He is the F1 driver Ayrton Senna considered ‘the best of the best’ and once declared was his ‘boyhood hero’

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Ayrton Senna is generally regarded as one of the greatest drivers ever to grace Formula 1.

The Brazilian won three drivers’ championships in his career and was part of one of the most gruelling rivalries in the history of the sport.

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost pushed each other to achieve the impossible, although they occasionally got too close for comfort.

Prost may have blocked Senna’s dream move to Ferrari, while the Frenchman quit Williams when he discovered the team were planning on signing his nemesis for the 1994 season.

The three-time world champion was on pole position for each of the first three races that year, before his tragic death at Imola, where Senna mourned the passing of Roland Ratzenberger the day before in one of the worst weekends in Formula 1’s 75-year history.

Senna and Ratzenberger were part of a generation of Formula 1 drivers who grew up not knowing whether their heroes would survive every race they took part in.

While Senna has become an idol for the likes of Lewis Hamilton and many of his fellow drivers, there was a driver who was arguably even more talented that inspired the Brazilian.

His name was Jim Clark and the Scot won two titles before suffering the same fate at Senna in a racing car.

READ MORE: All to know about Ayrton Senna including Alain Prost rivalry and Imola crash

Ayrton Senna considered Formula 1 legend Jim Clark his ‘boyhood hero’

Journalist Matt Bishop was discussing Clark’s legacy with Richard Williams on the And Colossally That’s History Podcast.

Bishop was asked how many more titles Clark might have won had he survived the crash, and he suggested, “Well, quite a few more, probably, but obviously we’ll never know.

“And you could ask the same question about Ayrton Senna, who incidentally, rated Clark as the very greatest.

“But isn’t it strange to think that if Clark had raced on in Formula 1 to the age of, I don’t know, 40, and why shouldn’t he have, he would have been racing against the next generation

“Drivers like Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Mario Andretti, Carlos Reutemann, Jody Scheckter, etc.”

Senna once described Clark, via BBC Sport, as, ‘the best of the best’, and admitted, ‘Jim Clark was my boyhood hero.’

Jackie Stewart echoed Senna’s compliments about Clark, saying, “He was so smooth, he was so clean, he drove with such finesse.

“He never bullied a racing car, he sort of caressed it into doing the things he wanted it to do.”

READ MORE: Ayrton Senna repeatedly made the same gesture when he saw Michael Schumacher’s qualifying lap times

Why Jim Clark is considered one of Formula 1’s greatest-ever drivers

Clark was born on March 4 1936 in Fife and made his Formula 1 debut just before his 24th birthday.

He was loyal to Colin Chapman and Team Lotus throughout his F1 career, driving for the team in all of his 72 Grand Prix starts.

Clark secured the first podium of his career during his debut season at the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix and tasted victory for the first time in 1962.

He was pipped to the title by Graham Hill that year, but earned his first championship the following year, winning seven of the 10 Grand Prix run that year.

His other championship victory came in 1965, but Clark should have won at least two more titles in his career, with poor reliability costing him in 1964 and 1967.

Clark was competing in a Formula Two race in 1968 between the first two rounds of the F1 championship at Hockenheimring when he was killed after crashing into the trees after suffering a suspected tyre failure.

The Scot’s record in Formula 1 is absolutely phenomenal, winning more than one third of the races he entered, and securing 33 pole positions.

Clark also won the Indianapolis 500 and narrowly missed out on victory on his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, while he still holds the record for the most Grand Slams (pole position, win, fastest lap and leading every lap) in Formula 1 history with eight.

It’s no wonder that Senna grew up idolising a driver of Clark’s incredible calibre.