Sebastian Vettel\u2019s win at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix was a historic moment: it was the German\u2019s 41st victory in motorsports\u2019 main category, equaling the feat achieved by Senna in 1993. Ahead of both drivers, in a number of wins, we find two great F1 champions: Alain Prost (with 51) and Michael Schumacher (91).<\/p>\n
Obviously, the cold nature of numbers must be put into perspective when comparing drivers from two distinct times \u2013 which explains, for instance, the fact that Senna was voted the best of all time by specialists, despite his statistics being technically inferior to Schumacher\u2019s.<\/p>\n
But the fact that Senna\u2019s and Vettel\u2019s number are very similar remains. Both drivers\u2019 fearless styles and successful careers invite some comparisons, even though Senna\u2019s F1, back in the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s, was very different from Vettel\u2019s current one.<\/p>\n
Both drivers started relatively early in the category. But Senna was 24 years 4 days old when he debuted at the 1984 Brazilian GP, which would make him actually old, by today\u2019s standards, considering that, in 2015, 17-year\u2013old Max Verstappen competed in a F1 GP, setting a new record for young age.<\/p>\n
Vettel raced in F1 for the first time when he was 19 years and 349 days old, with BMW Sauber, in the 2007 United States GP. Soon after, he\u2019d complete that season\u2019s second half as a Toro Rosso driver.<\/p>\n
The Italian team, just like Senna\u2019s Toleman, was nowhere near the front of the starting grid, but allowed the talented young driver to show the world what he was made of in a rainy race, as Senna did in Monaco 1984. Vettel\u2019s landmark race was the 2008 Monza Grand Prix, in which he beat his own main team, Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n
That would be another similarity between the two drivers if the Monte Carlo race hadn\u2019t been interrupted in a controversial decision, leaving Senna with the second place. Nevertheless, the Brazilian\u2019s first win, statistically speaking, came before: Senna won his 16th Grand Prix, also in the rain, at Estoril, while Vettel only had that honor after 22 starts.<\/p>\n
The German, however, set a new precocity record by being the youngest GP winner ever, at 21 years and two months of age \u2013 beating another F1 great, Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n
Another coincidence: the partnership between Senna and McLaren yielded historic achievements. In a four-year period, from 1988 to 1991, the Brazilian won four world titles \u2013 not to mention the controversial decision in Japan 1989 that prevented him from picking up a possible fourth trophy.<\/p>\n
Vettel and Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, ruled F1 from 2010 to 2013, winning four titles in four seasons. Unlike Senna, who had two-time world champion Alain Prost as a teammate for two years, the German\u2019s teammate was Mark Webber (not that it was easy sharing a team with the Australian, since a few discussions and even accidents occurred).<\/p>\n
Vettel\u2019s appetite for pole positions is also reminiscent of Senna\u2019s style \u2013 so much so that he holds the record of 15 poles in a single season, 2011. Obviously, that feat would be much harder in Senna\u2019s time, since there were just 16 races per year, versus 19 or 20, nowadays.<\/p>\n
But the Brazilian held the record for a while, by scoring 13 poles in the 1988 and 1999 championships. Senna\u2019s overall number of pole positions is still way ahead of the German\u2019s: 65 against the current Ferrari driver\u2019s 45.<\/p>\n
Take a look at a few records and statistics from both drivers\u2019 careers, and note the many similarities between Senna\u2019s 161 GPs and Vettel\u2019s 149.
\nGPs 161 Senna X 149 Vettel * (up until Hungary. By the end of the year, Vettel will have 158)
\nWins: 41 Senna X 41 Vettel
\nGrand Chelem (hat trick + start to finish): 4 Senna x 4 Vettel
\nTitles: 4 Vettel X 3 Senna
\nMost pole positions in a single year: 15 Vettel (2011) X Senna 13 (1988 and 1989)
\nHat trick (pole, win, fastest lap): 8 Vettel X 7 Senna
\nPoles: 65 Senna X 45 Vettel
\nStart to finish wins: 19 Senna X 12 Vettel
\nWins from pole position: 29 Senna X 27 Vettel
\nWins in driver\u2019s own country: 2 Senna (91-93) X 1 Vettel (2013)
\nPodiums: 80 Senna X 73 Vettel
\nGPs before first win: 16 Senna X 22 Vettel
\nGPs before first pole: 15 Senna X 21 Vettel
\nMost poles in a row: 8 Senna (1988\/89) X 5 Vettel (2010\/2011 e 2011)
\nConsecutive wins at the same GP: 5 Senna (M\u00f4naco 89 a 93) X 3 Vettel\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sebastian Vettel\u2019s win at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix was a historic moment: it was the German\u2019s 41st victory in motorsports\u2019 main category, equaling the feat achieved by Senna in 1993. Ahead of both drivers, in a number of wins, we find two great F1 champions: Alain Prost (with 51) and Michael Schumacher (91). Obviously, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novidades","category-senna-na-midia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}