Ayrton Senna: the Netflix drama, the album … and the skyscraper
Thirty years after his death, the Formula 1 world champion has transcended his sport to become a cultural icon.
The 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death is being marked with an electronic music album using his sampled voice, a Netflix drama series and the building of a 500m-high residential tower in Brazil. Like Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Usain Bolt, Senna is one of a small group of sports stars who have transcended their field. The three-time Formula 1 world champion was a human brand before people talked about that kind of thing, his charisma and racing flair contrasting with the dullness and petulance of his fellow drivers.
Bianca Senna, the driver’s niece and CEO of Senna Brands, the company that preserves his legacy, says she is often approached by teenage fans. “People who obviously didn’t see Ayrton race, they’re like, ‘I love your uncle, he’s my inspiration. I watched the documentary (Asif Kapadia’s BAFTA-winning Senna from 2010) and I fell in love with him’.” Senna’s philosophy of resilience and determination is important, Bianca says, “especially for the new generation, because they are so into quick fixes”. Meanwhile the documentary series Drive to Survive (also on Netflix) has made Formula 1 “less technical and more emotional” for new viewers.
When Senna died in 1994, after crashing while leading the San Marino Grand Prix, he had been campaigning to improve safety in his sport, as well as donating millions to help disadvantaged children, which Instituto Ayrton Senna, the foundation set up in his name, continues to do. “His fight was much more outside of the track than on the track,” says Bianca, 44, who was 14 when her uncle died. “That resonates with people, their fights in their own lives.” Dying young burnished his romance, she thinks. He also looked like a movie star, which didn’t hurt, I suggest. “I agree!”
The new album, Senna Driven, created with media agency Bulldozer Network, features music by 33 artists from 13 countries, including star Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren, Japanese techno wizard Ken Ishii and Brazilian producers Alok and Gui Boratto. The tracks incorporate engine and crowd noises, and Senna pep talks culled from archive footage. “Be yourself … learn from your mistakes,” he urges on Seek Your Truth. “With your mind power, your determination … you can fly very high,” he promises on Fly.
Not quite Leonard Cohen then, but it’s stirring, propulsive stuff, and Senna would have loved it, Bianca says – even though he wasn’t much of a dancer and his taste ran more to Queen, Phil Collins and Tina Turner. There are parallels between Formula 1 and the electronic music world, she thinks. The latter “looks like it’s all a party, drugs and things like that, but when you speak to the artists you can see that they have this way of life that is very similar to a sportsperson – you’re always travelling, you need to eat well, sleep well, do exercise”. Which of the present drivers like dance music? “Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc. Lewis, I’m not sure, but I think probably.”
That’s Lewis Hamilton, who is probably the only other driver who rivals Senna’s reach beyond Formula 1. Hamilton worshipped him as a boy and drove Senna’s 1990 Formula 1 car in a few ceremonial laps before last month’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
When Bianca first met Hamilton at the start of his career 20 years ago, “he needed to prove himself, so he was much more aggressive. Now I see a very serene guy who is above the sport and is searching for more. That’s something that he and Ayrton have in common”. In Hamilton’s case, that includes music and film – he is playing himself and acting as a consultant on F1, the forthcoming movie starring Brad Pitt.
Senna left no widow or children, so the keepers of his flame are Bianca and her mother, Viviane, the driver’s sister and founder of the Instituto Ayrton Senna. Both were closely involved in the development of the scripts for Senna, the Netflix series that launched last month, and the casting of an actor to play him, which took five years. They needed someone who could act in Portuguese and English, and convey the two sides of Senna: ruthless competitor and larking homebody. “Ayrton was a big kid,” Bianca says, remembering family meals at buffet restaurants. “You would take your plate and serve yourself and he would put Tabasco around your cup, on your knife and fork.”
They finally found their man in the 31-year-old Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone, who recently played another racing driver, Spaniard Alfonso de Portago, in Michael Mann’s movie, Ferrari. “The guy in the races is one Ayrton but away from the track he was another Ayrton, and Gabriel was able to connect those two contradictory elements,” Bianca says. “I cried a lot when I was watching the series – not because I was sad but because I met Ayrton again. I feel emotional even thinking about it now. He made Ayrton come back to us in a very sweet and perfect way.”
One of the challenges was recreating the Brazil Grand Prix of 1991, which Senna somehow won despite a barely functioning gearbox. “Between each shot Gabriel would do 100 push-ups, so he would be really tired when he was doing the scene,” Bianca says. “He couldn’t raise the trophy because he was so sore.”
Drivers including Niki Lauda and Damon Hill are portrayed in the series, alongside a fictionalised character called Laura played by Kaya Scodelario, the British star of Skins, who has a Brazilian mother. “She speaks Portuguese!” Bianca says, amazed.
Leone is shown shouting, “You are a coward!” at Alain Prost, Senna’s French nemesis, played by Matt Mella. Their rivalry will feature but the focus is on the Brazilian’s rise to success, Bianca says. To further his career Senna moved in his early 20s to a small town outside Norwich, which must have been quite the culture shock.
For understandable reasons they didn’t recreate her uncle’s death, relying instead on archive footage. “I always thought he was indestructible,” Bianca says. “I didn’t even watch the races – I would just watch the start and the finish, because he was gonna win anyway, you know? I saw him as my uncle, never as Ayrton Senna the big star, but when we were going to the cemetery and I saw the streets of Sao Paulo full of people, I started to understand the impact he made outside of my family.”
Another emblem of that impact will be the Senna Tower, which she says is “going to be the tallest residential building in the world, over 500 metres and 144 floors, with a go-kart track inside and a pendulum that counterbalances the tower”. Based on a concept by Bianca’s sister, Lalalli, it will be situated in the southern Brazilian city of Salneario Camboriu, with work expected to take seven to 10 years.
The tower will taper like a ski slope to a fine point, Bianca says, moving her hand in an upward swoosh. That represents “the hero’s journey, always trying to reach perfection but never touching it. The top of the tower disappears – it feels like you are disintegrating, disappearing. Which is just like Ayrton”.
The Times
Senna Driven is out now on Universal; Senna is on Netflix.
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