I was fortunate to be given an invite to view the F1 documentary film “Senna”, as part of the closing event for the SIFF.
I had very much wanted to catch this film, and I came away being totally mesmerised by it.
Definitely the most engaging documentary film I’ve ever watched.
You could call it a fantastic F1 history lesson.
While I was rather familiar with large parts of the Senna story, this film still offered many surprises in the form of rare, unseen footage.
Senna was before my time.
I only really started following F1 in the late ’90s.
However, I still remember the very day in ’94 when I opened the papers and saw an article which mentioned that Senna was “brain dead” after a crash at Imola.
I remember that moment very clearly.
At that point, being 14, and not having followed F1, I did not grasp the full implication of the death of Aryton Senna.
But as the years passed, I slowly began to get a feel of the greatness of the Brazilian.
The film did a fantastic job in chronicling the rise of Senna, from his karting days to his first F1 stint at Toleman, to Lotus, and then finally arriving at McLaren.
I liked the episode at Monaco ’84, when he was still in Toleman and got the short end of the stick despite his incredible performance in the rain.
Then still a greenhorn, he said that F1 was a political game, all about money, “but when you are still small, you have to go through these things”.
Senna was truly special.
A once in a lifetime talent.
You could tell that this was no ordinary racing driver.
He had those fascinating qualities which separated the very good from the all-time legends.
I don’t know if there will ever be a talent like him ever again.
I never knew how devoted he was to God until after watching the film.
It was apparent that God was a very very large part of his life, and it could be because of his utmost faith in God that he was able to pull off such inspired feats.
Some say that Senna drove like a man possessed, and that Senna’s limits were far beyond those that a normal man would dare to set.
Some said that Senna’s single-minded obsession with winning made him a completely different beast as compared to all other competitors.
His legendary rivalry with Prost was well-documented in the film.
The Senna-Prost inter-team rivalry makes whatever we have today, e.g. Vettel-Webber, Lewis-Jenson, Alonso-Massa, seem almost ridiculously tame by comparison.
We all know the story by heart now: How Prost ended up colliding into Senna at Suzuka in ’89, thus winning himself the title, and how Senna inexplicably took out Prost at the first corner of Suzuka the following year.
The film does at times portray Senna in the best possible light, and Prost in a not-so-good light.
However, many still believe that Senna never once thought of yielding that first corner to Prost, and intentionally collided into Prost, deliberately causing what might have been an extremely dangerous accident.
If there was one black mark on Senna’s remarkable career, then this would have been it.
Senna was blessed with good looks and an unmistakable charisma, and I believe that all this helped him achieve near mythical status.
In his prime, he had the whole of Brazil eating out of the palm of his hand.
It would not have been a stretch to say that between ’88 to ’94, Senna was the single most popular man in Brazil.
The film slowly but surely trudged along to the inevitable ending at that fateful weekend in Imola ’94, definitely the most cursed weekend in F1 history.
It witnessed the deaths of two F1 drivers in a single weekend – Roland Ratzenberger and of course, Aryton Senna.
Senna was out of sorts all weekend.
He was uncharacteristically depressed and troubled throughout free practice, and the death of Ratzenberger during qualifying only served to make things worse.
He had even seriously considered excluding himself from the race.
But somehow, he raced on, and we all know about the fateful ending at Tamburello.
The brutal irony was that Senna was highly unlucky in the accident.
He did not break a single bone in his body, but was unlucky to have some kind of rod pierce his helmet and into his head, thus causing fatal head injuries.
The story of his close friendship with Prof Sid Watkins (the F1 doctor) was heartwarming.
The two had cultivated an extremely close relationship throughout Senna’s years in F1.
And perhaps fittingly, it was Sid Watkins who was by Senna’s side when he breathed his last.
Watching the “Senna” film, you suddenly realise that F1 back in the old days couldn’t have been any more different from F1 today.
It was just a completely different time.
Everything felt more raw, more dramatic, more intense.
It was just…different.
“Senna” the film was one incredible emotional journey.
If you’re an F1 fan, and if ever you get the chance to view it, don’t pass up the opportunity.
