Ayrton Senna is, for many fans, an untouchable figure – three world **** les, 41 race victories, and a driving talent that still gets debated three decades after his death at Imola in 1994. In a 2009 Autosport poll of 217 current and former Formula 1 drivers, Senna came out on top as the greatest the sport has ever seen. Tiff Needell, a former F1 driver and longtime television presenter, would like a word with whoever wrote that ballot.
Speaking on the Cars & Money podcast, Needell was clear on how he felt about the driver: "He could not be the world's greatest driver because he used his car as a weapon. I mean, to take off Alain Prost to win a world championship, he just wiped him out."
The incident in question was the 1990 **** anese Grand Prix, where Senna drove into Prost at the first corner, eliminating both cars and securing his second **** le in the process. Prost has claimed Senna confessed to making the maneuver intentionally, both in public statements and in private.
For Needell, the comparison point isn't Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen. It's Jim Clark, the Scottish driver who dominated the mid-1960s and won two championships.
"Jim Clark, the world's greatest driver, would never have done that," Needell argued on the podcast. It's a deliberately high bar, and one that's hard to argue against – Clark's record is essentially spotless in this regard.

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