Description
Author: Christoper Hilton, Hardbound, 208 Pages, H6229, ISBN: 9780857332295, U.S. Special Edition, 2011 - Original Edition 2003
Ayrton Senna was more than a great racing driver: he was a giant of a man who is still mourned as no sportsman has ever been. Much has been written about him already, but this hook approaches the subject with a powerfully different focus.
More than 120 people who knew him, worked with him and competed against him were asked a single question: what is your strongest memory of Senna? The result, told entirely in direct quotes, stands as an intimate, heartfelt portrait of the man, from his early days as a karter to his death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
A number of the people approached to give memories had never spoken publicly about Senna before. Many, in revealing the time they spent with him, recall moments that shed new light on Senna's mythology.
Here are not just Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley but café proprietor Ed Devlin, whose wife cut young Senna's hair in her kitchen.
Here are not just Gerhard Berger, Rubens Barrichello and Martin Brundle but commercial director Richard West, who shares the happy note Senna wrote him the moment he signed for Williams, Professor Sid Watkins, who wishes he had managed to persuade Senna to retire and come fishing, and a French driver called Eric Bernard, held forever by a moment of kindness.
Written by the late Christopher Hilton and originally published in 2003, this is a deeply touching, sometimes surprising, always fascinating portrayal of a man who will never be forgotten.
