Description
Author: Tony Dodgins, ISBN: 9780992820909, Pages: 304, Published in 2014, Hardbound.
This complete record of Ayrton Senna's racing life outlines every car race in which he competed, supported by fresh insights and perspective from interviews with many of his rivals and colleagues.
From his first race at a chilly Brands Hatch in March 1981 to that terrible weekend at Imola in May 1994, all the highs and lows of Senna's extraordinary life as a racing driver are outlined within these pages.
There are the innumerable glorious moments, such as Monaco '84 (nearly winning with Toleman in the wet), Portugal '85 (his first GP victory, with Lotus), Japan '88 (clinching his first world title, with McLaren), Brazil '91 (his first home win, with a broken gearbox) and Donington '93 (winning through total wet-weather mastery).
And there are the infamous moments, such as Monaco '88 (throwing away certain victory on the weekend of his surreal pole-position lap) and Suzuka '90 (securing his world title by taking out Prost at the first corner).
Author Tony Dodgins knows many of the participants in Senna's story and has conducted many illuminating interviews for this book. Among them are karting maestro Terry Fullerton, Van Diemen boss Ralph Firman and arch-rival Rick Morris from the very first Formula Ford season, Alex Hawkridge and Pat Symonds from the debut Fl year with Toleman, Ron Dennis, Jo Ramirez and Martin Whitmarsh from the McLaren period, and Damon Hill and David Coulthard from Senna's fateful few months with Williams.
Supporting this book's rich text is a lavish array of over 250 photographs, all but a handful of them captured through the lenses of Sutton Images, where brothers Keith and Mark Sutton between them followed Senna's meteoric career from the very beginning. Their contribution starts with his very first race win and ends with poignant images from Imola '94.
This book provides a fitting tribute to a Formula 1 legend whose legacy today extends far beyond the world of motor racing.
