The Last 96 Hours of Ayrton Senna

[Suze]

I found that article more moving than the film. An interesting article.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Well there was that 7 episode BBC series on McLaren in 1993, which was probably one of the more interesting and useful tv series I've seen on F1.

That's a great series 'The Team McLaren'. I managed to record the whole thing on VHS at the time and have since transferred it to DVD. I still watch it quite often.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Suze

I found that article more moving than the film. An interesting article.

I was thinking that. It filled in some of the gaps.

If you have time listen to the Motor Sport podcast to which Jeremy Smith gave a link. For me that rounded off the whole story.

[Nortad]

Really great read, thanks for sharing.

About the Senna family, they didnt just disaproved of Adrienne, but also of him racing. What I know from the times Domingos Piedade, who was a close friend of him and i think one time manager or something,spoke about him is that the family tolerated his karting career to an extent, in the idea that he would grow out of it sooner or later and return to the family business, but of course that never happened. In tipical fashion of latin/lusitanian/south american fashion, families are very tight, and members dwel alot in each others business, so its not out of the ordinary that his family would approve/dispprove of someone special in his life.

My personal opinion is that Adrienne might of just been another girl in his life. I mean, peolpe tend to forget he was divorced, that racing (or his absence at home because of it) was the cause of the failure of his first marriage. But then again, who am i or anyone for that matter to know?

I never knew that he had a house in Algarve, that is a first for me. I knew of Braga´s house in Sintra, were he kept one of his Hondas NSX (I believe he had 3, a red, a white and a black one he gave to his brother, one in Portugal and the others in Brazil, but I might be wrong) wich he would entretain the kids from the neighbourhood everytime he arrived home by doing donuts and powerslides. It was at this house he signed the contract with mclaren, in a table in the back garden, after a very long day negociating.

What I have heard is that house in brazil did get finished, and that he had a lake he had it populated so he could fish there and that he had a private go kart track in it, wich is said to be one of the best.

About his fatal crash, i remeber vividly, although I was just 8. I was more of a Prost fan but when he crashed, i was hoping really badly he wasnt dead and didnt want him to go. I remeber I was watching the race alone in the living room, and when I saw the blood I knew he was dead (in my child mind I though if you lost alot of blood you were certanly dead, though not entirely true, this time it was) i didnt cry but i was certanly devastaded has I had just seen a man i respected imensily, that embodied what F1 was to me die on live tv. That left me a marking impression. Although that photografer didnt post the pictures he took, there is one available, were you can see Senna laid down with the medics around him in a hospital, his balaclava pulled and a very heavy flow of blood running from his mouth, nose and a bit from his eyes. Its not pretty to watch and i havent been able to look at it again because it makes me quite emotional.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Nortad

My personal opinion is that Adrienne might of just been another girl in his life. I mean, peolpe tend to forget he was divorced, that racing (or his absence at home because of it) was the cause of the failure of his first marriage. But then again, who am i or anyone for that matter to know?

He was too young when he first got married and realised they made a mistake. His ex-wife Lilian gave an interview just recently (when the movie was launched) and spoke about that. By the time he was with Adriane, he was much more matured and wanted to settle down and raise a family.

About his family having issues with his racing. They loved him and knew he loved racing. With all the danger they just had to cope with that to support his passion. Adriane was seen by the family as a gold-digger trying to promote herself hanging around with him. It was natural that they felt this way and be careful with Senna's personal choices for a woman to share his life. His family never wanted him any other way, specially in that he was developing new businesses towards a future retirement, that would eventually come sooner or later.

Time proved his family was wrong about Adriane, but that didn't change the way things happened, but the lesson remains... never judge anyone.

[HughGJohnson]

Thanks for the great link, fascinating article. I couldn't stop reading!

[Ferrari333SP]

Originally Posted by HughGJohnson

Thanks for the great link, fascinating article. I couldn't stop reading!

Yeah man, after finding it and then reading it, I was mesmorized by all the details leading up to that weekend and during it. So tragic.

The Senna film itself; I've never cried watching a film before, yet almost did near the end "Senna". I can't wait to get the DVD, as I'd love to get as many people as I can to experience it.

[strider]

Hope you don't mind, I'm going to piggy back on this thread rather than start a new one. Here's a link to an article by Manish Pandey, the author and executive producer of the Senna movie about Ayrton's religious views. I found it very interesting, particularly the opening words, which rebut one of Prost's comments about him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manish..._b_909096.html

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

The Senna film itself; I've never cried watching a film before, yet almost did near the end "Senna". I can't wait to get the DVD, as I'd love to get as many people as I can to experience it.

On the big screen, SENNA was awesome To watch.. the ending was sad.. you kinda hoped somehow it would be different but know in your heart it wont be.

Not sure how the movie will translate to DVD.. it was great in the cinema, watching those laps of Monaco.. like WOW!! A smaller screen may lose some of that, especially since the quality of the footage for the most part isnt top grade, presumably taken from video, and some of the lower quality US footage..

Where is the next Senna going to come from?

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Where is the next Senna going to come from?

I don't believe there will be another Senna, as I don't believe there will be another Gilles. Times are different, people are different, the world is different.

[fourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by Bononi

I don't believe there will be another Senna, as I don't believe there will be another Gilles. Times are different, people are different, the world is different.

There will be more great drivers, maybe even as great as Senna or Gilles but they will be as different from these two as they were from each other.

[bella]

Originally Posted by strider

Hope you don't mind, I'm going to piggy back on this thread rather than start a new one. Here's a link to an article by Manish Pandey, the author and executive producer of the Senna movie about Ayrton's religious views. I found it very interesting, particularly the opening words, which rebut one of Prost's comments about him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manish..._b_909096.html

this article is well worth a read, perhaps more so than the first one. it's bookmarked and i go back to it frequently. thank you for posting it

Originally Posted by Bononi

I don't believe there will be another Senna, as I don't believe there will be another Gilles. Times are different, people are different, the world is different.

i think people are the same, and senna's driving talent itself will be repeated. however, i think drivers nowadays aren't able to and aren't allowed to express themselves as fully and in such a frank manner as senna did. he spoke about things that others simply don't have the ability to describe - perhaps his faith in god gave him that ability to quantify and give names to things he could do and feel. that ability to understand himself was what allowed him to go to 100% and beyond, and that's something that i certainly haven't seen since in a driver with his talent.

[Marbot]

It pains me to say this, but of the current drivers, only Alonso reminds me of either of them.

[Aysedasi]

For those who were in awe of the man, there will definitely never be another Senna.

Reading this and watching the movie caused me to re-read Prof Watkins book Life at the Limit. Obviously there's a lot about Imola '94, but also a lot of other stuff and it's extraordinary how often Senna becamed involved somehow. They were very close friends of course but Senna clearly reacted differently to most other drivers after serious calamity on the track.... Worth a read or a re-read.

[mountainstar]

There will never been another Senna, just like there was never another Fangio.

The only odd occurrence of such things I have seen in the sport, that I can recall right now is the Villeneuve story. It was almost like Jacques was there to finish what his father started, win Indy, the CART title and the WC and that done, Jacques was never the same driver again.

[strider]

Originally Posted by bella

this article is well worth a read, perhaps more so than the first one. it's bookmarked and i go back to it frequently. thank you for posting it

It's a pleasure. I'm interested that you're read the article a few times, because so have I.

Originally Posted by bella

i think people are the same, and senna's driving talent itself will be repeated. however, i think drivers nowadays aren't able to and aren't allowed to express themselves as fully and in such a frank manner as senna did. he spoke about things that others simply don't have the ability to describe - perhaps his faith in god gave him that ability to quantify and give names to things he could do and feel. that ability to understand himself was what allowed him to go to 100% and beyond, and that's something that i certainly haven't seen since in a driver with his talent.

Again, I agree. Someone will probably get to drive as well as Senna, but I doubt if anyone will ever come close to combining that with Senna's unique personal qualities. Frank Williams touched on it when he said that Senna was a greater man out of the car than he was in it, yet would have said that that stage of his life wouldn't really begin until he stopped racing. We were denied so much.

[Bononi]

Yes, I agree with all, though I think his fearless driving style is yet to be matched and it will take someone very special to do it.

[strider]

You're quite right Bon.

Here's another interesting interview here. This one is with the Director, Asif Kapadia. I've used a link rather than quote the URL because it's a particularly long one.

It gives an interesting insight into how the film was made.

If you click on the link at the bottom you'll find this, which is simply a critical review of the film, but even that looks at it in a different light from most films and/biographies, and rightly so.

[GTRMagic]

From the movie... the only thing I found really confronting was the sight of Martin Donnelly laying prone on the race circuit, still in his Lotus seat... the only bit that survived what was a serious canoe-making exercise.. except this canoe sank!

Was quite concerning how long it took anyone to get to him, it seemed like eons, and the poor bloke looked for all the world as if he too had been killed. Knowing the background already obviously helps, but I would wonder how a casual viewer may see it.

Perhaps we are desensitised to the Barichello/Ratzenberger/Senna wrecks because they have been replayed so often over the last 17 years

Is it also odd that the 2 big interviews in the film, where Mr Fullarton's name comes back as a blast from the past (thanks to Auto Action's Mark Fogarty..) and the interview with Sir Jackie Stewart where Mr Senna gets quite angry at the questions being asked, were both done here in Australia... in the good old days, #9's Wide World of Sports used to do all the F1 races, send our local commentary team around the world for a look see at other events, and when the F1 race came to Adelaide, or Melbourne, they had 4 full days to fill up.. so hired all kinds of ex-racers to talk to anyone who wanted to speak. Sadly, in a more budget constrained age.. on #10 now... this doesnt really happen and impacts the coverage, and getting to know the pilots, accordingly.

I agree that it will be almost impossible to replace Mr Senna... its hard to see anyone in the sport with that much passion, with that much talent.. for things outside the car as well as in. I just dont get the feeling Mr Alonso is a thinker on a world scale, does that mean he isnt, or just that the media havent shown us that side of him?

[JeremySmith]

The day Ayrton Senna died, I remember the expression on the face of Johnny Herbert when the car was returned to the pit lane on a transporter, I still get chills when I think of this vision...

There will never be another Senna..

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I just dont get the feeling Mr Alonso is a thinker on a world scale, does that mean he isnt, or just that the media havent shown us that side of him?

He certainly is not.

I fail to see Teflonso with any remembrance of Senna and to me he lacks personality.

[deeks6]

Everybody has their favourites and Ayrton was certainly one who attracted fierce loyal followers. As far as sheer ability goes, there will always be opinions about "best ever" ... I think it suffice to say he was about as close to the top as you will get but there are others in that boat.

What you always get with Senna is that piercing, uncompromising passion, non-negotiable belief in himself and his opinions that tends to be very magnetic and addictive for other people. More than ever, I get why his fans are so fanatical about him.

For those that dont know, ther is another very good doco called "F1 Classics - A Star Named Ayrton". If you can find it its worth it.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

From the movie... the only thing I found really confronting was the sight of Martin Donnelly laying prone on the race circuit, still in his Lotus seat... the only bit that survived what was a serious canoe-making exercise.. except this canoe sank!

I agree that it will be almost impossible to replace Mr Senna... its hard to see anyone in the sport with that much passion, with that much talent.. for things outside the car as well as in. I just dont get the feeling Mr Alonso is a thinker on a world scale, does that mean he isnt, or just that the media havent shown us that side of him?

It's amazing Martin Donnelly survived that accident.

Alonso is a guy like Prost, that as history rolls on, he'll be respected as a multiple WDC, end up well known in his home country, but not worshiped and talked about for years to come on an international level.

There is no way there can be another Senna, because shockingly(it doesn't seem that long ago), that was another era of F1 with many different tracks, drivers, teams, sponsors and today cars are so well refined by technology that it negates a driver of Senna's ability. A good example is the 2 seconds faster than everyone else lap at Monaco in 1988, I believe it was. Don't think you'll see something like that again.

I've ordered stuff from Speedgear in the USA since 1992 or 93. Ever since Senna has died, there has always been a page in the catalog selling Senna shirts and diecasts. 17 years on, still the same stuff for sale and you'd be hard pressed to find a driver that can maintain merchandise sales that long after his death.

I'm pretty sure that when I am an old geezer 40-50 years from now, that Senna will still be talked about.

Unfortunately, I never saw him race in person, missed that by six weeks sadly. Tickets were already purchased for the Canadian GP before his passing.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Bononi

He certainly is not.

I fail to see Teflonso with any remembrance of Senna and to me he lacks personality.

I think Alonso is an extremely selfish human being..

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

I think Alonso is an extremely selfish human being..

Some would say that it's a necessary, no, an essential personality trait needed to do well in F1.