>>66499
Though I always like it when somebody challenges the Senna = God narrative, that's a bit harsh IMHO.
The way I see it, Senna sensed he was under tremendous pressure after having not scored at the first two races of the season. Schumacher was merely one part of the equation. He needed not only to finish, but to win. Choking at the first hurdle is one of the worst positions for a driver to be in, and in the worst-case scenarios they never get over it (e.g. Lauda in 1985, Hill in 1997, Hakkinen in 2001) And it was Ratzenberger's death on Saturday that fueled him to achieve this. He leapt into the lead and would hold it until the kingdom of salvation took him home. He drove that Williams beyond its physical limits. He demanded the steering column be illegally moved into a better position, and this was done at the cost of structural rigidity, which ultimately killed him when it snapped.
And remember, in 1994 careers were still a lot shorter than they are now, particularly at the top. Sure, you could do what Alboreto or Johansson or Alesi did and stay in the sport well past your prime until you're running a backmarker, but to still be running one of the big three in your 13th season was an achievement matched by few in those days, and by that point you were on your last legs. Patrese, Mansell and Prost were the only three in then-recent memory to have been in that position. Now we have people like Hamilton, Alonso and Raikkonen comfortably winning races into their 15th seasons with still a lot of life in them. Senna proved in 1993 he had more than enough left in the tank to keep going till at least 1996 I'd wager, but his best days of '88 - '91 were behind him. If he didn't win, they'd think he was a has-been and kick him out for some new blood.