Senna had no life outside F1, claims McLaren boss

Lewis Hamilton clearly likes to think he has the ghost of Ayrton Senna driving him, but Ron Dennis says Lewis is “very different” to the Brazilian legend.

Speaking to Autosport, Big Ron said:

“When you worked with Ayrton it was always on the basis of ‘When is he going to disappear next?’ He loved going back to Brazil. It was just endless long phone calls because he would think and think. He would make a big list and then you’d spend hours on the phone going meticulously through it.

“With Lewis it’s very different. He’s at the company normally once a week. All the drivers have intense periods in our simulator. Because he’s there, I probably won’t speak to Lewis on the telephone more than twice a month. So it’s a very different relationship.

“Ayrton was so obsessed with F1 that it was to the detriment of his private life. There were very, very few other interests. Model aircraft were pretty much his only distraction.

“Lewis has a diverse range of interests. He loves music, he spends a lot of time with his brother and he races radio-controlled cars. He loves relaxing.”

Is Ron saying that Ayrton was an obsessive nerd? Because, reading between the lines, that’s how it seems. From the outside, Senna seemed to love life just as much as Lewis, if not more. And for “model aircraft” read “radio-controlled cars” - no great difference there.

Crasher bonus! Watch Michael Schumacher get a ticking off from Ayrton: