Book Review: Ayrton Senna As Time Goes By by Christopher Hilton
Positives
Negatives
Since 1994, May 1 on the F1 calendar always remembers Ayrton Senna. There have been more books published about Senna that any other driver. At one stage in the 90’s, motorsports writer Christopher Hilton was pumping out Senna books on a production line. His 1999 book, “Ayrton Senna – As Time Goes by” was a […]
Since 1994, May 1 on the F1 calendar always remembers Ayrton Senna. There have been more books published about Senna that any other driver. At one stage in the 90’s, motorsports writer Christopher Hilton was pumping out Senna books on a production line. His 1999 book, “Ayrton Senna – As Time Goes by” was a 5 years post-death reflection on the great Brazilian and tried to research deeper into his early days as boy in Sao Paolo and an examination of the Italian court investigation and a collection of interviews with people who knew or worked with Ayrton.
Prior to this book, Hilton had already written biographies on Senna with “The Hard Edge of Genius”, “Ayrton Senna: The Legend Grows” and “Ayrton Senna: His Full Car Racing Record”, so a lot of ground had already been covered. With this book, Hilton is really reflecting on his own thoughts and has compiled more interviews with folks in the F1 paddock (drivers, engineers, team principals, journalists and random fans).
I think first half of the book is great as it provides a lot of trivial but detailed personal information about Senna’s youth and his early driving career in the UK through the ranks of the lower formula prior to F1. These early chapters are all interviews and recollections by people in karting and in Formula Ford.
Equally the collection of photos in the middle section are made up of many private photos and the best ones are of Ayrton in his early days of in junior formula.
The second half of the book is more introspection – Hilton examines the Italian trial, Senna’s review of a book manuscript, random acts of kindness for fans, interviews including comments from Max Mosley, Ron Dennis and Eddie Jordan.
At the time it was published, “As Time Goes By” was a decent read for die-hard Senna fans who were interested in even tiny shreds of real information memorabilia – the inclusion of extracts of important Senna documents was really a prelude to Hilton’s best Senna book “Ayrton Senna – Memories and Momentoes from a Life lived at Speed” (which I need to post a review on).
You can now easily pick very cheap copies of “As Time goes by” online – it’s worth a read if you are a Senna fan but it definitely is not the best Senna book or Hilton book on Senna.
Wow factor/money shot: Senna’s 1981 karting contract
Suitable for: Senna fans
