BBV10s Extra: Senna at Benetton? A deeper dive into F1's V10 era without Schumacher
Added 2025-03-27 12:00:12 +0000 UTCIn our Season 11 ‘Ask us anything’ Q&A episode, we made a pretty poor attempt at re-imagining F1 if Michael Schumacher had never existed.
Fortunately for us, one of our members - Janne Oivio - put together a much better attempt at answering that question, and went to the trouble of writing it all down and sending it to us!
So Glenn Freeman convened Ben Anderson and Matt Beer to go through this alternate F1 universe step by step, looking at if we agree with the logic behind the driver moves that happen in a world without Schumacher, and discussing how successful these new partnerships would have been, and who would have the world championship from 1992 onwards if Schumacher wasn’t there shaking up F1.
Comments
There's one big flaw in this theory: No mention of Barrichello. I think with Senna in F1, and without as much pressure, Barrichello thrives in a top F1 team much faster than it happened in real life
Disc Infiltrator
2025-04-25 14:13:02 +0000 UTCI'm now thinking if this timeline was real we could've had Schumacher v Tom Kristiansen at Le Mans for nearly two decades. What i would give to see that.
Ruairidh
2025-04-01 15:32:27 +0000 UTCI originally asked this question for the Q&A and I was embarassed how rubbish of a question it was in the end because my original comment was so poorly thought through! Delighted Janne made something much better of it. A great listen
Jake Muttitt
2025-03-28 20:36:13 +0000 UTCIt was a pleasure, Janne. Thanks for all the effort you put into it!
The Race
2025-03-28 18:25:11 +0000 UTCI really appreciate you guys for this episode. I'll admit to reading the title of the episode and thinking "Those guys never replied to my email and now they're stealing my idea!" for a split second. Very flummoxed by listening to people go through my silly ideas in this detail. Very cool, and I will be looking forward to part 2!
Janne Oivio
2025-03-28 12:56:52 +0000 UTCWhen I tried a few more F1-related questions on ChatGPT it was clear that it is sometimes prone to getting details mixed up though. For example I asked it to give the top 10 best performing drivers of 1995 and while it had Mika Hakkinen third (and I see a case for him being that high), its reasons included having him in a McLaren-Peugeot and winning the European GP at Jerez!
Ian Simpson
2025-03-28 00:29:58 +0000 UTCI tried these questions on ChatGPT and it came out with pretty detailed answers. It clearly knows exactly who Glenn, Jacques, Matt etc. are. You can try it for yourselves, it is too long to repost here but here is a snippet from the answer it gave me to question 3: Beer might try to create a more neutral atmosphere by focusing on the sport's evolution, asking Dennis about McLaren’s role in F1’s rise and Mansell’s thoughts on how the driver-team dynamic has shifted over time. Mansell would bring the heat, possibly challenging Dennis on some of the more controversial McLaren moments, like the Senna-Prost rivalry or Mansell’s own thoughts on how McLaren treated drivers. Dennis would likely respond with calm but pointed remarks, maintaining his authority in the room and offering his perspective on team strategy, leadership, and the demands of F1 that some of the drivers might not fully appreciate.
Ian Simpson
2025-03-28 00:17:31 +0000 UTCIf I recall in 2006 people were predicting that Kimi+ Alonso were going to be the dominant drivers for the next few years-then Hamilton+ Vettel made there debuts in 2007 and although Kimi won that years title, neither won the title again which shows how suddenly things change like [connecting it to the issue at hand!] how Schumacher came in and immediately shook things up [like ending Piquet's F1 career in a handful of races].
James Atkinson
2025-03-27 22:37:17 +0000 UTCSame 😂
Jan Alexander
2025-03-27 20:50:07 +0000 UTCI’ll admit - I was not impressed with the original answer in the previous episode, and I did start making my own spreadsheet to plot it out. But it looks like Jano beat me to it!
Dalton Reck
2025-03-27 20:04:53 +0000 UTCI wonder what happens to Frentzen and Wendlinger without Schumacher
Andrew Sillett
2025-03-27 19:00:17 +0000 UTCWe need PART 2! Would love one on if McLaren ever nailed that MP4-18b and how it might impact Kimi’s career 🌚
Matteo Morgan
2025-03-27 17:54:16 +0000 UTCI for one would be entertained, Zach! I wonder if AI analyses and learns from BBV10’s and would make conclusions based upon it? I don’t use AI apps but if I did I’d love to hear its view on certain hypotheticals related to BBV10’s: 1. “Put Glenn Freeman and Jacques Villeneuve alone in a room together. The result?” (my guess: awkward fawning) 2. “Put Ben Anderson and Damon Hill alone in a room together. The result?” (my guess: awkward gazing) 3. “Put Matt Beer, Ron Dennis and Nigel Mansell alone in a room together. The result?” (my guess: awkward silence)
Oliver Warman
2025-03-27 17:05:10 +0000 UTCIt's funny you say that, I recently asked ChatGPT to create an entirely fictitious race weekend narrative from the early V10 era but using real drivers and teams. Basically an alternative reality just to see what kind of wackiness it would come up with and how credible it might be. It gave me a good laugh and wanted to share the screenshots/transcript but didn't because I figured too many people wouldn't find it entertaining.
Zach Buchowski
2025-03-27 16:04:58 +0000 UTC🤣🤣🤣
Rogier Timofei
2025-03-27 15:34:35 +0000 UTCI can think of one outcome of "No Michael Schumacher in F1". This would have been a sport that I would not have gotten into. I literally came into F1 because of Michael Schumacher.
Xerxes Balsara
2025-03-27 14:37:34 +0000 UTCI wonder if AI will soon be able to outline this alternate future more accurately? Can you imagine the fun of changing one element and seeing how it would play out?
Oliver Warman
2025-03-27 13:59:20 +0000 UTCJust changed my mind about working from home tomorrow - driving to work will be the highlight of my day now
Jan Alexander
2025-03-27 12:27:31 +0000 UTCYep, then it was taken down quickly to focus on the sad EJ news. It confused me, but that's not difficult
TJ Preston
2025-03-27 12:08:35 +0000 UTCLoving the 93 hate already.
Simon Emms
2025-03-27 12:04:16 +0000 UTCHang on, wasn't this uploaded before?
Dr Ballsack
2025-03-27 12:02:15 +0000 UTC
