Ayrton Senna: The Whole Story

by Christopher Hilton

In this meaty paperback, published to mark the tenth anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death, Christopher Hilton marries and updates four of his earlier titles about the legendary driver into one volume of more than 100,000 words. He chronicles Senna's entire story, from the wealthy childhood in Brazil to his fatal crash in 1994.

It is a fast-moving and comprehensive account of an extraordinary life that will appeal to the wider public as well as to Senna fans.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sports, Racing

464 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2004

About the author

Christopher (Chris) Hilton was a former sportswriter with the Daily Express.

Hilton had begun his career in journalism at The Journal in Newcastle, and then worked at the Express‘s offices in Manchester before moving to London in the mid-1970s when recruited by then sports editor Ken Lawrence to cover Formula 1.

Hilton was a key member of the sports desk editing staff, as well as covering ice skating for the paper during the period when Torvill and Dean were winning world and Olympic ice dance titles.

For the past two decades after leaving the Express, Hilton has freelanced, especially in F1 and writing his books, including biographies of Ayrton Senna, James Hunt and Michael Schumacher, as well as a novel. As recently as last month, his latest book, about F1 team leader Ross Brawn, was published.

Chris Hilton leaves a wife, Jean, and daughter.

Reviews

[James Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much a personal biography as a profile of his career as the top Formula One driver of all time (I dare you to convince me otherwise!).

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last sentence of this book made me blub like a baby.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book was detailed and a little dry. That said, lots of great information on formative years for Senna.

[StyLuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this.

[Sthitadhi Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, me being a hardcore Senna fan, there was no way I could not have liked the book. The book is very well written and very well compiled. The thing that impressed me the most about Christopher Hilton was the unbiasedness that he maintained right throughout the book, even though he himself is a self-proclaimed Senna worshiper, The way he uses quotes from other people whenever he has to use any adjectives for Senna is very nice. Another thing is Hilton remains very honest about Senna throughout the book, he doesn't shy away from telling us how Senna lacked temperament and tactical skills early on in his racing career. Another thing that impressed me very much about the book is the author manages quite a few interviews from rare people who were actually very close to Senna like his personal chopper pilot, his team managers in FF1600 and FF2000 (junior categories), the owners of his favorite restaurant in Imola etc. Though quite a lot has been written and said about Senna's Formula 1 career and his meteoric rise, I had never come across such a comprehensive documentation of his early racing career like the World Karting Championship, FF1600, F3000 etc. As I said before Hilton doesn't shy away from telling us how he failed to win the karting championship even after trying desperately for many times, how he was beaten there owing to his inexperience. The author also gives due respect to the drivers who actually managed to give Senna a run, not only in F1 but also in the junior categories. As a digression, sometimes I feel amused as well as disappointed that Martin Brundle who was the only driver who could come close to Senna in F3000, now does regular gridwalks and commentary on British TV whereas Senna is nothing less than a God. However there were areas where the book did not meet my expectations. I had expected more on the interview with Sir Jackie Stewart, what went on after Suzuka 89 and some other incidents like this. I had also expected a bit more on the Senna Foundation and since this is the latest update to all Senna books by Hilton, I would not have minded it being a couple of hundred pages fatter.

[Claudia Șerbănescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

E o carte ce va fi apreciată mai mult de partea masculină a fanilor excepționalului pilot brazilian. Scris într-un limbaj jurnalistic concis și alert (pe alocuri inexact tradus), volumul reunește mai multe materiale/cărți semnate de autor despre cariera lui Ayrton Senna. Veți găsi foarte puține informații despre omul Senna și viața sa personală (familie, iubiri, prieteni etc), dar parcursul său profesional este analizat în detaliu, cursă după cursa, cam prea tehnic uneori.
Am citit cu greu și cu lacrimi în ochi, chiar și după atâta vreme, capitolul 15: Imola. Și nici cu urmatorul capitol nu mi-a fost mai ușor. Mă număr și eu printre cei care, după acel 1 mai 1994 fatidic, nu au mai urmărit curse de Formula 1. 😔

[нєνєℓ ¢ανα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good...

[Liiz_cita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Hilton sa v tejto knihe podujal na mimoriadne náročnú úlohu – zachytiť život Ayrtona Sennu v celej jeho komplexnosti. A podarilo sa mu to obdivuhodne. Čo ma na knihe najviac zaujalo, bol dôraz na detaily a Sennove začiatky v nižších pretekárskych sériách, ktoré často zostávajú v úzadí oproti jeho kariére vo Formule 1. Hilton ponúka pohľad na jeho vývoj ako jazdca aj človeka, pričom využíva spomienky a rozhovory s ľuďmi, ktorí ho skutočne poznali.

Kniha pôsobí nielen faktograficky, ale aj emocionálne. Kniha ma vtiahla do pretekárskeho sveta tak silno, že som mala pocit, akoby som sledovala Sennu priamo na trati. Hilton výborne kombinuje uznanie Sennových úspechov s objektívnym pohľadom na jeho život a kariéru. Nezabúda ani na jeho slabé stránky, čím zobrazuje Sennu ako výnimočného, no zároveň ľudského človeka.

Hoci by som ocenila viac priestoru venovaného niektorým momentom alebo jeho filantropickej činnosti, kniha ponúka ucelený a úprimný obraz o mužovi, ktorý zmenil svet motoristického športu. Pre fanúšikov Sennu aj Formuly 1 je to povinné čítanie, ktoré prináša nielen fakty, ale aj inšpiráciu.

[Book Whisperer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems to be a book written by a follower to his God. Way too much and repetitive information about how good he was when he was very young. Other Information about Senna's abilities are mixed with others that have no connection with the chapter. It jumpes from one subject to another, there is no flow to have a nice reading about Senna. The book was pretty dissapointing.

[Mihai · Rating 5 out of 5]

600 de pagini de fericire

[Jane Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do you rate a book like this? The content was breathtakingly comprehensive. Filled with quote after quote after quote, it could be said that this was a print version of the Senna documentary. The book provided remarkable insights I might not have found anywhere else. But... it was written (edited?) so poorly in places that I tossed the book down in frustration dozens of times. Tenses changed within paragraphs and even within a single sentence. Quotes were not parsed to fit narrative context. It was a frustrating read. Yet, the content was so rich I'm still glad I pushed through to the end.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a life long scatterbrain I am amazed by people like Senna who's total focus and concentration on the task at hand is unimaginable. He ability to asses a cars performance has no peers. But his death, like those of Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt and Gilles Villeneuve, prove that consummate skill cannot overcome mechanical problems or just plain bad luck.

Over the years I have read lots of books referencing Senna but I really enjoyed this one because it covered a lot of his racing career before he got into Formula 1

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of the 3 Senna books I have read, this, I must say, disappointed me. It seemed to be an awful lot of guesswork on maybe the clothes he was wearing on certain days or what he may have been thinking. There was an awful lot of text that was not needed and could have been cut out which would have made for a more concise and interesting read.

[rotkäppchen ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always love to read about Senna's life and F1 career as he is one of my favorite drivers, but this book is not that well written. In fact, the writing was pretty disappointing, it lacked the emotion all together. But Senna will always remain a legend in Formula 1 and I was happy to discover things I didn't know about him and see how different F1 was before I started watching it. If this book was well written, 5 stars wouldn't have been enough.

[JB Haglund · Rating 4 out of 5]

More great stories about a really fascinating man. Once I saw the documentary on Netflix, I was hooked on Senna and this was a great compilation of Hilton's writing about the greatest F1 driver of all time.

[Peter Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all Senna fans. I believe this one is the follow up/next edition after one titled "Ayrton Senna the Hard Edge of Genius" and I prefer the older title. It was a good summary of the man himself.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice complete read of an extraordinary racer; for a fan, this needs to be read. For a long time McLaren fan, it is a must.

[michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

a true legend, a man made for speed, and forever my hero.

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

if there's anyone who can try their hand at telling the whole story of senna's career, it has to be christopher hilton.

[Oana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest of all time 💛💚