“The Immolated Icon” by Lionel Froissart

The golden age of Formula 1 and the tragic death of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, on May 1, 1994, 30 years ago, on the Imola circuit, died at the wheel of his car, in Italy. In “L’icon immolée” published by Editions en exergue, collection the night before, Lionel Froissart evokes with emotion this cursed weekend for Formula 1.

This morning we are in the head of a Formula 1 icon, with The immolated icon by Lionel Froissart. The immolated icon is the Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, who died at the wheel of his Williams on the Imola circuit, in Italy, on May 1, 1994. A cursed weekend for Formula 1, since the day before, Roland Ratzenberger had also died on this track, at the wheel of his modest Simtek. Rubens Barrichello, he too, had been in an accident the day before, but had escaped miraculously. And Lionel Froissart takes us into the mind of the champion in full doubt, at the start of the world championship.

Senna doesn’t like his car, and the death of Ratzenberger plunges him into a sort of melancholy, to the point where he questions his participation in this Grand Prix. A long night of memories begins, more or less happy. His beginnings, his first exploits, his relationships with other drivers, his friendships, notably that with Alain Prost, not very obvious from the outside, his enmities too, and his religious fervor, his fears and his unwavering passion for motorsport . With his almost frightening moments of grace behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, when he performs perfect laps, almost in a daze.

Senna is a complete being, incapable or almost incapable of compromise. And it is this Senna, also moving in the sad look of the last hours before his death, and even on the starting grid of his last race, that Lionel Froissart introduces us to.

The author takes us into the head of Ayrton Senna

And it is a feat that he achieves, and it is the exercise proposed by this publishing house which wants that. In this collection, the night before, David Rochefort had taken an interest in the tennis champion Monica Seles, world number 1 before turning 18, victim of a fatal knife attack during a match in Hamburg, in 1993. Fred Poulet told us about Marco Pantani’s victory, one of the greatest cyclists in the history of this sport, and his meteoric ascent of Alpe d’Huez, during the Tour de France, on July 19, 1997. Marco Pantani died of drugs in a hotel in Rimini on the Adriatic coast.

Each time, first person stories, therefore embodied, and at the same time very documented. For The immolated iconLionel Froissart had to search through his memories as a journalist, who followed Formula 1 for the newspaper Release Or Sports Auto for decades. He knows everything about this golden age of Formula 1, where we had barely left the era of English gentlemen drivers.

But above all, Lionel Froissart was close to Senna. Having Ayrton Senna speak in the first person with emotion, and being in the champion’s head that day, therefore seems to have been perfectly clear for him.