Remembering Ayrton Senna.

I only became interested in formula 1 at the beginning of 1997 but I still remember hearing of his death in '94. This shows what a legend he was because even people not at all interseted in F1 could feel the impact of his passing. But let's not forget Roland Ratzenberger, whose death just two days earlier, was overshadowed by the death of the man who had racing in his blood.

So to those killed at imola 94 rest in peace and may we never forget you.

Yes, what a racer he was.

Incredible that such a potentially volatile sport actually had such a good track record. If I recall correctly, there was in the whole of the 80's the tragic losses of Gilles Villeneuve, followed shortly by Didier Pironi's (his team-mate) terrible accident. Apart from that, it was De Angelis in a practise at Paul Ricard.
And then this black weekend, starting with the almost-fatal accident of Barrichello, then the loss of Roland Ratzenberger. Then the startline accident, causing wheels to go into the crowd. Then, one of the greatest losses for modern motorsport - I'm not forgetting Dale Earnhardt.

Let us hope motorsport never see such a weekend again.
May they rest in peace.

I, for one, am glad to have been able to see him in action - it was a great priviledge.

Ahh .. I too have seen Senna race, and win (good fortune had me at the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park where he eclipsed the more powerful Canon-Williams Renaults of Alain Prost and Damon Hill in his underpowered and decidedly risky McLaren MP4-8).

Senna changed my life. He showed me that the ruler that we use use to consider life's worth should not only measure one's accomplishments, but also the desire, passion and verve that it took to achieve them. Granted, his passion sometimes got the better of him (witness the self-inflicted Monaco crash) but with his death the era of the "gentleman cowboy racer " ended in favor of the more antiseptic, technical approaches of Schumacher and Hakkinen. Today ,only Ferdinand Alonso (my opinion obviously) seems to have the nacent qualities that would produce another talent like his. Long live the king.

Hmmm, I seem to remember Senna as a great race car driver who would do anything to win a championship, even if it meant taking out your own teammate. Even if it meant you went into the paddock and punched a driver for actually daring to race you!
I do not question his talent, he could wring a car out to get everything he, and quite possibly only he, could get from it, Your MP4/8 is a great example Greyboy, but I would never refer to him as a 'gentleman cowboy racer."

Don

OK .. touche Don, I had forgotten about the (Eddie Irvine?) punch. I will revise "gentleman cowboy racer" to just "cowboy racer."

OK .. touche Don, I had forgotten about the (Eddie Irvine?) punch. I will revise "gentleman cowboy racer" to just "cowboy racer."

There was a very good article in F1 Magazine a several years ago about the battles Senna and Prost had when team mates, well when they were on the same team. . .when they both were at McLaren. They fed off of each other. Prost would go out and set fast lap, Senna would go out and beat him by two tenths, Prost would go out and then take Senna by two tenths. Senna would smile at Prost, go out and beat him by one tenth. . .and so on. It drove Alain crazy. When it came to the race, Senna would go mad trying to figure out how "the professor " could still have something at the end.
I agree with "cowboy racer." And yes it was Eddie Irvine he punched. In retrospect, too bad he didn't hit him a few more times!

Mack

lol mack .. yes i think eddie probably deserved what he got and then some, hooligan that he is. And what you say about feeding off of one another (Prost+Senna) is true ... and to stay roughly on point, Senna and Schumacher only diced a few times, but THEIR rivalry was never truly played out. I seem to remember the rumor mill at the time had it that Senna was pipped to go to Ferrari at some point (don't know if that was before or after he made the move to Williams). Now THAT would have been an interesting team; Senna and Schumacher in Ferraris... hmmm

PS: I enjoyed this back-and-forth mack; any other F1 junkies out there?

QUOTE: Originally posted by GreyBoy PS: I enjoyed this back-and-forth mack; any other F1 junkies out there?

Yes, but today's races are so boring. That isn't to take anything away from Ferrari, they have put together the best overal package now for longer than any other team has managed to do and its up to everyone else to reach their level. Its just that the the aerodymanic packages these days make it so much harder to race well. Its amazing how much commentary a passing move now gets. It should be driver ability that keeps the car ahead not the inability for a faster car to pass because the aerodynamics prevent sucfficient fron wing down force.

Mechanical grip should be favoured in place of areodyamic grip. Reduce the size of the front wings and reduce to a single element, with nothing outside the endplate. No winglets of barge boards elsewhere and a single element rear wing. No undertray and raise the cars an inch, include onboard starters so we don't have the absurb situation of a spun stalled car which is otherwise fine having to retire. Remember Gilles Villeneuve keeping better cars behind his ill-handling Ferrari through shear driver ability.

The 70's and early 80's are my favorite period, the cars looked different as designers tried different approaches. And then came Senna ......

QUOTE: Originally posted by GreyBoy Senna and Schumacher in Ferraris... hmmm

Personally, I don't think Schummi's ego would have allowed him to be second seat to Senna had he gone to Ferrari first. The F1 world would certainly be a much different place with Ayrton still around, eh?

I remember watching the race that fateful morning and thinking dang, he'll score no points today. It wasn't until much later in the day before I heard the news.

The June edition of the English magazine MotorSport has a great article on Senna. The same magazine also published a conversation with Prost about his thoughts and relationship with Senna 2 or 3 years ago.

It's all about the ego's isn't it?
Greyboy it is indeed nice to have someone to have these back and forths with that doesn't get all hot when someone disagrees!
Areodynamics, when you think about it has pretty much destroyed all forms of racing. I mean how can you "race" when the car that can stop (for tires and fuel) fastest wins, the car that is in front, though slower on the time charts is in front, you find yourself in line and know that if you move out of it, you will end up back in 15th place until you can get back in line? Certain elements are always clamoring for SLOWER speeds under the guise of "safety", and ways to make things "equal." Boo Hiss.
Even Drag racing has lost the luster of real racing with aerodymaic bodies that look the same. . .THAT is a Mustang? No a Cavalier!
I wish I had a certain fail safe idea on how to bring back the old days, maybe Speed should just run F1 Decade every Sunday for a whole season starting with say 1962.

Mack

I hope to explore the F1 parity more, but to keep the thread of the conversation alive, a friend sent me this article that is worth reading if you are an Ayrton Senna fan. Down the page there is a pic of the one-off livery that Jordan used at Imola 2004 as a tribute:

http://www.motorsport.com/magazine/feature.asp?C=Mirrors&D=2004-04-25

How I got to this article interesting; a friend sent me another article on this site about a 1:1 Ferrari made from LEGO:

http://www.motorsport.com/magazine/feature.asp?C=Special&D=2004-03-10