No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/ARGANOID/ARG_ST2.MSA/AYRTON.DOC

Text File | 1995-02-25 | 11KB | 235 lines

                                AYRTON LIVES ON

1st January 1995


10:26pm

I have just had an experience that I will never forget.


At 8:40pm I started to watch the Ayrton Senna tribute on BBC2. Before this
programme, I had been in awe of the great driver. I remember seeing the
documentary about McLaren in 1993 last year, and I had been amazed by Senna's
absolute commitment to his job. While Hakkinen was relaxing and drinking tea,
Senna was discussing the car's performance down to the tiniest detail. Well, at
9:30pm tonight, my belief in Senna as the greatest racing driver of all time
had been amplified by a billion.

I have often considered what it takes to be the best in Formula One. Basically,
speed, consistency and a good car. The majority of drivers are consistent -
you'll never get anywhere if you aren't - so the main difference between
drivers is the way in which they handle the car. Jonathan Palmer showed us some
diagrams comparing his driving technique with Senna's. They were quite
different.

Anyway, earlier today, on Microprose's Formula One Grand Prix, I had finished a
season in a very unusual way - in 4th place.
In this season, I had decided to give myself a bit of a challenge by using the
same setup for every race - a setup with absolutely NO downforce... What this
means, for non-racing-literate people, is that I had a very high top speed, but
I also had to take corners very slowly. This kind of setup is generally a
disadvantage, since all tracks naturally have lots of corners, and the computer
cars had setups which were correct for each specific track.

The race options were: No practise allowed, 15 mins qualifying, 10% race
distance, Ace level, 1991 driver levels.

At the first race of that season, at the US GP at Pheonix, I had qualified 8th
and finished 5th, having led for a short time. However, I kept hitting the
sides of the track, and lost all my places on the last corner. The rest of the
season was fairly similar, I often lost places just because of my own
carelessness. In previous seasons, I could afford to spin off occasionally,
because with a decent set up I was often three seconds faster than the computer
cars every lap. In this season, however, a spin meant no points. I ended the
season with four wins, 47 points and 4th place in the championship. I had never
come lower than first in a championship before... This wasn't good enough.


Then I watched the Ayrton Senna programme. And after it, I decided that if I
was ever to get anywhere in motorsport, I had to follow his example. Ayrton
always HAD to be the best, HAD to be the fastest. In 1993 he won two less races
than Alain Prost, but there were hardly any other points positions - if he
wasn't first, he wasn't anything. Prost won the championship by scoring points
in all but two races...


I went upstairs, switched on the ST, booted F1GP and started a season with the
same parameters as before. And this time, I was going to drive like Ayrton.

And I did.

I started the qualifying session. I loaded the no downforce setup and did my
warm up lap, working out how fast I should take the corners. Then I did my
first qualifying lap. My objective: to be on pole. Nothing else would do.

I was driving extremely quickly - in a way I had never driven before, partly
because I had never had to drive like that before. A few minutes previously, I
had decided that I would only seriously continue with my real-life racing
exploits if I won this race. As Ayrton did, in every race, I HAD to be on pole.

The lap was going brilliantly, when I took the 4th corner too fast and hit the
wall. I was able to continue, but the colission had completely stopped the car
at a part of the track where I should have been in 3rd gear - this was not
going to be THE lap. I can't remember what position I was in after that lap. I
did another lap with the same tyres, but I hit the wall again in a different
place.

Second set of tyres, I set a slightly better time, but I was just fourth
fastest. My second lap saw no improvement.

Third set of tyres, I was horrified to find that, despite feeling that I was
going a lot faster, I was actually a tenth off my best time. Another car had
now set a faster time than me, and I was now in fifth.

Fourth, and last, set of tyres. I did an absolutely amazing lap, beating my
original best lap by two seconds, and putting myself into pole position. I
couldn't believe it - remember that under identical setup conditions a few
weeks ago I had qualified 8th. But this time I was driving in a different way.
No more casual driving - I used to be like that, and it generally meant a lot
of crashes. But I couldn't afford to crash - these were my last tyres. On that
lap I felt that Ayrton was in control of the car. It looked just like the on
car camera shots of Ayrton's car that we had seen in the Senna tribute - right
on the edge, but no mistakes. I even used one of Ayrton's throttle techniques
that Jonathan Palmer had shown us in a diagram! I think that must have been the
first time I actually got a high heartbeat playing F1GP - like Ayrton, I HAD to
be on pole, and I knew I could do it. And I did.

Meanwhile, the computer controlled car that was supposed to represent Ayrton
Senna had qualified 9th. I watched the last few minutes of qualifying from the
cockpit of that car. It was, of course, nothing like Ayrton's driving style,
quite apart from the fact that it qualified so low.


Then there was the race. I had been faster than the computer cars in qualifying
-  but only two tenths of a second faster, and for me that is no difference.
Behind me on the grid was the simulated Ferrari of Jean Alesi and the simulated
McLaren of Gerhard Berger. For some reason, Berger's electronic counterpart is
often the fastest computer driver. At the start, I was accelerating at the same
rate as Alesi - very worrying, as I did not have the right line for the
oncoming corner. The Ferrari braked earlier than expected and I stayed in the
lead, but at some point Berger must have overtaken Alesi, as I soon saw the red
and white car in my mirrors. I drove in a way very similar to my qualifying
laps, but this time I had to be even more consistent, as one spin would
probably put me out of the points. I drove the car as fast as I could, but on
lap 2, Berger set the fastest lap, and he was right behind me. With a better
idea of how my tyres were taking the corners, I put my performance up and
lapped a second faster than my previous lap - but it still wasn't fast enough,
Berger was closing. I then did a lap like my last qualifying lap, beating
Berger's lap by one tenth of a second. At one point in the race, I backed off,
feeling that I had a safe lead over Berger. The next thing I knew, there he was
in my mirrors! From then on, every lap was virtually perfect, and in the eight
lap race I made just one mistake - I took a corner too wide and had to take it
a gear slower - losing me 2 tenths of a second. Considering that I generally
have one big spin per race, this was amazing. It was the best race of my life -
all the odds were against me and I overcame them. I had to be on pole and I
was. I had to win and I did. Berger was just 2.2 seconds behind - probably my
closest ever finish, but that merely made it more satisfying.

I don't believe in Heaven. Ayrton Senna is dead, and he isn't here anymore. But
it is not 'illogical' to say that he is still alive in our minds (although not
in our hearts - it's just an organ to pump blood after all). It's like when you
see somebody do something that amazes you, and you try to follow their example
in the same way, and you are successful. A part of Ayrton's ability has gone
into me, and I am sure that the same has happened to many racing drivers, from
F1 drivers to people like me playing racing simulations on computers. I now
feel as if I completely know Senna's character. He lives on - in thousands of
people in the world, and I am one of those people. After the TV programme I
felt immense sadness. Now I am happy that I have learnt such amazing skill from
the tradgedy. (This probably sounds rather ego-y to you, but it's true).

I will continue my karting endevours in the knowledge that I CAN do it. I CAN
be the best. Whether I will be or not remains to be seen - after all, there are
many who have always thought in the same way that I am thinking now. But there
is always the possibility. And if I fail, I will still have this experience in
my memory, and it is an experience which has made me a better person.



Ayrton, I am forever in your debt.



The end



Update

I managed to keep up the amazing performance which I had experienced at Pheonix
for a couple of races. I have now moved back to my old driving style, that is,
more casual, but I have not completely lost those great skills that I learnt on
that day. I went on to do well in races in which I had never been any good
under normal conditions - at Belgium, my worst track, I qualified 7th and won
the race. This was the first season in which I finished every race. I totally
dominated the season, winning by 35 points. The championship table is below:

1) Gillett 103  2) Berger 68    3) Patrese 64   4) Senna 46     5) Mansell 42
6) Prost, Alesi 30              8) Modena 9     9) de Cesaris 8 10) Schumacher4
11) Capelli, Piquet, Pirro 3    14) Gugelmin 2  15) Zanardi 1

The constructors championship was not so simple, I had no chance against the
might of McLaren and Williams (I drove for the one-car Coloni team)

1) McLaren 114  2) Williams 106 3) Coloni 103   4) Ferrari 60   5) Tyrrell 9
6) Jordan 9     7) Benetton 7   8) Leyton House 5  9) Scuderia Italia 3

And finally, those lovely race and qualifying statistics. First number is qual-
ifying, second is the race result. Remember - this was with no downforce...

USA: 1st, 1st.  Brazil: 1st, 1st.  San Marino: 2nd, 1st.  Monaco: 1st, 4th(Wet)
Canada: 1st, 1st.  Mexico: 1st, 1st. France: 1st, 18th.   Britain: 14th, 11th.
Germany: 1st, 1st. Hungary: 26th, 11th.  Belgium: 7th, 1st. Italy: 1st,1st.
Portugal: 4th, 1st. Spain: 19th, 26th.   Japan: 1st, 1st. Australia: 1st, 26th.

The statistics: 10 poles, 7 wins, 3 races where I did very badly in the race
(Monaco doesn't count because it was a wet race, with no downforce, remember!).


Well, there you have it. From an unreliable midfielder to an ultra fast race
winner. And I was inspired by Ayrton Senna. In the real world, I could never
hope to emulate his successes. But I will try. I am confident about my next
karting venture - but that is a story for 'ARG goes karting'. Why not read it
now?

I am also around halfway through a similar season in which I always use MAXIMUM
downforce. This is a completely different kettle of fish, because with a top
speed of 160 mph, it is almost completely impossible to overtake, and as for
qualifying... As far as I can remember, the championship is extremely close,
with me challenging Senna and Mansell for the lead. However, I will not be
surprised if I do not win this season.


Press 'P'.

The end

@e