Special episode with Dax Shepard: F1 and the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Senna's greatness shows in qualifying more than in championships.

  In this special episode, Dax Shepard, who calls himself 'a three out of ten' on Senna, interviews Attia about his obsession. Attia notes that Senna died in his 161st race, fewer than most current drivers have already started, yet took 65 pole positions. That ratio is unmatched. He won three titles, and Attia argues a fourth was taken from him. He also had the best car in only four of his ten seasons.

• 02

  Monaco 1988 is Attia's favourite Senna story.

  In his first year at McLaren, driving the MP4/4 (which won 15 of 16 races), Senna out-qualified teammate and reigning champion Alain Prost by about 1.4 seconds (Attia cites 1.47). The decisive lap wasn't filmed because he was already on pole. In the race he led Prost by about 56 seconds, then lost concentration, crashed, and disappeared to his Monaco apartment for hours. His housekeeper had been told to say he wasn't home.

• 03

  Rain was where he stood out most.

  As an F1 rookie in a 'garbage truck' Toleman at Monaco in 1984, he was closing on Prost in a downpour when officials stopped the race a lap early. He won his first race in heavy rain in Portugal in 1985. Angelo Parilla, whose DAP karting team Senna drove for, said Senna was even better in karts, and in the rain he'd urge officials to just give Senna the trophy.

• 04

  His driving technique broke the usual rules.

  Rather than rolling smoothly onto the throttle ('smooth is fast'), telemetry showed Senna stabbing it on and off and then going to full. People assumed it kept the turbo spooled and predicted he'd struggle in naturally aspirated cars, but he kept doing it and didn't. He'd run within inches of the Monaco walls one-handed, with no power steering and a clutch. His feedback to engineers was so precise he once came in while injured to check whether a stand-in's feedback could be trusted.

• 05

  The 1994 Imola weekend was a series of warnings that should have stopped the race.

  On Friday Rubens Barrichello, whom Senna mentored, crashed heavily but survived. On Saturday Roland Ratzenberger was killed, F1's first death in 12 years. Attia says Italian law would have ended the event if a driver was declared dead at the track, so he was flown to hospital. Senna was reprimanded for driving to the crash site. His trainer Josef Leberer told Attia he'd never seen Senna angrier. Senna agreed with Niki Lauda to revive the drivers' safety association and admitted he didn't want to race, but said the people of Brazil needed it. Sid Watkins reportedly urged him to retire and go fishing.

• 06

  His Williams FW16 was nearly undrivable after active suspension was banned.

  Senna moved to the dominant team only for the ban to wreck its handling. Teammate Damon Hill told Attia it felt like 'a knife's edge' every lap and he stayed well below the limit. Senna still took pole in the first two races but scored zero points while Michael Schumacher won both in a Benetton Senna suspected of illegal traction control. Senna's steering column had been extended about 6 inches and narrowed to fit how he liked to sit.

• 07

  Attia doesn't believe the steering column caused the crash.

  He thinks Senna took the bumpy racing line through Tamburello on cold tyres (possibly with a slow puncture), bottomed out and lost rear downforce. The car oversteered, Senna corrected it, the car suddenly gripped again and went straight off, and he braked hard into the wall at about 150 mph. Attia owns Senna's steering wheel from qualifying and says on-board footage shows him correcting before leaving the track, with no sign of a free-spinning wheel. Adrian Newey's book and Hill share this view. Italian courts nonetheless found Newey and Patrick Head liable, but the statute of limitations had expired. A suspension rod pierced Senna's helmet.

• 08

  His legacy goes far beyond racing records.

  Attia compares May 1, 1994, for Brazilians to JFK or 9/11. Senna was nearly as revered in Japan through Honda. Unknown to most during his life, he gave quietly to education. His sister Viviane founded the Senna foundation, which Attia says has given over half a billion dollars. His death transformed F1 safety, and Tamburello is now a chicane. Attia named his youngest son after him.