10 replies to this topic

[Nemo1965]

I've searched on these Forums, but could not find a thread or a post about it. So hence...

 

Sky recently broadcasted the documentary 'Ayrton Senna - The Last Teammate', a doc with Damon Hill and David Brabham about Imola 1994. Today I saw it. Fascinating stuff, because I had never seen Damon being interviewed in such a (personal) way in general and not at all about Aerton Senna.

 

In my eyes a moving documentary, even if I don't agree with Hills opinion about the accident. Touching: Aerton Senna told Georgie (Hill) that Damon was going to be allright because the Williams was a good car.

 

If you watch the documentary, take the chance of watching, 45 minutes worth well your time.

 

 

 

 

[Siddley]

I found this very, very difficult to watch.

The reason being that since I have grown out the crewcut I have worn for the last 15 years, my wife says I now resemble Damon Hill. I like Damon and have a huge amount of respect for the guy, but that doesn't mean I want to look like him

 

I watched it on Youtube and made the mistake of looking at the comments, which was an insight into what happens when the inmates of insane asylums are taken off their anti-psychotic medication and given internet connections...

But seriously, it's a great piece of documentary film making. The producers obviously just suggested some talking points, asked some pertinent questions and let the two drivers get on with it. I can - almost - remember when most documentaries were made like that...

[Gary Davies]

Fascinating. What a decent, thoughtful and honest man Damon is. No surprise there, but reconfirmation.

 

I found it quite touching to see the clear emotion in Newey's face after Damon's Spanish Grand Prix victory. What an terribly stressful time it must have been for him (amongst lots and lots of others).

[Nemo1965]

What I found intriguing was that both drivers - both Damon and David Brabham - were so open about their fear and also their, dare I say, doubt and digust about motorsport. I never found and find it 'courageous' if people do dangerous things when they are not concerned about dying, like Senna seemed to be for a long time in his career. Both Hill and Brabham were very open about it in the documentary. The only F1 drivers I ever witnessed being so open about fear of dying and disgust about accidents were Lauda and Stewart...

 

On a side-note: the tragic thing about Aerton which the documentary showed well is that in the last two years of his life, he clearly was changing, and when I see the interview of the weekend in Imola, he is a changed man. He was, at last, aware that he was also a mere mortal. Very sad that not long after this change he lost his life in an accident.

 

Siddley, two remarks:

 

1. There are worse things than to look like Damon Hill. Perhaps you can use it for a bit of role-playing? (Man comes home, dressed in nomex overal, black and white striped helmet in his hand. Champagne-bottle in the other. 'Oh darling! Have you won the British Grand Prix again?' 'Yes, my love. And I saved one bottle of champagne for you.)

 

2. The comments on youtube really show how wonderfull this idea was and is, about "civil journalism' is (both literally and figuratively). It reminds of when Ghandi, when he was asked: 'What do you think of Western Civilisation?' Answer: 'Sounds like a wonderfull idea.'

Edited by Nemo1965, 22 July 2014 - 13:28.

[as65p]

On a side-note: the tragic thing about Aerton which the documentary showed well is that in the last two years of his life, he clearly was changing, and when I see the interview of the weekend in Imola, he is a changed man. He was, at last, aware that he was also a mere mortal. Very sad that not long after this change he lost his life in an accident.

 

I think that impression is heavily influenced by his death shortly afterwards. He was making similar statements about his own and racing drivers mortality in general years before. Sure it was on his mind that weekend because of Barrichellos and/or, depending on the exact time of the interview, Ratzenbergers death, but I don't think there was that much of a change going on(other than the normal ageing process we all go through). He was also visibly shaken when Donnelly had his big accident in 1989, and I reckon had he died a few days later people would now retrospectively "see" that he was beginning to change shortly before his death, just as they do now re: 1994.

 

Oh and please, if it's not too much to ask, try to use the "y" on your keyboard a bit more when writing about Senna.

[Nemo1965]

.

 

Oh and please, if it's not too much to ask, try to use the "y" on your keyboard a bit more when writing about Senna.

 

My apologies, I learned that you pronounce Ayrtons name as 'A-here-Ton.'

 

That's why I used the 'e'...

 

And of course his death changed the way we see his demeanour at that time. But I have not noticed or even said the same about Gilles Villeneuve, Ronnie Peterson or, even earlier, Francois Cevert... There are very, very clear pictures of their eyes before their death and I saw nothing of the sort...

 

Anyhoo, what to think about Sid Watkins' comments on Senna's mood (not in the documentary?) You know, the fit of crying he had, the glass or red wine the night before. Or that he said, during the installation-lap at sundaymorning: 'Come back, Alain, we miss you.'

 

Very un-Ayrton-behaviour, if you ask me. But of course I never met the man...

 

PS: I was not a big Senna-fan, by the way. Too much 'entitlement', if you catch my drift.

Edited by Nemo1965, 22 July 2014 - 13:29.

[sennafan24]

PS: I was not a big Senna-fan, by the way. Too much 'entitlement', if you catch my drift.

And I used to like you 

 

 

I watched it on Youtube and made the mistake of looking at the comments, which was an insight into what happens when the inmates of insane asylums are taken off their anti-psychotic medication and given internet connections...

Yes, I read some of that

 

Bit tragic really

[as65p]

PS: I was not a big Senna-fan, by the way. Too much 'entitlement', if you catch my drift.

 

I do. That may well be the reason you sensed a change in the man before his death, because it's what you wanted to see?

 

I'm not convinced, I have to say. To me, Sennas mood merely reflected his situation at the time, trouble on all fronts basically. Disappointing car, not feeling at home at Williams yet, his suspicions right or wrong about the Benettons legality, IIRC some trouble with his family over his girlfriend, the emptyness of racing with his greatest rival gone, then Barichllos accident, then Ratzenbergers death...

 

BUT, IMO all things he would get over and recover, as he had done before, if he had lived.

[SophieB]

If people are interested in Damon Hill's recollections, he wrote some excellent pieces on Ayrton Senna back in 2004. Behind the Times paywall, but worth it, in my view:

 

"By his own concerns, expressed in the driver’s briefing, he knew what the implications were of a safety car being deployed. It was not the fault of anyone else that he kept his foot flat when he could have lifted, but Ayrton had to be this demigod “Senna”, and “Senna” does not shrink from fear. And in that moment he fulfilled all our sorry needs for a hero for whom death is just an occupational hazard."

 

http://www.thetimes....icle2248303.ece

 

http://www.thetimes....icle2333562.ece

 

http://www.thetimes....icle2333571.ece

 

Personally, I suspect his concerns about safety were all about the other drivers, but who knows.  I don't think there's ever been, or ever will be, a more contradictory driver than Ayrton Senna.

[Nemo1965]

Interesting quote, Sophie!

 

Yeah, part of Hills mixed feelings about Senna (in that regard) was covered well also in the documentary. At the end of the program, Hill posed the next retoric question to David Brabham (I am paraphrasing here, out of my head): 'Don't you agree that the person that Ayrton was out of the car was someone different than the driver he was in the car?' Brabham: 'Absolutely.' Hill: 'I mean: in the car he took no prisoners. But outside the car..' Brabham: 'I think he felt that tension too.'

[911]

Thanks for the link.  I hadn't seen it before but thought it was a good program.