Top Gear Senna Tribute

This Sunday the BBC's Top Gear ran a fifteen-minute tribute to the great Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna. The piece was fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, who showed that despite all his buffoonery he is quite capable of displaying a sombre edge. A major focus of the film was the awe with which Senna frequently viewed by his contemporaries and fellow racing drivers.

As Clarkson mentions in his presentation, the record books will show that Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in the history of F1, but that tells only part of the story. As the film showed a clip of Schumacher tipping Senna as F1's number one driver, it brought to mind the moment in the press conference following the 2000 Italian Grand Prix, when the victorious Schumacher was overcome with emotion after being told he had equalled Senna's tally of 41 wins.

That outburst says a lot about the respect which many drivers hold for Ayrton, especially drivers of Schumacher's generation. Formula One is a competitive business, and is, much of the time, dominated by drivers who must have tremendous confidence in their own abilities. For one driver to be as celebrated by his peers as Senna, it takes something a little out of the ordinary. In the history of the sport, it's really only the names of Fangio and Clark that are uttered with quite the same reverence by those who raced with them. Senna's legend is of course aided by the recency of his death, and by the circumstances of it, but behind the hype there is a genuinely fascinating story, and a tremendous talent.

It was a very well done piece, and as any discussion of Senna ought to, it did not gloss over his ruthless approach to competition. In particular, it recalled his most famous on-track misendeavor, his purposeful collision with championship rival Alain Prost in 1990. Equally, the film highlighted Senna's charitable work for children in Brazil, and his concern for driver safety; as Martin Brundle says in the film, Senna was in many respects something of a paradox.

The clear highlight of the film was watching Lewis Hamilton drive the dominant McLaren MP 4/4 which Senna piloted to his first World Championship in 1988. As a fan as well as a driver, it was obviously dream come true for Lewis. It was great to see, and Hamilton's star power will certainly have helped give the piece a little perspective for those who may not have heard of Senna before.

Top Gear is today a general entertainment program, with a motoring theme. Of all the great drivers in the history of Formula One, Senna is surely the best suited for a celebration on a mass-audience show – first and foremost because he is remembered as much for his passion for racing and his unique character as for his spectacular driving. Could you make a similar piece about Alain Prost, for instance? It would be a more difficult task. I would like to see the Top Gear team give the British double-champion Jim Clark a similar treatment, however.