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> Maybe only those who lived in his era can understand who he was and that's about it. Everything else is a nice story created by professionals. This seems to

> Maybe only those who lived in his era can understand who he was and that's about it. Everything else is a nice story created by professionals. This seems to imply that the myth of Senna's greatness was created after his death, which I don't think is true. The myth was already there while he was alive. People worshipped Senna and many considered him the best driver in history of F1. A lot of this is due to his natural character as a good showman, high charisma and a sense of what people would like. However, a part of that myth was true. He did have an incredible ability to turn a certain loss into a win: - Winning a race after his gears failed. Once, his car got stuck in the highest gear, couldn't switch to a lower one and still won - Consistently winning in Monaco, one of the most difficult racing track - Consistently winning in shitty, rainy conditions I'd say it's more those things that created a legend out of him. Always being perceived as an underdog, and he often was, and still managing to win.

sokoloff 6y ago
Agreed. He was a legend at the time. My favorite Senna story is that an Austrian flag was found in the cockpit of his crashed Williams. It was traditional for the winner to circulate on the victory lap waving their national flag. Senna was Brazilian, so why an Austrian flag? Earlier that weekend, Austrian F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger died in a crash during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Senna had planned to parade with the Austrian flag in his honor.
mlinhares 6y ago
Not only ability, but willingness to improve that wasn't really seen at others. His prowess in racing in the rain is a side effect of him losing due to rain early in his career and then just completely obsessing over it to the point whenever it would rain he would stop whatever he was doing, pick up his kart and drive until he couldn't anymore. This revisionism where he wasn't a "myth" back then is pure bullshit, people were revering him on and off the tracks. He was very adept at marketing and selling his image and this was visible into how he usually got what he wanted even if the top brass on F1 didn't, as he did have the star power to do it. He was also reckless out of races, Brazilian journalists and the main PT-BR narrator for F1 races have multiple stories of him driving insanely fast in Europe with them to the point they though they'd die in an accident with him.

sokoloff 6y ago

Agreed. He was a legend at the time. My favorite Senna story is that an Austrian flag was found in the cockpit of his crashed Williams. It was traditional for the winner to circulate on the victory lap waving their national flag. Senna was Brazilian, so why an Austrian flag? Earlier that weekend, Austrian F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger died in a crash during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Senna had planned to parade with the Austrian flag in his honor.

mlinhares 6y ago

Not only ability, but willingness to improve that wasn't really seen at others. His prowess in racing in the rain is a side effect of him losing due to rain early in his career and then just completely obsessing over it to the point whenever it would rain he would stop whatever he was doing, pick up his kart and drive until he couldn't anymore. This revisionism where he wasn't a "myth" back then is pure bullshit, people were revering him on and off the tracks. He was very adept at marketing and selling his image and this was visible into how he usually got what he wanted even if the top brass on F1 didn't, as he did have the star power to do it. He was also reckless out of races, Brazilian journalists and the main PT-BR narrator for F1 races have multiple stories of him driving insanely fast in Europe with them to the point they though they'd die in an accident with him.