I’ve made a short video compilation to accompany ‘The Encounter Down Under’. It consists of images from the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend.
The film contains footage of fatal accidents, so viewer discretion is advised.
Edit: sadly my video was removed from YouTube because of complaints by Formula One Management. It may be that you won’t be able to see the video any longer.
Senna versus Schumacher 
Several hard to find clips there, indeed. Some of which I had never seen before, and that’s very hard given how much information I’ve looked for and found during the last five years, since the day I entered “F1” at Kazaa (when I still used that awful software) and downloaded a “Senna crash” video.
I specially like the clips where Senna appears before his crash, as a worried man, a man who was trying his best to cope with the situation, a man who was working to improve drivers’ safety in Formula One, a man who was attempting to avoid a fatality (and later, a second fatality), and a man who wasn’t aware of the fact that the next fatality would be his, of the fact that his time was nearly out.
But, still, a man who was very much afraid of dying on the very same day he actually died, as you can clearly read on his face, in the car, less than half an hour before it happened.
You can even feel the pressure he was going through at that moment. The thing he most wanted was to step out of that car, but he had to race for the championship. Maybe it was the first time on his life that he didn’t want to do the thing he most loved to do: racing.
But he had to race, for the championship, for the team, for the sponsors, for the mechanics, but (as he would have say), above anything else, because racing was on his blood.
The only ones who die are the ones who get forgotten… and the world will long, and maybe ever, remember Ayrton Senna da Silva.
I stumbled on this (excellently compiled!) video while browsing Youtube, which brought me to this site. Very interesting concept! I’m sure many thousands of F1 fans have thought about “What if?” in terms of that fateful weekend and beyond, but I don’t know of many who might pen an entire book on the subject.
I’m curious – will the book be more of a straightforward biographical sort of account of the fictional 1994 season, or will it be more of a dramatized novel, with dialogue from the drivers and such?
Good luck to you, I’ll be following your progress and look very much forward to reading the end result.
@ JD
> … will the book be more of a straightforward biographical sort
> of account of the fictional 1994 season, or will it be more of a
> dramatized novel, with dialogue from the drivers and such?
Definitely the former. Because I personally like that genre more than souped-up, Driven-esque racing drama, and because I wouldn’t consider myself to be as much of a novelist to really make something good of the latter option.
Thanks for your support!