BusinessF1 2004
"He established his own limits. When he reached those limits he
wanted to beat them and establish new ones. I never knew how far he could go. I
had an understanding but I didn't know."
Alain Prost
2004 is the tenth anniversary of the death of Ayrton Senna the Grand
Prix racing driver. For those of you who are reading this review and are not
interested in Motor Racing I ask you to read on as there is much to be learnt
about life in this story of a racing driver.
This biography attempts to be the definitive life story of this great
driver and from my experience it has succeeded. The book is 602 pages in
length, and uses the classic approach of starting at the end and reminds the
reader of the dreadful accident on 1st May 1994 at the Imola racing circuit,
where Senna raced his last race. It then take you back to 1960 and his birth
and through every detail of his private and professional life over 36 chapters.
For racing nerds there are then 17 appendices covering every statistic
imaginable about his racing life, every race, every qualifying time, every grid
position, every finishing position, every fastest lap, everything!!
But 600 pages takes a lot of filling and perhaps this is where the book
lets itself down. Although it progresses chronologically through his life,
there is a tendency to look forward to evaluate the consequence of his actions
and I felt a certain 'd?j? vu' in future chapters, with the feeling that
"I had read this before", signs of an out of control word processor I
think
Some of the detail is a little unnerving and learning every detail of
his crash, the reasons for his death, the description his facial disfigurement
caused by the impalement of a piece of metal through the front of his crash
helmet, the fact that the mortuary attendants were in despair about how they
could tidy him up, the fact that the coffin lid, traditionally left open at
funerals in Brazil, was left closed because of how bad his face looked. This is
grim stuff.
At the start I asked non motor racing fans to bear with me. This part of
the review is aimed at every reader. The book goes into some depth about his
relationships and we learn of numerous girl friends along the way and through
this we learn a most important lesson about life and that is, no matter what
you wish to happen after you are gone, you have no power to ensure it does
happen. Senna's family, to which he was very close, wished him to settle down
with a former girlfriend Xuxa Meneghel a very successful TV presenter with the
Brazilian broadcasting company TV Globo. However in his last 18 months he had
fallen in love with and intended to settle down with Adriane Galisteu a model
of limited professional success. Sadly for Senna and for Adriane, Senna's family
chose Xuxa as the official 'widow' and at the funeral Adriane, Senna's true
love, was pushed into the background and over time, forgotten. What Senna
thinks about this, as he looks down from heaven will only be known by his
family in the fullness of time.
In summary, a good read, lots for the motor racing fan, but importantly
life lessons for the non fan. Give it a
try.
Peter
FONTE PESQUISADA
PETER. The Life of
Senna, Tom Rubython. Disponível em: <http://www.revado.com/reviews/review.php?sc=PCW&sn=Senna>.
Acesso em: 25 de dezembro 2011.
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