Documentary charting the rise and tragic demise of Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula 1 racing superstar and “the best driver who ever lived”.

Rating: MMMM

Director: Asif Kapadia
Starring: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis
Running time: 106 mins
Cert: 12A

*****  INCLUDES PLOT SPOILERS *****

The makers of documentary Senna struck lucky three years ago; Bernie Eccleston, head honcho of Formula One, allowed director Asif Kapadia and his team to have access to the F1 archives, giving the filmmakers hours and hours of footage with which to tell the story of Ayrton Senna’s career.

Starting with Senna’s beginnings in go-karting, Senna is composed of television footage chopped together, accompanied by voice-over interviews from Senna’s sister Viviane, his parents, McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Senna’s rival and team-mate Alain Prost, among others. The story of Senna’s F1 career and personal life is told by these disembodied voices, which gives the piece a cinematic feel – the fact that Kapadia did not use talking heads works to the film’s advantage, as we see Senna’s story unfolding with a fluidness that cuts back and forth to contributors could not achieve.

The film covers Senna’s famous rivalry with Alain Prost, showing the two battling for pole position on numerous occasions and fighting for millimetres of space on the road in races fraught with tension. We see the pair’s strained relationship on and off the track, with Senna resenting Prost’s apparent friendship with FIA head (and fellow Frenchman) Jean-Marie Balestre. Senna believed himself to have been unfairly penalised and that Balestre favoured Prost, following an investigation into a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix where both drivers were involved.

Throughout the film, we see Senna as a thoroughly motivated and intense driver, a deeply religious man and one who certainly did not shy away from the spotlight. However, though the film is certainly a celebration of Senna, it also serves as an in-depth character study of an interesting and engaging character: a man who would drive competitors off the track at one race, then at others would put his own life in danger (jumping out of his vehicle, dodging speeding cars and running across the road) to help a fellow driver in trouble.

Senna follows a neat three-act structure, with the final part unsurprisingly being the most dramatic and moving. For those going into the film knowing where and when Senna’s final tragedy takes place, the indication of passing years becomes more and more OMINOUS, culminating with the appearance of an intertitle reading ‘1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Imola’. At this, my pulse began to quicken, watching the horrific crash on the Friday that Rubens Barichello miraculously walked away from, knowing that only more carnage would follow.

Asif Kapadia and his army of editors have created a highly entertaining (particularly the use of on-board camera footage) and engaging film that appeals to both fans of motorsport and those who know nothing about Formula One. The charismatic Senna comes across as a fascinating character, a man who pushed himself to the mental and physical edge, and an individual who gave hope and joy not just to his home nation, Brazil but to people the world over.