It's his dark side on the track that put me off. He could be a bit of a dirty driver and crossed the limit a few times.
However, I'm absolutely not questioning his talent. He's arguably the greatest of all time. And he also seemed to be a very decent family man.
I would say a flawed side to him as opposed to dark. As Si said, trying to untangle that side of him makes him fascinating. Hand on heart, I genuinely believe what he did against Hill, Villeneuve, etc were instinctive moments that exposed a panic in him at being caught unaware. I never believed they were premeditated incidents in the same way that Senna took out Prost in Japan. Regardless, that instinct still landed on the same side of unsportsmanlike behaviour in the same way it did for Senna.
I was just watching some videos of his earlier from when he and Ferrari were at the peak of their powers. He drove every lap in those machines on the Sunday like it was qualifying on the Saturday. There was a remarkable one where he won the French Grand Prix in 2004 on a 4 stopper. Pounding in hot lap after hot lap. Slap and dash each time! Awe inspiring - the intensity and physical pressure to keep that up for over an hour and a half must have been unlike any other. Man and machine operating at the very apex. Many people overlook that period because it was so dominant, so...boring to some. But looking back, I don't think performance in f1 has ever looked so perfect and so relentless.
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