Senna's magic track technique SHOULDN'T work

Опубликовано 26 февраля 2026, 18:00

The mystery of how F1 legend Ayrton Senna drove like he did endures to this day, 32 years after his tragic death. And today, we’re putting his most debated technique to the test in the only car that makes sense: a 1991 Acura NSX.

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Senna’s legacy as one of the greatest Formula 1 racers of all time is undeniable: Three world championships, 65 pole positions, 41 Grand Prix wins. That he did it in an era where F1 cars were still these raw, barely controllable machines with traditional stick-shift transmissions is even more incredible. And so is the fact that he used a special technique that most pro drivers would tell you shouldn’t work. But for Senna, it did.

When you’re driving through a corner, logic says you want to be smooth on the throttle to avoid upsetting the balance of the car. We made a whole video on that very principle. But Senna didn’t do that; instead, he’d stab wildly, almost chaotically, at the gas pedal right at the moment where doing so should send the car spinning off track. You can see this in action in endless archival footage of his F1 races, and most famously, a hot lap around Suzuka in a 1991 NSX, where the pedal cam showed his loafer-clad feet dancing away.

Plenty of smart people have analyzed this technique over the years, landing on a few different theories. One, Senna’s abrupt inputs were intended to test tire grip in a way few people can perceive. Two, he somehow found a counterintuitive way to fight understeer that few others could manage. And three, it was his special method for maintaining a higher speed through a corner if he braked too early.

How did he figure it out? One popular idea is that it was a holdover from his early days in go-karts, which have a much more binary “on/off” throttle that requires this kind of footwork. But let’s be real: a driver like Senna didn’t get where he did by nursing a bad habit. We think the real answer is that he was able to make those kinds of inputs, read how the car was responding, and make adjustments in the blink of an eye, faster than anyone else before or since. A human traction control system, if you will.

Sadly, he’s not around today to give us the answers we seek. That’s why we decided to put Nik in a 1991 NSX (and made him wear socks and loafers) on track to see if he can even come close to replicating Senna’s mastery of driving and car control. We’ll be honest: we didn’t expect this to work. But as you’ll see, there’s something special going on here.

Huge thanks to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway for hosting us, and Honda for once again letting us pull a museum piece out of the American Honda Collection Hall to thrash for one incredible day.

Produced by → instagram.com/joeyrassool
Hosted by → instagram.com/nikromanoracing
Hosted by → instagram.com/kylecheromcha

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0:00 Senna's big mystery
1:08 Theory 1: Testing grip
6:31 Theory 2: Finding balance
12:23 Theory 3: Maintain speed
18:22 Does it work?