F1 Fanatic

@kingshark Isn’t Costa at Mercedes now?
Also, I agree with most of your original choices for this like; Vettel – Schumi, Webber – Barrichello, Rosberg – Hakkinen.
Although I’d say Senna is more of a Piquet Jr, he certainly has credentials; (2nd in GP2), but is unlikely to have got to where he is without the name.
I’ll also add:
de la Rosa – Verstappen: Around for a few years, enjoyed little success except for the brief occasion when they were in good cars.
Glock – Panis: Lots of potential, things didn’t quite go the right way for them in their earlier careers and then got stuck in poor cars.
Kovalainen – Frentzen: While his teammate won the championship, he only won 1 race, after another year at the same team with the same teammate he was beaten again in a much worse car. He then moved to a back-of-the-grid team alongside Mike Gascoyne and proved that he is a quality driver.

Now thinking about it, Alonso isn’t really anything like Prost. Prost was as precise as one can get. Alonso makes him occasional errors. However, I do firmly believe Alonso is a better driver in the rain than Prost was.

Now thinking about it, Alonso reminds me of Schumacher a lot. Think about it, they both achieved their first and second consecutive championships under management from Briatore, from the team of Enstone; Schumacher with Benetton and Alonso with Renault. Both of their championship years had some controversy of the legality of the car. In Schumi’s case it was traction control, in Fernando’s case it was mass damper.

Now, by the age of 30 both Schumacher and Alonso had/have fought for the title 4 times, been declared runner-up once and were/are both double world champions. However, in order for this trend to continue Alonso needs to win the next five world titles though, and that’s easier said than done. :P

Mind you, I certainly do not believe Alonso will win every single title until 2016 before he retires to match Schumacher in statistics. However, I can see him leaving F1 as a four-time world champion.

Alonso’s driving style and attitude is also a lot like Michael. He’s a charismatic and nice guy in the paddock, but on track they’re both all business; willing to do anything to win. Both Schumi and Fernando aren’t necessary the best at one particular driving speciality; such as overtaking or qualifying. But rather, they are/were both the most complete drivers of their time. Both are/were also a bit of wet-weather specialists.

Does anyone else think that Alonso is very, very similar to Schumacher in that respect?

Interesting to read our opinion that was written months ago.

Although IMO it’s official. Lewis Hamilton → Jacques Villeneuve 2.0 right there.

I too like to point out that Alonso is a lot like Schumacher and I’ve already explained it in my previous post. Also, Vettel is a Fangio. Likes to qualify high, preferred on the front row, and dominate the race. That’s just the way he likes to drive, perhaps not the most exciting, but damn efficient to achieve success.

Tell that to Schumacher’s record of being either extremely lucky or knowning how to help develop a car (Benetton 1991 to 1995, Ferrari 1996 to 2002).
Or compare it with Senna, who wasn’t able to help develop Lotus (when he joined it was number 3 on the grid) or McLaren (who got worse/less dominant instead of better, over the years).