Ayrton Senna won three championship titles in the 10 years of his F1 career before he tragically passed away in 1994 in a racing accident.
Many believe that if the Brazilian driver had not met the tragic fate he would have achieved even more and might have even affected Michael Schumacher’s 7 championship titles.
It is quite possible given how much Senna had already attained. To draw a comparison, stats show that after 160 race starts Senna had either equal or more achievements in his bag than the only other 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
While Hamilton had 40 wins after 160 starts, the Brazilian star had 41. Also after those many lights outs, the Briton had secured 2 championship titles to his name while Senna had 3.
Also Read: Sebastian Vettel ranks 2-time World Champion above Lewis Hamilton as strongest rival
Why Lewis Hamilton admires Ayrton Senna?
Like other F1 drivers, Hamilton too had an idol he looked up to as a kid. Mercedes’ 37-year-old star has even revealed that Senna was the reason why he wanted to become an F1 racer.
The Briton was only 9 years old when Senna passed away at the San Marino GP in 1994. Hamilton used to watch the F1 races with his father and have his eyes stuck on the Brazillian storming through the track.
Hamilton had said he loved the way Senna drove, the colour of his helmet, the passion with which he spoke and his victories.
He also said that Senna faced a system that was not very kind to him and explained that he can relate to that although for different reasons.
Senna bagged 65 pole positions in his career and so did Hamilton back in the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix. During the post-qualifying, he was presented with Senna’s iconic 1987 helmet[a replica] by the late driver’s family.
The 2017 #CanadianGP 🇨🇦 saw @LewisHamilton equal Ayrton Senna’s all-time pole record [65], and his reward for doing so was a pretty special one 💚💛 #F1pic.twitter.com/ESRQVvhLCJ
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) June 14, 2022
Could Senna have disrupted Schumacher’s run for championships?
Many believe that had Senna escaped the frightening incident, he would have beaten Schumacher and it might have caused the German a championship or two.
Senna was already 34 years old in 1994 so he probably would not have been able to compete with Schumacher in the early 2000s, during Ferrari’s beast years but he could have affected the results in the 90s.
Either by changing seats and causing a shuffle in the paddock or by winning. While all of this is theoretical, the then Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo had revealed that just four days before his death, Senna was looking forward to joining the Scuderia.
How that move had turned out and changed history is open to imagination and even more theories.
Also Read: How a rookie Lewis Hamilton hoisting his $14 Million McLaren sparked his first major controversy
