Ayrton Senna

by Richard Craig

Ayrton Senna is arguably the most famous racing driver there has ever been. All over the world, he is revered as a saint and as the greatest driver the sport has ever seen. Indeed, the 2010 film of his life verged on the hagiographic, painting him as a beloved child of God put on Earth to fight injustice and help those less fortunate than him. But was his reputation disproportionately burnished because he died, aged only 34, in front of millions of TV viewers, thus sealing his reputation as the Messianic martyr of motor racing? This book takes a twofold look at both Ayrton da Silva, the softly-spoken and introspective man, and Senna the aggressive, ruthless and brilliant driver, distinct entities who often struggled to coexist peacefully together, and discusses why, of all the great drivers Formula One has nurtured, Senna attracts the most fervent following.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Martin Doychinov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Доживяхме в България да се издаде книга, свързана с Формула 1. С изключение на биографията на Михаел Шумахер, не помня в последните 15-20 години да е излизала такава. Едва ли има по-подходяща дата от първи Май, за да се зачете тази нова книга - точно четвърт век след смъртта на Сена.
Ричард Крейг няма задълбочени познания в автомомобилизма и явно не се е постарал достатъчно, за да не му личи. Това води до неточности, (макар и редки) фактологични грешки и откровени глупости от време на време. Пример: Жан-Мари Балестр е посочен като "един от шефовете на ФИА", а той по това време (1982) е президент на спортната комисия на ФИА - той е Шефът!
Преводачът - е дори повече незапознат със спорта, терминологията и английският език. Това води до камара от безумия като "лимитираният му болид"; не може в книга за моторспорт да използваш "Професора" за някой друг, освен Ален Прост (в случая - за Сид Уоткинс, който за разлика от най-големия съперник на Сена, има диплома за такъв, но никой не го нарича само "Професора" 😊). Не трябва и да превеждаш имена - "West Surrey Racing" е "Уест Съри", не - "Западен Съри". Последното е коригирано след това, но не и първият път на споменаване. Производителят на гуми е "Мишлен" - "Мишелин" е неправилно. Не можеш да преведеш спортния термин "clean sweep" като "чисто помитане"! Има и много грешно преведени имена - Кен Тайрел и отборът му със същото име; Найджъл Робик; "Пенски" (Пенске)... Много директно преведени изрази, което рядко е ок. Буквално все едно е превеждано с Гугъл! За първи път пиша нещо подобно, а и съм убеден - бих направил с класи по-добър превод...
Защо издателството е решило да преведе точно това нещо, е тайна за мен - вероятно правата са били най-евтини (вече - ясно защо). При наличието на прекрасни книги по темата (пр. Senna Versus Prost на Малкълм Фоули или "The Death of Ayrton Senna" на Ричард Уилямс), си е кощунство!
Книгата в оригинал вероятно е за 3, а родният превод - за 2 - 2,5 крайна оценка. Би допаднала на хората без интерес и познания в спорта. За тези с такива - хич.
П.П. Включените цветни снимки са доволни, особено рисунките на болидите, които е карал. Корицата е достойна за деветдесетарско издание, макар и да е идея по-добра от тази на оригиналното, англо-езично издание - там нещата са на ниво "Пейнт" :).

[Nikolay Georgiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Когато от медицинския екип изваждат Сена от потрошената му кола на пистата „Имола", те намират малък австрийски флаг, който той е имал намерение да размаха в заключителната обиколка за отпразнуване на своята първа победа за „Уилямс" и в знак на почит към своя загинал колега."


"Напук на всичките си грешки, Айртон Сена бе джентълмен до самия край."

[Alexander Draganov · Rating 4 out of 5]

През 2010-та за Сена излезе филм на режисьора Асиф Кападия, който за мен е връх в документалното кино, поне що се отнася до емоционалното въздействие върху зрителя – последните 30 минути от него плаках като чешма. Крейг е наясно, че трудно ще постигне подобен ефект, затова и избира друг подход за книгата си, като се стреми да бъде по-обективен и да представи всички гледни точки за Сена, да подчертае хубавото, без да спестява лошото. Някои фенове може би ще се обидят, но за мен това не е лошо, тъй като намирам Айртон за много по-сходен с гръцки герой, отколкото с християнски светец, въпреки силната му вяра на католик.
Цялото ми ревю може да прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/%d0%b0%d0%b9%d...

[Alexandru · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short book focusing on the criticism of the 2010 Ayrton Senna documentary movie. In fact, the first part of the book is doing precisely that - the author takes quotes from the movie and is trying to prove that the protagonists of the movie were wrong in their assessments. In a big part of the book the author is giving evidence that Senna was not a God, but just a simple driver, which certainly does not make sense for an atheist or agnostic, because gods do not exist for them. The book is influenced heavily by a famous Senna hater, Michael Doodson, that is the author of Nelson Picquet autobiography and all F1 fans know about the "not so friendly" relationship between Senna and Picquet. I do not understand why the author needed to basically write this book, to be honest. The only interesting part of the book is the detailed analysis of the Formula 1 seasons of 1984 to 1994, but unfortunately, it is rather short. It is interesting to see the testimonials of people racing with Senna in an era when F1 was not broadcasted on all TVs to the world and was quite obscure to the general public. But even in this part, the criticism prevails. Even the analysis of the fatal 1994 Imola accident is taking the line of National Geographic and is criticizing the Italian prosecutors. By the way, the final decision of the Italian Supreme Court states that the steering column breakage was the reason for the accident, but the author prefers to stick to his guns and with 100% certainty quotes Damon Hill saying that it was a clear Senna's error and no investigation is necessary.

In other words, in short, if you want to read a book about how awful Ayrton Senna was with some good drives from time to time - this is the book for you. A British view on his life and on his personality. A criticism of the documentary about Senna and plenty of quotes from Senna haters.

[Vladislav Manolov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking and full of emotions

[Kirbi Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read for anyone who is already an F1/Senna fan with a decent amount of knowledge under their belt. Wouldn't say it's a particularly good entry point for beginners as it's seemingly written by an author who expects each reader to be as knowledgable as they are when it comes to F1 history, specifications, race craft etc.

It lacks depth and description when it comes to particular moments and races in Senna's life and career - at points, especially in regard to his Championship seasons, it reads almost like a bullet pointed list of events.

Content aside, this was also poorly edited and seemingly not proof-read.

A good read for long-term F1 fans, but there are probably better starting points for those new to F1/Senna lore.

[Vik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to recite Senna's favorite words to review this book:

"To recall best experience of my life, I would have to go back to 1978-79, when I came to Europe for the first time for racing. I enjoyed driving very much, it was pure driving, pure racing, no politics then." - Ayrton Senna

[Georgi Angelov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Достъпно разказана история за една от най-значимите личности в ‘перлата в короната’ на моторните спортове - Формула 1. Разказ за безспорно един от най-талантливите пилоти в историята на този спорт, който разкрива противоречивите черти от характера на Айртон Сена. Безкомпромисен пилот, който не само че заявява своята готовност да направи нужното за да бъде номер 1, но и застава с действията си зад тези думи. Действия, които много хора определят като крайни и непривични за иначе този джентълменски спорт. Действия които противоречат на готовността на човекът Сена да жертва определени състезания за да помогне на свои колеги пилоти, които са в безпомощно състояние след инциденти на пистата. На пръв поглед две противоположни страни от същността на един човек...... или може би пък не? Може би пък няма нищо противоречиво и непривично в поведението на един, човек, който иска да бъде ултимативният пилот в този спорт. Всеки е оставен да прецени сам за себе си!

[Dessyslava Stoichkova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Започнах книгата с невероятен ентусиазъм и подготвена от страхотен сериал, нямаща търпение да науча повече детайли за човека и пилота Сена. Още в средата на текста сериозно започнах да се съмнявам, че този разпилян разказ, без дълбочина и многопластност, е някаква какафония в моята глава, защото не съм мега фен и разбирач. Не, авторът не само, че хвърля разпиляно някакви разкази, но не изгражда никаква документална и сюжетна линия до самия край. Трудна за четене, невъзможна за разбиране в дълбочина за живота на Сена, книгата се оказа голямо разочарование.

[Manuela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very limited bibliography and sources, which explains why the book is very unprecise and sometimes incorrect. Very superficial knowledge of facts (you cannot ignore the Brazilian and Italian sources if you write on Senna!). The part on Senna's death denotes a clear lack of any minimal investigation on the facts.
Definitely not the right book to understand what stands behind the Senna myth.

A very disappointing book.

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A no-holds barred look at Ayrton Senna de Silva. Unlike other biographies and documentaries this books doesn't just venerate Senna The God, but details Ayrton Senna the man, warts and all.
An excellent read, and a remarkable insight into such a talented driver.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an emotional roller coaster ! Definitely worth reading especially if you are into motorsports and F1! He is a legend and I personally think everyone should know his story even if they are not a fan of his

[Martin Novev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good biography, lots of details and viewpoints.

[Mikaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes you open your eyes of how brave, strong,. kind and smart this guy was.

[Mark Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book. balanced about Sennz

[Duncan Finlayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for anyone who found the recent "Senna" film, billed as a documentary, unbalanced, it sets out to readdress the balance. Does it succeed? I would say that largely it does.
If you have not seen the film or you thought the film was 100% gospel, the book might appear to be a lengthy diatribe against Ayrton Senna, but if like me, you found the film was trying to make Senna -despite plenty of evidence to the contrary- into a saint, it's a good place to start!
The author appears to have researched his subject well, and on the whole is successful in putting his point of view across, only occasionally does he seem to labour over a subject to the point of irritation!
Best of all would have been a proper "warts and all" documentary film of the enigma that is Ayrton Senna, a film that addressed Senna's unique personality, for while he may been the "first driver to run you off the road, he was also the first to check if you were ok", then this book would have been superfluous! But that's not the case, so this book is needed, unfortunately, only a very small proportion of the viewers of the film will read this book, and already a generation of journalists are lazily quoting the film, instead of doing real research!

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is a fan of Senna and loves to find out more about him,
I feel that this book is similar to the 2010 Senna film which Is all about his life as a racer and his experiences, the film doesn't focus a lot on bad things that had happened during siennas career, apart from his rivalry with Prost,and a few crashes that he had before the accident that took his life.

This book has went into further detail about things that the movie didn't, sennas career wasn't the best thing that it was made out to be and even though he had so much success, there were still bad parts of his career and I feel like this book covers some of that and peoples opinions about Senna as a racer.

I highly suggest this book to someone who wants to find out a lot more about sennas early life and career and how his formula 1 career had started.

overall I would recommend it to people.

[Marli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The style in which this book was written was great. It seamed almost as though it was an essay because every single aspect of Sennas life was analysed and given example to. It was really well written because the author wrote in a very objectively. Mainly the author tells us the actions of what Senna did and how other people reacted giving few opinions of his own. You get to know Senna not only as a praised driver but also through actions other people have criticised. In one of the chapters you may think that he is a horrible person and don't understand why so many people adored him, and in the next you feel terrible that Senna died at such a young age. Amazing book :)

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Maybe I was expecting a bit too much after reading other books about Senna. The book does a good job of tracing Senna's life, but it doesn't add much that you couldn't read in the other books about Senna. Though this book is a good place to start to know about Senna.