Nobody, not a Fangio nor a Senna, would have won on the T5. Winning in '78 was unlikely - however the 79, with all its intrinsic superiority, did not run away with it and the T3 did win five GPs. But Lauda won his third championship in 1984 - against a teammate way quicker than him - Ferrari had good cars in between and he already had the measure of all the WC drivers of that period. We are talking about someone who made it happen and proved he could do it.
Reggazoni: I forgot to mention it in my reply but to me: Niki Lauda is one of the greatest drivers ever in F1. He is in my personal top 3 of best drivers ever. There are drivers who won more races and titles than him but that doesn't tell anything. Certainly in his Ferrari years, Niki proved how a driver could motivate a team and get the most out of a team.
And to put things in pesrspective: I think that what Villeneuve managed to do with the T5 in 1980, including winning 5th place at Monaco, that was out of this world. I can't think of any other driver in that era who would have managed to score points with that car.
BTW, if memory serves me well, Reutemann's first victory in 1978 (Brazil) was with at T2, T3 debuted in Kyalami, the third race that year. So T3 won `only` 4 GP's that year.
Henri
Edited by Henri Greuter, 22 November 2013 - 13:16.