Ayrton

[buckaroo]

I posted this in the sports/entertainment section but have garnered little response, so I thought I would try here. Last night I watched the film "Senna" and really enjoyed and learned a lot about the man and his achievements. I always enjoyed watching the man wheeling his car around the circuits, but because of where I lived, I had to rely totally on the local and nation media as to any news about F1. Never cared for Alain Prost but never knew the real animosity between Prost and Senna. Since, I've gained a lot of respect for Prost, but as one article says, no matter what Prost says or does, he can't beat Senna and he knows it.

As a race fan, I can talk all day about various rivals, but probably the biggest rivalry is Senna vs. Prost. In my opinion, Senna was the better of the two, but again, that can be argued for the rest of time and people will never agree totally.

Much of my interest in Senna has been the cause of his fatal crash. I've read and studied what happened many studies. My conclusion is that cold tires ultimately was the cause of that fatal crash. Technology is such, especially in the F1 series, that fractions of an inch mean winning or losing. That season for Senna, the Williams team was banned from using their ulta-traction control which is one of the reasons Senna moved to the team. The teams pretty much had to start from scratch and Senna was never comfortable with the car. During practice at San Marino, one of his teammates was killed in a crash and another driver survived a terrible looking crash. Senna had spun several times in this new car, but still was able to gain the pole position for the race. At the start, one of the cars failed to start and one of the other back markers crashed heavily into it, causing a slowdown, cooling the tires. On the restart, Senna stayed in the lead and on the sixth lap, slid through a corner that experts say that even a rookie wouldn't miss. If the tires were cool enough, the radius would be less, allowing the bottom of the car to bottom out, and in a corner, could render the front of the car (steering) negligent. This is the theory that I agree with, but of course, in the end, who's to really say. Some of theorized that the steering column broke, preventing him from making the turn. Others have said that something in the front end broke. What ever, it's been reported that if that steering component had come six inches on top of or below the point of impact of Senna's helmet, he would have walked away from the crash.

Needless to say, that day the racing community lost an extremely great driver.

 

[BobbyFord]

True. He was a great driver.

 

[SlowNeasy]

As a race fan, I can talk all day about various rivals, but probably the biggest rivalry is Senna vs. Prost. In my opinion, Senna was the better of the two, but again, that can be argued for the rest of time and people will never agree totally.

i think senna was clearly a better driver than prost. senna's tragic death in the f1 world could be favorably compared in magnitude to dale sr's fatal crash at daytona imo. both drove all out, all the time, making many enemies (and fans), and died doing what they did best (racing).

sorry i missed the film. hopefully it will be rebroadcast.

 

[buckaroo]

i think senna was clearly a better driver than prost. senna's tragic death in the f1 world could be favorably compared in magnitude to dale sr's fatal crash at daytona imo. both drove all out, all the time, making many enemies (and fans), and died doing what they did best (racing).

sorry i missed the film. hopefully it will be rebroadcast.

If you have Netflix, just look for "Senna". You might be able to find it at Blockbuster as well. Also, though I don't remember where, when or what, I've seen other films that dealt with Senna.

Prost won more titles that did Senna, but one of those titles was significantly slanted towards Prost. In the last race that year, if Prost failed to finish, Senna would be given the title. Senna won the pole position, but was put on the outside where the traction was worst. He complained to no avail. Not far from the start, Senna tried to overtake Prost who took him to the inside thus taking both of them out. It the appeared that Prost would have the title, but Senna restarted, went back to the pits, had a new nose put on and went on to win the race. But the top dog of F1, who was French, was close to Prost and ended up disqualifying Senna for not going through the chicane, thus giving Prost his 4th title. Later, one of the other drivers asked that if Senna was DQ'd, then why wasn't Prost DQ'd for doing the same thing in an earlier race. Didn't matter as the kings rules were final.

There is a lot of reading about Prost and Senna and it reminds me of the days when Petty and Pearson were jocking for races. It was clear that Senna didn't like Prost and the feeling was mutual but as Prost aged, he mellowed and became close to Senna after his death.

Senna brought something for the people of Brazile to be proud of and it wasn't just his winning. Ayrton was humble in his own way and contributed to the childred of Brazile. His works continued after hsi death and Alain Prost continued to be a board member of his charity.

Yes, I think Senna was the better driver between the two, but one can't cut short the efforts by Prost.

Now here's the bigger question and it was ashame that the duo only had a short run for the two, was Maichael Schumacher better overall that Senna?

 

[Greg]

I think Senna was better, I don't know if he was better than Shu.


I would give him a slight edge. I think he had better competition against Mansell, Prost, Piquet. The cars were more beastly then as well.


My favorite F1 racer, maybe Niki Lauda.

 

[SlowNeasy]

Now here's the bigger question and it was ashame that the duo only had a short run for the two, was Maichael Schumacher better overall that Senna?

that's a tough one. there have been many great f1 drivers and schumacher is certainly one of the best, if not the best. i will say senna would have made it much tougher for sch to win as many races/titles as he did. better, who knows?

 

[robbybee]

I would agree that Senna would have made it much harder for Michael. Who was better? Who can really say. It was great watching them all. Prost, Senna, Schu, Mansell, Lauda, et al...

 

[buckaroo]

I loved it in the film where Jackie Stewart is interviewing Senna and tells him that he has wrecked more cars than all the other drivers put together. Senna looks at him with a frown and says that's a bad question coming from you. He says that he is a real racer and when there is a door open, he will go for it. Kind of reminds me of old Earnhardt. And there is this up and coming (if he doesn't trip over himself) youngster by the name of Kyle.