On May 14, an intriguing e-book titled 'Senna versus Schumacher and Other Formula One Rivalries That Never Happened' will be released through several online outlets.
In the book, Dutch motorsport editors Christiaan 'Lustigson' Lustig and Mattijs 'Racer Demon' Diepraam try to answer the question what might have happened if the rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher had come to full bloom. In three more stories, they go on to ask the same question about Alberto Ascari, Stirling Moss and Gilles Villeneuve and the competition they would have had with Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Alain Prost respectively.
Lustig and Diepraam chose literary fiction for their quest, with reality as their starting point. In four short stories they explore the alternative motorsport history that could have come to pass had Senna, Villeneuve, Moss and Ascari not experienced their accidents or survived them. The Formula 1 heroes are presented as lifelike characters interacting with each other as well as other key figures from F1 history, such as Enzo Ferrari and Colin Chapman.
The book is the result of a question that has gripped Christiaan Lustig — the then F1 editor for Autosport.nl — ever since the nineties: what if Ayrton Senna had not been killed at Imola on May 1, 1994? How would he have dealt with an upcoming talent called Michael Schumacher? "It's a question that everyone has asked themselves at least once,” says Lustig. “How would the battle for that year’s world championship have evolved, and what about later seasons? By examining what might have happened we may in fact better understand what did happen."
To add more perspective to this question, Lustig invited a co-author to join his project: Mattijs Diepraam, motorsports editor at the Dutch edition of Octane magazine and single-seater reporter for Autosport.nl. Diepraam suggested to also put the rivalries between Ascari and Fangio, Moss and Clark, and Villeneuve and Prost into stories. "Personally, I was especially curious about whether the drivers would have developed their personalities through those rivalries. Would Senna have held his young rival accountable for his behaviour, even though he himself was the inspiration for those actions? Would Moss or Villeneuve eventually have become more interested in winning the world championship? Would Ascari have been able to put paid to his superstition?"
According to Lustig and Diepraam, the book should be seen as a tribute to four drivers whose careers — and in three cases lives — were cut short so abruptly. "Some people will say that this is sacrilege," says Lustig. "But the opposite is true. Everyone would want those accidents to never have happened. By considering how their sporting career had developed, we give extra colour to their greatness as sportsmen, and as men."
The four stories gave their British proof-reader Richard Armstrong so much inspiration that he wrote a story himself, about Dick Seaman. The pre-war Grand Prix driver was killed in 1939 at Spa and could therefore not interfere in the battle for the European title. The fifth story is included in the bundle as a bonus.
The foreword to Senna versus Schumacher was written by Kees van de Grint. The former Bridgestone engineer is currently vice chairman of FIA’s karting commission. He worked closely with Michael Schumacher in his championship years at Ferrari and was a close witness of the karting careers of both Senna and Prost. Drivers like Moss and Clark were his heroes when he visited his first Grand Prix at Zandvoort in the sixties. “These are fascinating stories to read. Sometimes I found myself lost between fiction and reality.”
Senna versus Schumacher is available from Thursday, 14 May 2015 as an e-book from outlets like Amazon, Smashwords, and iBooks. Lustig and Diepraam chose this moment in time not just because of the apt Ascension Day date but also because of the fact that the accidents that happened to Moss (April 24), Senna (May 1), Villeneuve (May 8) and Ascari (May 26) all took place in this time of year. People preferring a printed copy of Senna versus Schumacher may order one via Lulu.com.
