Ayrton Senna was considered one of the best drivers ever, a wizard in the rain and someone who could push a car beyond its capabilities. He was not a driver who relied on tactics but one who would use his intensity to impose his will on his opponents. Senna combines race and archival footage from the 1980s and 1990s with some voiceovers to paint a portrait of an emotional yet exceptional athlete.
Though his career in Formula 1 barely lasted more than a decade, Senna won three World Drivers’ Championships, dozens of races and countless pole positions. He became a hero to millions of fans worldwide and was idolized in his native Brazil. A deeply religious person, Senna’s faith may have inspired him to realize his dreams while leaving him disillusioned when he fell short of the success he desired.
Senna’s career occurred as great technological advances were made in the sport, such as the increased media access which created the footage used in this documentary and the telemetrics which allowed Williams to surpass McLaren as the 1990s began. As a young driver, Senna believed that he could do anything with a car but when his team began losing to lesser drivers with better cars, he sought out a new team. Ironically, when Senna moved to Williams, Formula 1 banned some of the technology which fuelled their domination of the sport, leaving a problematic car behind.
Likewise, Senna’s concepts of moral absolutes clashed with the moral relativity of politics in the sport. He always saw himself as an outsider, a view that was confirmed in his mind when he was disqualified in the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989, handing the title to Alain Prost. The next year, he took matters into his own hands, crashing into Prost so that he could claim the championship. An act which may have normally seemed reprehensible somehow seemed appropriate given the climate of auto racing.
The audience sees Senna’s self-doubt and anxiety as he nears his demise during a disastrous weekend at Imola. Eerily, F-1’s chief doctor Sid Wadkins invited Senna to quit the sport and go fishing with him after a deadly accident during qualifying. Senna said that he could not quit at that time, a decision which proved fatal the next day. The passion which sustained him early in his career drove his pursuit of a goal that he was never destined to achieve.
It is rare that a documentary remains suspenseful as it nears a conclusion that everyone knows is coming but Senna achieves this feat. The audience is engaged throughout – some recalling Senna’s mastery of the F-1 circuit, some learning new facts about his background and others watching him for the first time – studying humanity as much as they are studying auto racing.
The inherent wastefulness of the tragedy is somewhat reduced by the good deeds that Senna’s foundation has accomplished for impoverished Brazilian children and safety improvements undertaken by the sport. If Senna had accepted Wadkins appeal to leave the sport with him, he might have lived although others would not have benefitted from Wadkins’ later safety recommendations.
As much as the Williams car performed poorly in 1994, it was likely debris from a previous accident that pierced Senna’s tires, causing him to lose control. The race seemed cursed as three spectacular accidents occurred before the first lap was completed. If the race had been abandoned and profit forsaken for a week, Senna would have lived but the sport was not capable of the selfless actions Senna performed to benefit other drivers and citizens in Brazil.
Senna and Prost were not as antagonistic with each other as the film portrays. According to the documentary, Prost is the rational counterpart to Senna’s passion. When Senna lost sight of his principles in search of victory, did it lead to his death in his race car or was this a destiny that he could not avoid? Senna’s greatest strengths as a driver were inextricably linked to his downfall. ***