Ayrton Senna

To my mind, Ayrton Senna stands out as the greatest Formula One driver of recent times quite simply because no-one could beat him in equal equipment. Senna took his three world titles from 1988-1991, during which time only the 1989 title slipped from his grasp largely due to misfortune. Throughout the rest of his Formula One career and earlier years in lower formulae he dragged consistently impressive results from uncompetitive machinery. Had it not been for his tragic death in 1994, further success would inevitably have come his way, because he was quite simply peerless. When Senna was given the machinery to launch a realistic bid for the World Championship, the ...  Read the complete review

Two truly extraordinary, legendary and almost god-like figures have provided tremendous inspiration to me in the course of my life. Both of these special individuals were focused, determined, and dedicated to their art, and unbelievably, both died as a result of their obsession. Bruce Lee was one of these, and the other was the edgy, exciting, enigmatic, difficult, imperturbable and controversial Ayrton Senna. Today marks the 66th Monaco Grand Prix, and the 20th anniversary of Ayrton Senna's famous crash whilst holding an insurmountable lead at the circuit. Amongst the impressive array of records that the great Brazilian held, Senna boasts the most wins at ...  Read the complete review

It's always fun to cause controversy in an op, and on this occasion I shall drop myself right in the midst of it: Ayrton Senna was not the greatest F1 driver of all time. That was Jim Clark. He wasn't the second-best. That was Fangio. And he wasn't third - a close race between Moss and Prost. "You what!?" I hear the Sennaphiles yelling. "How... Which... What...???" they splutter. And if statistics were the only measure of a driver's standing, they could be right (though they can hardly use that argument when they have employed it for so long to diminish Alain Prost's record). But there is more to it than that. Simply put, ...  Read the complete review

That is how I describe one of my motor racing Heros, Ayrton Senna De Silva. Hailing from Brazil, he was an instant success on the Karting track at a tender age of 7 and was soon transported into the heady heights of British motorsport in the early 80's. Has arch enemy and nemesis during this time was our own Martin Brundle. Contesting the Formula 3 title, it went down to the wire with Martin coming a close second to the talented Brazilian. A test drive with Toleman and then a signed up drive followed in 1984 as he battled around the circuits of the world in a highly uncompetitive car. His talent however did not go unnoticed as the famous ...  Read the complete review

In the spring of 1994, I was asked to give a training course on how to use a computer program at a company in Milan. I checked my diary and found that this was on the Tuesday after the San Marino Grand Prix. I contacted a friend and we both decided to make the trip. We had been planning to hire a car and sleep in it, but 12 hours before we were due to leave I remembered that a friend was working in Italy now. I telephoned her and found out that she was living 30 miles from Imola, and that she didn't mind us sleeping in her living room. We arrived at the circuit in time for the morning practice session on the Saturday and went to the embankment just after Tosa. ...  Read the complete review