Plus ca change

[lil_shepherd]

We went to see Senna last night. A riveting documentary about one of the greatest of all F1 drivers. For those of you who don't know, there is no commentary, just film of interviews, races, Tv variety and interview shows, amateur family films, meetings and, of course, crashes. The technical quality is therefore often poor, but that somehow gives

Comments

[carl_allery]

Senna had incredible talent, Prost had incredible skill and Mansell just refused to give up. I never really took to Senna, probably because I was already admiring Mansell's dogged determination. :)

[lil_shepherd]

I was never much of a Mansell fan. Senna was too religious to appeal to me as a person - but I admire his determination and his driving skills, his outspokenness and his concern for other drivers. The film is a tad hard on Prost...

[smtfhw]

It certainly is hard on Prost, but then it would be I suppose. I always liked him myself - couldn't abide Mansell, he was - and still is - a whinger and I can't be doing with that. Senna, I always regarded as a genius, if an unstable one, and it was not that great a surprise when he did die at the wheel of a car. In fact, a couple of years prior to the accident, Lynne and I had been at Spa, when she turned to me and said "he's going to kill himself racing one of these days."

[lil_shepherd]

"he's going to kill himself racing one of these days."

I am uneasy to see that some rather informed people are saying this about Lewis now.

[smtfhw]

I am uneasy to see that some rather informed people are saying this about Lewis now.

I don't think that for a minute. I do think the risks he is prepared to take are greater than the risks most of the others are prepared to take, but I think they are still carefully calculated risks. Also, many of the deaths previous to 1994 would not have happened had the HANS devices been is existence. So the risks are less anyway. It's fair to say that even without them the cars are stronger which is why Sergio Perez spent 1 night in hospital compared with the very similar accident that befell Karl Wendlinger in 1994 that saw him kept in a medically-induced coma for much longer than 24 hours.