Q&A: Former F1 driver and his son discuss Ayrton Senna's legacy in light of new Netflix series
Brazilian was 'ruthless on the racetrack,' says Canadian former F1 racer
A new Netflix drama series about the life of legendary Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, who died in a racing accident during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, will be released on Friday.
Despite his career being cut short when he was just 34 years old, the three-time world champion's impact on the culture of Formula One racing remains, as Senna is widely revered as one of the greatest drivers in the sport's history.
Now, 30 years after his death, the Netflix series Senna vows to explore the driver's life story, both on and off the racetrack.
Allen Berg is a former Formula One racer who drove for the Osella Alfa Romeo team in nine F1 events during the 1986 season. He competed against Senna in numerous races, and Berg says the Brazilian driver's style taught him a lot about the intricacies of Formula One cars.
Berg, who was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2019, was born in Vancouver but spent most of his life living in Calgary. Now, he lives in the state of Georgia and operates a racing school for young racecar drivers.
The former racer and his son Alex Berg — the 18-year-old Calgarian who is an up-and-coming racing driver himself — chatted with CBC Radio's the Calgary Eyeopener about Senna's legacy and what motorsport means to them.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
CBC: Allen, I'll start with you. We're talking about the significance of Ayrton Senna, his life and his death 30 years ago. Does it feel that long?
Allen Berg: No, absolutely not. But you know, that's life. Life progresses at a very quick rate.
I remember very well, vividly, racing against him in Formula Three in 1983, as well as my time in Formula One and nine Grands Prix in 1986.
What made him so good?
Allen Berg: When I was first exposed to him … it was back in the day before Internet. So it was only by word of mouth. I knew that he was quick. I knew that he was the favourite for the championship and certainly an amazing driver — immensely talented, very ambitious, driven, extremely intelligent, ruthless on the racetrack.
His presence in Formula One, and his death, transformed Formula One racing during his time.
Let's talk about both sides of that. How did he transform the sport?
Allen Berg: His driving was ruthless. In order to race against him wheel-to-wheel, it caused drivers to drive in a more aggressive fashion. You had to be ready that if Senna was behind you, he would take the first opportunity to try to pass you and essentially put you in a position where it was your decision whether or not you wanted to continue racing or potentially crash out. He would really put his car in very logical positions.
He was very dominant in his time in Formula Three against us. I learned a lot from his driving.… There are a lot of life lessons that I gained from him, and a lot about the racing business as well. Ultimately, I took what I learned and I implemented a lot of this into our racing school.
Alex, I want to bring you into the conversation. You're obviously too young to have rubbed shoulders with Senna, but how do you see him? Is he part of your life and aspirations as a racer?
Alex Berg: As we all know, he died in 1994, and I think since then Formula One's made a massive leap in safety.
From a driver's perspective, I think there's a lot of stories that go around about his greatness and how he was as a driver. He almost sets the standard, and every new up-and-coming racing driver who's obviously very good, very talented, is compared to "the next Senna," or "just like Senna." But who knows if we'll ever have somebody just like that. Only time will tell.
It's a delicate question, but how does talking about the death on a racetrack of an icon like Senna land for you, as somebody who's at an early stage in your racing career?
Alex Berg: Well, it happened a long time before I was born, but as a racing driver, that's something that you just don't really think about.
It's something that you think, "it's never going to happen to me." Obviously motor racing is a very dangerous sport, but you just kind of have to push past that. I don't think anyone's really thinking about death while they're on the racetrack, and if you are, well, you're not going quick enough.
As you both say, Formula One has changed. There are new safety precautions. It's thrilling and exciting, and there's danger in the sport, but that isn't quite what defines it. Allen, how do you see the sport now?
Allen Berg: Safety-wise there's a lot of things that prompted changes in Formula One after his death.
There were a lot of factors that happened that weekend. There was also the death of Roland Ratzenberger the day before. I think those were the first deaths in Formula One since 1986 when I was in F1. At that point, it was kind of a shock to everyone. It wasn't really ever thought that he would be one that would go.
It prompted a lot of changes in the design of the racecars: the cockpit sides were higher, they had implemented tethers on the wheel so the wheels couldn't fly off when there's an impact, the circuits were changed with more runoff, more gravel areas.
It all started with Formula One. But of course, it all filters down into the lower Formula car categories as well.
You said Senna and the way he raced influences how you teach racing and work with young racers. How?
Allen Berg: I had a chance to follow him a few times and he would just have the ability to be a little bit more sensitive to the vehicle dynamics and the handling of his car, and make small changes that, as an outsider, are imperceptible, but within the cockpit, you know.
When you're constantly driving a racecar [to] its limits, you're constantly correcting, and he had the ability to feel when the car started to slide from the front and from the back that was just a little bit more sensitive than mine.
Over time, I learned … one of the things that he was very good at was the use of his eyes, where he was looking down the road. That was one thing I didn't really learn until later on in life. It wasn't really taught at that time when I was in racing, an understanding of all these small nuances in motorsport and how it … can affect your performance.
I learned these things kind of after the fact, after speaking to him, watching some of his races, and incorporated some of these ideas — particularly about vision and focus — into our racing school to make our drivers better.
Alex, when's your next race?
Alex Berg: Don't know yet. Hopefully it will be next year in March racing in GB3, the British Formula Three Championship. Still putting together funds for that to return over to England next year.
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