Book Review: Kimberley’s Racing Driver Profile No 5 – Ayrton Senna by Ken Wells
This month is going to mark the 30th anniversary of the passing of Ayrton Senna, so expect to see lots of Senna coverage in the F1 media. It’s been a while since I did any Senna related posts, having already reviewed so many Senna books and memorabilia over the years. I still have a few more reviews of older Senna books yet to post though, so this May is going to be Senna month!
First up is Kimberley’s Driver Profile No.5 by Ken Wells. In the 80’s Kimberley’s UK produced a series of booklets on F1 teams and drivers. Other drivers covered in this series included Gilles Villeneuve and Niki Lauda. Kimberley’s have a distinctive look and layout with 3 column text and assorted B&W and colour photos in the booklet mid-section.
Although Aryton is most recognised for his championship winning McLaren years, many hard core Senna fans prefer looking back on his earlier years as a raw unfiltered talent first at Toleman and following that as the uber quick qualifier in his iconic black turbo powered JPS Lotus in 1985-1986 (eerily similar to how Max Verstappen is completely blitzing quali sessions now).
Ken Wells writes about Senna from his junior formula years through to Toleman and into JPS Team Lotus. Wells’ research for the booklet included interviews with Senna’s former team managers like Peter Warr (Lotus), Alex Hawkridge (Toleman) and also interview quotes from Senna himself during in-season testing at Brands Hatch.
There are plenty of colour photos included with most being from LAT Photographic so several photos have been published in other books. For a concise 24 page booklet though, there are plentiful great photos to look over.
At the rear, the back pages provides summary tables of Senna’s career race stats up to the 1986 Italian GP.
Wow Factor/Money shot: Senna testing the Williams FW08C, winning first GP points in the nose damaged Toleman at Kyalami, in the striped livery Toleman at the Portguese GP…
Suitable for: Young Senna fans
