Senna Review: A Fast Lap With Little Depth But Thrilling Racing Action

Ever since the Senna documentary directed by Asif Kapadia released back in 2011, there had been push to see a proper movie of the 3-time world champion. In fact, Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro – best known for his portrayal of Persian King Xerxes in 300 – was attached to portray Senna for a long time.

Alas, we finally now have a docudrama of Senna, albeit not a movie but instead a 6-part miniseries on Netflix. It stars Gabriele Leone as the title character, who also portrayed another racing driver – Alfonso de Portago – in Michael Mann’s Ferrari movie.

Great Casting and Action​

We shall begin with what is good about the series, first being Gabriel Leone as Senna. He truly brings his A-game to the role, he may not be as close to a visual fit as Santoro would have been but Leone really embodies the spirit of Senna, with his subtly assured, assertive demeanour that we all knew Senna to be. The rest of the casting seems pretty spot on for the most part.

Alain Prost unsurprisingly features quite heavily and the actor they got to portray him Matt Mella is also a great fit, in fact many of the supporting roles come very close to their real life counterparts. Well, not all but many do.

But perhaps the most prominent character who we focus on a lot is a British-Brazilian reporter named Laura Harrison (portrayed by Kaya Scodelario), a composite character who represents many journalists who interacted with Senna over the years. She is essentially the viewer’s eye into Senna’s world.

My personal favourite character though was that of Terry Fullerton, Senna’s old rival in karting. Honestly, I was disappointed that they did not have a bit more of Fullerton, who represents the other side of the coin with racing drivers, not trying to make the journey up to F1. Would have been great to see more of their dynamic.

Anyway, chances are if you are here, you are wanting to see some great depictions of the racing itself, and this series truly shows that. The racing in Senna balances the act of sensationalising and grounding the racing so effortlessly, it is probably the best racing in a movie/series since 2013’s Rush.

That should speak volumes, the scenes in Monaco ’88 in-particular are goosebump-inducing. As we know of that race, Senna spoke of how he felt like he was driving beyond consciousness and the relentless nature of the scenes shown really demonstrated that. Unfortunately there were many areas where Senna fell short.

Surface Level Skimming​

The series covered Senna’s career from 1979 to 1994, that is 15 years condensed into six episodes. That is a very ambitious task for any story to be told, and Senna really does suffer for it. A lot of events are glossed over, which would be all good if it served the narrative but it is merely a beat-for-beat snippet of Senna’s most prominent moments in his career.

Everything feels rather repetitive, it can be boiled down to the same basic beats that are rinsed and repeated. There is no real build up or understanding of why something is, it just is and you feel kind of dropped in the middle of it. Trying to achieve all this in such a condensed space was always going to be a challenge, an uphill struggle.

Subsequently, in an attempt to retain some familiarity between the characters, there is very little development or arc for the characters and when there is, it is not gradual. Again, talking about being dropped in the middle of everything, it just feels like there is too much happening in-between.

Speaking of arcs, it should be noted that there were very real instances where Senna was wronged. But he was no angel either. In this series, it feels like it was not even attempted to give the people who opposed Senna any complexity, they were just bad and Senna was good. At least whilst they were in opposition, Prost and Senna did make amends after the former retired.

Oh and on the note of exaggerating, one point in the second episode was really irritating. For context, I am English and I fully acknowledge that this country has too many sycophantic hooligans, however they would be found at events for high profile sports like F1 or football. But F3? Senna has Martin Brundle chasing him down for the British F3 title, and you would be mistaken for believing Brundle was Diego Maradona.

But of course, Netflix is also the home of Drive to Survive so they need to get all the viewers who pin every little thing on ‘British Bias’ to want to feel validated enough to watch the series.

Limited on Locations​

Back when the Gran Turismo movie released, it got a lot of flack for using the Hungaroring it seems for every track whether it be ‘English Raceway’ (most likely Brands Hatch), Silverstone and Le Mans. This was because of how expensive it would have been to go to many different locations, if it is expensive to actually race motorsport, it is even more expensive to recreate it for film.

Plus not to mention the little guarantee the movie makes that money back at the box office, with racing still being a relatively niche sport. At least with Gran Turismo, they tried in some areas but Senna is an even worse culprit of this. For the entirety of Senna’s career post-karting and pre-F1, he raced in the UK and if the series is to be believed, you would think the UK would have a mountain range to rival that of the Himilayas.

Image: Odontiveros via Wikimedia Commons, available for free distribution under CC BY-SA 2.0 License.

The sequences in Senna’s junior formulae career were shot at the Autódromo Eduardo Copello better known as ‘El Zonda’ in a deep and narrow revine in the Marquesado mountain ranges in San Juan, Argentina. I know that they are working to a budget but the creators should have known that a majority of viewers would be racing fans, they would notice..

Rush got away with the likes of Brands Hatch standing in for Fiorano, Paul Ricard and Monza. Ford v Ferrari/Le Mans 66 had Daytona being represented apparently by Fontana. This is the reality of movie productions of motorsport, they will have to take liberties to meet their budget, but it feels like with Senna, they went out of their way to not even attempt something similar.

Is It Worth A Watch?​

In spite of its shortcomings, I would still say Senna is a must watch for racing fanatics. With its strength being its depictions of the racing, you will not be disappointed on that front. One thing worth noting, the series has a mix of English and Portuguese being spoken so if you select the all English dub, there will be points where it looks like the characters are not moving their lips to match exactly what they are saying.

It falls short in seamless story structure and character development, and it is criminally over-dramatising everything. But if you can look past that, you will very much enjoy the Senna series. You can also hear Yannik’s thoughts on the series below.

Editor’s Take: Yannik​

Just like the 2011 movie, the 2024 series is one where the story is most definitely known by most who watch it. The most important milestones of Senna’s career as well as the end of the story (and therefore, the series) are no secret, and I think that changes how you approach the series as well. At least it did for me.

Personally, I found myself pushing aside this dark cloud of the main character’s eventual fate. Not consciously, but automatically. And while I was at it, I realised that for as much as I know about Ayrton Senna, the racing driver, I knew relatively little about Ayrton Senna da Silva (and only later Senna), the man himself.

Image: Netflix © 2024

Sure, some elements of his personal life are well-documented, such as his relationships with Brazilian TV presenter and singer Xuxa Meneghel or actress Adriane Galisteu, his significant other at the time of the tragic 1994 Imola weekend.

But I have a feeling that not too many racing fans knew that he was married when he first came to the UK to race in Formula Ford already. Of course, this could be due to the marriage already breaking apart in 1982 already – two years before Senna made it to Formula One.

The Galisteu Controversy & A Very Hilly Britain​

In that regard, the Netflix series did well in actually showing the person Ayrton Senna when not at the race track, although the series did take some liberties here and there – and I have read about a dispute between the Senna family, who were involved in creating the series, and Netflix about Galisteu’s portrayal.

The Senna family did and apparently does not like her, supposedly suspecting that she was only in the relationship for monetary reasons. The family thus did not want to have her represented in the series at all, but Netflix threatened to pull the plug on the series altogether if that were the case. In the end, the character of Adriane is hardly seen at all – for a mere three minutes of screen time, actually.

Aside from the personal level of Senna’s story, I think the series is well-made in general, although the racing history nerd in me could not help but point out a few things that do not quite add up. For instance, when Senna arrives in Britain for his first Formula Ford season, the track does not look like any British track at all – and there are way too many hills – mountains, even – surrounding it.

Image: Aline Arruda/Netflix © 2024

Funnily enough, his entire pre-F1 career seems to have taken place at the very same track, according to the series. This is most likely due to budgetary reasons – recreating lesser-known circuits as they were in the early 1980s would have been quite a big task.

On the flip side, the actual F1 tracks that appear later on are extremely well done – mostly in front of a green screen, which allows for them to be shown as they were back in the day. Similarly, the racing scenes themselves are on point, as even backmarker cars are portrayed correctly as they would have been in their respective seasons of competition.

Although there is a 1990 Ferrari that is briefly visible in the 1994 Imola restart scene when the cars fly by the camera in a close-up – nice try sneaking that one past me! And the usual shots of feet working the clutch and throttle on upshifts were a bit out of place once Senna was in cars using paddle shifters from 1992 onwards.

Berger Friendship & 1992 – 1993?​

There are a few elements of Senna’s career that I missed when watching the series, though. While the Senna-Prost rivalry is naturally a big part of the series (including a Matt Mella who looks uncannily like Alain), his relationship with Gerhard Berger, his McLaren teammate from 1990 to 1992 is hardly touched upon.

The duo was known to be very good friends that kept pranking each other quite excessively, nothing of which is found in the series. Instead, Berger could be mistaken as just another teammate if you didn’t know about the friendship between him and Senna.

Image: Netflix © 2024

Then, there is the timeline – certain seasons are not really shown, if at all. While I get that 1987 was a transitional year at Lotus and 1992 and 1993 were hopeless fights against a superior Williams car, the latter two in particlar had some of Senna’s finest drives.

I am mostly thinking of Monaco 1992, where Senna held a charging Nigel Mansell behind him for his fourth Monaco GP win in a row in a remarkable way, and Donington 1993, of course – you probably all know the incredible first lap and the masterclass in ever-changing conditions Senna put on.

Glossing Over The Donnelly & Comas Accidents​

Two key moments of his career are also glossed over at best: When Martin Donnelly crashed his Lotus at Jerez in 1990 so heavily he was thrown clear of the car and laying on the track with his seat still strapped to his back, Senna went to see the crash site himself. Donnelly survived, but what Senna saw reportedly shook him. Not that it prevented him from taking pole position shortly afterwards, but it possibly set some thoughts regarding the sport’s safety in motion.

A similar moment occurred in Spa in 1992, when Senna possibly saved Erik Comas’ life after the Frenchman was knocked unconscious in a crash at Blanchimont, his foot still pressing the accelerator. Senna stopped his McLaren, ran back to Comas’ car, and hit the engine’s kill switch, then held up Comas’ head to try and prevent neck injuries.

Both of these moments are a stark contrast as well to the fierce competitor Senna usually was on the track, and it is worth noting that his infamous crash with Prost at Suzuka’s turn 1 that netted him the 1990 title happened after Donnelly’s crash, so the sometimes contradictory character of Senna’s could have been brought to the front a bit more.

Image: Netflix © 2024

I realise that there is only so much you can fit into six hour-long episodes, though.

What I was relieved to see, however, was that the rivalry with Prost was actually portrayed as being rooted mostly in misunderstandings and the press interfering. Both drivers certainly did their part to fuel the fire, but it would have been easy to paint Alain as the bad guy in a movie where his heroic adversary is the main character. But instead, the two are shown as getting closer to each other in early 1994, like they apparently had in real life as well.

Recommended? Certainly!​

All things considered, I did enjoy the series – quite a lot, actually. If you have not watched it yet, I strongly recommend you do so if you are a racing fan, particularly of the 1980s and 1990s eras.

Just make sure to not take everything shown for a fact, but rather as a good starting point to dive into some of Senna’s career moments that you may not know about yet or you want to revisit.

What motorsport movies do you intend to watch over the festive holiday? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our forums!