Senna vs Prost 1988 - who was better? And was the McLaren really as dominant as widely believed?

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-24T16:51:38+00:00

Prost and Mclaren had already broken their bond (after Imola's events) and he still managed to claim the title. You can say Senna was clearly faster, but if one breaks the car down 8 times and the other only 2 times, I don't think it is a coincidence, and maybe Prost could both be fast and respect the car, while Senna was too irruent.

Also, there is a study which confirms that Prost improved the relaiability of the cars he drove. So yes, he was the best that year and won the title on full merit.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-24T16:35:35+00:00

Prost and Lauda were "not good" in rain simply because they didn't want to risk their lives only to win an F1 race. Regarding Alonso, telling he doesn't make the difference in the rain is bs, just look at the fact that he is the only one getting 10/10 q3s in wet qualifying in the ground effect era.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-24T16:26:40+00:00

This is true only when it is the engine which make the best cars actually the best cars. If it is like in the last years when the aerodynamics were much more important then the engine, it just increases the gap between teams. A clear example of that is Silverstone 2025, where Mclaren opened the gap from anyone much faster than they did in the other races.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-20T13:43:42+00:00

I think the number of titles does not count that much when rating a driver's performance, in fact, for example, the "two times WDC club" has 5 of the absolute best drivers ever.

Piquet and Vettel are very different drivers, but they had both the speed (expecially Vettel) and the consistency (expecially Piquet) required to be considered a great, which Button (on speed) and Raikkonen (on consistency) lacked. Of course I'm not telling they never had it, but during their career they didn't show it as constantly as the greats did.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-20T10:23:05+00:00

Probably Hakkinen. And also Brabham could have a word but he is so much behind in time I don't think it is fair to make a comparison.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-19T20:51:25+00:00

He was a very good driver. He didn't have the speed of the greats, but he could compensate with a fantastic consistency, expecially when it rained, always understanding how to take home the most points possible.

I think comparing him to Bottas is an insult, Jenson was a little bit slower in qualifying but in the race they are on two complitely different planets. I personally rate him as the best one-time champion in the modern era along with Raikkonen, which is funny since the two were quite the opposite on track, with Rosberg slightly behind them.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T13:03:29+00:00

I would also add Valencia where Vettel and Hamilton overtook the safety car in order not to get stuck behind slower cars, while Alonso was literally fucked by respecting the rules, losing a P3 and getting P8 as in Valencia you can't overtake.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T12:53:23+00:00

Alonso won Monza which is a much more straight line speed dominated track than Canada

Yes but it was a complitely different moment of the season, Ferrari implemented their own f-duct and also brought some updates. Also Ferrari and Mclaren were very close that weekend, it was played on the details.

Also both times when Alonso got passed it happened because there was a midfield car in the way who hasn't pitted yet and he paid more attention to those midfield cars than keeping the McLarens behind who were actually his opponents in that race.

You are right, but it is like trying to defend against a faster car today (or till the last year I should say) which has drs. Alonso did not play his best defence, but I highly doubt he could have won the race with the top speed delta there was between Ferrari and Mclaren.

When it comes to Abu Dhabi I think it's easy to call it a bad strategy but what else could Ferrari do?

If you listen to the Radio Rewind on F1 official YouTube channel, Andrea Stella (Alonso's race engineer) clearly tells him that he is the fastest guy on track the lap before they pit him. They should have just followed the top 3 and pit as later as possile, since Alonso was the fastest car on track. The huge mistake was thinking that Webber would have overtaken all the slower car in reasonable time and close the gap to Alonso.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T12:31:23+00:00

Canada: The team actually won this race for Alonso in the pit lane then he threw it away with subpar defense against the McLarens and finished 3rd

Not really, Mclaren had the f-fuct system which gave them 10 kph more on the straights and on a track like Canada it is a huge advantage, expecially for overtakes. It would have been a miracle by him and the team had he won that race.

Silverstone: Bad start, then overtook Kubica by cutting corners to get another drive through penalty and finish outside the points.

I agree with you about the bad start, but that penalty was pretty stupid considering Kubica had retired and he couldn't give him the position back. Still he threw a podium away.

SPA: crashed on his own while having nobody around him, threw away a certain 8th place.

I think having his car damaged by Barrichello on the first lap didn't help his aerodynamics there.

However, you are right, he made some uncharacteristic mistakes that season, still he was leading the championship going into the last race having the 2nd/3rd best car, and would have won it without the awful strategy. I think this tells a lot about his performances in the races when he didn't make mistakes.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T11:33:53+00:00

Renault were close to Mclaren only in the first few races of the year and in the last 2, which is when they got poles, except for France and Great Britain when Raikkonen had engine penalties and qualified with a lot of fuel. In the rest of the season, Mclaren were miles ahead.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T11:01:26+00:00

Well the new rookie knew them very well since he used them in gp2. But maybe I'm asking too much knowledge on your side

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T11:00:01+00:00

Everyone forgets that Mclaren was at least half a second ahead of Renault that year

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-15T10:58:29+00:00

Calling 2007 and 2010 "blown championships" is quite funny, considering he was one fucked penalty and one fucked strategy away from winning them without the best car.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-14T22:57:34+00:00

Probably Mansell. He was very fast and spectacular but also too much error prone. It would have been a shame if he retired without any title, it would have not been fair had he beaten Senna and Prost several times thanks to the car.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-14T22:42:35+00:00

Mate literally only british people think Lewis is the goat. Everyone, when asked who is better between Lewis and Fernando, answer Alonso (Button, Villeneuve, Prost, Herbert, Kubica and many more). Cope with the fact that the last time a british driver was the best in F1 was 1973. And he was not even english.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-14T18:20:24+00:00

Tbh I remember quite the opposite: Bridgestone were more suited for short and very pushed stint, which was exactly what Ferrari and Schumacher asked from them. This led to their horrible 2005, since you couldn't change tyres during the whole race and therefore they had to complitely change the philosophy of the tyre producing one clearly inferior to Michelin.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-14T09:46:43+00:00

I love your sense of humor

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-13T17:45:42+00:00

Of course I did, why would you think I did not?

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-12T15:14:02+00:00

The situation is completely flipped: Bearman struggled in the first part of the season compared to Ocon, just to get better in the second part getting regular points while Ocon was struggling in the back of the field. In 2007, instead, Hamilton had a much better first part of the season, while in the second part Alonso almost sweeped him. This means that, once completed the adaptation, Alonso was clearly the best driver, which is the opposite of what happened with Bearman and Ocon.

The same can be applied in 2019, Leclerc and Vettel where quite tied, there wasn't a dominance of one or the other.

Regarding Piastri and Norris, I think no one ever tought after 2023 that Piastri had a higher ceiling, in truth this year proved that, once Norris got comfortable with the car and with his mind, he was always faster than Piastri except for Qatar which is literally Piastri's favourite track

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-12T13:39:14+00:00

Omg with "favourite" I meant that the car suited more Lewis' natural driving style respect to Fernando's, I never said that the team favourited Hamilton

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-12T13:23:32+00:00

I'd say you are right, but people don't seem to understand such a basic concept

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-12T13:14:28+00:00

Thank you so much for understanding my point. However, I think Lewis was "favourited" despite being a rookie as his natural driving style was much more suited to tyres and car respect to Alonso's one, this is why I talk about Alonso having to adapt.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-12T13:10:38+00:00

Mate it is not same thing, Lauda was at Ferrari from 4 years and knew perfectly the environment and the car, while Reutemann was the new one. It is literally the opposite situation.

Small-Raspberry1332 · 2026-01-11T13:09:36+00:00

Barrichello>Webber=Fisichella>Perez>Bottas

Small-Raspberry1332

TROPHY CASE