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AYRTON SENNA: THE MESSIAH OF MOTOR RACING
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Richard Craig, Dartman, Longman and Todd, 2012. ISBN 978 0232 52910 4
Ayrton Senna was one of the greatest racing drivers of all time. It is now 18 years since his death. A new biography is welcome. It charts his life with very (too) detailed accounts of race after race.
It is a fair presentation including his greatness and at the same time his fallibility: “Senna has been granted a hagiographic status despite being, at times, arguably one of the more dangerous competitors the sport has seen”. One writer is quoted: “‘He was such a strange man. Kind, fundamentally even gentle, yet capable – in extremis – of actions that bordered on madness…were incapable of compromise”.
Senna’s faith is well reported. There are quotes from Senna: ““I am a religious man. I believe in God, through Jesus. I was brought up that way, was maybe drifting away from it. But suddenly turned the other way… ‘Religion has always been part of my life, and has become more important in the last two years. It gives me the peace and the equilibrium that I need to perform under stress. Under pressure all the time. I have found through God a special way of living and understanding many things in life that I didn’t have before I started to understand what God is all about.”
To that, the author adds the comment: “What sat uneasily with some people was the form Senna’s faith took. Although his considerable altruism, both in terms of personal donations to charity and his indirect establishment of the Instituto Ayrton Senna, became apparent after his death the general consensus during his lifetime was that Senna’s brand of spirituality seemed to be more about him than anyone else, and he wasn’t particularly humble with it”.
The title is referred to in a line in the book which asks: “Was Senna motorsport’s messiah? And did he die so others might live?”
The weakness of the book is that it is written totally from secondary sources. The author quotes motorsport journalist Mike Doodson more than 25 times. One began to wonder if it would have been better for Doodson to have written the book.
I would have appreciated some statistics and a career summary but there was none.