I saw Senna race in Monte Carlo twice, in Montreal, and in Phoenix. I think we all knew at the time he was something special. That's what makes his ending so difficult to understand. When I saw it on TV, I thought it was just another simple accident and he would pop out. A few minutes later, we knew it wasn't going to be that way. A tragedy on so many levels. What an ambassador he could have been for F1.
Just a quick pic of some assorted shots with a so-so digital camera in less than ideal conditions. These photo's are actually super clear and extremely colorful. I have hundreds but not with me currently. The upload process here reduces the quality/size even further by a factor of 10. Most from the grandstand on that beautiful saturday morning but a couple from 88 and 85. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
a little more; Nigel - great colors, the brabham skateboard a bad design by Gordon Murray, and one of the best looking Ferrari F1 cars driven by Michele Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
^^^ Those are outstanding pics. Would it be possible to share a hi-res of Senna's with me? Would love to have that as my desktop background! My gmail is altwinmail@gmail
While the Brabham wasn't very successful, that very design formed the basis for the McLaren MP4/4 that utterly dominated the '88 season.
Thanks. I have a much better photo of Senna, very close and very clear in the JPS that I will post someday when I have a proper scanner and I will be happy to send you a file then. Yes I guess you could say that, you can see the shapes above very close, also don't forget Elio had died 3 weeks before these pics were taken while testing in the car at Paul Ricard. I have pics of Elio from 85, pics of Stefan Bellof also.
What do you make of his test with Penske's CART team? There is a video of him driving the car and as I understand it, he was quite happy with the lack of driver aids. I'm sure it would have never happened, but a big "what if" for me...I would have loved to see him there, and he may well have been influential enough to save the series from itself. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Which I went nuts over - and although he managed to tick off Mario, his success could not be denied. CART was the real deal then...
Good chance that he planned on doing Indycars after F1. We know that he hated flying to Europe and was happiest in Brazil. So doing NA races might have been much less of a drag on him. Besides: he could have easily beaten Piquets efforts
+1 IndyCar was fantastic back then. Nowadays the cars are so stupid looking the the drivers so "meh" I can barely bring myself to watch it.
Very true. Fair enough. As many here know, I'm a *long* way from a Mansell fan. But, as you say, he came "here" and, basically, blew their doors off. Respect. OTOH, a WDC winner, and CART rookie of the year ( + title winner IIRC?) suggest to me the competition was "minor leagues" compared to F1..... Cheers, Ian
That certainly was an interesting year as we also had the winner of the CART championship join F1. Except that didn't go nearly as well as the WDC winner coming to CART. Making the point of CART being the minor leagues even further.
Possibly, but Mario was a USAC guy when he went F1 and won the title. And Cheever didn't blow anyone away in IndyCar when he came back from Europe. FWIW.
The Michael Andretti situation was far from ideal - from both his side & McLaren's. living in PA; zero testing time were two major factors in his less than stellar year. Cart was phenomenal from 88-95. Even Bernie was getting nervous over their growth; in part their (cart's) stupidity helped pave the way for f1's global growth. Kevin
IMO Nascar is the #1 American racing series and CART was distinct from the Indy 500. And my choice would not be M. A. for a CART guy going to F1 it would be J. V. So if you want to compare series compare Nascar to F1. As to drivers, it really is an individual thing not a series thing and not a period of time thing.
Senna's death is my earliest memory. I can remember asking my father and mother who we would cheer for, now that Ayrton had died. The sadness was palpable, you have no idea. When his body arrived in Brazil, it was driven through São Paulo on a firetruck. My brothers & I missed school (so did basically everyone else) and my parents took us to see the truck passing by. Every single person was crying. I remember being sad though not really grasping the importance of this man, other than him being someone we all cheered for on sunday. I remember the military airplanes flying above spewing smoke. When Brazil won the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the players had a banner on the field dedicating the win to Ayrton. TV Globo, the station that still broadcasts F1, had a theme song made for him. Well, technically it was a song that was made for whenever Brazilian drivers won F1 races, but trust me, when you hear it all you can remember is Ayrton. When I hear it I get tears in my eyes, to this day. Most people here do, too. Show a picture of Ayrton to any Brazilian who is over 20 or 21 years old on May 1st and they will probably go silent for a bit. He was that important, to us. As a racer, I think he was the best, but there are certainly many people here who are more partial to Nelson Piquet - and they present many solid arguments. However no one denies Ayrton's importance as a national hero. You'd have to understand the country's fragile political and economic situation at the time, and the importance given to Ayrton's representing us on the world stage - and doing so so well. Ayrton represented - still represents - hope. His helmet has become a sign of perseverance. Trust me, any Brazilian who enters F1 has the world's most difficult job, because they are constantly reminded by fans and press that they are not Ayrton. It's a hard cross to bear. May 1st is always a melancholic day in Brazil. But is memory lives on in all the beautiful charity work he began, and which his sister Viviane continues to improve upon. Descanse em Paz, Ayrton [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HwVjppnHSo]Tema da Vitória - Ayrton Senna - YouTube[/ame]
For me, Ayrton was the first true great of F1 in my lifetime. Others came before, and others have come since, but he was my first 'great' and that memory is dominant. I remember seeing him in the Toleman on TV at Monaco in the wet chasing down Prost and being robbed of victory by bent F1 officials. Boy was that an exciting chase to watch. I realized then that we were witnessing the start of something great. Not long after that, I went to Silverstone to watch him race in the JPS and I remember vividly how excited the fans were when he came storming past, and how vocally sad the fans were when his car (as was fairly typical in those days) blew up. I still have my race program stored away somewhere in my box of memories together with a variety of very poor photos taken on my humble Kodak Instamatic. Then came Donington '93 - that race that will forever remain in the memory as a true masterclass from a driver at the very top of his game. Fifth to first in one lap. Lapping the entire field. Destroying everyone by a country mile. Dealing with wet and dry conditions that would not settle down throughout the whole race. A legend in his own lifetime right there in that one moment. In '94 I decided to make the pilgrimage to Monaco for the GP for the first time. Plans had been made before the dreadful events of Imola and excitement soon turned to confusion and dread. The atmosphere over the weekend was black and sickening. Before the race, all the drivers gathered on the grid to pay their respects to Senna and Ratzenberger. Wendlinger had crashed heavily in practice and lay in a coma. The first two grid slots were left empty and painted in the flags of Brazil and Austria. It was a difficult and emotional time. Sad for everyone. Michael Schumacher went on to win that race - and in a sense, the mantle of greatness had been passed from one legend to a future legend. RIP Ayrton.
Great shot - my favorite McLaren. Back in the days when you could get a decent ground level shot in Montreal!
Exactly. Shot through one of the holes in the fence for the rescue team. Again, not doable by today's standards.
Wow! Seems this thread made one of three "threads of the month"! Didn't think "the powers" paid much attention to all the "noise" in this forum. Cheers, Ian
