In a recent film made by Jeremy Clarkson for season 15 of Top Gear, which will air on local telly soon, Clarkson asked just about every great driver the sport has known, on camera, who they thought the greatest driver of all time. Everyone, including Michael Schumacher, answered: Ayrton Senna. Karting from the age of five, Senna would go on to win three World Championships in Formula 1, before his monumentally sad death at Imola in 1994, at age 34. But it wasn’t so much what he achieved, as how he achieved it.

Any footage of Senna behind the wheel of a racing car will immediately show his talent. His car control was almost unnatural, while his ability to consistently drive on the very limit and overtake where no one thought overtaking was possible made him incredibly exciting to watch.

He was ruthless, but in a paradoxical way. In the 1990 World Championship, Senna lead Ferrari’s Alain Prost going into the penultimate round at Suzuka. If Prost failed to finish, Senna would have the championship wrapped up. Senna was on pole with Prost in second. Off the start, Prost got a better start and Senna simply drove into him in the first corner at 270km/h, destroying both cars. Senna had won, but his reputation had suffered enormously.

And yet in a remarkable display of compassion, during the Belgian race of 1992, friend and competitor Erik Comas crashed violently, knocking himself unconscious. Many drivers drove past the wreck but Senna stopped his car on the track, ending his race. He ran over to the wreck and paramedics arrived shortly thereafter. Comas was unhurt, and Senna’s admirers finally had proof of the other side of his personality.

He was an absolute hoot in press conferences, never letting a good opportunity for a laugh pass him by or backing down from conflict. He famously gave millions to charity in his home country of Brazil and was a devout Catholic, often reading the bible on long haul flights. Although his religion never seemed to prevent him from capitalising on the honeys drawn to the sport.

No details on SA release date, but apparently the film will reach the UK in the summer, which is soon-ish.

If you’d be interested in watching more of Senna crashing/driving/swearing, we’ll have a lot of that over on OverdriveTV.