Ayrton Senna 20 years ago today.
 

RIP

Ayrton Senna
March 21, 1960 - May, 1, 1994

F1 since Senna has been like the NBA after Jordan retired. Not even close.

A tribute Top Gear got right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kUNTtvMOtQ

The best current F1 driver remembering Senna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbKgW-gX7SI

Below is a photo from the day of the most severe punishing one competitor ever unleashed on the rest
The only other driver to finish on the lead lap finished over a minute behind.
A field that included 5 other current or future World Champions... After out-qualifying Prost's Mclaren by nearly half a second.

Estoril - April 1, 1985
http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Lotus_97T.jpg

RIP Senna

Still remember watching that GP with my Mom (no less) with tears in our eyes when we saw the fatal crash!

Watched the Movie - Senna a while ago - amazing personality !

I was watching that day, too.

ESPN covered F1 then and Derek Daly was the color guy. I have a VHS tape of the broadcast, but it's probably baked in my attic.

Later that day Earnhardt won the NASCAR race, and he made tribute to Senna in victory lane.

I have never shed a tear before in any documentaries I've watched, but SENNA was different.

I kept thinking what it would be like to know him and have him as my DE instructor :)

That whole weekend was a disaster for everyone with the nasty practice crash and a fatal accident the day before the race. And they said Senna would have walked away from his accident if the control arm that struck his head would have been 6" higher.

That JPS is pure sexy. The cars they drive today so butt ugly. Maybe that's my age creeping in but I could look at that JPS for hours.

If you still have a VHS player the documentary "A Star Named Senna" was light years better than the recent UK documentary. It's nearly 2 hours and has some amazing interviews including one with the late Peter Warr (Colin Chapman's right hand man) where he discusses Estoril as "[a race that sticks out in my mind not because of how close it was but because how it was the polar opposite of close. Senna destroyed everyone]".

I was reading an interview with Lewis Hamilton recently and he mentioned the VHS version on how he still keeps it with him. But this is the guy who went out of his way to personally pay for the green helmet lining so that his Senna tribute helmet would accurately match Ayrton's helmet.

What's left of F1 today makes me wonder if Senna would even watch the races. DRS? He'd have some choice words about fake racing.

His story is playing on Velocity now 5/1/14 at 8:00PM

I caught the last 30 minutes of SENNA last night on Velocity. His faith in God was quite deep, just one more thing to admire about this man.

I recorded it last evening, but watched the first 45 minutes or so. It was really good.
I will probably watch it at least twice. Once paying attention to the sub titles and once to see the driving and scenery.

I thought the friction and racing between Prost and Senna was great. Somethings never change! Winning the championship by DNF was cruel.

That's right where I stopped watching for the day. I went for a drive after that.
Watching those cars from the late 80's takes me back. Those F1 cars are why I bought my Honda civic CRX Si. I went and bought a new one in 1987 and drove it for about 189k miles. Great car and really fun in the twists.

Check Prost and Senna at Suzuka 1989. Its in the Senna doc. They collide, Senna refires and comes in for a nose change comes back out and wins....dare I say epic stuff. Its beautifully covered in the movie. If this scene does not get your blood pumping you need CPR! The sound of the refiring Honda (cockpit view) is a treat on its own!

Growing up in Brazil, Sunday mornings in front of the TV to watch Senna was like religion. (The churches actually reported significant drop in attendance on GP days ha!)
Imola 94 is one of those moments where I remember exactly where I was.
What a loss... but then how awesome the memory of many of his races.

If you are not familiar with the Donington 93 race. This is worth checking out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLEE420v20

The Williams were better cars by a mile.
Senna 5th to 1st in the first lap
4 secs gap after 2 laps, close to 7secs by lap 3.
In the end he lapped the field except for one car I believe.

^ That was an EPIC race but although the Williams was perhaps the most avanced F1 car ever that year, Senna still had TC in that race while some including Schumacher did not.

But at Estoril 8 years earlier it was just him and the three pedals. I almost think technology in a perverted way made Senna seem less special or at least gave his competitors some room to hide. Had F1 always held to the rule that a driver must shift on his own (meaning learning to manage with one handed steering), control his own throttle, and overtake on his own without gimmicks like DRS, we would have seen many more special races by Senna. Without question he would have won many more races and championships and left many drivers looking absolutely humiliated like Nakajima who he regularly outqualfied by over a second in the identical car.