Quote:
Originally Posted by Knowlesy
Senna? 
Whilst his teammates pounded round the test track, he sat on the beach in Brazil. |
In his later career I'd agree, but in his formative years, he put in all the hours. It was his obsessiveness for de-briefs after tests, qualifying and races that marked him out as different.
When Senna joined Mclaren, Prost suddenly found himself staying behind hours so as not to miss anything that Senna and the engineers went through.
Ducarouge at Lotus, Michelins main man ( can't remember his name) Bryan Hart when he was at Toleman all experienced debriefs with Senna and 20 years later were still in awe of the man.
After his death, a programme on TV had interviews with different drivers. Jonathan Palmer was being interviewed about his time at Mclaren as a test driver.
He said the team would spend all winter testing the car and making changes constantly.
Senna would show up after his winter break and get in the car. Palmer gave an example of a sequence of corners at Silverstone which he compared the telemetry.
Senna would brake 10metres later than Palmer, carry more speed through the corner and be on the power 10 metres earlier.
In effect, on that one sequence of corners he had gained 0.2secs over Palmer.
So yes, Senna in his later years, and certainly after winning his championship, took time out to recharge, but he had the ability to step into a car and be on the limit and making changes already. No doubt Berger wasn't happy about this arrangement, but any test driver was no doubt more than happy to be driving every day.
If Senna had been present, just how many miles would a test driver be doing?