After his Formula 1 career, Ayrton Senna would have become the President of Brazil, Gerhard Berger believes.
The three-time world champion was a national hero in his homeland, something that is still felt today by the murals on the walls in Sao Paulo and elsewhere.
Such was the shock of his death in 1994, three days of national mourning were held in Brazil with his coffin publicly displayed before millions lined the streets for his funeral.
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Had that fateful crash at Imola not happened, however, and Senna still been alive today, Berger, who was his teammate in McLaren in the early 1990s, thinks his career path would have changed drastically.
“He would have gone to have been president of Brazil,” the Austrian told Italian outlet MotoriOnline after what would have been his 60th birthday earlier this month.
“He always kept an eye on politics and, importantly, he had the necessary skills to do the job.”
As for how the landscape in F1 would have changed, Berger claims it would be Senna not Schumacher holding the major records today.
“I think a successful era would have begun with Ayrton Senna, Adrian Newey and Williams,” he said.
“Senna would have won almost all races. The car was so superior, and then he was there as a driver.
“I think today we would talk about Senna as a seven or eight-time world champion, with Michael Schumacher having not been able to win as many titles as he did. Michael would not have had the material to get close to Ayrton.
“In my opinion, it would have been a fairly clear story for Ayrton Senna.”