Quote:
Originally Posted by Killed by Death
I think I started this whole VER / Senna conversation. I never meant to compare the two. I simply meant watching VER gives me the same feeling I had long ago watching Senna. We are watching something special. At the very least I know I am.
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Same here. You got ordinary, extraordinary and exceptional F1 drivers: Senna and Verstappen are exceptional, a league of their own bossing their generations in a peculiar dominant way, with a riveting driving style - something to look out for, no clinical snoozefest.
For example, Verstappen's sheer dominance was instrumental for the 2023 WDC and WCC titles: even when you take his team mate Perez out of the equation (imagine DNFs for all Sprint and races: 0 points), it is factually accurate to claim that the WDC and WCC title would still be awarded to Verstappen and to team Red Bull Racing (the 'one-man band' Verstappen gathered 575 points - team Mercedes (Hamilton + Russell) collected 409 points - team Ferrari (Leclerc + Sainz) collected 406 points). Can one honestly say that Perez was instrumental for any of the 19 race wins or 4 Sprint wins of Verstappen in 2023 ? Did Perez receive a RBR team order to invert track positions to ensure Verstappen winning a 2023 Sprint (4 out of 6) or 2023 race (19 out of 22) or to abort a fastest lap attempt to ensure Verstappen keeping a fastest lap point ?
And alike so many things in life, personally I always keep an open mind for new talents blossoming (regardless their nationality, race, color, gender, etc.), possibly outperforming the current king or queen of town or established concepts. For example, imagine that, say, current F2 driver Kimi Antonelli (Italy) or maybe some other super talent currently still competing in lower kart series, becomes
real competition for Verstappen in the future or manages to squeeze the maximum out of the total package put at his disposal: I highly doubt that I'd consider it a sacrilege to point out that the days of Verstappen's reign are threatened or even numbered. Time moves on. It appears that some struggle with the reality that another driver can upset the established order, beating their driver they rooted for so ardently.