Hero or Villian ?..Ayrton Senna

[BIDET FITZAKAZI]

The man was obviously a genious behind the the wheel, gave us some of the best racing we have seen.
He had epic battles with Mansell, Prost etc but showed a stubborn streak and was on more than one occassion was more than willing to take his opponent off, even if it meant he would go off also.
In my book a flawed Diamond, but very much a hero.
So Ayrton Senna De Silva, Hero or Villian ?

Hero.


AlfaLincs

[steveisfrowning]

****

[steveisfrowning]

sorry tw i t

[KarmaAlfa]

God! The Best ever! Senna da Silva. RIP

Even Schumi rates him as the best driver he has ever raced against as does Berger etc etc..

Hero by miles. All the greats hit their oppoents off the track. And to be honest I'd love to see it today. At least it gave us something to talk about back then. I know I was only 6 when Senna died but I still remember the day back home when it happened.

At the time he was racing, I despised him.

But that was just because he was so damn good.

Schumacher has the titles and the statistics, and his name on every page of the history books.

But he never was, and never will be Senna.

[BigFoot]

Great driver, no doubt. Probably the fastest driver on a single lap. Ever.

[steveisfrowning]

all too many variables

on a particular lap i would back Villeneuve

but not 70 of them

[PeterWolf]

Absolute legend. He would always stop his car and would try to get fellow drivers out of burning cars and whatnot.
Villains don't do that but no one stopped when he crashed......

[AlfaHedgehog]

Flawed hero. Arguably the fastest F1 driver in recent decades, he made 1984-1994 very interesting. I've only been jealous of one human being in my entire life (albeit briefly) .. Ayrton .

Senna's personality would be heavily frowned upon in the modern age. At race meetings he was intense, and introverted. Today, F1 favours outgoing personalities like Hamilton, Coulthard etc. Raikkonen is ridiculed for not being PR-friendly and outgoing .

Shouldn't F1 be about driving skills?

[AGM155]

Hero. That is all.

[Dawsub]

Hero
A very complex human being with flaws ,but every genius has them .
One of the 1st racers to build a team round HIM ,copied later by Schumi .Alain Prost was a good driver in that era too but Senna was much more cerebral in every way.

[steveisfrowning]

Originally Posted by Dawsub

Hero
A very complex human being with flaws ,but every genius has them .
One of the 1st racers to build a team round HIM ,copied later by Schumi .Alain Prost was a good driver in that era too but Senna was much more cerebral in every way.

interesting last point, that - i always held that Senna was the faster racer but Prost the greater long-game tactician

[jackojet]

Absolute Hero ! no one has ever come close ! was so sad when we lost him !
Valetino Rossi of the bike world is my hero of all time though

[NineOneSix]

HERO, between him and McRae are the reasons I want to race myself

[Glug]

The G.O.A.T. Nuff said!

[symon]

Hero.

Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna are my all time favorite F1 drivers.

Prost was great too but he didn't give the fans as much excitement.

[Dibby]

An Hero!

Hard racer, get out of my way or I'll take you out style of driver and made no bones about it.

Unlike the Schumacher/ Alonso types that would use snide tactics to take people out and blame everyone else but themselves

He was the type of racer we need more of but the type of racer the FIA are trying to discourage by penalising people every time cars come within 2 feet of each other on the track.

[In_The_Pass]

YouTube - Ayrton Senna - Honda NSX - Suzuka [ONBOARD]

'Lunch with' with Peter Warr of Lotus in Motor Sport last year. Warr secured more sponsorship to improve the car, and then Senna's increasing pay demands used up all that money that was earmarked for improving the car.

[Marelli]

Hero. No question.

[In_The_Pass]

Prost was gentler on his cars and brakes. Is there a quote from Frank Williams or Patrick Head that Prost would bring a car back in after a race, it would look like it had hardly done any miles....

I wonder if Prost's road cars are as lightly used when he sells them?

[KarmaAlfa]

Donington 1993 - The true Rain Meister

YouTube - Ayrton Senna Donnington Park 93' Onboard

[Freds GTV 2001]

Why would you call him a villain? hes far beyond any dichotamy you might label him as.

He was the greatest driver of his era and could have gone on to more championships if he wasnt killed.

In Sennas day Senna was King everyone listened to him. There was no such thing as the FIA ruling over dirvers in Sennas day. If Senna made a pass it was fair no question about it as it was Senna. He had the cult of the Greatest F1 Driver of his day.

[Freds GTV 2001]

Originally Posted by KarmaAlfa

Donington 1993 - The true Rain Meister

YouTube - Ayrton Senna Donnington Park 93' Onboard

Yeah that was a good video getting to the front so quickly in the rain.

Have a look at this video

YouTube - Senna, Montreal 1991

Its Amazing how he gears down hitting the rev limiter in each gear !!! WOW - can just imagine doing that in my GTV