It was much more than a flash of recognition, of wonder too, on the thirteenth of November five years ago, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. The day that Max Verstappen, as a late teenager, drove from eighteen to three in the field in fifteen laps in the Brazilian rain. Conquered the South American hearts, who seemed to beat just as hard as when they saw their folk hero Ayrton Senna race. It is that Sunday in 2016 that the comparison between the two drivers takes shape, one that will often return in the years to come.
This Sunday, five years and a day later, the Brazilians show that they are a fan of Verstappen. The Dutchman’s visit to his in-laws earlier in the week – the daughter of Brazilian former driver Nelson Piquet has been his girlfriend since the end of last year – became national news. The cheers in the stands are undoubtedly even louder when Verstappen does not appear at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix with his normal helmet, but with a special one. “An artistic tribute to the passion for Formula 1 in Brazil,” said Verstappen. It brings back the time of Ayrton Senna, who died on the Imola circuit in 1994.
Record
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner did not hesitate to draw attention to the parallel between Verstappen and Senna after the Mexico City Grand Prix last week. With the win in Mexico last week, the Dutchman took the record number of GP wins in one year with a Honda engine from the Brazilian. Never before has a driver managed to win nine grands prix in a year with such an engine.
Records or not, Verstappen doesn’t want to know anything about a comparison with Senna his entire racing career. In an interview with Ziggo Sport in 2018, the Dutchman said that he does not like to be compared to other drivers at all. Also at the question of a journalist from the Formula 1 website Speed Week whether Verstappen saw Senna as his idol, he firmly said that was certainly not the case.
Curiously enough, Verstappen’s main competitor Lewis Hamilton Senna has more than once called “his biggest source of inspiration” when it comes to racing. The Briton also drove on Sunday at Interlagos, as the circuit in Brazil is better known, with a special helmet – after the color play of the Brazilian flag. An ode to his example, he stated on Instagram.
“Max Verstappen is not at all concerned with the agreements with other drivers,” says Jan Lammers, former F1 driver and now analyst at, among others, the NOS. Only the performance on the track counts for him. The main requirement is to get the best out of itself every race. It is precisely in that obsessiveness, in being continuously involved with the sport and its implementation, that there is an agreement with Senna, experts say. Like the Austrian former driver Franz Tost after the race in Mexico against the German Sports1 said: “Verstappen is most like Senna in his absolute will to win.”
obsessive
“Ayrton Senna was obsessive about Formula 1,,” says Jan Segers. The Belgian journalist wrote the book The right foot of God, about the life of Senna. If the Brazilian set the bar high for himself, any deviant performance was unacceptable. The almost annoying fanaticism, perhaps in every form of sport a condition to belong to the best.
Senna, three-time world champion in the highest racing class, took care of every detail of the car. Just as, according to experts, Verstappen now manages to completely control the racing car, so did the Brazilian. But, says F1 follower Koen Vergeer, author of the book MaxmaniaThe two eras are difficult to compare in that respect. “Twenty, thirty years ago, a driver had much more say in technology. Now so many specialists are already working on every technical detail that the driver himself has to contribute less.”
“Senna really comes from the mechanical era of Formula 1,” says Jan Lammers. From a period when, next to the track, it was mainly about springs and dampers in the car. Now data takes over – and they don’t lie.
And, says Lammers, who drove another year in Formula 1 with Senna in 1992, it would have been almost impossible for a sixteen-year-old boy to break through in the highest racing class at that time. The less advanced the car, the greater the challenge for the body. At that time, it sometimes happened that a driver got out of the car and then immediately fell over. During the race itself, a driver’s neck sometimes looked “like a ball lying on the rear shelf of a car,” says Lammers.
Driving style
The way in which Verstappen drove past one car after another on the Brazilian circuit in 2016 at the age of 19 especially appealed to the imagination. “It touched on magic,” Vergeer says. The calculated overtaking, just a little more shrewd, a fraction smarter than the competitors. “That is something that Verstappen has, but what Senna certainly also had,” says Vergeer.
The raw or raw talent, Jan Segers calls it. The intrinsic skill of driving – that’s what the two can be compared to. The driving style with which they both have made the sport more lively, less boring and calculated too.
“Whether it’s a Tuesday afternoon on a rainy terrain in Ireland, or a hot circuit on Sunday in Brazil, Verstappen almost always delivers his potential,” says Jan Lammers. “Senna had that too. I don’t remember one time when he was distraught and didn’t know what to do.” With the conviction of a winner, always on the way to something good.
Charisma
Off the track, the difference between the two drivers is perhaps the greatest. In his time as an F1 reporter for Belgian media, Jan Segers often attended Senna’s “long press conferences”. In this he managed to captivate the journalists, even when he makes trips to subjects outside the race track. “Senna was a serious man, he liked to interfere in the world around him,” says Segers. “He was seen as a benefactor in Brazil, but the salaries were a lot lower in his time than they are now.” Verstappen seems much more down to earth, straight forward, say experts. Completely focused on that one goal: to become Formula 1 world champion.
“We have not yet seen the entire Max Verstappen,” says Jan Lammers. The depth of interviews surrounding a race is not yet visible, except when it comes to his actions in the car itself. “The allure that Senna had is not yet suitable for a 24-year-old driver,” said Lammers. Apart from the prizes – a first world championship of Verstappen can bring the parallel a little closer again.
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