The Differences Between Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost & Nigel Mansell - Steve Nichols

Here are a few quick clips from the insightful interview with Steve Nichols.
This interview was created by ‪@JayEmmOnCars‬ so if you are interested in race car engineering and F1 then you will like the full video. You can view it here - • Steve Nichols: An Oral...
We are not here to simply copy the previous champions but we can always learn from them and understand how they achieved what they did.
Take from it what you can
Enzo
#senna #prost #mansell #f1 #interview #stevenichols

[@magoid]

The reason Senna became so obsessed with fine tuning his car, was because when he came to race karts in the UK, he encountered a older pilot that was whipping the floor with younger kids like him. Senna then learned that the reason he (Terry Fullerton) was so fast, was because he tuned his karts to perfection before the race. So Senna adopted the same mantra for the rest of his career.

[@EnzoMucci]

💯

[@dickieb2233]

Yeah, that's as maybe but Steve was really talking about Prost.

[@breatharian2009]

So interesting listening to Steve Nichols. The good old times when F1 was F1!

[@nutsackmania]

Theres an interview with Nige in a golf course where he said "this is what lifes all about...doing absolutely nothing."

[@EnzoMucci]

Yeah I saw that. Don’t get me wrong, Mansell worked like an ox in order to get to F1. He really made it happen. Everyone has their different approach once they get there.

[@Rodrigo-bv7uv]

These are my top 3 F1 drivers of all time: Alain Senna Nigel Prost Ayrton Mansell Prove me wrong.

[@azynkron]

No James Lauda? I'm disappoint.

[@celpabedn]

You live in their generation!

[@antmax]

When I was a kid in the early 90's, there was a driving game with drivers called Ayrton Sendup, Nijel Mainsail, Alain Phosphate and Crashard Banger LOL.

[@kimiraikkonen949]

prost is the greatest ever imo. extremely underrated by people who look at senna like he’s god when in reality prost was a more complete driver

[@t.f.8779]

Maybe Prost was more complete driver, yes. But Senna was far more complete athlete. He had the spirit of the champion. I've never seen other athlete as much competitive, brave, and brilliant as him. One in a lifetime

[@kimiraikkonen949]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@t.f.8779 this has nothing to do with being an athlete. this is driving. prost was the more complete driver and arguably the most complete ever. senna was so brilliant that he slept with 15 year old girls during his career. you call that brilliant?

[@hmdwgf]

@@kimiraikkonen949 agree with you about Prost 100 percent. But sleeping with 15 year old girls which, as reprehensible as that is, has nothing to do with driving F1 cars. And you have no proof that he did that. Senna apparently had an arranged relationship with a girl around that age in the mid 80s but that doesn’t mean he had sex with her. Sex sometimes isn’t part of the equation for some relationships until marriage.

[@t.f.8779]

@@kimiraikkonen949 I don't see like this. When you think about driving skills, it's inevitable to consider the Monaco circuit, where ability is truly demanded in the highest level. And dude, Senna was called The King of Monaco. What he did there is unbelievable.

[@kimiraikkonen949]

@@hmdwgfwhat do you mean there’s no proof? The woman who’s with senna at the time has a podcast. 😹

[@MustangCollectibles]

Alain Prost beat both Senna & Mansell. 1988 Prost/Senna in the same car: Prost scored more points during the season, overall he won. 1990 Prost/Mansell in the same car: no contest, Alain Prost was the best. These are just facts, no matters who you prefer.

[@Ruylopez778]

In '88, Prost had the advantage of knowing the team and engineers and how they worked and vice versa. I suppose Senna had the advantage of being familiar with the Honda engine and engineers and how they worked. Senna had fuel read out problems at Estoril and Jerez. Prost only had more points overall because of Monaco, where he was being soundly thrashed. Both legendary drivers. Mansell, too although as explained here, his own worst enemy at times.

[@potatogirlcultist19]

All the teammates Prost has raced against: John Watson - Prost loses 1-0 Rene Arnoux - Prost wins 2-0 Eddie Cheever - Prost wins 1-0 Niki Lauda (3x World Champion) - Tie 1-1 Keke Rosberg (1x World Champion) - Prost wins 1-0 Stefan Johansson - Prost wins 1-0 Ayrton Senna (3x World Champion) - Prost wins 2-0 Nigel Mansell (1x World Champion) - Prost wins 1-0 Jean Alesi - Prost wins 1-0 Damon Hill (1x World Champion) - Prost wins 1-0 Prost has beaten 4 world champions and tied with another one, one who was often considered the greatest of his generation. The only driver who has had a similar domination against such high caliber teammates is Fernando Alonso, who only lost to Lewis Hamilton and tied with Jenson Button.

[@Ruylopez778]

@@potatogirlcultist19 Prost lost to Senna in 88, and 89 was contentious at best. Lauda was at the end of his career by then.

[@alexandrecl4331]

Senna completely obliterated Prost. What are you talking about? He beat him both in races and quali by a huge margin when both Mclarens finished. With both cars on track, Senna was 80% of the time or more ahead of Prost. The only reason Prost outscored Senna in 1989 was because Senna had multiple mechanical failures and was got 2 wins robbed by Balestre (FIA president). One in Estoril, when a black flagged Mansel took him out, and one at Suzuka when Prost took him out, he came back, won the race, and them Prost/Balestre did what everybody knows as the dirstiest political conspiracy in F1 history.

[@MustangCollectibles]

@@alexandrecl4331 ridiculous. Prost & Senna spent 2 seasons in the same team: 1989 Prost won, and 1988 Prost scored more points (so by any means in any F1 season and sports in general; the one who score more points wins), thank to a stupid score system that year. Look at the stats, Prost is most of the time ahead of Senna in anything but qualifications, and that was mainly because Prost would concentrate more on the race. 1990 Senna won by crushing into Prost, in fact the only title Senna really deserve is 1991. Like I said 1988 he had less points, and 1990 he should have been disqualified for crushing into Prost, today if someone would do that in purpose, which was the obviously case, he'll have some serious problems. Annote thing to consider: Alain Prost had many times world champions as teammates that he beat them all with the same car. Senna, except for Prost (and we saw who won the most at the end...) had only second handed drivers to serve him, and that's a fact. Same for Schumacher who always had second handed drivers as teammates, unlike Prost. Now believe what fantasy you want, I understand being fan for whomever, but no one should avoid facts, and honestly when you look at everything, it's obvious Alain Prost is the all time best. Few like Bernie Ecclestone or Eddie Jordan have also said that, and yes when you look honestly it's pretty obvious.

[@dermoneycoach]

Magic Senna

[@smokeybirdman]

Im a Senna fan, but I genuinely believe the most naturally talented driver was Mansel. Senna was a very disciplined work horse and gave him those milli seconds advantage.

[@detonator2112]

Mansell lost five years in a row to Elio De Angelis at Lotus. Then he lost to Keke Rosberg at Williams 1985. Then Prost whooped his arse at Ferrari 1990. Mansell also had a losing record against Mario Andretti, Damon Hill and Mika Hakkinen. Against Berger it was pretty even. The only teammate he ever beat was Patrese. He even lost to injured Piquet in 1987 and lost the championship in the best car. Mansell had six world champion teammates... and he lost to every single of them.

[@smokeybirdman]

@@detonator2112 🤔 doesn't Mansel have more wins than all of them except prost - wasn't he competing successfully in the states being the only driver to hold both titles? Didn't he have the most pole position in a season beaten by vettel? Didn't he win the Australian f1 over the age of 40, a record likely to never be broken? The championship he lost to Prost was bad luck with his tyre.. Right. And wasn't he called the Lion -

[@keithchung2501]

The main difference between the three is how they approached and handled the apex. Essentially, Prost preferred to hit the apex with slow in and fast out pace whereas Mansell had the tendency to go fast in and slow out around the apex. On the other hand, Senna liked to go fast in and fast out at all times (Senna maintained his posture even during a wet track condition. Hence Senna was referred to as 'Rain Master'). This is where Senna held the edge over the rest.

[@mustangecoboosthpp3869]

What a lot or even all of you are missing is Nigel Mansell was rarely ever the number one driver on the team. In 1991 and 1992 Nigel Mansell was the number one on the team, at Ferrari in 1989 Nigel Mansell may have been considered the number one driver but the 1989 Ferrari while a very good car when it did not break was just to unreliable in 1990 Prost had signed with Ferrari and was the number one driver and it showed as Ferrari has always played favorites. Prost spoke fluent Italian and Nigel did not so that was another strike against Nigel at Ferrari. Nigels first stint at Williams Nigel was not the outright number one driver. At Lotus Peter Warr did not like Mansell and Mansell was never the number one driver and when Lotus switched to Renault power Warr did not provide the Renault power unit to Mansell until they had it for several races. Arguably the only time Nigel Mansell was the outright number one driver was 1991 and 1992 at Williams.