It’s been just over 15 years now since the death of Ayrton Senna during the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 and to commemorate this anniversary a documentary was made about him and released in cinemas. It came out this year in the UK and focuses on Ayrton Senna’s career as a racer from his karting days up until his World Championship winning Formula 1 days.Of course back in Senna’s era, Formula 1 was a great motorsport competition with great drivers with great personalities, and no driver was better than he was. He may not have won the most races or held the most championship titles, but he was the best, and everyone, including his closest rivals, knew it.
The documentary lasts an hour and a half and is well worth a watch whether you know everything there is to know about the motorsport legend or nothing of him whatsoever. I knew a bit about Senna but given that I’m not a motorsport nut I didn’t know everything about him, so it was good to see some footage that I’ve never seen before.
Though it does show some of Senna’s off the track life, the main focus of the documentary is on it. The main bulk looks at his F1 career, how he goes from being the new kid on the block to ousting the best champion motorsport had at the time: Alain Prost.
Prost and Senna had quite the rivalry. Senna raced for Toleman and Lotus before joining the Frenchman at McLaren. Their relationship was not a happy one and it turned sour when Senna, the secondary driver at McLaren, started challenging Prost for honours he saw as his own.
The crescendo of their bitter rivalry occurs when Senna gets disqualified and loses the entire championship because he ‘misses’ a chicane after Prost cut him off on a corner resulting in both drivers colliding and going off track. Prost was out of the race, but Senna used an escape road to get back onto the track, missing the chicane, and getting back into the race, a race he finished first and would have then been in contention for the championship in the final face, if he wasn’t disqualified that is. The documentary insinuates that Prost used his friendship with the top brass at the FIA in order to get his team-mate disqualified. The dirty little rat.
Prost is made out to be a complete and total ass. Every camera shot, every interview, every grimace makes him out to be a criminal overlord. I know he’s French but I’m not sure if the depiction is accurate or the film-makers are just over-doing it, but either way it makes for very dramatic viewing. Better than watching Sebastian Vettel lap second place anyway.
It would have been nice if they had shown more of his work off the track, they showed a little but not very much considering how much work Senna actually did for charities, especially in Brazil. It does show some of his work, his family life and of course the lamenting scenes across his homeland when he was killed. Senna really was Brazil’s biggest hero and their biggest pride and joy. Bigger than Pele perhaps.
They do show a lot of his famous interviews and quotes though, most notably the confrontation with Jackie Stewart, who was put in his place by the Brazilian when claiming Senna had more contact with other cars than any other driver. Senna put to him:
“By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, competing to win. And the main motivation is to compete for victory, it's not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it's possible.”
Ayrton Senna was not only inspirational on the track but also off it. He was a smart, coherent individual who would fight tooth and nail for what’s right. I think without him Formula 1 could well be dead right now. He was involved in the greatest era of Formula 1. Look at it now, there are no drivers that compare to him. The drivers now sell hair shampoo and fancy watches. Senna was a racing driver. The greatest there ever was.
I’m a little surprised however, that they didn’t show the Belgium Grand Prix’s qualifying session from 1992 when Senna actually pulled over while other cars were on track to see if fellow race driver, Érik Comas, who had crashed was alright. He risked his own life by doing so and saved Comas by turning off his engine and holding his head in a stable position. For me that’s the greatest moment in Senna’s career so I was a little surprised that they didn’t show it.
The most moving scenes as you would have probably guessed are the ones found at the death of the racing legend. The horror on everyone’s faces in San Marino at the scene of the crash, the interviews with Senna’s personal friend, his doctor Sid Watkins, the funeral scenes from Brazil where his coffin had his iconic yellow and green helmet placed on top. He really was a true hero to Brazil, more than a million people turned up to his state funeral.
You’ll probably enjoy this documentary more if you at least know something about Ayrton Senna as a starting point, but it’s not limited to just those select few. It’s not restricted to motorsport fans either, as I say I’m not big on it, but I could appreciate it. Obviously it doesn’t show any of the boring bits in races, not that there were many in Senna’s era, so if you're expecting a lot of cars going round and round then you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Ayrton Senna was not just one of the greatest racers of all time but one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, I would recommend this documentary to pretty much everyone. Well everyone except Alain Prost.
Final Verdict: 4 Stars. A dramatic documentary about an inspirational sportsman.
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