Dear Nigel,
Im greatly looking forward to seeing the Senna film, which seems to be enjoying wild reviews from anyone who has seen it.
One person who I had heard hasnt seen it is Alain Prost perhaps (although I am sure he could handle it) because Ive heard that the film goes a bit Hollywood on bending timelines and even a few facts in order to portray Alain as the villain of the piece.
I was a huge fan of Senna, but equally of Prost as I know are you whose character, talent and racecraft was absolutely top drawer, and who I believe was probably the only career team-mate never indisputably beaten by Senna during their two seasons at McLaren through the vagaries of the points system at the time.
While I appreciate the context of the film and the story it is endeavouring to tell, I wondered about your thoughts on this aspect of it?
With thanks for the 28 years that Ive been reading your thoughts and reports on the sport we love (most of the time)!
Hamish Goddard
Dear Hamish,
Ive now seen the Senna film several times and I think it a remarkable piece of work, one which evokes a time of intense drama in Formula 1, when horsepower went way beyond 1000, when aerodynamics played nothing like so dominant a role as now and when drivers still changed gear with a (foot) clutch and a lever. It was also a time before Tilke track entered the vocabulary of F1.
Nothing more really need be said about Sennas genius at the wheel of a racing car many people regard him as the best there has ever been, and nothing will ever change their opinion. The movie does ample justice to Ayrtons other-worldly talent at the wheel, and also captures the character of the man as I remember him.
Only one aspect is unsatisfactory, in my opinion. Senna always regarded Alain Prost as his only true rival, as also did we in the press room. Much is necessarily made of this rivalry in the movie but I feel it sells Alain short, and paints a one-sided picture of how things actually were. First, Ayrtons dark side which emphatically he had is very much played down; second, Alain is portrayed, notably by one-time US commentator John Bissignano, both as a devious figure who used politics to get his way, and as a driver who only ever thought in terms of points
This as one who was present at all the races through that period I found grossly unfair, and many others have said the same. In Monaco I talked about it to John Hogan, formerly of Philip Morris essentially Marlboros man in Formula 1 and a highly influential figure. He, too, remembered those days: When it came to politics, he chuckled, Senna wrote the bloody book!
In Monaco, too, I spoke to Prost about the movie to which he contributed a lot of time and help and asked him how he felt about it. I havent seen it, he said, and Im not going to. They sent me a DVD, but Im not going to watch it friends who have seen it have advised me not to
Rather sad, I thought, but I could understand his point of view. There again, the title of the film is Senna, and, as I said to writer and executive producer Manish Pandey, Im sure that if I were to make a movie entitled Prost, he would find it highly unfair to Ayrton!
