Just finished watching Episode 5 of the latest season of Top Gear. Wow. Their tribute to Ayrton Senna was fantastic. I'm a bit too young to be familiar with him, but watching him drive just took my breath away. At the end, I started to get misty eyed.
The celebrity guests, and their laps, were awesome too.
http://www.wisevid.com/play?v=2AbuJwztxuc6
Yeah, I think I had something welling in the corner of my eye as well...and I didn't even get to watch him race as a child...
That was a great Top Gear episode!
The Senna tribute was well done and accurate. But, it didn't offer justice to his legacy of racing-ruthlessness, which reverberates to this day. Yeah, he had incredible talent and car-control, but his willingness to win at any cost forever changed to nature of F1 competition and not (necessarily) in good ways.
A lot of people despise the Schumi-chop, something that wouldn't have started if Senna's similar tactics had been nipped-in-the-bud. He mastered the technique of tactical blocking, something tolerated then but abhorred now - but now the pendulum has swung to the opposite side.He twice deliberately (and flagrantly) took out the same competitor in his quest for a WDC title. That cost him one title, earned him another, and now he has something of a tarnished reputation. IMHO, as always.
But, the SIARPC segment was enjoyable. Who da thunk someone who drives a Prius would have such a good time and perform so well?
Thanks for link, Salanis!
I liked the snowmobiles....fun race to watch
That segment was awesome. I, too, wasn't really familiar with him, other than I knew everyone kept telling me he was a great driver. Truly ridiculous video footage too. That race where he went 5th to 1st in one lap was sort of obscene.
The celebrity guests on that episode, however, were not so great. We'll just leave it at that.
Twin_Cam wrote: The celebrity guests on that episode, however, were not so great. We'll just leave it at that.
I thought the ending for the second hotlap was pretty good.
Great hang time on that two wheeled run, too. "What if we'd killed you?"
I thought it was one of the better episodes. The Senna film was fantastic, especially the little hoots of joy from Hamilton. I could have done without the Bugatti, but that's because cars like that just don't do much for me.
oldsaw wrote: The Senna tribute was well done and accurate. But, it didn't offer justice to his legacy of racing-ruthlessness, which reverberates to this day. Yeah, he had incredible talent and car-control, but his willingness to win at any cost forever changed to nature of F1 competition and not (necessarily) in good ways. A lot of people despise the Schumi-chop, something that wouldn't have started if Senna's similar tactics had been nipped-in-the-bud. He mastered the technique of tactical blocking, something tolerated then but abhorred now - but now the pendulum has swung to the opposite side.He twice deliberately (and flagrantly) took out the same competitor in his quest for a WDC title. That cost him one title, earned him another, and now he has something of a tarnished reputation. IMHO, as always.
+1
He was an ass on the track. A very talented ass (maybe the best ), but an ass none the less. It's fine if you want to play with your own life, but when you endanger others, that's a bit much. My brother and I had the same reaction when he was killed, not surprised, it was only a matter of time.
In reply to Jeff:
Jeff, I was planted in front of TV, watching and taping the event that morning. I really didn't expect Senna to die in a racing accident, but the moment he hit the wall at Tamburello, I knew it had happened - didn't need to wait for an "official" announcement.
Senna, like Shumacher, are unsurpassed in car control; it's their tactics that leave me a bit cold.
Obviously one races to win. But in road racing there are some unwritten rules of sportsmanship that preclude deliberately driving an opponent off the track. Yes, you can try to squeeze into tight spots, but giving your opponent no room is frowned upon and not what the history of racing considers normal.
Now how much room to give is up for debate. You don't have to tiptoe around and give way to everyone. But there are expectations of what you are supposed to and not supposed to do. And again, these are fluid.
Senna was great at car control, there is no question. I would have loved to see him in a rally car, although I think the death toll would have then been two. He was so successful because he was willing to cross that imaginary line and literally push people off the track with no regard what happened to them or himself. But I would argue that crossed over into dangerous driving and should have been sanctioned for his behavior.
And as far as the greatest goes, isn't racing a bit like mountaineering? Isn't surviving actually part of the equation? I think Hillary said that it not just getting to the summit that counts, it's getting back to tell the story.
I think they forgot a big piece of the Senna puzzle, this man. The only driver Senna ever feared...
In reply to DukeOfUndersteer:
Martin Brundle certainly didn't fear Senna; he trounced the "great one" on a regular basis in Brit F3. Too bad he never found himself in better-quality F1 seats.
If Stefan Bellof had lived longer, I suspect Senna would have had another formidable opponent.
In reply to oldsaw:
Thats ol' Tommy Byrne. Their records mirror one anothers. Which conformed to a pattern: Senna followed one year behind Byrne throughout the junior categories.
Formula Ford 1600 (Byrne double British champion in 1980, Senna double British champion 1981), Formula Ford 2000 (Byrne British and European champion 1981, Senna British and European champion 1982), British Formula 3 (Byrne champion 1982, Senna champion 1983).
http://www.itv-f1.com/feature.aspx?type=mark_hughes&id=44868
Admittedly I am not a F-1 person and I was not particularly old when Senna was at his (early) peak. The video was amazing the man asserted himself on the track and looked like he was so in tune with the limits of the car. At the same time reading a little about the teams and cars he drove, it seemed like he for the most part had the luck of being with the right teams at the right times, after the domination of the Honda powered cars, he saw that the Williams Renault cars were on the rise and saw it was time for a change. Without doubt he could drive, but knowing when to jump ship was just as important.
SIARPC - I now have an inkling of respect for Tom. I know a couple members of his extended family and they are great people, even they say on the rare occasion that he makes an appearance at a family event that he is a little weird. Awesome time on the board!
easily my favorite TG episode to date 
Tom F wrote: easily my favorite TG episode to date
Quoted for Troof.
Best one yet!
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/allarticles/276873/ayrton-senna-a-good-rally-driver.html
It was a well done segment.
Thanks for the rally link, great article.
I watched him quite a bit on TV, and once in person. He was simply amazing to watch. I've never seen another driver able to do a lap as fast right out of the box, including Schumacher. In spite of his on track tactics, which were not every race as some would have you believe, he was easily one of the top five F1 guys that've ever driven in pure talent. He won some races in cars that shouldn't have even been point scorers, not something easily done then or today. And it wasn't done in the pits either. I think it was Detroit one year where he outran the entire field on slicks, with everyone else on rains in torrid conditions.
He also was at the forefront of driver fitness, and was one of the first to take it to the level that it is today, even hiring an Olympic trainer and dietitian when most drivers were drinking beer and smoking between events.
I really would have liked to have seen a few more Schumacher - Senna battles, as I think Schumacher was starting to worry him as much as Prost did.
In reply to racerdave600:
Gilles Villeneuve has a deserved (and similar) reputation. I'll suggest GV would be even more renowned if the sport had as much media coverage (read: footage) as when Senna competed.
The talent was certainly there. I saw him drive in Detroit too, he was amazing. Or was it that drivers got out of his way because he was a wack job and while I love racing and my job, I'd like to see my wife and kids again.
The more I think about it, the lower I rate him in the overall ranking of F1 drivers. Not killing yourself is a big deal. Fangio lived into his 80s. He won everything in cars that routinely killed people.
Fangio may have been the first F1 champ to die of natural causes, if you accept that Hunt the Shunts heart attack was a result of un-natural high-living.
disclaimer, whilst the above is something of an exaggeration, in the early 90s the journalist that pointed it out may have been on to something.
You'll need to log in to post.
