Lustig - Senna Versus Schumacher and Other Formula One Rivalries That Never Happened

Copyright 2015 Christiaan W.Lustig & Mattijs Diepraam

Published by Christiaan W.Lustig & Mattijs Diepraam at Smashwords

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Stirling Moss was my hero when I racedmy pedal car around the attic of my parents house. Then I saw JimClark and his Lotus 49 dominate the Dutch Grand Prix when I firstvisited Zandvoort as a boy. I was hooked!

Reading books was the closest Icould get to legends like Fangio, Ascari and pre-war heroes such asSeaman and Lang, but that all changed when I began a life in motorracing. During my professional years in motorsport I was veryfortunate to be around with arguably the all-time greats. Iveknown Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher since theirkarting days. Winning the World Championship four times on the trotwith Schumacher, acting as his Bridgestone tyre engineer, is stillthe most memorable time of my career.

As anyone passionate with motorracing, Ive often asked myself the inevitable what if question.What if Dick Seaman hadnt gone off into the trees at Spa? What ifAlberto Ascari hadnt agreed to that test drive at Monza? What ifStirling Moss hadnt had his accident at Goodwood? What if GillesVilleneuve had chosen to pass Jochen Mass on the other side? Whatif Ayrton Senna had not gone off during that horrible weekend inMay 1994?

Im sure every motorsport fanwishes these accidents had never happened. That is why I feel thestories that Christiaan, Mattijs and Richard have written are truetributes to the greatness of each of these drivers, and to therivals they would have dearly wanted to measure themselves against.Its very moving to see them well and truly alive in these stories,doing what they love best.

Racing is life. Anything beforeor after is just waiting, says Steve McQueen in the fictionaldrama that is his epic racing movie Le Mans. That holds truefor the racing driver, but for the engineer and the spectator aswell. The collection of fictional short stories you are about toread will help you feel alive more than ever.

Kees van de Grint

Living in our 21st centurys sportinggalaxy of highly sanitized professionalism, its hard to imaginethat sex was once the breakfast of champions. It was the time whensex was safe while motorsport was dangerous. In fact, it was sodangerous that well into the seventies motor racing kept on losingdrivers each and every year. They were modern-age gladiators, whoknew that at the end of another season they would have attended thefunerals of at least three or four of their friends and rivals ifthey were lucky to survive the season themselves.

Motor racing may be much safernow to the point that we cringe at the moves some drivers dare topull off, persuaded by a misguided idea of invulnerability but ithas always been a high-risk game. As manufacturers, designers andmechanics continue to look to motorsport as the ultimate test totheir engineering skills, the raw danger is part of the attractionto drivers as well as spectators. That has created an image of thesport that can best be described as an intoxicating mixture ofglamour, excitement and melancholia.

The dangers also meant that someof Grand Prix racings greatest drivers were killed or had theircareers tragically cut short by becoming involved in varioushorrific accidents which robbed the sport of rivalries that couldhave easily eclipsed those that did capture our imagination, likethose between Lauda and Hunt or Prost and Senna. What would havehappened if these Grand Prix greats had lived through theirordeals, or if their accidents hadnt occurred at all? Its aquestion that has probably crossed every motor-racing fans mind atleast once.

When we realised that the 20thanniversary of Ayrton Senna losing his life at Imola was fastapproaching, we decided to want to investigate the likely answersto that question. And not just in Sennas case we chose threeother evocative names in Grand Prix racing whose careers turned outto be unfinished symphonies: Alberto Ascari, Stirling Moss, andGilles Villeneuve. We did so neither by extrapolating some of thefacts and rumours we knew existed ahead of their fatal or in thecase of Stirling Moss, near fatal crashes, nor by creating a setof new championship tables, but by probing our imagination.

Molding our stories as a form offaction and turning our lost heroes into fictional characters, wesought to explore how they would have fared against the championswho followed their tracks, and perhaps more importantly, how theywould have developed as human beings. What would surviving hisfathers jinx have done to Alberto Ascari? What would driving forEnzo Ferrari and his father have meant to Stirling Moss? WouldGilles Villeneuve have been tempted to play the numbers game to winthat elusive title? How would Ayrton Senna have influenced MichaelSchumachers merciless tactics if the Brazilian had still beenaround?

Having proof-read our fourstories, Richard Armstrong was inspired to write a story on hisown, with Dick Seaman as its protagonist. We are proud to presentthe result of his work here, as a bonus for our readership. Perhapsyou are tempted into creating your own what if story. Weourselves are entertaining the thought of a Cevert versus Laudastory. Do you have others that come to mind?

We are aware that some may thinkof this project as a sacrilegious enterprise. Others may say thatthere is no use in crying over spilled milk. Theres a case forboth arguments but still we disagree with either. Applyingfictional techniques, we found that constructing our parallelhistories gave us a better understanding of the actual events fromwhich we derived our stories.

We hope that you, like us, willcome to see these stories as a tribute to four amazing drivers aswell as the rivals they were destined to never truly encounter ontrack. In short, we hope that our work adds a dimension to yoursorrow over the opportunities that they missed, as well as your joyover what they did give us.

Christiaan W. Lustig

Mattijs Diepraam

by Christiaan W. Lustig

His heart was saddened by the necessityof what he was about to do, but at the same time determined to makea difference. He and his fellow Formula One drivers had just heldtheir drivers meeting and were adamant to make their voices heard.Ayrton Senna opened the door of La Rascasse restaurant, surprisedby the sheer number of cameras and microphones he was about toaddress. A few moments of silence passed before he spoke. At thedrivers meeting today, we agreed to form the Grand Prix DriversAssociation, he said. It was agreed that the representatives ofthe GPDA will be myself, Michael Schumacher, Gerhard Berger, andChristian Fittipaldi. Consultants to the GPDA will be Niki Laudaand Alain Prost. The GPDA requests representation and recognitionwithin the FIA to improve the safety of Formula One, after theaccidents of Rubens Barrichello, Roland Ratzenberger, and myself atImola, and Karl Wendlinger, yesterday. At our meeting, we discussedto take immediate action to look at the next three grand prixcircuits, together with the FIA, for possible improvements.

As soon as Senna had made hisstatement, the dozens of members of the press fired their questionstowards him. But his thoughts were already elsewhere he was aworried man. One by one, he looked his fellow GPDA directors in theeyes. And they looked back at him. Were doing the right thing,Ayrton, said Michael Schumacher. Senna nodded in agreement, as didthe others, while the quartet stepped back into the restaurant,leaving the mob of journalists outside. We are, Michael, Sennareplied. We needed to act after all that has happened. We cannothave any more accidents. And I trust that the FIA will do the same.Over the next few weeks and months we will have to work together toprevent this from happening again.