Senna review: Spectacularly silly, Netflix’s big-budget mini-series is the cinematic equivalent of a flat tyre

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Gabriel Leone in a still from Netflix’s Senna.

With the unshakeable support of his parents, a teenage Ayrton is sent away to the United Kingdom, where he makes waves in the Formula Ford circuit and catches the attention of F1 ‘principals’. He is immediately hired by a team called Toleman, where he scores several podiums in his debut season. The storytelling in first couple of episodes isn’t economical, it’s indisciplined. The writers appear to be rushing through the beats, without bothering to linger on moments of emotional resonance. Not that there are too many to begin with. For instance, Ayrton’s childhood sweetheart is introduced and dispensed with in about half an hour. During this time, they get married and divorced. Forget examining the psychological impact that this had on Ayrton, the show appears to view this chapter in his life as little more than a speed bump.

Netflix’s international programming has been thriving; there are enough examples of crossover hits to suggest that the streamer knows what it’s doing by letting local-language creators operate with relative freedom. But the writing in Senna is so juvenile that a simple interaction can often feel like watching two people from different countries conversing via Google Translate. Every character, including Aryton himself, speaks in exposition. “That bloody idiot’s going over 100 miles per hour on a track he doesn’t know!” one character declares during a dangerous race. “You are the fastest driver in the history of Formula One,” another character tells Ayrton to his face. Most hilariously, a woman that he hooks up with after his divorce gets out of bed, gazes into the distance, and says, “Down there, three out of three people think they’re royalty. To claim your place here, you have to act like a king.” There is a clap of thunder, and Ayrton replies, “I think it’s going to rain.” He doesn’t mean it metaphorically.

It’s painful to watch. And it doesn’t get any better as it goes along. If anything, show runner Vicente Amorim doubles down on this style as Ayrton’s personal life takes a back seat over his professional achievements. The racer’s fans would already be familiar with the highlights of his career, and the show checks off each event with a robotic diligence. We witness his exceptional driving skills during rainy weather in Portugal; we watch as he pushes his McLaren to the limits in Monaco; and we automatically take his side when a rivalry emerges between him and his teammate, Alain Prost. The Frenchman’s sole purpose, it seems, is to silently glare at Ayrton at different settings, and then to complain about him to the chief of the FISA, Jean-Marie Balestre.

These characters are entirely two-dimensional. Prost wants to defeat him on the track, Balestre wants to end his career off it. They do what they do because the show needs them to do it, not because they have any personal motivation to bring him down. There is shockingly little on the page here, and one wonders how something as by-the-numbers as this was green-lit in the first place. It would be unfair to blame the actors; even Daniel Day-Lewis would’ve struggled to polish this material. Leone was set up to fail. He delivers every line with the same earnest optimism, like a child begging their mother to be allowed an extra hour outside.

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The racing sequences in Senna are the highlight.

Perhaps Netflix watched some pre-viz footage of the racing sequences? Heavily inspired by the stylised action in Ron Howard’s Rush, the races in Senna are nearly able rescue the show, but not quite. They’re dynamic, exciting, and unlike the rest of the series, easy to follow. The editing is melodic, the cinematography is evocative. You actually care about the outcome. It’s as if an entirely different team of filmmakers was responsible for the action, which swerves between practical and computer-generated with surprising smoothness. Had the drama around these sequences been even a fraction more engaging, Senna would’ve deserved a recommendation. But as it stands, it’s among the worst high-profile Netflix shows of the year.

Senna
Showrunner – Vicente Amorim
Cast – Gabriel Leone, Kaya Scodelario, Susana Ribeiro, Marco Ricca, Patrick Kennedy, Matt Mella
Rating – 1.5/5