Why Ayrton Senna Was Brilliant, Sam Posey's Take

When debating who was the greatest driver to ever race in Formula One, a few names come to mind: Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari and Ayrton Senna are favorites among fans and racing drivers alike. Of course, it's difficult to compare a certain generation's driver from another's because the circumstances were different, but most people pick Senna as the best the sport had to offer. One reason F1 fans regard the Brazilian as the top racing driver that ever lived is because Senna had an exceptional talent at going mind-blowingly fast.

During his time at McLaren, Senna was outqualifying the great Alain Prost by unheard of margins. What happened at the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix beggars belief: the margin between the two giants was a scarcely believable one and a half seconds. In ten years of Formula 1 racing, he took 65 pole positions and three world titles. How did he do these things?

Sam Posey, a former racing driver that competed for the Surtees team in the '70s, has some opinions on the subject:

• Senna was using all of the track's surface by driving closer to the safety barriers than any other driver of its era. That gave him a more faster and comfortable line to prepare for corner entry.

• Watching onboard footage from the Brazilian's car, Sam indentified he had an unusual approach at turning his McLaren in certain corners by flicking the steering wheel as he passed the apex. Because the car didn't travel a constant radius arc, it seemed the vehicle was bending round the guard rails. This mid-corner correction allowed him to improve his corner exit and overall lap times.

• In the rain, Senna was king. He had a sixth sense of where the grip on the track was before he even turned the corner, pushing the limits of physics without losing the back of his car. The 1993 European Grand Prix is a great example of Senna's talented driving in the rain. On this occassion, he passed five cars on the first lap with an inferior McLaren.

Press play on the video below to see what made Ayrton Senna so great at going fast.