If you’re looking for someone inspirational to compare to Ayrton Senna, you’d be right to look at heroes beyond the track. Costume designer Cristina Kangussu, who designed the Brazilian racer’s wardrobe in the upcoming Netflix series "Senna," had one larger-than-life man in mind. “I like to make an analogy: that in his private life he was Clark Kent and in his public life, with those uniforms and power, he was Superman."
The three-time world champion was a ruthless competitor, becoming a legend of the sport before his untimely death at the age of 34, and leaving a legacy that’s felt to this day. With the help of Ayrton Senna’s living relatives, a team of filmmakers faced the all-consuming challenge of bringing his life — both on and off the track — to the small screen. No detail was spared, from the engines that roared to the painstaking reproduction of every race suit on the grid.
Kangussu spent an entire year immersed in the sport. “What was [the] hardest to find images of were the uniforms of all the teams present at all the races, from all eras,” she explained. “We had a commitment to reproduce all the uniforms as they really were, not only of the drivers, but also of the team members, and they were always changing because of the sponsors.” Kangussu’s team conducted extensive research, combing through historical archives, and consulting with the members of Senna's family tasked with upholding the athlete's legacy. “I personally had one encounter at the beginning of production with Vivianne, Senna's sister, and Bianca, his niece, to show some of the costumes and have their inputs,” she said. “According to them, they were all very real.”
Meanwhile, production designer Frederico Pinto was having conversations with Senna’s family members about bringing the Brazilian legend’s entire world to life on screen. He dug through historical footage, photos, and FIA files, along with newspapers and magazines of the time. “We surrounded ourselves with research to portray this time, ensuring that our entire team was on the same historical page,” Pinto explained.
His team was tasked with transforming just a handful of tracks into almost 20 different circuits, from Japan’s Suzuka to Monza in Italy. “We visited more than a dozen race tracks in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in search of the perfect curves and straights to replicate real circuits,” Pinto said. “On many occasions we filmed the same circuit in two different countries. It was a great team effort between the direction, art, photography and VFX departments, as well as rigorous decoupage of each scene to put together this great puzzle."
The Monaco Grand Prix, raced on the streets of Monte Carlo — where Senna claimed victory six times — was one of the biggest challenges to recreate. “It’s a street circuit known for its tight curves surrounded by the iconic buildings. It’s also the most anticipated race in F1, due to the emotion and glamour of the entire event,” he said. Even more challenging to recreate were the F3 tracks of his earlier years, as fewer records were available to reference.
"What was really fundamental to punctuate the era changes was the evolution of the cars and the great work of props and dressing for the reconstruction of each team from the pit wall to the pits according to each era. All of this was essential to recreate each period, showing the glamour, boldness and emotion of this effervescent and colorful sport.”
The cars behind the legendary three-time world champion's career proved just as complicated to replicate, and make functional. Designers were not provided any access to the original designs. “The details were extreme,” Pinto said. "All research was carried out using photos, replicas of authorized miniatures from the teams and visits to car collectors ... We also had to reproduce countless technical and period-specific equipment to capture the richness of F1.” And even when pieces of technology eluded them — like a mysterious machine on the pit wall that appeared in several photos at the time — Pinto's team chose to faithfully replicate it without knowing its function. “We sent numerous emails to specialists to understand the functionality of the object, but we did not receive a satisfactory response. Even so, we decided to reproduce it on stage, as we thought its presence was important,” Pinto said.
One of the most important details to fans though, was in the hands of sound designer Gabriel Gutierrez, who embarked on a year-and-a-half-long quest to recreate the unmistakable roar of the '80s and '90s F1 engines. “There were no valid sound recordings of the races during shooting, so all the sound needed to be created from scratch,” he said. The team scoured the planet in search of the cars that powered Senna to victory, eventually getting their hands on a McLaren MP4/7, along with Coleman and Lotus models.
“We mastered all of the sound recordings with analogue tools, instead of digital, in order to generate a warmer sound, similar to what would be heard [at] the track, and broadcasted in the period,” he said. “It's very iconic. Fans always describe the sound in that era as extreme."
Senna's career will literally roar to life on screen when the six-episode series arrives on Netflix November 29.
