Ayrton Senna and other past greats.

DaShowstoppa

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As you may know, I'm something of a fan of Ayrton Senna. But I must confess that it hasn't always been the case.

Growing up in the 1980's I was too young to really appreciate the drivers - other than they drove nice cars fast (I was born in 1980 - so was a toddler when Senna stormed the rain soaked Monaco Gp in 1984) Being English I always found myself cheering for Nigel Mansell at the age of 11 (when I really got into Formula 1in a big way) Because "Nige" was driving a Williams, they became "my" team and consiquently I saw Senna as the "seemingly invincible bad guy" that would thwart Nigel at every turn (see the 1992 Monaco GP for an example) But when he moved to Williams in 1994 was when he became my "favorite driver" sadly it was never to last. I witnessed as millions did on that Summer afternoon, Senna's Williams FW16 losing traction at the flat out left handed kink at Imola, the corner whose name would echo through the ages "Tamburello"

Initially it looked no worse than most Formula1 accidents. I remember expecting to see the Brazillian fling the steering wheel out of the cockpit and angrilly stalk down the road to the pits. The only movement was the yellow helmet rocking back (I guess as he lost conciousness) gradually as the medical staff swarmed round I knew he wasn't coming back. It was unbelievable, only 24 hours since Roland Ratzenberger had met his demise at Tosa, and 48 hours since Rubens Barrichello had taken off into the retaining wall at 100mph (unharmed barring a broken nose).

I remember when I heard. The BBC's spinning globe came on as a sombre voice announced "Ayrton Senna is clinically dead"

Only 12 years later did I watch the video of the impact again - on youtube. I can't explain why but I felt I needed to see it to try to understand how it happened and how it had affected me.
Senna was a big part of my early years - I knew he was the best, regardless of the fact he wasn't my favourite.

I guess now, having read about him and seen the videos - I can truly appreciate what a great man, as well as a great driver he was. I actually feel guilty that I didn't appreciate him when he was alive.

Have you ever gone through anything like this with a motor racing driver?
 
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Thanks for sharing your story based on the great man.

I started to get into F1 in 2006. So I was unfortunate to know the man in his days. Now that I'm watching the early 90's and late 80's video, I see what I was missing.
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Another great was Gilles Villeneuve, based on the videos and people describing his driving I can see how great he was.

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May they both Rest In Peace...or rather not, may they continue race in Heaven.
 
Definitely. The first one was Possum Bourne. The greatest rally driver New Zealand/Australia has ever produced and possibly the greatest driver they have every produced (yes including Chris Amon, Denny Hulme, Jim Richards and Rod Millen). When he died I was just devastated. I had seen him drive a couple of times and was really looking forward to seeing him drive again that year. To lose his life in such a stupid freak accident was just crushing. A truly wonderful man and an inspiration.

Then in 2006 Peter Brock died. I am too young to be a huge Brocky fan but still was immensely in awe of the guy. I have a couple of autographed posters and again such a nice guy. Controversial yes but always had time for his fans. A brilliant driver. While his death didn't so much affect me as Possum had, the Australian Story (T.V program) that followed about Craig Lowndes was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. Lowndes victory at Bathurst that year goes down as one of the greatest drives ever.

Then this year Colin McRae died, someone I had been watched since I was really young. Always my favourite rally driver, I was sad as Marcus Gronholm was retiring, the Colin died and I felt so stupid being sad that someone was retiring. The best always get taken too early.

"The star that burns twice as bright, burns half as long"

On Senna, I too have only come to realise how special the man was in the last couple of years. I have seen the footage and he was so unlucky. A very complex individual. Very misunderstood but a very genuine human being deep down. I have the triple disc Senna DvD which is very very good. Especially the effect it had on Gerhard Berger, who was one of this closest friends.
 
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I watched the Imola race live that fateful May 1st. I was only 11 years old, and knew that it was bad but also didnt appreciate the serveity fully. It made for fascinating television viewing though, seeing the doctors at work. I remember, was it Bernard, came flying out the pits wanting to help. Stupidest thing I have ever seen.

I reluctantly watched the video on YouTube at the start of this year, just to see if I viewed it any differently, and I did because I could understand it a lot more, and it still upset me.

I can also remember being in Melbourne when JV and Ralf crashed and killed the marshall. Not a nice feeling when you've had a great day out and you hear of a death at the track.
 
I watched the Imola race live that fateful May 1st. I was only 11 years old, and knew that it was bad but also didnt appreciate the serveity fully. It made for fascinating television viewing though, seeing the doctors at work. I remember, was it Bernard, came flying out the pits wanting to help. Stupidest thing I have ever seen.

I reluctantly watched the video on YouTube at the start of this year, just to see if I viewed it any differently, and I did because I could understand it a lot more, and it still upset me.

It was Erik Comas, who, incidentally, was probably saved by Senna's intervention in practice, in Spa, back in 1992. His team failed to notice the red flag and sent him on his way after repairing his car, probably because of damage from debris of the Lehto/Lamy incident at the start.

I find it rather troubling to watch clips about Senna's death. Especially the onboard footage from his last ever lap... Sad thing to say, isn't it? Someone's last ever lap? :(
 
I find it rather troubling to watch clips about Senna's death. Especially the onboard footage from his last ever lap... Sad thing to say, isn't it? Someone's last ever lap? :(

Yeah, the official 1994 season review video had that onboard lap - and the narrator said exactly that "we join Ayrton Senna for what would be his last lap"

I tell you what was really bad, the video I saw on youtube was from the Italian broadcast and they stayed focussed on the scene through the really graphic rescue. - also the youtube person had put really haunting music over it. Unfortunately there are too many videos of it aimed at being "watch this guy die" rather than a clip of the actual coverage as it happened (and tastefully cut)
 
I watched the scenes on a downloaded version of the race; the accident and its immediate aftermath from the BBC broadcast, and the rescue operation from the Eurosport feed. Not a good sight...


One thing in the onboard video of that last lap: you can notice, in the final split-second of the footage, that the car was actually going in a straight line... Not following the line through the Tamburello...
 
I watched the scenes on a downloaded version of the race; the accident and its immediate aftermath from the BBC broadcast, and the rescue operation from the Eurosport feed. Not a good sight...


One thing in the onboard video of that last lap: you can notice, in the final split-second of the footage, that the car was actually going in a straight line... Not following the line through the Tamburello...

Did you ever see the "Seconds from Death" programme the Discovery Channel did? It did a computer reconstruction based on the Williams telemetry and the race footage. The theory was that the tires had lost pressure during the safety car laps - causing a serious reduction in the "ride height". Michael Schumacher was following Ayrton through Tamburello and on the 5th lap they were allowed to regain race speed, the first time round (lap 5) Senna's Williams was "bottoming" according to Schumacher (that means the floor was skidding along the tarmac at points). When they came round for lap 6, the cars were flat out - Senna's car caught the ground again at Tamburello and that pitched the car off the line - as the track curved left, Senna knew he was going to crash and clawed the speed down to 130mph from 180mph in a fraction of a second (Thats why the Williams appears to turn right on TV external pictures). Alas it wasn't enough and the car hit the wall (ironically Senna would have survived the impact well) however a piece of shrapnel (a suspension arm is suspected) pierced his visor above his right eye and caused the injuries that would prove fatal.

The video of the final minute of the programme is on youtube.
 
Senna all the way! I have been a big fan of F1 ever since the age of 3 - I remember sitting on my Dad's shoulders at Monaco in 92 and had my heart set on a racing career. Until..........1994, I remember watching that fateful day, my Mum was in tears (she was a huge fan) and my Dad was just speechless (He'd shook hands with him and made small talk months before).

From then on, at the age of 5 believe or not, my dreams were shattered. It is only now that I realise, I could have been Lewis Hamilton in the making. But I also realise that I'd probably still be racing karts at 18 <_<

Everytime I see the fateful video from that day, it haunts me....
 
Live picture at that time was actually from Schumacher's cockpit camera. And there was some sort of a flash/shower of sparks from the Williams just as it started to lose direction and go in a straight line.
 
Live picture at that time was actually from Schumacher's cockpit camera. And there was some sort of a flash/shower of sparks from the Williams just as it started to lose direction and go in a straight line.

Yeah that was the titanium "skidplates" scraping along the tarmac.

Here's the Discovery programme
Part1 :http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvRLDbueoFk
Part2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JF9D-ewrHbc
Part3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5aAZoNistpA&feature=related


Found this on youtube .... It's all the cars Senna drove, from his Kart to the Williams.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VPwR6UR_L_g
 
It was Erik Comas, who, incidentally, was probably saved by Senna's intervention in practice, in Spa, back in 1992. His team failed to notice the red flag and sent him on his way after repairing his car, probably because of damage from debris of the Lehto/Lamy incident at the start.

Comas, thats right. But he wasnt let out the pits after repairing the car. He wanted to help Senna like Senna helped him, and got blasted for it.
 
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^ Do we really need to ruin this thread with a photo of Lewis?
 
Just for you, HondaF1:

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:p...I must have made your day...
 
Each photo needs a fail on it.
 
I was still a child back then but I remember that race like it'd been yesterday. You guys may get upset as much as I do about losing him, but you'll never feel what the whole nation felt then... Everyone on the streets had a very sad expression and all felt really bad. The mood was terrible, everywhere. He was a great icon for Brazil, and still is, through his charity foundation, for example. And, as a driver, I don't need to tell he is among the cr?me de la cr?me of all times, do I?
 
THE REAL STIG, I know you're trying to piss off Honda F1. But read the title, "Ayrton Senna and other past greats".
 
OK, fine. I'll spam his PM inbox instead :p jk
 
OK, fine. I'll spam his PM inbox instead :p jk

People need to get over the Lewis hype. The more it goes on and on, the more I look forward to his demise.
 
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