Viva Senna! 19 years down the line

For “normal” people, May 1 is nothing special – they know it’s May Day but it doesn’t affect them in any major way apart from giving them respite from school/college/office work for a day. But what does it mean for hardcore F1 fans like me? Only one thing – Senna. 19 years ago, on this day, the world lost probably the greatest F1 racer ever, to an accident the reason behind which remains undetermined to this date. Strange, isn’t it? Yes, it might be strange but this is what exactly adds to the legend that is Senna. This mystery about his death – what exactly happened at the Tamburello corner on that fateful Sunday, adds to the list of many other mysterious situations Senna had found himself in. Let’s take a look at some of those:

1988 Monaco GP

To start with, this was Senna’s third race with McLaren and then double world champion Alain Prost as his teammate. And what does this guy from some unknown section of Brazil do? Out-qualify Prost by around 1.5 seconds, that’s what! 1.5 seconds can be considered a light year in F1 terms. The feat becomes even more astonishing when we take into account the fact that the MP4/4 was obviously built to suit Prost (especially early in the year given that Prost had much more experience). How he did it, even Senna was at a loss of words to explain. However, what he said became part of F1 folklore – “And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.”

1991 Brazilian GP

Senna had not won his home race till then and the 1991 race looked like the best chance, with him comfortably in the lead. But then he suffered a gearbox problem and had to run the last seven laps with only the sixth gear. Most drivers would have retired after a few laps but Senna’s determination to triumph at home overcame the enormous physical challenges required to drive the car in those conditions. To make matters even worse, it started to rain towards the end of the race and that would have made the car handle like maybe a tractor – it is difficult to imagine how gargantuan an effort that was. After taking the chequered flag, he was exhausted to such an extent that he needed help to get out of the car and couldn’t even properly hold aloft his trophy. Again, the question arises – how was he able to do it? Was it the support of the home crowd or his sheer determination? Nobody can say for sure.

1993 European GP

Yes, this was the race with THE lap. Senna moved from 5th to 1st before the end of Lap 1 in treacherous conditions in a car that was around a second slower in the dry than the dominating Williams cars out in front. That day, Donington Park experienced one of the best drives ever, at the end of which Senna had lapped everyone in the field except Damon Hill in 2nd place. Beat that if you can! Now, before comparisons are drawn with Sir Jackie Stewart‘s unforgettable drive in torrential rain at the Nurburgring in 1968, it is important to mention that the two eras were completely different; the cars, the tracks, everything. Both put in truly out-of-the-world drives and both should be given due credit for it. So we again come to our question – how?

These kinds of performances truly raise the level of a driver beyond the normal level of an F1 grid to make him a legend. In British journalist Richard Williams’ words “You had Alain Prost… the Professor; Nelson Piquet… emotional, cunning; Nigel Mansell…. British lion; and then you had Senna…. the virtuoso”.

You can add to that his spectacular driver in 1984 in Monaco in the Toleman and his out-of-body experience and claim of seeing God when he was on route to winning the 1988 World Championship.

He earned a lot of flak for that but at the same time touched many fans’ hearts. The proof of that was in front of everyone’s eyes when people from all over the world came to Brazil and thronged the roads through which Senna’s coffin passed.

It has been 19 years since Senna left us, but has the admiration and love for him decreased even a bit? Not at all in my case. In fact, it grows day by day as I come to know more about him as a person and some of his less famous but equally gritty drives throughout his career – after all, he started 161 races and so there are bound to be some other special drives as well.

Senna left a lasting impression on everyone who knew him personally or who saw him drive (on TV). He had such a charismatic personality that even his biggest rival and hater Alain Prost can’t resist talking good about him sometimes.

People say that it was fitting that a driver like Senna – who in one adjective could be described as ‘fast ‘ – died while behind the wheel of a racing car.

But still, Senna fans to this day look at this painting by Oleg Konin and think “Only if………….”.