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SENNA, THE FASTEST IN F1
Senna's "flying" lap in Monaco 1988
You may not like Senna... or not think he was the best... because that's a matter of opinion. But in terms of "pure speed" in a single lap, the Brazilian was undoubtedly the fastest in F1 history.
His percentages of poles, starts on the first row of the grid and comparisons with his teammates are the highest in Modern F1. These percentages show how extraordinary he was in a single lap, taking pole a few times with cars that weren't the best.
PENCENTUALS AND DOMINANCE IN TRAINING
Percentages of poles per race in Modern F1 (after 1968)
Senna 40%
Hamilton 29%
Schumacher 22% (27% before returning to F1 in 2010)
Vettel, Leclerc, Verstappen 19%
Prost, Stewart, Mansell, Rindt and D Hill 17%
Hakkinen 16%
Hunt and Nico Rosberg 15%
In terms of number of poles, Senna (65) is second only to Hamilton (104) and Schumacher (68), but these two drivers had cars in 10 seasons capable of competing for the title and ran a much greater number of races than Senna.
Percentage of starts on the 1st row per race in Modern F1 (after 1968)
Senna 55%
Hamilton 49%
Prost 43%
Stewart 42%
D Hill 39%
Schumacher 38% (47% before returning to F1 in 2010)
Verstappen 35%
Vettel 34%
This percentage for Senna is extremely high, only compared to the percentages for Fangio, Clark and Ascari, who raced at a time when the top 3 placed people started on the 1st row and after 1972 there were only 2 first place finishers.
Percentage of starts ahead of teammate (among world champions)
Hunt 94%
Senna 89%
Fangio 86%
Clark 83%
Stewart 77%
Surtees 76%
Verstappen and Schumacher 75% (86% before returning to F1 in 2010)
Ascari, Keke Rosberg and Alonso 74%
Piquet 72%
Hakkinen and Rindt 71%
Prost and Fittipaldi 67%
Vettel 66%
Hamilton 62%
G Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Button and Nico Rosberg 60%
Jones 59%
Andretti and Brabham 58%
Lauda 54%
Raikkonen 53%
Mansell 49%
Scheckter 45%
Damon Hill 44%
Senna is second only to James Hunt (94%) in the percentage of starts ahead of his teammate, but the Englishman has an advantage because he had teammates who were technically weak or at the beginning of their careers such as: Ian Scheckter, Torsten Palm, Harard Hrtl, Brad Lunger , Jochen Mass, Patrick Tambay, Gilles Villeneuve (in one race), Bruno Giacomelli.
What is surprising about the Brazilian's percentage is that he had 5 well qualified teammates who had already taken pole (or would take pole) in F1: De Angelis, Prost, Berger, Hakkinen and Hill and he was only beaten 18 times out of 10 years of F1.
Percentage that the driver was beaten in races by his teammate under normal conditions
Fangio 2%
Senna 3%
Clark e Fittipaldi 4%
Surtees, Rindt e Hunt 5%
Verstappen 6%
Moss, Gurney, Stewart, Peterson e Piquet 7%
Jones 8%
Keke Rosberg, Hakkinen, Alonso 9%
Andretti, Mansell, Schumacher 10%
Lauda 11%
Prost 12%
Graham Hill 13%
Damon Hill, Vettel, Russell 16%
Hamilton 17%
Brabham e Button 18%
Scheckter, Jacques Villeneuve Leclerc 19%
Ascari 21%
Hulme 24%
Nico Rosberg 27%
Phill Hill 44%
Hawthorn 47%
Senna was only beaten 4 times in races under normal conditions and in percentage terms he is only below FANGIO. Normal conditions are those not arising from abandonment, car problems, long pit stops, team orders, punishment, etc.
Dominance in qualifyings
After Juan Manuel Fangio (17 times), Senna (10 times) was the driver who managed to be at least 1 second faster than the 2nd-place driver on the grid. Of course, in today's F1, this is inconceivable, because of the closer level between drivers and the study of telemetry, which also helps to shorten this difference between them.
USA 1985, 1989, 1991
Monaco 1988, 1989
Germany 1989
Italy 1989
Japan 1989
Hungary 1991
Belgium 1991
BEGINNING IN KART
Ayrton Senna is credited with the technique of "carbureting" the kart when approaching curves, the aim is to enrich the fuel mixture and improve speed recovery. This technique was widely used by other kartists around the world.
Senna was four-time Brazilian champion (78/79/80/81), four-time South American karting champion (76/77/78/80) and was respected in world karting. Angelo Parilla, owner of the Parilla team, recognized Ayrton Senna and Terry Fullerton (1973 world champion) as the best kartists in the world at that time and went so far as to say that Senna had something different from other drivers.
In 1978 in Le Mans (France), he went to race in the karting world championship and won 2 heats and was competing for the title but beat the Englishman Mickey Allen in one of the final heats, losing the chance to be champion. He came in 6th place, but was voted revelation of the year. (Source: Ayrton Senna do Brasil by Francisco Santos pg 18)
In 1979 in Estoril (Portugal), Senna won 5 heats, but fate did not want him to be the champion. In a semifinal heat, Fullerton broke the engine in front of Senna and this made the Brazilian finish in 8th place. In one of the final heats, Senna let his teammate Peter Koene win, as he did not know that the championship's tiebreaker criteria had changed that year (Statement by Peter de Bruijn - Racing Magazine February and March 2004 pg 14) and by the previous criteria , Ayrton would be the champion. Senna and Bruijn were TIED FOR POINTS, but according to the new tiebreaker criteria, taking into account 8th place in the semi-final, Senna was in second place. (Source: Ayrton Senna from Brazil by Francisco Santos pg 18 and 19) Brazilian Mário Sérgio de Carvalho, Senna's opponent in Brazil, finished in 7th place.
In 1980 in Nivelles (Belgium), Senna had a chance of winning the world kart championship with Peter de Bruijn, in the final heat the Dutchman beat the Brazilian when he was in 2nd place. Senna tried to make a complaint, without success, as the DAP team boss (Bruno Brunetti) could not do so because he was not Brazilian and the Brazilian Team Boss was not on the track that day. Senna finished runner-up. (Source: Ayrton Senna Saudade de Francisco Santos pg 26 and 27) It was at this World Cup that young Michael Schumacher, aged 11, saw Senna race and became a fan of the Brazilian.
In 1981 in Parma (Italy), they changed the regulations for kart engines to 135cc. His kart was prepared with a 127cc engine, but he competed anyway. Taking into account the engine lag he had a great performance, placing 4th overall, whoever saw him race said it was Senna's best performance in karting. (Source: Ayrton Senna do Brasil by Francisco Santos pg 19)
Senna in the Kart World Championship
F FORD 1600 AND 2000
In 1981 and 1982, Senna was champion of the F Ford 1600 for Ralph Firmin's Van Diemen team and the F Ford 2000 for the Rushen Green Racing team, winning 34 of the 47 races in these two years. That same year he tested an F3 car from Eddie Jordan's team for the first time and was faster than the team's official driver, James Weaver (Source: Book The Face of a Genius by Christopher Hilton pg 52).
On April 9, 1982, in the F Ford 2000, Senna won a race in Snetterton without the front brakes, this was confirmed by the mechanics of his team at the time and by Maurício Gugelmin who was at the circuit that day.
Source: Canal Enerto Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZllP9PLOIJ0 and Book "Face of a Genius" by Christopher Hilton pg 45.
FORMULA 3 AND FIRST TEST IN F1
In 1983, Senna was British F3 champion with Dick Benetts' West Surrey Racing team, with 13 victories in the year and a record of 9 consecutive victories. After its 9th victory, the Italian F3 engine supplier, Nova Motor, began to supply a more advanced engine for Martin Brundle's car from the Eddie Jordan Racing team, without Senna's team knowing, until the penultimate race of the year. . (Source: The Face of a Genius by Christopher Hilton pg 66 and 77)
CURIOSITY: In English F3 the races took place in the cold and whoever heated the engine oil first had an advantage over the others. In the last race of the year, Senna placed a tape over the oil cooler inlet, and this meant that during the race, he would have to take off his seat belt, move backwards to remove the oil tape, without losing control. of the car. In the last race of the year, he did this and won the race. (Source: The Face of a Genius pg 80)
This year he tested Williams, McLaren and Toleman in F1, going faster than the official drivers of these teams. Frank Williams said at the time: "He had an excellent result. I confess that I have never seen a driver adapt so quickly to a car, which is totally different to anything he had driven before."
At the end of 1983, Senna went to test the Brabham and took 2s of Piquet. Knowing that Piquet had bet 100 thousand pounds with Bernie Ecclestone that no one would beat his time, it is quite possible that Piquet used his "tricks". Nelson got in the car and ran 1:05.90. Then came: Mauro Baldi (1:07.80), Ayrton Senna (1:07.90), Roberto Guerrero (1:08.70) and Pierluigi Di Martini (1:08.90). Very strange that the four drivers were 2 to 3 s slower than Nelson Piquet.
O Globo newspaper 07/20/1983 pg 22
TOLEMAN
In 1984 for Toleman, he was on average 1.7s faster than his teammate Johnny Cecotto (in 6 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than him), who was a two-time motorcycle world champion and was considered a good driver. Then with Stefan Johansson he was 1.0s faster in practice at the Portuguese GP, without considering the European GP in which the Swede had problems (a very small sample size). That year he achieved 3 podiums and was ahead of Nigel Mansell in Lotus, a surprising result.
CELEBRITY RACE (MERCEDES 190 E)
That same year, Senna won the Celebrity Race with a Mercedes 190E (street car with 186 HP). In training, Senna finished second, behind only Alain Prost, but Niki Lauda complained that Senna's car was better, and the event organizers replaced the Brazilian's car with the Austrian's. (*) In the race, even with a changed car, Senna defeated all the F1 medalists (Lauda, Prost, Hunt, Hulme, Brabham, Scheckter, Rosberg, Surtees, Reutemann, Jones, Laffite, De Angelis, etc.), under a light rain. Detail: the Brazilian had never raced in a Touring car.
(*) Source: Canal Automobilismo Brasil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHReztm6EDA&t=818s
PORSCHE 956C
In 1984 Senna raced in the Sport Protótipo in the Porsche 956 C in the 1000 km of Nurburgring, a race valid for the World Endurance Championship (WEC- Wolrd Endurence Championship). On a wet track he had the 7th best time among all the drivers of all the cars that would compete in the race. As the grid order was the average of the times of Senna and his companions (Pescarolo and Johansson), his car ended up starting in 9th place. During the race, the Joest Racing team car had a clutch problem and was stopped in the pits for 15 minutes, but came in a good 8th place, taking into account the time lost.
“Senna’s behavior in my team’s Porsche 956 C at the Nurburgring was simply exuberant, divine. After seven laps behind the wheel of a car that was completely unknown, in a new category for him, Ayrton caught everyone on the track in the 65 laps in which he drove the New Man car, a Porsche from the Joest team, he was simply the fastest on the track , beating gentlemen of these cars that are known by the names of Bellof, Mass, Ickx, Bell, Surer, Johansson, Pescarolo, Winkelhock, Boutsen, Wollek, Patrese and others.” (Yearbook Francisco Santos 1984 pg 66)
The head of the Porsche team praised Senna a lot, saying that he was quick right away, and said that Senna felt that the car was understeering too much. The Brazilian spent 4 hours talking about the improvements to the car with the Team Manager, who created a dossier with 35 items to be improved. The following year, this same car with these improvements won the 1000 km of Nurburgring. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHReztm6EDA&t=818s (Source: Canal Automobilismo Brasil)
Senna in the Mercedes 190 E Senna in the Porsche 956 C
LOTUS
In 1985, he was on average 1.1s faster than De Angelis (in 9 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than him), destabilizing the Italian who began to believe that the Lotus team was conspiring against him and ended up leaving the team. In fact, Senna started as Lotus' second driver (he received outdated equipment compared to Elio De Angelis), but throughout the year the team had to give equal treatment to both.
In 1985, Senna could have competed for the title with Prost, the Brazilian led 270 laps, he was the driver who led the most races, but he had six breakdowns and two breakdowns, these problems happened five times when he was leading the race and took away a lot of points from him who were sorely missed in the championship.
In 1986 and 1987, he was on average 3.4s and 3.8s faster respectively than Johnny Dumfries and Satoru Nakajima in Lotus (in 31 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than them). We must point out that they were average drivers, but they were not bad drivers, as both had been champions in the youth categories. Dumfries was champion of English F3 85, Nakajima was five times champion of Japanese F2 and even qualified 3 times ahead of Piquet in 88 and 89 in Lotus.
MCLAREN
In 1988 and 1989, he was on average 0.6s faster than Alain Prost (in 11 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than the Frenchman), who was considered the best F1 driver at the time, holding the record for victories in the F1 and that he had defeated all his teammates in training until 1988. The Frenchman argued that Honda favored Senna, but this was never true, as Honda engines were drawn in front of their respective chief mechanics. (Source: The Hero Revealed by Ernesto Rodrigues pg 261 and Interview by Ron Dennis, Jornal O Globo 04/29/2014 pg 31).
In 1989, Senna made some mistakes (Ing, Por and Aus), but still, he could have won the championship, if he hadn't had the 4 crashes (USA, Can, Fra and Ita), which took away around 33 points. . Prost only had one break (Can).
In 1990, 1991 and 1992, he was on average 0.7s faster than Berger (in 11 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than the Austrian). The Austrian was another very fast driver in training, he had defeated Teo Fabi 13x3 at Benetton, Michelle Alboreto 28x4 and drew 7x7 with the very fast Lion Nigel Mansell, the latter in Ferrari.
In 1993, he was on average 1.4s faster than Michael Andretti (in 8 qualifyings Senna was more than 1s faster than Andretti), remembering that the American driver was F Cart champion in 1991 and was considered at the time the best driver of this category. Still in 1993, Senna was on average 0.3s faster than Mika Hakkinen, even though three races was too small a sample to get a sense of how much faster Senna was.
CURIOSITY: In the 1993 Australian GP, Senna was 0.7s faster than the Finn in training and in the race in 12 laps, the Brazilian took 24 seconds off Mika Hakkinen, that is, on average he was an absurd 2s per lap faster than Mika .
Jo Ramirez worked with Senna during his 6 years at McLaren, he said that Senna could adapt his driving to any change and even to mechanical problems in the car, as happened in the GP Brasil 91, when he was only in 6th gear or in the GP South Africa 93, when he had to turn off the active suspension and the CT which were defective.
Senna at GP Portugal 1985
F CART
Interestingly, in December 1992 Senna tested Emerson Fittipaldi's Penske in the USA, in 15 laps he equaled Rato's time, then returned to the box, asked for changes to the car's suspension and ended the training session running faster than Fittipaldi (see below reproduction of Roger Penske's time sheet).
Senna at GP Europa 1993
Senna took a test at Penske in 1992
WILLIAMS
In 1994, the Williams was a good car, but it had problems with cornering stability. Still he took 3 poles, being on average 0.9s faster than Hill. This difference would have been greater if Senna had not taken the wheel off the track twice in his flying lap at the 94 GP Pacific and if he had entered the track in the Saturday practice at the 94 San Marino GP, because in the Friday practice he had been 1.7s faster than Hill.
Senna was the fastest driver in F1 history in qualifying. The Brazilian understood the technical part of the car and had the ability to drive at the limit in any conditions (dry, rain, street circuit or high speed), in addition to having an above average power of concentration. (*) He managed to take pole in cars that would normally start in the 2nd or 3rd rows of the grid.
(*) Source: Interview by Gerhard Berger CANAL ENERTO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT_yvZvDDCo
His driving level was so high that it destabilized his teammates, as happened with Cecotto, De Angelis and Prost. Alain Prost took the opportunity to manipulate the press and public opinion, saying that Honda benefited Senna. Damon Hill was also destabilized, but luckily for the Englishman Senna died, and comparisons between the two could no longer be made.
Jo Ramirez said in an interview that Schumacher would never be able to beat Senna's pole position record if the Brazilian were alive. And he is right to say that. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuiiAAf14gQ (CANAL ENERTO)
RACING IN RAIN
Senna is the 2nd driver of all time with the highest percentage of victories in the rain per race contested, only behind Fangio. This shows that in wet track conditions, the Brazilian was also one of the fastest in history:
Fangio (6 out of 8) 75%
Senna (13 out of 21) 62%
Ascari (4 out of 8) 50%
Moss (3 out of 7) 45%
Schumacher (19 out of 51) 36,5%
Hamilton (16 out of 44) 36,4%
Verstappen (8 out of 22) 36,4%
Clark (3 out of 12) 25%
D Hill (5 out of 21) 24%
Stewart (3 out of 15) 20%
Hunt (3 out of 15) 20%
Ickx (3 out of 16) 20%
Brabham (3 out of 17) 18%
Fittipaldi (3 out of 21) 15%
Button (6 out of 43) 14,0%
Reutemann (3 out of 23) 13%
Piquet (3 out of 24) 12,5%
Mansell (3 out of 26) 11,5%
G Hill (3 out of 30) 10%
COMPARISON FANGIO, CLARK, SCHUMACHER, VERSTAPPEN AND SENNA IN QUALIFYINGS
Fangio started in front of Stirling Moss 6 times in 7 races, an average of 85.70%, where Fangio was on average 0.3s faster than Moss, and the Englishman was a destroyer of teammates, it is clear that Fangio was a one of the fastest in a launched lap.
Jim Clark started in front of Graham Hill 9 times in 12 races, an average of 75.0%, where Clark on average was 0.5s faster than Hill, who was an excellent driver, it is clear that Clark was one of the fastest in a thrown back.
Schumacher started in front of Barrichello 80 times in 104 races, an average of 77.0%, where Schumacher on average was 0.4s faster than Barrichello, who was a very good driver, it is clear that Schumacher was one of the fastest in a lap launched.
Verstappen was faster than Perez 81 times in 90 qualifyings, an average of 90% (77 x 13 in starts), where Verstappen on average was 0.5s faster than Perez, who of all the teammates mentioned here is by far the weakest, regardless of this it is clear that Verstappen was one of the fastest on a lap.
Senna started in front of Prost 28 times in 32 races, an average of 87.5%, where Senna was on average 0.6s faster than Prost. Taking into account that Prost was a destroyer of teammates, defeated 3 world champions within his teams, and was one of the greatest geniuses in F1, everything indicates that Senna was the FASTEST driver in F1 in a lap.
Senna's average difference to his teammates:
Senna:
Nakajima (3.8s faster)
Dumfries (3.4s faster)
Cecotto (1.7s faster)
Andretti (1.4s faster)
De Angelis (1.1s faster)
Johansson (1.0s faster) not counting the European GP 84. (*)
Damon Hill (0.9s faster) (*)
Berger (0.7s faster)
Prost (0.6s faster)
Hakkinen (0.3s faster) (*)
(*) Hakkinen, Hill and Johansson were Senna's teammates in just 3 races, in a very small sample. If they ran more races their difference to Senna would be greater.
Average difference from other "Speed Kings" to their companions
Fangio:
Collins and Kling (2.2s faster)
Castelotti (1.6s faster)
Farina (1.2s faster)
Gonzalez (0.8s faster)
Moss (0.3s faster)
Clark:
Taylor (3.1s faster)
Arundell (1.9s faster)
Spence (1.6s faster)
Brabham (0.9s faster)
Graham Hill (0.5s faster)
Ireland (0.2s SLOWER)
Stewart:
Beltoise (3.4s faster)
Cevert (1,3s faster)
Spence (0.8s faster)
Amon (0.5s faster)
Graham Hill (0.3s SLOWER)
Hunt:
Mass (1.2s faster)
Gilles Villeneuve (0.9s faster)
Jones (0.8s faster)
Tambay (0.5s faster)
Gilles Villeneuve:
Pironi (0.7s Pironi)
Scheckter (0.2 faster)
Reutemann (0.5s SLOWER)
Hunt (0.9s SLOWER)
Prost:
Johansson (1.5s faster)
Lauda (1.3s faster)
Cheever (0.8s faster)
Watson (0.7s faster)
Damon Hill (0.5s faster)
Keke Rosberg and Alesi (0.3s faster)
Arnoux (0.2s faster)
Mansell (0.1s faster)
Senna (0.6s SLOWER)
Mansell:
Patrese (0.6s faster)
Piquet (0.3s faster) (*)
Berger (0.1s faster)
Damon Hill (tie)
Prost (0.1s SLOWER)
Keke Rosberg (0.1s SLOWER)
De Angelis and Hakkinen (0.6s SLOWER)
(*) Piquet got slower after the accident of San Marino 87.
Schumacher:
Lehto (2.2s faster)
Jos Verstappen (1.9s fastest)
Herbert (1.2s faster)
Patrese and Brundle (1.0s faster) (*)
Irvine (0.7s faster)
Barrichello and Massa (0.4s faster)
Piquet (0.3s faster) (*)
Nico Rosberg (0.2s slower) (**)
(*) Piquet and Patrese were at the end of their careers.
(**) Schumacher was already 41 years old.
Hakkinen:
Blundell (1.2s faster)
Brundle (0.8s faster)
Mansell (0.6s faster) (*)
Coulthard (0.2s faster)
Herbert (tie)
Senna (0.3s SLOWER)
(*) Mansell was at the end of his career.
Hamilton:
Kovalainen (0.3s faster)
Button and Bottas (0.2s faster)
Nico Rosberg (0.1s faster)
Alonso and Russell (tie)
Verstappen:
Lawson (0,8s faster)
Albon and Perez (0.5s faster)
Gasly (0.4s faster)
Ricciardo (0.1s faster)
Sainz (0.1s SLOWER) (*)
(*) Begin of carreer.
TEST AT PENSKE IN DECEMBER 1992
In December 1992, Senna took a test drive at Emerson Fittipaldi's Penske. Fittipaldi ran in 49.7s and Senna soon after ran in 49.12s. This information was taken from the video about Senna's test, at the moment that Roger Penske's Spreadsheet for the day of the test appears.
RANKING OF THE FASTEST BY AMAZON
In 2020, a mathematical analysis was carried out by Amazon Web Services, which analyzed the times of several F1 drivers from 1983 to the present day, to find out who was the FASTEST. The result reasonably corroborates what is reported on this page, with a few exceptions.
Here on the TUDOSOBREFORMULA1 website there is a "SPEED RANKING" page, where I did the same calculation, but with a slightly different methodology. The result I found reasonably corroborates the data from Amazon Research, including the first 4 drivers on the Amazon list exactly matching the list of the Speed Ranking on the "Training Performance" page.
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EXPLAINING AMAZON AI ON F1’S FASTEST DRIVERS
Amazon’s AI has chosen the fastest drivers in F1 by analyzing the results of every qualifying session since 1983, removing outliers and normalizing the data to create a complex network of driver results. Each driver was also analyzed relative to their teammates.
Using an algorithm from Amazon’s Machine Learning Solutions Lab, it is possible to measure a driver’s own “speed” based on data.
A team led by Formula 1’s Director of Data Systems Rob Smedley, Director of Broadcast and Media Dean Locke, and Chief Scientist and Senior Manager of the Amazon ML Solutions Lab Dr. Priya Ponnapalli, found ways to detect variables. These include accidents, car breakdowns or changes in weather conditions. Thanks to their isolation, it was possible to create a ranking that both F1 and Amazon consider truly fair.