World Champions and the Teammates They Should Have Had

There is still the tantalising prospect of Kimi Raikkonen upping sticks from Lotus and joining Fernando Alonso at Ferrari next season. Of course, as with many ifs, buts and maybes, this mouth-watering partnership may never actually happen.

But it did get me thinking about the teammates that world champions past and present could have had if things had worked out differently.

Here then are five fantasy team match-ups that could, and perhaps should have happened.

5. James Hunt and Eddie Irvine

Okay, so I changed my mind. I wanted to start off with a pure fantasy pairing of what carnage might have ensued had these two got together in the same team!

Hunt was the original F1 playboy and decadent tales of his extravagant party lifestyle that included copious amounts of drink, drugs and beautiful women are a part of the sport’s folklore. According to one Daily Mail account, Hunt slept with 33 BA stewardesses before the race that made him world champion!

Although Irvine did not quite scale the heights of Hunt’s excesses, he was the modern-day F1 lothario and has been linked with a string of beautiful women including former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.

In another article by the Daily Mail, Irvine was asked about his Brazilian girlfriend of the time. ‘I get on fine with her, she’s a bit thick and she’s not great looking, but f*** me, she’s dynamic in bed.'

4. Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher

What would have happened had Senna survived his San Marino accident really is anybody’s guess.

That he would have gone on to secure more world titles for Williams is highly likely given that Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve did so. It is also rumoured that Senna did have talks with Ferrari before his move to Williams in 1994 but his hunger for further titles and the then superiority of the Williams machine was the deciding factor.

His manager Julian Jakobi has said that a deal was in the pipeline for Senna to join Ferrari in 1996 before his planned retirement in Ferrari.

That could have seen the mouth-watering partnership of the two quickest drivers in the sport pairing up. Or Ferrari going for just the one big name in the team with Schumacher staying at Benetton and Senna joining Eddie Irvine, the man he had punched in the face after the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix!

3. Jochen Rindt and Jackie Stewart

The careers of Jochen RIndt and Jackie Stewart overlapped for the briefest of times when both drivers were near the peak of their prowess.

Stewart went into the 1970 season as the reigning world champion, having moved from Matra to Tyrrell. But it was Austrian Rindt who dominated the season, taking five victories before he was killed at Monza during practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

The two drivers were great friends at the time of Rindt’s death and with his distrust of Colin Chapman’s lightning fast but light and twitchy machines it may have been possible that he would have joined his pal at Tyrrell.

2. Ayrton Senna and Jacques Villeneuve

Although there has been talk of Senna wanting to one day drive for Ferrari and end his career there, the temptation to stay with a winning Williams car also would have been huge, especially if Schumacher was still winning in his Benetton.

Of course Damon Hill seemed an ideal number two on paper but had Senna still been alive, Hill would never have been number one and the 1996 season could have seen the Englishman jettisoned earlier than he actually was with young Indy Car champion Jacques Villeneuve joining the Brazilian great.

I wonder then whether Villeneuve would have been crowned world champion?

1. Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart

A second entry for Jackie Stewart in what would have been a dream team for Scotland and arguably the greatest team pairing of all time.

While Stewart signed for BRM for his first season in Formula 1, his first grand prix was actually for Lotus as a stand-in for the injured Clark in South Africa in 1964.

Stewart finished third behind Clark and Graham Hill in the championship in his first season with Stewart finishing second to his countryman on three occasions.

Sadly Clark’s death at Hockenheim in 1968 meant the dream team would never happen.

SOURCE

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1755626-5-world-champions-and-the-teammates-they-should-have-had