Quote Originally Posted by SGWilko
There are more similarities between Ayrton and Michael than there are differences.

They were both devastatingly confident in the wet. (Ayrton at Donnington in 93 and Schumi at Spain in 96)

They both made unforced errors. (Ayrton Monaco erm, 87,88 or 89 - can't remember, and Schumi Adelaide 94)

They were supremely confident, to the point of being arrogant (on the track certainly, no idea about in person).

They wanted one thing, and one thing only, to win.

To be honest, I don't think you can really seperate them.

One thing I will say in Ayrton's favour, is his philosophy on team mates. In 'The Life of Senna' there is a section on Lotus. Ayrton vetoed Derek Warwick being his teammate. Not because he was afraid of him, but because he knew Lotus could not competetively field two good drivers. I guess that is a back handed compliment to Derek.

As to Michael, since Herbet was his teammate, it appears (careful use of that word) he has not wanted a competetive teammate. Now, that is not dissimilar to the Ayrton at Lotus scenario, but for who's gain was it?

I'm not bashing, just provoking the debate.......
There is another difference between your scenario however. When Senna was at his prime the main objective of a team was to get the two best drivers in the market and field them. This of course worked well at Williams with Patrese and Mansell/Hill and Prost and of course at Ferrari with Berger/Mansell, Berger/Alesi - and surprisingly well at McLaren with Berger/Senna. In fact there were only 2 occasions were we saw problems and that was at McLaren with Senna/Prost and a very minor rift at Ferrari with Mansell/Prost which eventually precluded Prost from running at Williams in the 1992 season.

Benetton (along with Schumacher) usered in the new philosophy however. Put all your eggs in one basket and get a patsy driver to support that basket (Schumacher)... This of course followed through right into Ferrari and has now permeated into many other teams.

Was not the case years prior however.