Formula 1 could be set for the modern-day Senna vs. Schumacher as the next generation look to dethrone Lewis Hamilton in 2020, Martin Brundle claims.
Last season really was about two main stories at the front of the grid, the first was Hamilton easing to his sixth world championship and the other was the emergence of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc as his main competition.
Looking ahead to this year, the Briton looks to make history by matching Michael Schumacher with a seventh F1 crown, but Brundle believes 2020 could be historic for another reason.
“I’m really looking forward to 2020 in particular,” the Sky Sports pundit told Auto Motor und Sport.
“We have a lot of continuity with the cars, the teams and the drivers, which always closes the pack a little bit more, and we’ve got the young guns who want to knock King Lewis off the top.
“We might just get something we were previously denied really, Senna and Schumacher, we were sadly denied that great battle, the new pretender to the king.
“I’d like to see that now, Max and Charles versus Lewis and Sebastian [Vettel]. We’ve lost Fernando [Alonso] sadly.”
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While it is Verstappen and Leclerc getting most of the headlines, Brundle also wants us to keep an eye on other emerging stars.
“Don’t count out Lando [Norris], I’m a big fan of Carlos Sainz and George Russell – we’ve got a lot of good kids in Formula 1 now and they’re confident in the car and in front of the camera,” he added.
“They’re not frightened of somebody like Lewis and I like the way they drive because they’ve come through F2 and F3 and they have opened up my mind with some of the overtaking.
“I often joke that the safest place to be is in a Formula 1 car these days, and they are prepared to always have a go with an unconventional overtake and you see a lot of that in F2 because they’re desperate.”
Something that Brundle admits perplexes him, however, is how today’s drivers can be so aggressive on track, yet so chummy with each other off it.
“I don’t get it at all, today’s Instagram-driven world, joking with each other,” he said.
“Best friends, how can that last? How can you be such an intense rival? We had friendships in the past but eventually, that would be broken because you would end up fighting over the same corner at the same time.
“I don’t understand how they can be joking around on Instagram. That’s the way they are and that’s how it seems to work for them, and it’s good for us to observe, but I can’t see how the system functions like that.”