Ayrton Senna died 19 years ago today. We are big fans of Senna here at StartingGrid and have featured articlesabouthimbefore. Senna was an amazing talent dripping with focus and pure joy of competition. If he were still with us, what would he be doing now? My bet is he’d still be racing; not Formula 1, perhaps rally or Australian V8 Supercars.
This image shows all of Senna’s formula cars. It was created by Paul Laguette who has an amazing portfolio of racing and car themed work.
Check out his Coroflot site: Paul Laguette’s Coroflot page
Check out his website: Studio P Design
If you’re a Senna fan, then you need to watch this video. Antti Kalhola makes amazing racing videos that he’s released on Youtube. I’m always super shocked when I find out how few views his videos have!
Dramatic, intense and insightful. You need to give these a watch.
Although none of us had ever met him, most of us who write for this blog love Aryton Senna. |StartingGrid| has written several articles about him, including a very special one which features photos from the San Marino Grand Prix taken by one of readers on that tragic day of May 1st, 1994.
Out of respect, I had planned to write an entire article about Senna. However, posts of that kind can be found all throughout the internet. I decided that today would be better spent in quiet reflection. Not only about the passing of Aryton Senna, but how we spend the rest of our time on this planet.
What does any of that have to with Ayrton Senna? Senna was a man who not only chased after his dreams. He spent his life pushing himself to become better, stronger and faster. His single-minded focus, belief and dedication moved generations of people throughout the world, and changed our perceptions about what one person could accomplish.
That impact should be respected and never forgotten. We should all strive to reach such greatness. Even if we fail to make it, those who do will be more successful than those who fail to try. So with those thoughts in mind today, take a moment to remember Senna.
Well, no. But if it was, this it what it would look like. Cristiano Siqueira, an illustrator from Brazil, has designed these amazing linearts of the great World Champion. Take a look!
They have Formula 1, so what would Europeans care about IndyCar? Wrong!
For those who don’t know Penske for IndyCar is much like Mclaren for Formula 1, so we are talking about testing for one of the top teams of the era. The test for more out of interest in the IndyCar for Senna, than a full time commitment to the series, but still important nonetheless.
Apologies that the video is not in English, but take a moment to view a little know piece of motorsport history. Thanks to MotorsportRetro for the find, and follow the link for a more detailed article.
It’s not that the film wasn’t great. It’s just what I got was not what I expected.
I felt like the movie just skipped through a lot of interesting information about Senna’s career. Especially the earlier years when he rose up through the junior single-seater formula
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What about some Formula Ford?
Some commentators believe that his driving was more aggressive than after he entered Formula 1. I wished the film had mentioned in more detail some of his struggles working his way up the racing ladder, and interviewed some of the people that he met, while he was trying to get noticed.
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Not even any Formula 3???
How about his involvement in Formula 3, where Senna would start to race with drivers like Martin Brundle? (See video below) Brundle, who wasn’t even really mentioned in the film at all, would become one of the key commentators on Senna’s career after his death. So it was a shame not to hear more from him. In the documentary that Top Gear did, they a better job getting an interview from Brundle.
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Come on! No, Honda and Senna?! Really?!
The film entirely neglected to talk about Senna’s close personal relationship with Honda, who provided racing engines for McLaren during the late 80s and early 90s. Honda LOVED Senna. During his F1 career when racing the Honda-powered Mclarens, Prost would complain that Senna was receiving better race engines from Honda due to how much the company endeared Aryton. (But that would make Prost harder of a villian to target, if the public knew that.)
His relationship with Honda was apparent with their road cars, as Senna also aided in the development of the Honda NSX, which although has nothing to do with his F1 career would have been interesting information for the public to know about.
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Overall Rating: 7/10- Frankly, I think they could have done better, but then the film would have been four hours long.
It’s not like the film was terrible. Theatrically, I enjoyed the soundtrack, and I thought that the remastered race audio was a great addition. However, the depth of the content left me wanting more. It did do a very good job at summarizing Senna’s time at Mclaren, but that’s not his entire career.
I guess I was just expecting a lot more out of the film than it was able to provide in a two hour period. Read the Senna biography. You really start to understand more about Aryton’s character and personality prior to him entering Formula 1, and I wish that had been reflected in this documentary.
I was surfing the internet this morning and couldn’t help myself, but post this picture.
Also, as a note: I’m going to be changing around the types of content featured here a little bit. Let me know how you like the changes. Doesn’t mean that I’m going to do anything about it.
We got such good feedback from our Lewis Hamilton video, we decided to feature something more classic this time. Other than Senna, our opinion was that there was no more braver and amazing in overtaking than Nigel Mansell.
So what happens when we put the two of them on the same track at the same time?!
Watch the skills of masters of the overtaking. (Video after the jump) Continue reading →
Aryton Senna himself said that karting was the purest form of racing. We at the “Starting Grid” definately agree with the man. Here is a video of Ayrton Senna, and one of his great rivals Alain Prost karting on an indoor circuit. Keep a close eye on the two men’s technique, the smoothness of Prost, versus the boldness of Senna.
