- Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:46 am
#414877
Yeah, last night's was possibly one of THE best episodes of Top Gear. The snow mobile challenge was a good laugh (and if I ever get one of those kinds of vehicles it'll be a Touareg), the Vayron was just mental but brilliant to watch just how fast they could get it, the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz lap stuff was good not just because they were fast laps (on two wheels in Tom's case!) but just because they were good and interesting guests...
Then, as if it wasn't great enough, the Senna piece was FANTASTIC. I'm already scunnered with F1 at the moment, but watching that back really brought home just how crap the sport has now become. But then I think a great deal of that is that it was just SO good back then. You don't get the wheel to wheel sparks flying scenes you would get with Senna. You don't get the Mansell crawling all over the back of Senna around Monaco - they just sit there now. You don't see a Senna jumping up five places to lead the race in just one lap like you did at Donnington - not forgetting he was on slicks in the wet. Senna was an outstanding driver (who had his faults as was pointed out in the film) in an outstanding era. The fact that Senna died the year Schumacher came to the fore is a very sad one.
They asked the current F1 drivers who the best was - to a man they said Senna, not Schumacher. That Included Schumacher himself. That doesn't surprised me. Maybe Schumacher suffered because he didn't have other greats battling with him like Senna did, but you could argue Senna didn't live long enough to beat Fangio's five titles where Schumacher did just as easily.
I remember quite clearly when Senna died. I remember poor Roland Ratzenberger dying the day before - the forgotten man of F1 because everyone remembers Senna's death more. I remember hearing how Senna hadn't wanted to race the following day because it had affected him so badly. I remember missing the start of the race, only to come in just after the restart, wondering where Senna was. I remember seeing the footage of the football game in Brazil that just stopped, mid-game, when the news of his death came up on the scoreboard. That was the one that hit me the most. I know how big football is in Brazil, and it just didn't matter at that point in time. That wouldn't happen here for anything.
I wasn't a fan of Senna at the time. Funnily enough, I'm not a Schumacher fan either. But I have the highest of respect for both of them for their abilities and their achievements. Anyone who doesn't, doesn't know what they're talking about.
foot-loose wrote:Big * or no *, no "lol's" allowed. NEVA!
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