Vettel names his favourite Formula 1 rivalry
Sebastian Vettel names his favourite Formula 1 rivalry.
Sebastian Vettel has named Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna as his favourite Formula 1 rivalry – but one which would never happen in the sport nowadays.
Naturally as a youngster in Germany, Vettel grew up watching Michael Schumacher make himself the most successful driver in Formula 1 history at the time, winning his first two World Championships with Benetton and later becoming a Ferrari legend as he secured five titles in a row with the Scuderia.
“As a child, I was a big Michael fan and I think Michael fighting with Mika [Hakkinen], there were a couple of years that were very intense,” Vettel told the media at Imola when asked for his favourite Formula 1 rivalry.
Alain Prost took a convincing win at the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix 🏁
It included this move past his world championship rival, Ayrton Senna 👏#ImolaGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/JzBE9pOkLZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 15, 2021
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But ultimately it was not that rivalry he chose. Instead, he picked out the epic story of Senna and Prost who battled it out for title glory in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Vettel said that was a rivalry of the like Formula 1 would likely not see again due to the “hatred and bitterness”, especially off-track.
“Then obviously if you go through history there is the Senna vs Prost [rivalry] which is the obvious one, but I wasn’t really old enough to understand,” he continued.
“So of all time, it’s probably Senna and Prost because of the intensity and also because of the differences in characters. And I think it was a different time.
“Nowadays, the whole world has matured and even if you have different interests and different opinions, we have grown up as people to be able to talk to each other despite different views on certain things.
“But back then there was, I think, a certain intensity just because people were not as tolerant as they are today and probably not as mature.
“There was a lot of bitterness and hatred as well. So I think we have come a long way since then to maybe not have these intense fights anymore off the track.
“I think on the track, the fights are still very intense. But probably you will not see something like that anymore in the future, just because I think we have moved on and progressed.”
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