Netflix subscribers have been treated to a wide variety of excellent limited series throughout 2024, the latest of which tells the true story of a professional athlete through a project called Senna. The series, which premiered on Nov. 29, unpacks the life, career,and tragic death of revered Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna. Throughout just six episodes – each roughly an hour in length – audiences come to connect with the iconic racer through understanding his life at home and on the track. Sadly, they also witness the shocking circumstances which lead to his unfortunate demise. Since Senna offers such a well-crafted dramatic presentation, many audiences have justifiably wondered if the show is as true to life as the trailers would have you believe.
As you likely can imagine, the following write-up will contain some heavy spoilers regarding the show’s conclusion. Be sure to bookmark this page and return later if you want to experience the show completely blind. Still, given the series’ focus on the iconic driver, it’s intentionally designed to be enjoyed by those who are already aware of Senna’s legacy. Therefore, a few spoilers likely won’t ruin the viewing experience. Either way, let’s unpack the actual life of Ayrton Senna, and see how it stacks up to what’s presented in the show.
Who Was Ayrton Senna?
Long before he was making record times on the flat top, Ayrton Senna was born to a humble family in São Paulo, Brazil. He took an interest in racing from a very young age and even began building and racing his own go-karts when he was just 13 years old. Though the hobby began as a childhood passion, racing quickly grew to become a lucrative career as the high-speed thrill-seeker won local karting championships and eventually earned back-to-back runner-up honors in the World Kart Championships of 1979 and 1980. In his adulthood, Senna moved from Brazil to England to pursue his dream of competing in Formula events, where he quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with.
By 1994, Senna had amassed multiple world championships, 41 overall victories and numerous honors, making him something of a rockstar in his home country. Brazilian racing fans the world over revered the young star both for his on-the-track performance and for his overall personality. One such Brazilian youth who was heavily inspired by Senna’s affability was Gabriel Leone, the man who portrays the F1 champion in the Netflix series. While discussing his admiration with Netflix Queue, Leone explained, “I think he was a really truthful guy. You can feel when he was speaking when he was giving an interview, that he was being sincere… I’d say he changed Formula 1 because of the way he used to compete.”
Leone went on to express how much Senna’s Brazilian heritage meant to locals who were suffering from economic hardship during his tenure with the sport, explaining, “Formula 1 is a pretty elitist sport. It’s known to be a rich person’s sport; not only the drivers but the audiences… Every Sunday when he was racing, it was a day to celebrate amidst all of the bad things that were happening to our people. It used to be a dot of joy amidst it all. Senna always, more than anything, made sure that people around the world knew that he was Brazilian.”
How Did Senna Die?
As the Netflix series shows, Ayrton Senna died in a tragic crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Italy. The event has since gone down as one of the darkest weekends in the history of racing, as another driver, Roland Ratzenberger, had died just one day earlier. Needless to say, this tragedy stung all of Brazil, and continues to be a touchy subject within the nation today, over 30 years later. Senna’s cause of death was listed as a mechanical failure, due to an issue with his vehicle’s steering column. As the Netflix series outlines, Senna took extra precautions on the day of the Grand Prix, even raising safety concerns to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, who were responsible for upholding safety standards for Formula One.
Senna is even said to have argued against the construction of so-called high-risk corners on the Grand Prix track in the days leading up to his death, as he correctly surmised that the vehicles could not handle such a high level of wear and tear at maximum speed. Though his loss is inarguably tragic, it served as a catalyst to make F1 pull a formal overhaul of all safety features for future races. Thanks to his efforts, the league now offers safer turns, more stringent vehicle inspections, better safety barriers along the perimeter of the tracks and speed limits along certain stretches.
How Accurate Is ‘Senna’?
Like all television and film adaptations, Senna contains its fair share of deviations from real life. The series takes creative liberties to fill in the gaps in Senna’s personal journey and provide a better overall structure to the story. Characters such as Laura Harrison, who acts as a reporter close to Ayrton as he makes his journey through the F1 circuit, are fictional amalgamations of many different influences within the driver’s life. Still, the show does take great care to honor Senna’s legacy and respect his glowing personality. The people who meant the most to Ayrton such as his mother, father, girlfriend and long-time racing rivals, are all depicted on the screen, making Senna something of a love letter to the deceased legend.
At the end of the day, Netflix’s story does an excellent job of immortalizing the eponymous racer for a whole new generation. As Gabriel Leone explained in his previously mentioned interview with Queue, Senna’s 1994 death had a lasting impact on the nation of Brazil for decades to come, leaving 90s and 2000s kids to grow up in the shadow of the tragedy. He stated, “If you’re born Brazilian, you immediately become a Senna fan because you’re probably going to grow up in a family of Senna fans. That’s what happened with me. I mean, even if I haven’t watched him driving live, I used to watch his videos on TV… It’s not famous outside of Brazil, but we have a song for him that used to be played every time he won a race. Every time I listen, I get emotional because it’s part of our culture. If you are Brazilian, you love Senna.” RIP.
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