Senna mini-series on netflix

[red 928]

I don't recall seeing a thread about this mini-series on Senna
and did a quick search. So here goes:

I watched all 6 episodes in the past few days,
very well done.
It isn't far from what I remember and from
documentaries I've seen and what I've read.

This series went deep into detail about Senna's aggressive
nature and driving style, win, crash. or break.
I don't recall it being all that bad but I was still kind of
new to F1 in that era.
he was great in the rain, great at qualifying, but
had plenty of DNFs also.
61 poles and 41 wins and 3 championships in 10 years
(not counting the one that Prost stole from him).


But only thing has always alluded me:
Alain Prost.
Everything I've seen or read about the man indicates
he was a sniveling weasel with little or no morals.
But after he retired, he and Senna became friends!???
He was even a pallbearer at Senna's funeral.

This after screwing Senna out of a championship,
vetoed him from getting a ride at a top team,
Borderline sabotage at McLaren,
and numerous insults, slights and accusations in the press.

I would think that Senna would despise the guy
but apparently they became friends.
So what gives?

[red 928]

PS
the series was also not kind to Jean-Marie Balestre,
Rightfully so.
I wouldn't mind relieving my bladder on the grave of that POS.

He cheated to give his countryman the championship
and admitted as much years later:

Reali Júnior, Elpídio (November 6, 1996).
"Balestre admite ter ajudado Prost contra Senna".
O Estado de S. Paulo. Retrieved July 11, 2017.

[greglepore]

Haven't seen it, but the documentary Senna from about 8-10 yrs ago was brilliant, hard to think this was better.
Prost and Senna were 2 old warriors in retirement, it gave them perspective on how much they were alike and a ton of mutual respect that was impossible in the heat of battle.

[serene911]

Excellent series, highly recommended, good story line, great editing and like the
other Senna movies from the past very good. A great binge watch. Surprised
more people on this forum haven't watched it.

[URY914]

I'll be watching now after reading this. Thanks

[Deschodt]

Balestre was 100% a clown and a dishonest guy.. Let's not lump him with Prost please.

I really resent the Prost thing in all those Senna docs though. Senna died, so he's now Saint Senna. Prost lived.

Prost was no more or less political than any other driver or Senna himself, he didn't even object to him coming over to McLaren. Whatever broke down was due to crap management from Ron Dennis IMO. Prost got pegged as a villain in the documentary, and yet he was a pallbearer at the funeral. Senna is the one who did the most egregious of the 2 crashes at Suzuka and didnt even pretend to take the turn ! He had that "god is with me, I pass or we crash" attitude that scared the field. I'm old I guess but I watched Senna's entire career live and even back in the days I always considered Senna to be the villain and quite a "dic#" overall - despite the undeniable obvious talent.. I read stuff from Prost where he goes on about the length at which Senna would go to beat him, Prost was his 100% focus and obsession at the time and he would have done anything... When Prost retired, Senna lost his #1 target to an extent his sense of purpose, and sorta came down to earth again and they became friends because the rivalry was purely a racing one... Prost IMO got screwed by history and the Manish Pandy documentary in particular (the guy is a total fanboy). Listen to any race today where all drivers are tattle telling on each other... Read the old magazine articles, find out.... the dead guys always get the sainthood. it's too bad he didn't live, would have been awesome to see him vs Schumacher (another one whose excesses are being swept under the blanket these days)

[red 928]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

I really resent the Prost thing in all those Senna docs though. Senna died, so he's now Saint Senna. Prost lived.

Prost was no more or less political than any other driver or Senna himself, he didn't even object to him coming over to McLaren. Whatever broke down was due to crap management from Ron Dennis IMO. Prost got pegged as a villain in the documentary, and yet he was a pallbearer at the funeral. Senna is the one who did the most egregious of the 2 crashes at Suzuka and didnt even pretend to take the turn ! He had that "god is with me, I pass or we crash" attitude that scared the field. I'm old I guess but I watched Senna's entire career live and even back in the days I always considered Senna to be the villain and quite a "dic#" overall - despite the undeniable obvious talent.. I read stuff from Prost where he goes on about the length at which Senna would go to beat him, Prost was his 100% focus and obsession at the time and he would have done anything... When Prost retired, Senna lost his #1 target to an extent his sense of purpose, and sorta came down to earth again and they became friends because the rivalry was purely a racing one... Prost IMO got screwed by history and the Manish Pandy documentary in particular (the guy is a total fanboy). Listen to any race today where all drivers are tattle telling on each other... Read the old magazine articles, find out.... the dead guys always get the sainthood. it's too bad he didn't live, would have been awesome to see him vs Schumacher (another one whose excesses are being swept under the blanket these days)

I almost suspected as much.
In just about everything I've watched they present Prost
as the bad guy but all the facts didn't seem to line up.
The explanation that they all do it is probably the most likely.

[Deschodt]

Suzuka 89 I would say 50-50. Senna was behind in points, went for a risky diving move, Prost knew he would win if that did not work out. IMO he didn’t “have” to let him by and he did not, the crashed - it’s 50-50. The subsequent senna disqualification was dicey - but then again he caused the accident. To me Senna could have tried elsewhere later.

Suzuka 90 - point situation reversed - senna is ahead in points and will win if they don’t finish - he flat drove into Prost. The end. The telemetry shows he never lifted and both Dennis and Senna admitted as much later. These days that gets you banned for races.

Finally that God talk from Senna when he was talking of out of body experiences driving - that stuff scares me a bit. Prost was more of a thinker - IMO less talented in car control but smarter and setting up the car better. That’s less flashy.

But hey, sure made for fun headlines, and Prost looked like a broken nose hobbit so it was easy to pick on him…

[exc911ence]

I finished watching it last night and am very impressed with the production and story telling. I also watched the "Making Of" video afterwards on Netflix which was quite interesting. The visual effects used throughout the series are mind-blowing.

Also impressed that Netflix didn't force their usual social commentary by hiring Lizzo to play Senna. Perhaps there's hope left to be held.

[911 Rod]

Watched the first 2 episodes. Enjoyed them.
The on track footage is great, the voice dubbing not so much.

[Deschodt]

Coincidentally, just today I caught an interview of Prost that came out as there's a mini documentary coming out on him (on a french pay channel, probably not cc'ed in english, have not seen it). So revisiting the Senna thing above, from Prost's mouth, translation is mine and not verbatim..

- I totally understood his obsession with me when I visited his room. After the funeral in Brazil, his family had me over at the house.. Pictures of me eve-ry-where. Clearly I was the guy he wanted to beat, from his karting days, he was focused on me... That desire to beat me, that made a lot more sense seeing that...

- The minute I quit, it's like a switch flipped with Ayrton. Immediately we were friends, we talked all the time, he called me 3-4 times a week for anything (some great pics shown there). He would frequently ask me to come back to F1, said he was a bit lost without me as a target to beat, not motivated (his words). He asked me to become the director or the GPDA (the driver association) but I was commentating TV at the time.. The fateful week he died, he called me even more, he was not OK, he was questioning everything... and he thought Benetton was cheating, he was very unhappy.

- I'm not on social media a lot, jsut instagram, I can't deal with haters and stuff like that.. You know where my biggest fan base is ? Brazil !

- I would not let my kid watch GP races live.. Just in case I had a bad accident. You know the worst part ? my son's first GP he was allowed to watch live was the one I was commentating, Imola, that day Ayrton died...

- On the Pandy doc and netflix series: I'm not happy with this, I understand they need to romance stuff and exaggerate some character traits but I was there in real life. We had a great relation in 88. 89 was bad but that was a lot of external factors (hinting at poor management by Ron Dennis) but after I quit we were really close. Some of what they portray in there never happened, complete fabrication maybe based on a journalist. The worst part is when they portray me as arrogant, I can be many things but arrogant is the least likely, I'm not not confident enough...

Just interesting side notes... Wish Senna had lived and they could have been friends longer..

[URY914]

I've watched the first episode. Not very impressed.
Watching #2 as I type this. Removing the tape from the radiator gave him another 50 hp and he won the race? LOL! GMAFB.