From: b617zbb@utarlg.uta.edu (George M. Smiley)
Subject: Re: Senna and Me...
NewsSoftware: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Fire Ron Dennis NOW
NntpPostingHost: utarlg.uta.edu
MessageID: <27JUL199213512784@utarlg.uta.edu>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 18:51:00 GMT
X-Bytes: 3952

In article <92209.095111JFS10@psuvm.psu.edu>, Jonathan Swaby <JFS10@psuvm.psu.edu> writes...
>In article <5133@transfer.stratus.com>, pr@last.pubs.stratus.com (Paul Ryan)
>says:
> 
>>Senna may retire for the rest of the season "rather than risk my life to
>>finish third", because he doesn't have a competetive car.
>If you were paying me $12 million a season, how would you feel if
>I did not give it my all? I realize that he is risking his life, but
>he did sign a contract.

He only said he might sit out next season rather than drive for a 
team for which he feels will finish no better than third. He never
said he would quit this season. There is a big difference.

> As for his car being competitive, he and
>his teammate are the only others who have scored wins this season.
>He held Patrese off for second .  Patrese never looked like he had
>the power to pass Senna. The car may not be the fastest, but it can win.
>Look at Canada and Monte Carlo. In Canada, both Williams cars went out.
>Mansell could not wait to pass Senna and made a bad mistake. At Monaco,
>luck handed Senna the victory, but he had to have a car that would
>was strong enough to hold mansell off. The McLaren/Honda may not be the
>best, but it can win.
> 

Not true, the car can not win on it's own merits, it was Senna who held up
Patrese and Mansell and it must of been awfully discouraging to have the
Williams shadow you lap after lap inches from your gearbox when if the
order was reversed the Williams would be rapidly pulling away.

> 
>>I can understand that, and actually feel the same way myself. I'm not
>>driving this year because no one offered me a competitive ride...
>Just imagine what team sports would be like if the players had this
>attitude. Erik Dickerson may never have played. Along with him we
>would see players like Walter Payton, Dick Butkus, O.J. Simpson and
>Steve Largent to name a few. These guys played on some losing teams, but
>loved the sport to much to sit out. I would love to race, I don't
>care whether I had a chance to win or not. I have played soccer since
>I was about 8, so for the last 20 years. I ve played on teams that
>never won and teams that never lost. Never did I stop playing. It was
>all fun. Yes even losing was ok. I learned a lot about soccer on those
>losing teams. I tried things that I never would have tried.

That is not a valid comparison at all. In other team sports there is a
1 on 1 battle for victory, one team loses the other wins, in F1 it is
a 1 vs. 26 battle, only one driver wins. Imagine how you and your team
would feel if you never won a single game except when the opposing
team dropped out. Your personal experience is on a amateur basis, things
rapidly become more business like when money becomes involved. I think it
is a testament to Senna's desire to win that he would rather wait for
a great ride rather than show up and collect millions for being fourth
or fifth.


>>But I've always been this way. When I was a little kid, if I wasn't
>>winning at baseball, I used to take my ball and go home...
>Well when you grow older you realize that winning is not everything.
>At $12 million a year I would not mind a losing season or two. I
>certainly would not give up. He may not think he has something to prove
>but I think he does. Can he do it with having the best car. Can he
>make a 2nd or 3rd place car into a winner.
> 
>Jonathan Swaby

You would make a terrible racing driver. It is all about winning by the
largest margin possible and if your car can't do it than go elsewhere
until you find one that can. Senna has nothing to prove to anyone, his
car wasn't the best last year and he still won, no one in all of the
history of motorsport could of beaten Mansell so far this year. He has been 
exploiting the advantages of the Williams to perfection and a Prost, Lauda,
Fangio, Stewart, Villeneuve or any other driver would be hard pressed to
do any better than Senna this year.

Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport