'There's definitely a foundation': Was Ayrton Senna responsible for a legendary F1 team's demise?

F1 pundit Glenn Freeman discussed whether Ayrton Senna was responsible for the Lotus F1 team's downfall. Senna was with Lotus from 1985 to 1987 and won six races with them in total. However, there were some decisions and moves taken by Senna that could have cost the team quite a lot.

While answering some fan questions on The Race F1 podcast, Freeman was asked whether Senna indirectly played a part in Lotus's demise. The F1 pundit spoke about De Angeles, Senna's teammate at Lotus, and how the Brazilian urged the team to change sponsors.

Freeman said:

"It's not what I specifically thought of but there is definitely a foundation for it. De Angeles did feel he was forced out; I think it was actively Senna doing it beyond just Senna doing what Senna does and wanting to get the team galvanized around him. De Angeles felt he was a little bit ignored so he made the ill-fated decision to move on to Brabham. And actually, Senna quite liked him as a teammate."

He added:

"Obviously, yeah, he was desperate for Honda engines, that did make Lotus, basically, break his contract with Renault, which was not very helpful. He also had one other interesting effect because he wanted to see evidence of more development budget being spent. So that led to Lotus breaking their Player sponsorship for the John Player livery and switching to Camel."

Though Ayrton Senna's journey with Lotus and the decisions he made for the team did play a small part in the team's withdrawal from F1, Freeman thinks there were several other factors at play. He concluded by mentioning that the death of Collin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, was one of the major blows to the team and said:

"He definitely had an effect on what was happening with Lotus. However, did he kill Lotus? I don't think so. I think that the pathway to that started when Collin Chapman died a few years earlier. The Chapman family did not keep investing. Lotus was already falling behind technologically as well."

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Former McLaren coordinator feels Max Verstappen is the new Ayrton Senna of modern F1 era

Former McLaren coordinator Jo Ramirez feels that Max Verstappen is playing the role of Ayrton Senna in the modern era of F1 in terms of dominating the sport with Red Bull. He told as.com:

"The safest. The guy is very good. He has taken the role of Ayrton Senna in modern F1 and with that car, that team and Adrian Newey he is almost unstoppable. Checo is very good too but he lacks the killer instinct that Max has."

There is no doubt that Max Verstappen is already one of the best drivers the sport has ever seen. Though he is still far from winning four world titles like Senna, he will soon reach that point if no other driver is able to stop him.