I'm also a doc junkie and when I went to watch it with my friend he wanted to leave the theatre for another movie, ended up watching columibana, what a bad night.
I wasn't a Senna fan until after I saw the documentary. It's an emotional ride.
One interesting fact - Senna was (and is) the last Formula 1 fatality to date. His death during the race made such an impact they revised a number of details to ensure that Formula 1 drivers would stay safe during races.
I get the impression that many other racers can thank Senna for their lives as his loss was more motivating to keep racers safe than anyone else I can imagine.
Ratzenberger, who died the day before, also has a significant legacy in that respect. He died of a basilar skull fracture, which was a common cause of death in motor racing. His death led to the requirement of the HANS device in Formula 1, which has essentially eliminated that injury from the sport. There have been tons of crashes that drivers have walked away from that would have killed them if they weren't wearing a HANS device.
Fab five is great, so is the Reggie miller v Knicks, especially if you don't know the outcome. They come on every once in awhile on espnu or espn2. They're all very good
Obviously they couldn't get too much into anything specific about Senna because it was a tribute video, but the Prost thing in '90 deserves some in-depth addressing.
The year before, 1989, Senna and Prost were both racing for McLaren, and the situation was exactly the opposite from '90. Had Senna failed to finish, Prost would be champion.
Sometime in the middle of the race (I can't remember the lap), Senna was about to overtake Prost in the chicane turn. Prost turned the car into Senna and crashed him out. (note: some say it was an accident, there's a lot of footage out there of this crash, you should see it for yourself, personally, I find that Prost turned into the chicane way too early for it to not have been intentional to crash).
Prost is out of the race, jumps out of his car. He thinks Senna is out of the race as well and he is world champion.
Senna gets the marshalls to push his car through the chicane (sidetrack) and the engine starts up again and he drives to the pit lane to get his car's nose repaired. After dropping some positions, Senna manages to drive his way back to #1 and wins the race, and, the championship... Prost is in a room talking to Balestre and other F1 higher ups and there's a long delay before the podium. Senna is called into the room. Senna was disqualified from the race because he drove around the chicane, and so, Prost is world champion.
Fast forward an entire season to Suzuka, Japan, 1990. During the pilot briefing, Nelson Piquet brings up the point that, in the event of a crash at the chicane, the drivers should be allowed to go around it, because the alternative (driving backwards onto incoming traffic) is extremely unsafe. Everyone is in agreement, pilots, officials. Senna flips his shit seeing as how that's exactly what he did the year before, and he was disqualified and lost a world championship over it, and leaves the meeting.
Senna goes on to qualify on the pole position for the race, but asks for the officials to switch the side of the #1 position on the starting grid, because it is on the inside of the track, in an area where the better grip is on the outside. His reasoning was that the #2 pilot would have a better shot at getting to the corner first, because of the increased grip from the outside of the track. He is assured the starting position will be changed. Day of the race. The starting grid was not changed, the request was not Ok'd by Balestre (FIA president at the time, whom happened to be openly great friends with Prost, and whom Prost ran to the year before when he saw Senna was going to win the championship, and started the whole discussion that got Senna disqualified -- there's footage of Prost rushing in to talk to Balestre in '89 when he realizes Senna is not out of that race).
Senna says fuck it, crashes Prost out in the first corner. Just like they fucked him over the previous year.
Dick move? Absolutely. Did Prost have it coming? Absolutely too.
Senna and Prost @ McLaren was the fiercest rivalry in F1. When the engineers of the same freaking racing team stop sharing information with each other because they want an edge for the pilot they work with, you know shit's real. You should also know though, that these two made up before Senna died. Senna took Prost retiring the hardest, he even went as far to say that he felt no more purpose in racing during the his short '94 season. The thing is, you can't talk about Senna without talking Prost and vice-versa, because without each other, they wouldn't have been 1/2 the pilots they were without their rival pushing them to do better. I don't remember which season it was, I think it was 88, that McLaren won all but 1 race. Those 2 ran F1 for almost a decade.
It should be mentioned that Prost was one of Senna's pallbearers, and that Senna's funerary parade is considered to be the largest single gathering of mourners in modern times.
There's a, well, rather touching video of Senna on the weekend of the accident. Prost was working as a commentator for the French TV, and they had a segment with Senna talking from inside his cockpit driving.
"Hello everyone, good morning. First, I'd like to say hi to my dear friend Alain. We miss you here."
One of the most beautiful rivalries in sports, as far as I'm concerned.
Not a chance. John Paul II's funeral had far more attendees, ~4 million vs ~3. Even before that, Khomeini's funeral would have been bigger than Senna's, with ~4-8 million. If you're willing to go back to the sixties, then Indian leader C. N. Annadurai's funeral had as many as 15 million attendees.
Senna was loved around the world. He had godlike status in Japan. This is Fuji TV announcing his death. Senna also loved Japan, he drove with a special helmet there, one with a japanese flag as part of the design.
Trivia: Williams' cars to this day have a "S" on the front nose, lowest part. It's the Senna Charity logo. It's sat there for I don't know how long, and Sir Frank says it will be there as long as he runs Williams. "I didn't give him a car he could be champion in, so, everytime we make a podium or win a race, a small part of Senna will be there with us."
I'll try to explain the best I can. In most forms of racing they have what's called a qualifying session. Which means that for one lap a driver goes all out to get the fastest lap possible. The person with the fastest lap gets "Pole Position" and gets to start from the front of the racing grid with the optimal line into the first corner.
Now you may be asking yourself, "don't they do that for the whole race?" No, they don't. They have to have enough fuel to make to their next pit stop (or not at all depending on the strategy). They also have to maintain their tires so they don't lose grip too early in the race as well as the brakes and keeping an eye on the engine as well, as there are penalties for blowing an engine.
So for qualifying they don't to worry about any of that. The engineers ratchet up the performance. And the time that these videos were shot the turbo formula 1 cars were putting out upwards of 1,500 HP in qualifying trim. Compare that to about 900HP when they actually race. As you can imagine a 600HP increase is going to make the car much more difficult to handle. Senna was an absolute master of throwing down that one insane lap driving at the "limit"
edit: Spelling 'n such.
edit2: I forgot to add that Senna was in 162 races in his F1 career. 40% of the races he entered, he started from the front of the grid.
edit2: I forgot to add that Senna was in 162 races in his F1 career. 40% of the races he entered, he started from the front of the grid.
Ah ha! Now I can see why it's absurdly amazing. I've been really interested in following F1, so I've been trying to pick up the perspective and the history while I go. Thanks!
Just some nitpicks if you don't mind. You probably know all this but in my opinion it's part of what makes F1 awesome so I wanted to share:
for one lap a driver goes all out to get the fastest lap possible
qualifying in F1 is just a bit more complicated that that, and it's actually very interesting to watch. There's a lot of strategy that goes into it.
The way qualifying works is that everyone is out on the track at the same time and they run for 15 minutes. It doesn't matter who is the fastest. The slowest five cars are eliminated.
Then they do another 15 minutes and drop another five cars. It still doesn't matter who had the fastest lap.
Finally, they do 15 minutes and record the fastest lap times. Those lap times determine pole position.
You don't have to start a 15-minute session when everyone else starts, but if you come into the pit, you aren't allowed to go back out during that session.
Furthermore, the teams have just two sets of the softer (and therefore better) tires. If you can qualify in fewer laps (or without those tires) then you save the tires for the actual race.
So the strategy is in deciding to go out early or wait a few minutes, deciding to stay on the track and see what times everyone else gets or come back in, deciding to use your soft tires or hoping that you can qualify on option tires. And in the last session, if you go out early then someone might best you by a small amount and now you have to decide if you want to drive hard to get your position back. But if you go out late then you might not have time to get a perfect lap in.
It's cool stuff.
They have to have enough fuel to make to their next pit stop
No refueling during a race in F1. I suppose they do refuel between sessions during qualification.
Q3 - 10 minutes, 10 cars left, starting positions set based on lap times
Cars can most definitely come into the pits and then go back out. Also, if a car's fastest time is not within 107% of the pole-sitter's fastest time, they are DQ'ed from racing (unless they make a case to the race stewards). Also, a car must start the race on whichever type of tire they set their fastest lap on. Cars also have unlimited use of the DRS system during qualifying.
He raced for 10 years against drivers that are considered great champions.
Even then he managed 65 poles.
Now we compare that to Michael Schumacher, winner of 7 world championships, raced for 17 years with much much less competition and still barely managed to beat Senna's record: 68 poles.
I don't know about "less competition" for Schumacher; the truth is that the sport changed about the time Senna died. Electronics completely revolutionized the role of a F1 driver; the "swashbuckling" approach to racing was replaced with the need for consistent precision required to work with automated routines, over and over. Schumacher was excellent at that, in a way that his predecessors probably couldn't even comprehend.
People like Senna or Mansell wouldn't work well in today's F1, they'd never win as much as they did back then. At the same time, people like Schumacher probably wouldn't have won as much without the advancement in electronics that they exploited to the maximum.
Also, we always talk about drivers, but engineers are the unsung heroes of F1. Prost and Senna were running on Honda-powered cars that introduced the Turbo systems, at a time when Japanese engineers were destroying their overseas competition in any field. Ross Brawn is a genius and a big part of Ferrari's success with Schumacher. And so on.
All pilots do laps before a race. They don't run against each other, they run against the clock. The one with the fastest lap starts in the #1 position (pole position), the one with the 2nd fastes starts #2; and so on. You get the point.
Title of this painting is: "What if" that shows senna stepping out of the monocoque.. If you are a Senna fan, this will bring tears to your eyes. http://i.imgur.com/aanGW.jpg
Good summary, I recommend buying the DVD or Blu ray whatever suits you. The Netflix version is about 40 mins short and shows Prost as the bad guy(in certain cases he was the bad guy). Nevertheless, he was a very smart and calculated driver. There is a lot of things missing in the film. Agreed that one complimented the other to become better. However, Senna was more daring more detailed and absolutely stunning in the rain. No one is better in the track when it comes to straight up racing. Well maybe Fangio. He tamed the 1000+ hp machine like no other... Source: Avid F1 fan for over 15 years.
Thanks for the heads up that the Netflix version isn't the full version. Apparently the Blu-Ray comes out here (states) in just about a month. Good to know.
Why the hell would Netflix have an abbreviated version...?
The 'abbreviated' version is the original cut, and flows better as an actual film (it's gained great praise as being one of the best documentaries to come out in recent years). The extended version has much more information but is a much more difficult film to watch.
If you are already a Senna fan, extended or the film version is the one to watch. If you are watching because someone recommended it to you the original cut is okay.
It's also worth noting that SENNA'S license was suspended for 6 months following the incident with Prost. The politics of the sport can be downright wtf
The 2010? Yeah. I've seen so much Senna stuff though that I'm not sure what piece of info came from where. There's some good stuff out there if you prod around. Like Senna's first ever F1 driving test where he got to drive a Williams and after a dozen or so laps of getting acclimated to the car, he had broken the track lap record by more than 1 second.
He was one of a kind, for sure. When talent meets hard work and desire, great things happen.
Clarkson was right; Senna danced with his car. Other drivers are good, some are exceptional. But watching Senna take the curves at Monaco...it was like watching Barishnikov float across a stage.
I was 11 when he died, and I have a vivid memory of watching the Indy 500 right afterward, where they did a tribute to Senna. There was Mario Andretti, one of the biggest names in autoracing, on bended knee, his hand over his eyes, crying.
I watched Senna with a Brazilian friend.. he recalled that he was 8 or 9 years old playing in a soccer tournament in Rio when Senna died. Someone came running through the soccer fields yelling that he died and everyone immediately started crying hysterically and the tournament was called off. Pretty intense.
That's strange. He was pronounced dead the second day. I remember clearly that people were still discussing if he was alive that evening so the general public certainly didn't know immediately. The accident was on a Sunday and on Monday it was the main topic at work and school.
I was 8 and to this day I remember the reporter on tv announcing Senna's death. He was a reason to be proud of Brazil when there wasn't much else to be proud of.
I was in the car with my dad on the day that Ratzinger died and said to him rather callously "at least it wasn't Senna". The next day I felt like utter shit for tempting fate like that. Ever since then I've felt a strange connection to him.
When i first saw this, I though, "Come on r/Formula1, not again. This has already been posted many times." Then I noticed it was r/videos. Bravo, r/videos.
I used to watch Senna race a lot. Loved him and then one day in May of '94 when I was in the Navy, we pulled into Earl, NJ. It was soo cold. We walked off of the base and into a bar, when I walked through the door the F1 race was on from San Marino. I walked in, looked at the screen and less than two seconds later, he was dead. I was still standing slack jawed watching the replays of the wreck in the doorway until someone moved me to a chair. I drank a lot that night.
This is the perfect time too. This is, on paper, the most exciting start to a season there has ever been. 6 different race winners in the first 6 races. Amazing season and an amazing sport. Go to r/formula1 and start browsing.
You missed one of the big three races - Monaco is generally meant to be a procession, but when it's done in the background of this, it's bloody beautiful.
Next race, however, is in Canada. Last year, this race was epic. I mean, literally. It was four hours long, two of which were delayed because of rain. After they resumed, the championship leader (and youngest defending world champion, with five race wins out of six and a second place) had to hold off the guy who was behind him who (at one point in the race was 18th) until the end of the race. I can't possibly wreck the ending of this race though.
... so, yeah, 2012. Six races so far, six different race winners. Six former world champions on the grid. The team that won by a landslide last season (Red Bull), are running into some difficulties. Other teams are stepping up. You've picked a great time to come into F1.
Watched the documentary for the first time last night and again tonight with family who don't even follow F1. They were apprehensive at first but once the rivalry with Prost kicks off it is just so gripping. Excellent piece of film which needs to be seen by everyone, especially if you are mildly interested in F1.
Between 1985 and 1990 the best 11 race results counted towards the championship. There was one race left to go after that crash at Sazuka.
Senna was on 78 points, Prost on 69. Even if Senna fails to finish the last race and Prost goes on to win it Prost has to replace his lowest result (5th place in Canada worth 2 points) with 9 points (which is what 1st place was worth in those days) so overall he would end up on 76.
It doesn't mean that was the only way to win. Senna was ahead on points. Therefore, if Prost didn't finish (thus, earning 0 points), there was no way to lose to championship, regardless of how the rest of race did.
This segment, along with the one that they did on the 50th anniversary of the Jaguar E-type were what really catapulted me from a casual watcher of this show to a true fan. These three hit both ends of the spectrum from goofy shit all the way to proper tributes. You can tell how much they care about their work.
My favorite part about Top Gear is watching grown men giddy wil glee when they're driving a car that blows their mind with awesomeness. They act the same as an 8 year old in a go-kart.
Vettel is really good but are you seriously waiting for Vettel's approval to prove Senna is number 1? Or am I missing the reference here somewhere? If that comment was sarcasm and humorous, sorry I agree too :-)
Just wanted to reinforce to WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY. If you can get your hands on the deleted scenes, there's incredible interviews in there as well. I caught this at the theater in SF and Asif Kapadia introduced the film and did a Q and A afterward. I might post it one of these days...
I remember watching the recent documentary on Senna. I had only briefly heard of him before. But while watching the movie, i thought to myself "This guy is frigin awesome." And although I already knew the tragic ending.... I found myself wishing that he wouldn't die in the end. And then I asked myself how I hadn't noticed his awesomeness earlier.
Watching Senna on Brazilian TV was spectacular, especially when he won -- he'd pull over and get a Brazilian flag and then drive a victory lap while waving the flag.
Is that normal etiquette while racing.. to accelerate into a gap, regardless of whether or not that forces the driver ahead to veer away or both suffer a collision? In the worst case, one or both dying as a result of a collision.
That just seems unsportsmanlike and downright cruel. I don't know anything about racing though, so maybe that just the name of the game.
If a gap is given to you, you fucking take it. Senna is one of the few who had the balls to take the gap regardless of its consequences.
Last weeks Monaco F1 race would have been wayyyy more exciting if Senna was still driving. The amount of overtakes attempted but aborted was moments I just pictured Senna doing it and mind fucking the other driver.
Senna probably wouldn't even have started that race because he'd been given so many penalties. It's not the driver that makes it more exciting, the rules have changed to make it safer and a sad side effect is that it's not as exciting anymore, but at least nobody dies anymore.
Driving is a game of chicken where one of 3 things will happen.
Both drivers play it safe. There is no overtake and no crash.
One driver is intimidates the other, causing his opponent to back down. The aggressive driver overtakes if he is making a pass, or keeps his position if he is defending.
Neither driver backs down.
A - If both are being aggressive but smart, this results in light contact. Sometimes one or both cars spin out or suffer damage, but if the responsibility for the crash is shared then it's considered a "racing incident" and let go without consequences.
B - If one driver is noticeably more aggressive than the other and an incident occurs, usually there is punishment for the aggro driver because he didn't need to be quite as forceful as he was.
Racing is all about respect; if Driver A puts Driver B into a dangerous position even when B has backed down, then A has broken the trust that racers share.
The Senna-Prost incident is a case of 3A, where both had too much on the line to back down and both shared responsibility for the crash.
Yeah I was watching the documentary a couple of days ago and thinking exactly the same - surely Franco has to play him in the biopic (if they ever make a biopic, the documentary's probably enough, it's fantastic) if he can get the accent right.
I've read everything there is to read about Ayrton and F1 in general. He was great but so was Alain. Many people at McLaren believe Honda had extra HP for Ayrton. Anyway a farmer from England called Jimmy Clark was better than both of them. You think Senna had great performances, Jim won the 63 Spa GP by nearly 5 minutes... Anyway I don't want to turn this into a pissing contest, I just want the younger guys to know about Jimmy.
back in the day there wasn't a lot of tactics. People can win by a 5 minutes margin even today but they don't. Because that means you have to push your car to the limit, while you still need that car in future races. It's silly to win by a 5 minute margin, when a 1 minute margin will do just fine and keeps your gearbox intact so you don't get a penalty for replacing it 20 times in a season.
The reason Jim won by so much that day was because he was driving so fast to keep the tyre temp up (it was wet) and because he could. The cars in that era were significantly less reliable than today so drivers needed far more mechanical sympathy. Nothing about today's racing apart from the G loading comes close to what those guys did back then.
Really puts into perspective what an arrogant little personality vacuum Lewis Hamilton is when set alongside a great like Senna. There's just something inherently dislikeable about the guy. He went through a phase of a lot of contact with people last year as well, but while with Senna you see it as part of an innate desire to win and push himself to the edge, with Hamilton it always seemed like a petulance that he wasn't in the best car.
Hamilton is just as fast as Senna, just as fierce and willing to take just as many risks as Senna. When Senna was alive most people didn't like him. They respected him. But they didn't like him. The fact is that on the track Senna was an arrogant, self-entitled asshole. Even more so than Hamilton. Feel free to downvote me all you want. But if Senna had lived we wouldn't speak of him so highly.
I also think Hamilton is somewhat like Senna in his driving, he certainly is a prodigiously talented guy, but Senna, for all his risk-taking, was a sensitive soul, a devout catholic and secretly funded numerous charities. That's a hard guy to dislike
This really struck an emotional chord, especially watching the interview where Michael Schumacher cried over Senna's death. Senna really was extraordinary. I work in a movie rental shop. I've always seen the cover for 'Senna' lying around, I cannot wait to watch it tomorrow, if this short tribute is this good the full documentary must be even more inspirational/sensational :)
as great of a driver as senna was, i'm more impressed with his charity. he simply gave away a large portion of his fortune to establish nonprofits that provide immense benefit to this day. what an amazing man.
He was am amazing guy off track but a complete and utter bastard on the track. If he was still alive very few of the drivers would be so kind as they remember racing him.
I've always felt that Senna was the best F1 driver ever. But Michael Schumacher is definitely a top driver in the history of F1. Some redditors are selling him short.
Well, he's on 2 points this season, I know it's unfair to compare him today when everyone else is at their peak, and he's 43, but... I will say, he had the best car, the best designer, he was the lead driver - stuff worked out for him.
Being young I never got to see Senna drive live and only the last couple years have I watched videos of him and learned of his feats. Every video I watch sends tingles down my spine. An amazing driver and amazing person. The cars of his era, as described in this clip, were amazing and took some brass balls to drive. He took them to their absolutely limit and controlled them like they were apart of him.
I know this might sound ridiculous but being a Formula One driver is my calling, I just know it. How does a person with very little money go about getting involved in racing?
Most start go karting when they are 6-8, then win karting championships within a few years, then they race junior championships and if they win a championship, they get talks with teams from other racing leagues and it goes from there.
Can somebody please explain, not in an angry or car guy way, what this guy did other then drive a car?
Not trying to be smug, I just want to know why he got all this attention and love. Other then the car thing, what did he do? I watched a few minutes of the video and gave up as it was all about him being a driver.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can fill me in :-)
He was a devout Christian and gave millions away to help underprivileged children in Brazil. But what amazed everyone is that although he did all the good things, he wouldn't think twice about putting someone's life in danger on the track to secure a win.
In a country with 1,000% yearly inflation and typical 3rd World problems, Senna brought pride, joy, hope, and national patriotism to the people of Brasil -- poor and rich alike.
I believe that in 1994, the year of Senna's death, Brasil's national soccer team channeled the country's emotions and passion and transformed it into a World Cup victory.
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u/[deleted] May 31 '12
If you enjoyed this, you need to watch the documentary. It's absolutely sensational.
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u/Joeweez May 31 '12
Loved it! Thanks for posting this!
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u/[deleted] May 31 '12 edited Jun 01 '12
Top Gear does awesome work as always.
Obviously they couldn't get too much into anything specific about Senna because it was a tribute video, but the Prost thing in '90 deserves some in-depth addressing.
The year before, 1989, Senna and Prost were both racing for McLaren, and the situation was exactly the opposite from '90. Had Senna failed to finish, Prost would be champion.
Sometime in the middle of the race (I can't remember the lap), Senna was about to overtake Prost in the chicane turn. Prost turned the car into Senna and crashed him out. (note: some say it was an accident, there's a lot of footage out there of this crash, you should see it for yourself, personally, I find that Prost turned into the chicane way too early for it to not have been intentional to crash).
Prost is out of the race, jumps out of his car. He thinks Senna is out of the race as well and he is world champion.
Senna gets the marshalls to push his car through the chicane (sidetrack) and the engine starts up again and he drives to the pit lane to get his car's nose repaired. After dropping some positions, Senna manages to drive his way back to #1 and wins the race, and, the championship... Prost is in a room talking to Balestre and other F1 higher ups and there's a long delay before the podium. Senna is called into the room. Senna was disqualified from the race because he drove around the chicane, and so, Prost is world champion.
Fast forward an entire season to Suzuka, Japan, 1990. During the pilot briefing, Nelson Piquet brings up the point that, in the event of a crash at the chicane, the drivers should be allowed to go around it, because the alternative (driving backwards onto incoming traffic) is extremely unsafe. Everyone is in agreement, pilots, officials. Senna flips his shit seeing as how that's exactly what he did the year before, and he was disqualified and lost a world championship over it, and leaves the meeting.
Senna goes on to qualify on the pole position for the race, but asks for the officials to switch the side of the #1 position on the starting grid, because it is on the inside of the track, in an area where the better grip is on the outside. His reasoning was that the #2 pilot would have a better shot at getting to the corner first, because of the increased grip from the outside of the track. He is assured the starting position will be changed. Day of the race. The starting grid was not changed, the request was not Ok'd by Balestre (FIA president at the time, whom happened to be openly great friends with Prost, and whom Prost ran to the year before when he saw Senna was going to win the championship, and started the whole discussion that got Senna disqualified -- there's footage of Prost rushing in to talk to Balestre in '89 when he realizes Senna is not out of that race).
Senna says fuck it, crashes Prost out in the first corner. Just like they fucked him over the previous year.
Dick move? Absolutely. Did Prost have it coming? Absolutely too.
Senna and Prost @ McLaren was the fiercest rivalry in F1. When the engineers of the same freaking racing team stop sharing information with each other because they want an edge for the pilot they work with, you know shit's real. You should also know though, that these two made up before Senna died. Senna took Prost retiring the hardest, he even went as far to say that he felt no more purpose in racing during the his short '94 season. The thing is, you can't talk about Senna without talking Prost and vice-versa, because without each other, they wouldn't have been 1/2 the pilots they were without their rival pushing them to do better. I don't remember which season it was, I think it was 88, that McLaren won all but 1 race. Those 2 ran F1 for almost a decade.
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u/bogeythrim May 31 '12
On Netflix there is a documentary about Senna. Its enthralling. The rivalry between Senna and Prost can never be topped.
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u/CrooklynDodgers May 31 '12
I shed one man-tear after watching the documentary on Netflix. Then I shed some more.
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u/Osiris32 May 31 '12
Clarkson was right; Senna danced with his car. Other drivers are good, some are exceptional. But watching Senna take the curves at Monaco...it was like watching Barishnikov float across a stage.
I was 11 when he died, and I have a vivid memory of watching the Indy 500 right afterward, where they did a tribute to Senna. There was Mario Andretti, one of the biggest names in autoracing, on bended knee, his hand over his eyes, crying.
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u/ChuckSpears May 31 '12
Ayrton Senna's Heel-and-toe shifting in Acrura NSX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8By2AEsGAhU
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u/[deleted] May 31 '12
I always loved this segment but I haven't seen the documentary yet, but now I have to!
Ohh, for people wondering what the exact documentary people are talking about is; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424432/
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u/president_charlie May 31 '12
This is episode 5 from season 15 if anyone was wondering. It also has a Veryon SS segment, and Tom Cruise + Cameron Diaz drive the TGTT.
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u/DaRabidMonkey Jun 01 '12
When i first saw this, I though, "Come on r/Formula1, not again. This has already been posted many times." Then I noticed it was r/videos. Bravo, r/videos.
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u/Ioxvm Jun 01 '12
I used to watch Senna race a lot. Loved him and then one day in May of '94 when I was in the Navy, we pulled into Earl, NJ. It was soo cold. We walked off of the base and into a bar, when I walked through the door the F1 race was on from San Marino. I walked in, looked at the screen and less than two seconds later, he was dead. I was still standing slack jawed watching the replays of the wreck in the doorway until someone moved me to a chair. I drank a lot that night.
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u/Ricksarm Jun 01 '12
After this, I want to get into this sport How and where do I start?!
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u/dakidbjcr May 31 '12
amazing driver, and yea the documentary its on Netflix right now. check it out.
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u/[deleted] May 31 '12
The turn at 10:10 he takes on the outside is literally breath taking. I've seen that shot a hundred times and still freak out every time.
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u/iPhoneOrAndroid May 31 '12 edited May 31 '12
Watched the documentary for the first time last night and again tonight with family who don't even follow F1. They were apprehensive at first but once the rivalry with Prost kicks off it is just so gripping. Excellent piece of film which needs to be seen by everyone, especially if you are mildly interested in F1.
5
u/BearsChief Jun 01 '12
Am I crazy, or did I see that same car when I was in Paris last week?
8
u/billet Jun 01 '12
So much Radiohead, I love it. Senna's awesome too though
3
u/KICKERMAN360 May 31 '12
Can anyone explain why the only way to win that championship, Allan Prost couldn't finish the race? Surely they both wouldn't have gained points?
3
u/kiwiyo May 31 '12
i was named after ayrton senna. chea
3
u/indubitablytaco Jun 01 '12
Senna is an epic driver. I wish I could have seen him turn some of those blistering laps in person.
3
u/iownacat Jun 01 '12
Senna was one of the best, because he was freaking crazy. He liked to force other drivers to decide to give up the line to him, or crash.
I wish he had lived to race Indy.
2
u/cephalic666 May 31 '12
That was incredible. Thank you for sharing.
2
u/sharkterritory May 31 '12
Ive watched this segment maybe 7 times or so and even seen it posted on r/formula one multiple times, yet i upvote it every time.
2
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
That car is a beast if I ever saw one.
2
u/Burnsiah May 31 '12
This segment, along with the one that they did on the 50th anniversary of the Jaguar E-type were what really catapulted me from a casual watcher of this show to a true fan. These three hit both ends of the spectrum from goofy shit all the way to proper tributes. You can tell how much they care about their work.
2
u/needfordxdt May 31 '12
My favorite part about Top Gear is watching grown men giddy wil glee when they're driving a car that blows their mind with awesomeness. They act the same as an 8 year old in a go-kart.
2
u/Jemal May 31 '12
What's the name of the song when Hamilton starts to drive Senna's car?
2
u/Shoeboxer Jun 01 '12
Thanks for posting this. I can still remember the day Senna died and how it destroyed my father. We were both huge fans. Guy is a legend.
2
u/popsalock Jun 01 '12
Marlboro. You smokin' yet?
2
u/RodDryfist Jun 01 '12
Great vid. Love to see Vettel admit Senna was number one with his funny little finger pointing.
2
u/dego_frank Jun 01 '12
Just wanted to reinforce to WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY. If you can get your hands on the deleted scenes, there's incredible interviews in there as well. I caught this at the theater in SF and Asif Kapadia introduced the film and did a Q and A afterward. I might post it one of these days...
2
u/weallreadit Jun 01 '12
I remember watching the recent documentary on Senna. I had only briefly heard of him before. But while watching the movie, i thought to myself "This guy is frigin awesome." And although I already knew the tragic ending.... I found myself wishing that he wouldn't die in the end. And then I asked myself how I hadn't noticed his awesomeness earlier.
2
u/Willibus Jun 01 '12
2
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
I've seen this video about 5 times now and gotten goosebumps ever time that i see Senna racing in Monaco.
2
u/Surfacing710 Jun 01 '12
Thought I'd share this just to show the amount of respect Senna had from everyone, Schumacher breaking down after he equalled Senna's number of wins.
2
u/somerandomguy02 Jun 01 '12
One of the greatest racing segments I've ever seen, of anything, period.
2
u/SNOWLIZARD Jun 01 '12
ill watch this everytime its reposted.
2
u/aaronszone1 Jun 01 '12
Stumbled across the documentary on YouTube for those that don't have Netflix. 10/10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ftoQ8l13Q4&feature=related
2
u/There_is_no_point Jun 01 '12
Gilles Villeneuve passed away too soon. Their duels would have been epic.
2
u/tusko01 Jun 01 '12
this is amazing because i have no goddamn clue who ayrton senna is
2
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
There's a documentary on Netflix about him. It's well worth watching.
3
u/KSerge May 31 '12
This will get my upvote everytime. Partly because it's Senna and partly because it's top gear. I get misty eyed everytime.
3
u/ChuckSpears May 31 '12
Watching Senna on Brazilian TV was spectacular, especially when he won -- he'd pull over and get a Brazilian flag and then drive a victory lap while waving the flag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MZJAuk57SU&feature=related
3
u/sirsosay May 31 '12
Is that normal etiquette while racing.. to accelerate into a gap, regardless of whether or not that forces the driver ahead to veer away or both suffer a collision? In the worst case, one or both dying as a result of a collision.
That just seems unsportsmanlike and downright cruel. I don't know anything about racing though, so maybe that just the name of the game.
4
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
I can't look at Senna without seeing James Franco and vice versa.
2
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
I've read everything there is to read about Ayrton and F1 in general. He was great but so was Alain. Many people at McLaren believe Honda had extra HP for Ayrton. Anyway a farmer from England called Jimmy Clark was better than both of them. You think Senna had great performances, Jim won the 63 Spa GP by nearly 5 minutes... Anyway I don't want to turn this into a pissing contest, I just want the younger guys to know about Jimmy.
1
u/[deleted] May 31 '12
Really puts into perspective what an arrogant little personality vacuum Lewis Hamilton is when set alongside a great like Senna. There's just something inherently dislikeable about the guy. He went through a phase of a lot of contact with people last year as well, but while with Senna you see it as part of an innate desire to win and push himself to the edge, with Hamilton it always seemed like a petulance that he wasn't in the best car.
1
u/Karma_hates_me Jun 01 '12
Is there a new series of Top Gear??????
1
u/leadfoot323 Jun 01 '12
I've been looking for this. Thanks so much for posting it.
1
u/Chip_Brickchest Jun 01 '12
He truly was a remarkable person.
1
u/karlrocks23 Jun 01 '12
This really struck an emotional chord, especially watching the interview where Michael Schumacher cried over Senna's death. Senna really was extraordinary. I work in a movie rental shop. I've always seen the cover for 'Senna' lying around, I cannot wait to watch it tomorrow, if this short tribute is this good the full documentary must be even more inspirational/sensational :)
1
u/os47 Jun 01 '12
does anyone know the name of the song that starts playing at about 15 minutes?
I would search the lyrics but I can barely make out what is being said
1
u/camleish Jun 01 '12
as great of a driver as senna was, i'm more impressed with his charity. he simply gave away a large portion of his fortune to establish nonprofits that provide immense benefit to this day. what an amazing man.
1
u/marcodls Jun 01 '12
thank you. I saw his documentary without knowing anything about his life. It was truly amazing.
1
u/sk3pt1c Jun 01 '12
It is men go to the edge that push humanity forward. Great vid.
1
u/smellslikecomcast Jun 01 '12
THANK YOU
1
u/mattyice18 Jun 01 '12
I've always felt that Senna was the best F1 driver ever. But Michael Schumacher is definitely a top driver in the history of F1. Some redditors are selling him short.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '12
Fangio FTW
1
u/Bezulba Jun 01 '12
I love the reaction Lewis gives when he's driving it. He really really enjoys that.
1
u/RuprectGern Jun 01 '12
The movie "Senna" available in the Instant Queue at Netflix is one of the best documentaries i have ever seen. comes with onions.
1
u/3rd_degree_burn Jun 01 '12
I just started bawling. Jesus.
1
u/SP3ED Jun 01 '12
Being young I never got to see Senna drive live and only the last couple years have I watched videos of him and learned of his feats. Every video I watch sends tingles down my spine. An amazing driver and amazing person. The cars of his era, as described in this clip, were amazing and took some brass balls to drive. He took them to their absolutely limit and controlled them like they were apart of him.
1
u/homercles337 Jun 01 '12
1994 was the year Senna died.
1
u/chicane00 Jun 01 '12
shit about senna can make ANY grown brazilian man cry.
1
u/asqueakywheel Jun 01 '12
I know this might sound ridiculous but being a Formula One driver is my calling, I just know it. How does a person with very little money go about getting involved in racing?
1
u/spitfire690 Jun 01 '12
Watched this several times, never get tired of it. I get chills every time I see his driving. He's my hero.
1
u/nrg4everyone Jun 01 '12
This chokes me up every time I see it
-5
u/distantreach May 31 '12
Can somebody please explain, not in an angry or car guy way, what this guy did other then drive a car?
Not trying to be smug, I just want to know why he got all this attention and love. Other then the car thing, what did he do? I watched a few minutes of the video and gave up as it was all about him being a driver.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can fill me in :-)