I followed most of Ayrton Senna's career intently as he was a brilliant driver with incredible charisma which arguably made him bigger than even F1.
I was though quite disappointed with this movie as I feel there were too many omissions. First of all a large part of the film is not in English, I am assuming Portuguese? I am not sure if some copies are in different languages as F1 is a global sport but one language or the other would make sense.
Moving on though, any Senna documentary would surely require input from the most influential names. Fangio, Murray Walker, Jackie Stewart and Michael Schumacher are/were the most influential names in motor racing to such a degree that you can almost forget most other observers. They have all publicly spoken of Senna's genius yet not a single comment from any of these names was included.
The film does not even make an attempt to set the scene properly. For those that don't know this was a unique time in Formula 1. We had Senna, probably the best driver of all time against Prost, another of the best drivers of all time.
Now lets see what else was missing:
Any mention of qualifying, his qualifying routine involved perfect timing and execution, which was the reason for his staggering number of pole positions throughout his career.
His ability in the rain and on street circuits.
His unique driving style - blipping the throttle through corners and so on. This has been analyzed by other broadcasters in depth.
The very close relationship with Honda, the man and the company. Honda engines were supreme at the time and Honda stipulated that Senna be a McLaren driver due to his immense popularity in Japan. He also provided a lot of input into the NSX.
The Senna line of products such as clothing, watches and bicycles.
The failed early marriage.
Punching Eddie Irvine and being punched by Mansell during the drivers' briefing.
The film was always going to be a stitching together of archive footage yet it follows the various F1 seasons with no real purpose. 1988 is rightly shown in detail as it was his first championship yet the film completely misses the elephant in the room that the McLaren of that year was so dominant that the car won 15 out of the 16 races – a feat still unmatched in the history of the sport. In fact it would have been all 16 if Senna had not been taken-out by a back-marker late in the race.
With no narration we are left to work things out ourselves. The 1993 season was one of Senna's finest even though he did not win the title, but virtually none of it was shown. Also in that year the European GP at Donnington is, many feel Senna's best race ever but not one second of that race was in the film.
There was also a complete lack of statistics which could have gone some way to summarize Senna's career. Finally the period of silence observed at the race after Senna's death was not even shown.
Instead of the above there was an obsession with Prost, of course he was Senna's direct competition for some years but there was just too much of him and Balestre.
I did see a lot of non-racing footage I have never seen before which was interesting however it seems to me that the makers of Senna either ran out of money or just did not have access to some of the better on-track action.
At the end of 1994 Michael Schumacher said he would give his world title to Senna if he could as Senna would have won it. If ever there was a quote that needed to be in this movie it was this one.
I have to say this film goes down as a missed opportunity to tell the story of the greatest driver ever.
I was though quite disappointed with this movie as I feel there were too many omissions. First of all a large part of the film is not in English, I am assuming Portuguese? I am not sure if some copies are in different languages as F1 is a global sport but one language or the other would make sense.
Moving on though, any Senna documentary would surely require input from the most influential names. Fangio, Murray Walker, Jackie Stewart and Michael Schumacher are/were the most influential names in motor racing to such a degree that you can almost forget most other observers. They have all publicly spoken of Senna's genius yet not a single comment from any of these names was included.
The film does not even make an attempt to set the scene properly. For those that don't know this was a unique time in Formula 1. We had Senna, probably the best driver of all time against Prost, another of the best drivers of all time.
Now lets see what else was missing:
Any mention of qualifying, his qualifying routine involved perfect timing and execution, which was the reason for his staggering number of pole positions throughout his career.
His ability in the rain and on street circuits.
His unique driving style - blipping the throttle through corners and so on. This has been analyzed by other broadcasters in depth.
The very close relationship with Honda, the man and the company. Honda engines were supreme at the time and Honda stipulated that Senna be a McLaren driver due to his immense popularity in Japan. He also provided a lot of input into the NSX.
The Senna line of products such as clothing, watches and bicycles.
The failed early marriage.
Punching Eddie Irvine and being punched by Mansell during the drivers' briefing.
The film was always going to be a stitching together of archive footage yet it follows the various F1 seasons with no real purpose. 1988 is rightly shown in detail as it was his first championship yet the film completely misses the elephant in the room that the McLaren of that year was so dominant that the car won 15 out of the 16 races – a feat still unmatched in the history of the sport. In fact it would have been all 16 if Senna had not been taken-out by a back-marker late in the race.
With no narration we are left to work things out ourselves. The 1993 season was one of Senna's finest even though he did not win the title, but virtually none of it was shown. Also in that year the European GP at Donnington is, many feel Senna's best race ever but not one second of that race was in the film.
There was also a complete lack of statistics which could have gone some way to summarize Senna's career. Finally the period of silence observed at the race after Senna's death was not even shown.
Instead of the above there was an obsession with Prost, of course he was Senna's direct competition for some years but there was just too much of him and Balestre.
I did see a lot of non-racing footage I have never seen before which was interesting however it seems to me that the makers of Senna either ran out of money or just did not have access to some of the better on-track action.
At the end of 1994 Michael Schumacher said he would give his world title to Senna if he could as Senna would have won it. If ever there was a quote that needed to be in this movie it was this one.
I have to say this film goes down as a missed opportunity to tell the story of the greatest driver ever.