Book Review: Ayrton Senna All his races by Tony Dodgins
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Positives
Negatives
As we head into this weekend’s GP at Imola, for better or worse, this circuit now forever reminds fans of Ayrton Senna. There have been so many Senna books published, it’s often difficult to distinguish between the them and unlike drivers who have retired, unearthing more Senna content that hasn’t already been written isn’t easy. […]
As we head into this weekend’s GP at Imola, for better or worse, this circuit now forever reminds fans of Ayrton Senna. There have been so many Senna books published, it’s often difficult to distinguish between the them and unlike drivers who have retired, unearthing more Senna content that hasn’t already been written isn’t easy. Tony Dodgins’ “Ayrton Senna All His Races” is somewhat similar to other books chronicling a world champion’s racing career like Chris Hilton’s “Michael Schumacher – The Definitive Race by Race Record” and Jon Saltinstall’s “Niki Lauda His Competition History”.
“Ayrton Senna All His Races” is a well presented large hardcover also with a decent page count of 304 pages and is very similar in print quality to a Haynes hardcover book.
Like most Senna books, this one charts his history from his early karting days all the way through to Imola 1994.
The main point of differentiation in this book is the inclusion of so many interviews and recollections with key people Senna worked with (or raced against) early in his career – including Terry Fullerton (Senna’s no.1 rated track rival), Ralph Firman (owner of Van Dieman), Rick Morris (raced Senna in 1981 FF1600), Dennis Rushen (Rushen-Green Racing), Calvin Fish (raced Senna in 1982 FF2000), Dick Bennetts (West Surrey Racing, 1983), Alex Hawkridge & Pat Symonds (Toleman, 1984), Steve Hallam (Race engineer, Lotus), Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren), Damon Hill & David Coulthard (Williams, 1994) and Josef Leberer (Senna’s physio trainer).
Also included are extracts from other books including Eddie Jordan and Tommy Byrne discussing Senna. Dodgins also includes various additional commentary during key moments on track in the chapters covering the Prost vs Senna years. Even the dialogue between the famous punch up between Eddie Irvine and Ayrton is included.
The majority of the book of course is a brief paragraph summary of every Senna race. The summaries don’t include race statistics which is a bit of a shame.
The photography is from Sutton Images and there is a great collection of little seen and well known Senna photos (B&W and colour). I think its a nice touch to include photos of the non-F1 races including the Senna’s early test for Williams, racing in the Porsche 956 sportscar at the Nürburgring, testing the Lamborghini engine for McLaren, testing the Penske indycar and even racing at the Elf Master kart race against Prost in 1993.
Martin Brundle who famously duelled with Senna in F3 pens the book’s foreword and his interview included in the 1983 F3 chapter.
Wow Factor/Money shot: all the interviews with Senna’s junior formula bosses.
Suitable for: Senna fans
