Was he that good, or was it just the cars?

Not sure, but I loved Ayrton Senna Super Monaco II on the Sega Genesis.

He was that good.

That first lap at the European Grand Prix at Donnington in 1993 is forever etched in my memory. Qualifying 4th, he was then relegated into 5th place by Karl Wendlinger but was leading by the time they started the second lap. I think he ended up lapping the whole field.

Plus, in the same season at Suzuka he punched Eddie Irvine post-race. Bravo!

Senna was brilliant, but his premature death has inevitably polished his reputation even more.

It's worth remembering that in the two years when Senna and Alain Prost were on the same McLaren team (and therefore driving the same cars), they claimed one world championship each.

His death and Hillsborough are the only two times I've seen my dad be visibly emotional.

Looking back, he was probably the last of the super-talented drivers to not get drawn into the whole 'media celebrity/circus' thing.

I don't know if this is just the fault of the media coverage over here, but I suspect it's actually that F1 and the FIA changed the hype machine up a gear in the years following Senna's death. I think the timing of that was coincidental, but I doubt if we'll ever see such a talented world champion who is so private again.

And yes, he was very, very good. Maybe not Schumacher good (curse him!) but I feel that if they had raced contemporarily to each other, they would have split the championships between them, with Schumacher winning the majority.