Senna, 2010.
Directed by Asif Kapadia.
SYNOPSIS:
A documentary on the three-time Formula One racing legend Ayrton Senna.
Anyone with even a fleeting interest in motor sport has heard of Ayrton Senna, but his heyday was a little before my time. I remember briefly his tussles with Nigel Mansell when I was a kid, but as a Mansell fan Senna was the competition. The enemy even. And I wasn’t a fan. Never the less when I saw the trailers for Senna and the potential for an insight into the life of a motor racing superstar I knew I had to watch.
Using TV footage from several countries around the world as well as some rare home video footage, Asif Kapadia gives us the story of the Brazilian Formula One Triple World Champion Ayrton Senna Da Silva. Aided by interviews from Senna’s family, friends and colleagues from his racing days as well as the modern day, the film tells the story of the boy from Brazil who left his mark on Formula One and the beyond. Beginning with Ayrton’s first move to Europe in order to race go karts all the way through to his untimely death at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy during the 1994 season it shows us the fearless driver, the humble man and the concerned professional.
The main focus for a large part of the film is Senna’s challenge to the dominance of Alain Prost and the bitter rivalry it fuelled. The two of them fought hard against each other on the track and had their spat off it. One of the greatest rivalries in motor sport saw them each winning titles through hard driving and sometimes even dirty tactics. Prost was wise to the politics of Formula One and used his influence with FISA directors to get his way as Senna used his abilities on the track to do his influencing for better and for worse. The 1989 and 1990 seasons were both controversially decided by collisions between the pair of them at the Suzuka circuit in Japan and saw Prost become World Champion in 89 and Senna in 90.
The two of them tussled season after season as Senna’s star rose on the world motor sport scene and back home in Brazil, which was plagued with trouble and unrest, he was a hero. His first win at the Brazilian GP in 1991 was truly remarkable in a car that only had sixth gear for the final 10 laps of the race and was so physically demanding to drive that Ayrton Senna passed out and had to be lifted out of the driver’s seat.
As the film nears the end of Ayrton’s life it pulls at the heartstrings. After two seasons in a McLaren car unable to compete with the new technology of the Williams he decided to move teams. However, on his arrival at Williams the technology that had won them the last two World Championships was banned and Senna found himself in a car that was not only uncompetitive, but also unsafe. After several spins and crashes through the start of the season, the third race of the year at the San Marino Grand Prix was to be his last. During practice Rubens Barrichello crashed and was injured, but Roland Ratzenberger was not so lucky and lost his life after a very bad accident. Senna was clearly shaken and it was uncertain if he would drive that Sunday, but drive he did.
Senna crashed in strange circumstances whilst leading early in the race, as he seemed to veer off the track and into the tyre wall. He suffered no bruising and no broken bones. After hitting the tyre wall the suspension broke off to hit him in the head and kill him. If it had been 6 inches higher or lower Senna would have walked away unhurt.
This film gives a very interesting incite into the life and death of a man who seemed to have the odds stacked against him more often than not, but his sheer will power and determination gave him the edge. Even the grainy 80s TV footage and on board cameras that flicker off and on when the car hits a bump are easily forgotten about as the film engrosses you. The only shortfall of the film is that many years and often large gaps in a season are unaccounted for. At several points in the film I found myself wondering how he had finished in the championship that season or how the other races that year had gone. However, in saying that there was enough information given to understand the story, and perhaps it was my inquisitive nature and love of motor sport driving me to want to know more than was strictly needed.
For any petrol heads out there this film will entertain, enlighten and inform, but for those without an interest in fast cars and the men that drive them it may not offer them a great deal. For me it was it was the former rather than the latter and by the end of Senna I was not only an admirer of Ayrton Senna’s phenomenal driving, but also his morality, charm, ambition and legacy to the sport he so dearly loved.
Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994 began a change in Formula One that saw safety become paramount. The electronics banned from the Williams previously has become a staple part of the sport and Ayrton Senna’s was the last fatality in Formula One. Ayrton Senna’s life inspired the people of Brazil, his driving influenced other racing drivers around the world and his death paved way for a safer way to race.
Senna is a film that any motor sport fan should see.
D.J. Haza
Follow my blog at http://djhaza.blogspot.com
Follow me at http://www.facebook.com/djhaza
Movie Review Archive
Originally published June 23, 2011. Updated April 10, 2018.
