most of those arguments aren't based on fact at all, but simply on how emotionally attached a person is to their favourite driver. For me, a teenager of the late 80s, the best driver will always be Senna.