All sports love to pay tribute to the idea of the self-effacing “team player,” but if you look at the ranks for Formula 1’s most successful drivers, a lot of them had mixed reputations. Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, and Fernando Alonso were as easily regarded as unscrupulous villains as dominant talents. Meanwhile, “company men” like Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa are mostly remembered for getting pushed around by their more famous teammates. F1 may be a team sport, but there can only be one champion, and nobody has gotten there more than once by being polite about it.
What an excellent read. I immediatly texted my brother and advised him to check out the new F1 game after finishing this piece. Thank you for writing this.
Fantastic article, I’m sure it wasn’t easy to write, teetering between audiences.
Funny bit about Jacques Villeneuve because when he captured pole position at Spa 1996 as a rookie, he said he was able to do it because he practiced on a computer game
Anyway I honestly think Schumacher’s ruthlessness continues to be overstated, having watched his entire Ferrari career and most of the Benetton years. He had 2 huge moments at season finales which decided World Championships but apart from that, I can’t remember much else which was even marginal. One time vs. Hakkinen at the Argentine GP, Mika was rejoining the track slowly when Schumacher was at full stride. Loews hairpin vs Alesi could have been avoided though it’s next to impossible to overtake in Monaco, especially in those days.
