The May 1st 1994 changed the history of Formula One. There was a before and after Ayrton Senna’s death, which occurred exactly three decades ago during the San Marino Grand Prix. In the anniversary year, a journalist from Brescia, Giulia Toninelli, took up the challenge of Lab Dfg Editore: to talk about a champion who is still much loved. He did it with «Ayrton Senna. Fierce eyes, childish eyes.”
«I said yes to an agreement – explains the author from Desenzano – and that is that I would give the work my own twist. I was born in 1997, I am part of the next generation, inevitably I would have had the point of view of those who weren’t there. I chose this path right from the preface, entrusted to a person even younger than me, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, star of Italian motorsport. A class of 2006 who races and dreams with the myth of Senna in his head. It could have others, from Hamilton to Verstappen, and instead there is him.”
What ties you then, beyond time, to the Brazilian champion?
«The man beyond the pilot. It is what I anticipate in the title, those “fierce eyes, childlike eyes” that made him truly immortal. He was revolutionary in so many ways. His death, a shock for F1, changed the approach to safety regulations forever. Senna was then the first driver to pay attention to physical performance. But he was also one of the very first to pay attention to social issues, to talk about the problems of his country, Brazil. His foundation, founded in 1994, has helped something like thirty-four million Brazilian children in thirty years. Finally, the “child eye”: he was not afraid of showing weakness, of crying in front of the cameras.”
Does the book start from the end, from that May 1st 1994?
«No, I start from the beginning and the construction is symmetrical. The first and last chapters are dedicated to Brazil: the first years in his homeland, in the beginning; my reportage in the symbolic places of Sao Paulo, below. In the second and penultimate places there is Italy. In Rozzano, in the province of Milan, he had his first experience away from Brazil; in Imola, as is known, his life ended. In the middle is England, chosen rationally to attempt an assault on Formula One.”
Have Senna and this work on him changed you too?
«Engines have always been a passion of mine, inherited from my dad and cultivated growing up a stone’s throw from the Lonato kart track. I will forever be grateful to this job: I knew the Senna as a driver, but becoming so involved in the Senna as a person left a mark on me.”
Where can we find his book?
«In all online stores and bookstores. The people of Brescia can come and visit me in person on June 1st, when I will present it to the Municipality of Montichiari.”
