WI: Ayrton Senna Survives

So I watched the Senna documentary and one has to wonder, what if Senna walks away relatively unscathed from the 94 San Marino GP.

What does he do in formula 1, what does he do post career (given his noted philanthropy and his take on social issues in Brazil) and what is his overall legacy.
 
I feel Senna will probably not win the '94 championship, I felt like the Schumacher-Benneton combination was just too good that year.

I will think of him to retire around 1999-2000, after giving Damon Hill a run for his money for the '96 championship. I think he will win one or more championships before he retires and I feel like Senna will have a big time rivalry with Schumacher once he goes to Ferrari.

As for post career, I would not be surprised if he entered a career in politics. I feel like at the end of the day, Senna would be remembered as one of the best F1 drivers, probably more famous then in today's timeline, and probably a key force in Brazilian politics.
 

Ak-84

Banned
No way that he beats Schumacher. It required some very patriotic officials to even get Hill close in '94. Schumacher had a better car in '95. Senna might win in '96, if Schumacher goes to Ferrari as OTL.
 
What if he survives but as consequence of his brush with death, he doesn't push as hard as before, like supposedly has happened with Niki Lauda?

Will he fade away?
 
What if he survives but as consequence of his brush with death, he doesn't push as hard as before, like supposedly has happened with Niki Lauda?

Will he fade away?
I feel like he would, not wanting to happen to him like what happened to Gille Villeneuve in 1982, but he would still drive fierce...
 
One also wonders if Senna survives that accident, would he even STAY in Formula 1. Would he end up running in CART the late 1990's?
 
^ And on that front, would Senna at Penske make a difference for the split? Emmo did not approve of the split but toed the Penske line, something which did not make him (or Little Al or Paul Tracy) happy at all. Senna would NOT toe that line, and would the prospect of the moat famous racing driver in the world at the time being in his race make Tony George reconsider the IRL, or at least it's confrontational stance with CART?
 
What if he survives but as consequence of his brush with death, he doesn't push as hard as before, like supposedly has happened with Niki Lauda?

Will he fade away?
Not a chance. If anything, that might make him better: he wouldn't push when he didn't have to, & break the car doing it. That being true, he might end up being World Champion more times than Schumi, on the strength of better judgement.

OTOH, the question remains, how serious is the accident? It might be he's hurt so badly, he's never quite right again. It might also be he tries to come back too soon (which Graham Hill did AIUI) & so end up being slower than he could be; believing he's lost his edge, maybe he quits racing (also as Hill did), when, in fact, just waiting a bit longer would bring him back at 100%.

So "Senna lives" might just mean "Senna retires in '95", instead...
 
OTOH, the question remains, how serious is the accident?

Not serious at all. If the wheel that hit him had been a foot to the right then he would probably have spent half a minute catching his breath, and then hopped out feeling a bit sore but otherwise unhurt.

No way that he beats Schumacher. It required some very patriotic officials to even get Hill close in '94. Schumacher had a better car in '95. Senna might win in '96, if Schumacher goes to Ferrari as OTL.

Hill got close because Schumacher kept cheating and kept getting caught. Unfortunately he got away with it in Adelaide - if it had been Senna in the Williams then Schumacher might not have tried that stunt, and if he did then Williams would have protested strongly and Schumacher's face would probably have had an encounter with Senna's fist.
 
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