- 13 Sep 06, 19:07#2089It's the other way round sonic: because MS was around and so dominant with his talent, no other driver could flourish and we (wrongly) perceive that there was no challenger around. He was simply driving in his own class. Take out MS for the past 15 years and we'd be gushing about what great drivers MH, DH, JV, even RB and JPM and KR and FA are and we would be comparing them to Mansell, Piquet, Prost, and Senna because they'd have won all the races MS won and they would have pushed each other in great duels. Alas, MS was so overpowering that their performances simply paled in view of his genius. He beat all the great drivers in an inferior car incl. Senna, when driver aids were something for the future. He transitioned into the modern way of F1 quite easily and left his mark for generations. Put a KR or FA in a '94 Benetton and they'd look like quacking ducks!
What you are saying basically is that F1 for the past 15 years couldn't produce somebody of the caliber of Prost or Senna or Mansell or Piquet to challenge MS. That is VERY unlikely looking at the history of F1 and knowing that all teams and drivers are success-driven (plus the pool of potential drivers to draw from must have increased, what? 10 fold in the past 10 years). No, I'd say we have seen drivers of that kind of caliber, but they couldn't shine because MS overshaddowed them so utterly. This is one rationale for me to label him the greatest driver ever, well ahead of the likes of Prost and Senna and Fangio.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
