Marriage changes a life: the way you think, the way you live your life, and the interests you have. For example, I would never think that I could enjoy Formula One before I married my husband. Not only did I start to enjoy watching formula one, but also, I listened to an audible book about it and watched a beautiful documentary. The documentary was about a Brazilian formula one racing driver Ayrton Senna. It was worth watching, even if you are not interested in racing sports, because it had so many life lessons you could learn.
Young Senna started his racing career as a go-kart driver. His parents became aware of his talent and supported him. He found his way up to Formula One. This is where his unhappiness and success met. He was very talented, and one of the elusive drivers who could drive very successfully in the rain. He was an extremely ambitious driver, who won the world champion title 3 times. Actually, it would have been 4, but because of the politics of the formula 1, he was not given a championship title in 1989. During the race after his collision between Prost in Japan, he rejoined the race from a wrong route and he was disqualified. If you watch the documentary, you will see the full story about this.
The best part of the documentary was the flow; they truly did a great job documenting his life with his real videos until his tragic accident. I felt like, I was seeing through his life bit by bit and living with him his troubles, his competitions, his dreams and hopes, and the pressure he put on him. He was happy when he won his first world championship. Later on, I did not see real happiness. Even though he won 2 more world championship titles, his life was focused on the politics, competition between his teammates and his ego to become fist.
What I learned is:
Be aware of the politics but do not involve, argue or blame anyone. Do your best and be professional all the time. When you watch the documentary, you will feel the same way I do. So many times, the situations he was in were heartbreaking, how he defended himself, his actions and how he showed his frustrations. I would do the same thing, but arguing with powerful people, showing your anger, talking and thinking about your enemies, will not solve anything other than creating more conflicts.
It also made me question my life. Life passes while we are trying to have better jobs and investments for our future. Most of the time we forget to enjoy the journey while we are trying to reach our goals. Senna loved racing, it was his dream to become a world champion and he succeeded 3 times. He wanted more even though he was tired of the politics, money issues, and the competition.
Finally, if something does not feel right, trust your gut. It is not. The day he had an accident, he did not want to race for many reasons, but he still did. He had a nice conversation with his doctor before the accident, which was very sweet and sad at the same time (see the conversation below). Also, I am adding a Wikipedia page where you can find the reasons that he had more pressure and stress than ever in his last race. He could have backed out of the race, but he did not. Wikipedia explains very well; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna
- the serious crash of his young compatriot, Rubens Barrichello, during Friday practice, whom Senna visited in hospital;
- the death of F1 rookie Roland Ratzenberger during Saturday qualifying;
- being 20 points behind in the Drivers’ Championship;
- suspicion of the rival Benetton B194 car using an illegal traction control system;
- the poor performance of his Williams FW16;
Quotes
His Doctor Sid Watkins: [after the death of Roland Ratzenberger] Ayrton got very, very upset and cried a bit, and that’s when I said to him, you know Ayrton you’ve been three times world champion, you’re the fastest man in the world, and you like fishing. So, I said why don’t you quit, and I’ll quit, and we’ll just go fishing. And he said Sid, I can’t quit.
I loved the movie and definitely recommend it. My husband rated the movie as 8 and I rated it 9 out of 10.
I’m a Project Manager with a deep passion for both professional and personal growth. Designing and building the next generation of vehicles is incredibly rewarding, but it comes with its challenges—especially for someone as emotionally invested as I am!