Thursday 1st May 2014

Senna's five greatest races: Time For Tea?

BBC's F1 pundits choose their Senna milestones

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Every F1 fan will have their favourite moments involving Ayrton Senna, stretching right back to that Nurburgring Mercedes race in 1984. Here the BBC's F1 team (Allan McNish, Tom Clarkson, Lee McKenzie, David Coulthard and Andrew Benson) recall the races that stick most prominently in their memories.

Of course the '93 European GP at Donington features, as does that Monaco race in torrential rain where Senna's supposedly inferior Toleman did so well. We won't share any more of them here, suffice to see they all feature some spectacularly capable driving.

The BBC F1 site has some great additional Senna content today as well so ensure to give it a look.

See the video here.

 

[Source: BBC Sport F1, lead pic: LAT].

[Dodgey_Rog]

This was one of, if not the best Senna moment. He was in a different class and just drove around everyone else.

[andreas542]

The video is UK only... If anyone has an international mirror that'd be greatly appreciated!

[Harry H]

andreas542 said:

The video is UK only... If anyone has an international mirror that'd be greatly appreciated!

I don't, but trust me you're not missing much. It's 5 very brief clips with a total run time of 3.5 mins.

Nice to listen to Murray again though

[anonymous-user]

The following clips are the best 5 races according to the BBC

The 1993 European Grand Prix

Unfortunately I do not think there is any sound but this is mostly on board with Senna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pA0mOxxeTA

This is the BBC footage which hopefully you can see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLEE420v20

Monaco GP 1984

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_UxLZVk8mA

F1 GP Formula 1 1985 Portugal Estoril

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEG9x-HDq6E

Suzuki 1988 GP unfortunately only part 3 as no doubt Bernie got it taken down

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1988+J...

Brazilian 1991 GP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7dHcZY9HCw

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 1st May 17:06

[k-ink]

Great idea for a film, but sub 4 minutes... come on! That is simply an intro.

[entropy]

You can find highlights from Auntie http://sidepodcast.com/post/classic-f1-videos-from...


1984 Monaco GP http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

1985 Portugese GP (10mins) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

1988 Japanese GP http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

1989 Japanese GP http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/13023144

1990 US GP (10mins) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula... ESPN's full coverage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh3QJ_w8yTs

1990 Monaco GP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6X9LsPl10E

1991 Brazillian GP http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

1991 Spanish GP (8mins) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/803455...

1992 Monaco GP (6mins) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

1993 European GP http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

[forzaminardi]

Donington '93 was certainly a great performance from Senna, but his first lap wasn't "the best first lap ever" as is commonly said. Further back, Rubens Barrichello started 12th and ended the first lap in 4th, behind only Senna, Prost and Hill. Overall, given the quality of their respective equipment, Rubens was 'driver of the day' that day (in my opinion), on target to finish on the podium for Jordan before the car stopped.

Anyway, Senna. Great driver, great character, questionable ethics. I was never a fan but you couldn't be a F1 fan, or even (as I was) a Prost fan, and not be affected by his death of only because after the departures of Piquet, Prost and Mansell, Senna was the last of his generation to go, so suddenly and just as he seemed on the cusp of cementing his reputation not just as a racing driver but as someone and something much more significant. That and the loss of the reference point of being 'the best' was shocking to me.

I posted this on James Allen's site, but the funny (odd, not ha ha) thing for me with Senna and F1 in 1994 was that I was taking part in what must have been the first Fantasy F1 games, run by Top Gear magazine (remember when it was good?). Anyway, I had Alesi as one of my drivers - he was ruled out by an accident in testing, missing 3 races including Imola. Come Imola, and Rubens had his Friday practice crash, ruling him out of the event - I had chosen Jordan as my chassis and said to my mate "Bloody Hell, my team does nothing but crash". You can guess the rest - I'd chosen Senna as my other driver... and the final twist was the engine I'd chosen was Sauber's Mercedes-Benz - and that team had the stuffing knocked out of it with Wendlinger's crash in Monaco two weeks later. I've not got involved in Fantasy F1 since then...

Edited by forzaminardi on Friday 2nd May 07:45

[coppice]

My clearest memory of Senna was watching the very young Ayrton Senna da Silva absolutely annihilate the FF1600 field at a cold Mallory Park in1981(ish) - I had never heard of him but even then it was obvious he was on a different level . And the other memory is watching him at Silverstone in early years of n/a cars- probably 1990ish- and his speed and extraordinary throttle technique made him utterly compelling to watch and listen to .Donington was special too ...

[garypotter]

At the time being young and naive I was a red 5 fan and always will be but I can appreciate he was a superb driver, the best ever? hmmmm not mine, but some of his tactics were dubious but completely over shadowed by Schumi who took it on to another level.