F1 Novice remembers Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna driving the JPS Lotus 97T took pole and finished second in the 1985 European GP at Brands Hatch
Dec.10 (F1 Novice for YallaF1.com) We came across this “comment” by regular YallaF1.com reader F1 Novice. It was so good that we decided to publish it with his permission. We say not bad for an F1 novice!
Ayrton Senna lifts Marlboro McLaren team mate Gerhard Berger
Although having never actually met the man, Ayrton Senna seemed to be an amazingly driven man – it’s kind of funny but sometimes when you are living through an era like, that when someone like Senna comes along you don’t necessarily realise at the time that what you are observing is history in the making.
This may seem a bit odd now, but back in those days I remember watching Senna getting pole week in and week out, then during one year (must have been ‘88 – having just had a quick peek at the stats) watching him dominating a massive percentage of races by starting from pole, putting in some stonking early laps to create a gap then controlling the race by maintaining the gap keeping it at around 10 seconds. If the guy in second put in a quick lap on one lap Senna would put in a quicker lap the very next lap to re-instate the gap!
I remember sometimes thinking it was becoming a little boring with Senna winning so many races in a season, you kind of knew Senna would be on pole and he was most probably going to win it.
A bit like, more recently, when Schumacher was dominating. It’s only later that you realise what a genius behind the wheel you were witnessing, something you didn’t really grasp or comprehend that at that time.
There’s was quite a lot of rumour or “folklore” that surrounded Senna during those years that used to make me laugh – how much of it was true I don’t know.
One story I heard was that it was Senna who made made John Watson question his own future in Formula 1 and finally made him realise it was time to stop – apparently he (Watson) was in a McLaren at Brands Hatch during practise for the 1985 European Grand Prix.
John Watson made a one race comeback to replace injured Niki Lauda for the 1985 European GP at Brands Hatch
He was, in his mind on a good lap, happily going through Dingle Dell as quick as he could (Dingle Dell a much different corner in those days than it is today it used to be an elongated quick chicane – quick flick right/left right then onto Stirlings) when a car overtook him THROUGH Dingle Dell at an unbelievable rate of knots.
That in itself is pretty amazing if you know that corner in that configuration. Watson said at the time that the back of the car that passed him was absolutely on the edge of adhesion with it’s rear tyres virtually dancing over the Tarmac, apparently Watson aborted his lap and went into the pits totally stunned and he knew at that point it was time to hang up his driving boots and make way for this new breed of driver. The car that passed him was a John Player Special Lotus….. the driver? A little known (at that time) Ayrton Senna.
John Watson never drove in an F1 Race again after that weekend.
On a lighter note the relationship between Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna used to make me chuckle – Berger being the practical joker…..
There’s a story of an incident at Monza where in a joint helicopter ride Senna had been showing off his new tailor-made briefcase. Having been made of carbon fibre composite, Senna argued that it should be virtually indestructible. Berger, without much hesitation, and much to Senna’s disbelief, opened the door of the helicopter and threw the briefcase out, to test the hypothesis.
Ayrton Senna in his helicopter
Another one was that Berger filled Senna’s bed with animals. Senna understandably infuriated, confronted Berger by saying: “I’ve spent the last hour catching 12 frogs in my room,” to which Berger replied, “Did you find the snake?”
The funniest though being an incident in which Berger replaced Senna’s passport photo with what Ron Dennis described as “an equivalent-sized piece of male genitalia”. Senna’s fame meant he rarely had his passport checked, but on a later trip to Argentina Berger’s prank resulted in officials holding the Brazilian for 24 hours.
As a response to this gag, Senna superglued all of Berger’s credit cards together.
Story by “uber” YallaF1.com comment writer F1 Novice first appeared in September 2010.
Story is good but a little inaccurate in relation to the John Watson story. I have recently seen the John Watson interview on youtube, and he was in his in lap and was watching Senna take those corners from a distance. What he said was that he could Senna car dancing on the edge and that Senna was doing things in a car, which he had never even though of. So it was time to hang up his boots etc. So jest of story is accurate!
that was a great story. i remember reading about a prank in which Senna got back at Berger. maybe stealing his shoes before a black tie affair. not really sure i’m remembering that correctly, but Senna has said one of the things his friendship with Gerhard has taught him is how to relax and enjoy life in F1 a little more.
speaking of Dr. Sid and Senna’s post F1 career, how i wish he would have taken Dr Sid’s offer that saturday night. to show the love that Dr. Sid had for Senna, he offered to retire with him, and go fishing that 1st day of May…..
Seems “F1 Novice” knows a little bit about F1 racing…
Well…. thanks for all the comments :0)). The “F1 Novice” is a bit of “Tongue in Cheek”…. I am somewhat of an F1 nutter / fanatic to the point I spent my honeymoon at the Maggots / Becketts complex for the 1991 British Grand Prix watching Mansell dominate the weekend setting Pole, Fastest Lap & taking the Race Win in the Renault V10 powered Wiilliams FW14 the the forerunner to the all conquering most sophisticated F1 car ever FW14B in which Mansell won the 1992 WDC.
The three most stand out moments of that weekend in ’91 were Mansell’s pole, the huge roar that went up when Mansell re-took the lead on lap 1 of the race at Stowe overtaking the fast starting Ayrton Senna and of course the iconic sight of Senna hitching a lift back to the pits at the end of the race on Mansell’s car after running out of fuel on the last lap.
I have to agree with Arthur, please change your name to “Former Novice” or something along those lines. Nice to see a whole batch of comments in which the writers are generally in agreement, and perhaps especially because of this, there has been no use of expletives and insults. Perhaps we could start a private forum somewhere for F1 fans who prefer not to call supporters of other drivers “retards” and other derogatory names. Oh for the good ol’ days when civility was valued. Would have been the same days when drivers weren’t PR machines with some ability behind the wheel, Pit Rat, not so?
I enjoyed reading this article today. It makes you wounder what other jokes team mates play on each other!
I had heard about the briefcase episode but the other stories were completely new to me.
Made my morning Yalla, Thank you.
@pit rat
I couldnt have said that better
I heard a story once that when Senna won his first GP in Estoril in 1985 under the torrential rain, at one point in his nearly perfect race, he lost control of his car and went off the track, all four tyres were off the tarmac and somehow, Senna regained control on the grass, duly returning to the track and continuing faultlessly to the flag
After the race back at the Lotus garage, Senna’s race engineer gave him a pat on the back and said ‘ that was absolutely amazing car control the way you just recovered that situation’ to which Senna replied along the lines of ‘ I dont know about car control, I lost control of it…..how it came back to me I dont know!’
I think Senna was much more than just a race driver. He had mentioned on occasions that Formula 1 was just a stepping stone to a calling later in his life….Politics? President of Brazil? what could have been…Doctor Sid Watkins told Ayrton the day before his death encouraged Senna to give it all away in the wake of Ratzenberger’s accident….in his eyes Senna had already achieved what there was to achieve in Formula 1 & was capable of doing more in life
Thanks for the memories. It was a special kind of speed
GRANDE SENNA
Thanks F1 Novice… I love reading about Senna’s stories… not sure any other driver has as much interest, or will ever command that much interest in even the most mundane of his actions…
but to be fair, he lived in the golden ages of F1, where drivers were still rough around the edges, unpolished and spontaneous… now almost everything is scripted.
Did you ever ask yourseld how Hamilton can remember how the car twitched on Turn 6 on lap 17 after 66 lap race? and deliver that story just minutes after the finish in absolute calmness and very acceptable rhetoric… the magic is gone from the driver’s character I think…
Good job F1 Novice. I think you need to change your name from now on… Nice and deep information. A true blue F1 fan…
Nice posting F1 Novice … looking forward for more
Great comment the other day and kudos to Yalla for republishing.
It’s is always inspiring to see the human side of our heroes.