Ayrton Senna: F1 Legend

Date of birth: 21 March 1960
Date of death: 1 May 1994 (aged 34)
Nationality: Brazilian
Active years: 1984–1994
Teams: Toleman, Lotus, McLaren, Williams
Races: 162 (161 starts)
Championships: 3 (1988, 1990, 1991)
Wins: 41
Podiums: 80
Career points: 614
Pole positions: 65
Fastest laps: 19
First race: 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win: 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix
Last win: 1993 Australian Grand Prix
Last race: 1994 San Marino Grand Prix

A Short History:

Ayrton Senna was born to drive. The son of Milton and Neyde da Silva made his way into the world on March 21 1970 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was an awkward child with a motor coordination problem. His father realizing that the boy had an interest in cars gave the four-year-old Ayrton a 1-hp kart. Behind the wheel, Ayrton became a different child, focused and skilled.

At eight years old Ayrton ‘borrowed’ the family car and although he could not reach the clutch pedal successfully drove the vehicle changing gear by listening to the engine for the correct time. At ten years of age, he was given a 100 cc kart in which he entered unofficial races. His first official kart race took place when he reached the minimum age of thirteen.

He loved racing. When, owing to rain, he lost a race he started practicing in wet conditions as often as possible. This skill would serve him well in the future.

In 1975, he won the junior class of the Itracolomy National championship as well as being the Sao Paulo state 100 cc champion. The following year he was the Sao Paulo state champion and won the three-hour kart race. Ayrton also won this three-hour race in the following three years. 1977 saw Ayrton becoming the South American kart champion. He was the Brazilian champion in 1978 and 1980 and reached second place in the South American championship in 1979.

Early Years:

By the time the 1984 F1 season started, Ayrton Senna now had a ride with Toleman-Hart and drove their turbo-charged car.  He never  won a race that year and did have an accident when he crashed his car during practice for the Detroit Grand Prix by hitting the wall near the pits.  He finished the season ranked 8th with 13 points.

The 1985 season started and Ayrton Senna managed to lead in races at Imola, Monaco, Silverstone, Nurburgring, Detroit, Brands Hatch and Adelaide.  He finished the season with 38 points in 4th position.

1986 Season saw Ayrton fetch 8 Poles and win 2 races.  He ended up with 55 points in 4th position overall driving his Lotus-Renault.

In 1987, Arton drove his 99T amazingly in Detroit.  He finished the season with his Lotus-Honda at 57 points and 3rd overall.

The McLaren Years:

1988 had Senna winning his first Formula One World Championship in his McLaren-Honda.  He had 94 points in total.

1989 and Ayrton Senna finishes 2nd overall due to a few mechanical failures at Montreal, Paul Ricard, Monza and Phoenix and some driving errors of his own doing in a few other races. This was also the year of the famous clash with Nigel Mansell in Estoril, Portugal which saw them both crash off the circuit and out of the race.  He also drove a wonderful race in the wet at Montreal, Spa and Adelaide although he was taken out due to mechanical failure in Montreal.  His Marlboro-McLaren-Honda gave him 60 points for the season.

1990 once again had Ayrton becoming World Champion with 78 points in his Marlboro-McLaren-Honda.

In 1991, Ayrton became the World Driving Champion for the third and last time of his career.  Senna won the first 4 races of the season in his McLaren MP4/6 and Mansellt's Williams FW14 Renault was to late catch up and win the championship.  Ayrton won with a failed gear-box at Interlagos in the rain.  He won again at the Hungaroring and came 3rd in Mexico.  He also later that year admitted openly that he had contributed to the 1st corner shunt at Suzuka in 1990 and it sort of made his World Championship for that year not so valued anymore.  He finished the season with 96 points in his Marlboro-McLaren-Honda.

1992 had Senna finishing 4th overall and his McLaren MP/6 crashed hard in practice at Mexico City only bruising his legs. He stopped for tyres 4 times in the race at Estoril this year.  He drove the car to a total of 50 points.

1993 was Ayrton Senna's last full season in Formula One and he ended runner-up in  the World Championship for the last time in his career.  He won at Interlagos, Suzuka and Donnington Park all in the wet and won in Adelaide.  He spun at Hockenheim on the first corner in the opening lap and also pushed his McLaren MP4/8 into the back of Martin Brundle's Ligier putting Martin off the road.  Ayrton Senna was now getting $1 million per race on a race by race agreement with McLaren but the outcome was #1.  He also decked Eddie Irvine after the race in Suzuka for a confrontation on the race track during the Japanese Grand Prix.  73 Points were had by Senna this season.
 

1n 1994 Ayrton Senna joined team mate Damon Hill at Williams.  He accomplished Pole Position in Brazil, Pacific and the San Marino Grands Prix.  Then came that horrible day in San Marino during the Formula One race......

 Ayrton Senna's Death:

San Marino 1994 was perhaps one of the worst races in Formula One history, in terms of safety. On the Friday afternoon, Senna’s protégé Rubens Barrichello suffered a violent crash into the tyres at Variante Bassa, causing him to swallow his tongue, and breaking his arm and nose in the process, ruling him out of the race.

Things did not improve on the Saturday. During Qualifying, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed after the front wing of his Simtek-Ford failed as he was going flat out at the Villeneuve left-hander, ending up in the concrete wall.

Senna was concerned about the safety at the track and at other Grands Prix, and spent his final morning talking with fellow drivers about how their safety could be improved. Senna took it upon himself to instigate the setting up of the Grand Prix Driver’s Association, proffering himself as leader.

Despite their concerns with regard to safety, the drivers all agreed to start the race on the Sunday. But their concerns were vilified it seems. There was a huge accident on the start line, JJ Lehto’s Benetton-Ford stalled at the lights, and an unsighted Pedro Lamy in his Lotus-Mugen Honda collided with Lehto’s car at full speed.

Disturbingly, a wheel from Lamy’s car was propelled into the grandstand, causing injury to eight spectators and a Police officer. The race was not stopped, but was run under the control of a Safety Car.

As the Safety Car peeled off, the race re-started and Senna was showing fantastic pace, setting the third fastest lap of the race, closely followed by Schumacher. On the next lap, Senna went into the high-speed Tamburello corner and his car left the track, colliding with the concrete retaining wall at around 135 mph.

The medical team managed to remove Senna from the wreckage, and began to treat him next to the wreck before an airlift could be arranged. Unfortunately, Ayrton Senna was declared dead a little later at the Bologna hospital he had been taken to.

The right front wheel of Senna’s car catapulted up and entered the cockpit of the car, the debris impacting the right frontal area of Senna’s helmet above his right eye, killing him almost instantly.

Upon further investigation of the wreckage, Senna was concealing an Austrian flag in the cockpit of the car that he had planned to unfurl on the podium after winning the race, paying homage to his fellow racer Ratzenberger.

I suppose that was the true measure of the man, the legend that he already was, thinking of someone else before himself. Who would know what he could have achieved, had he continued racing. Unfortunately, we will never know.

A true legend was taken from us on that day, someone who would more than likely have shaped the world of Formula One as we know it today, had he still been here. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to have shed a tear watching that race on that fateful day.

Quotes about or by Ayrton:

"On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit.' As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and your experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna

"Wealthy men can't live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance." - Ayrton Senna

"You will never know the feeling of a driver when winning a race. The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood." - Ayrton Senna

"Ayrton has a small problem. He thinks he can't kill himself because he believes in God, and I think that is very dangerous for the other drivers." - Alain Prost

"He was the best driver who ever lived." - Niki Lauda

"Ayrton Senna was an extraordinary racing driver. His skills, craft, subtlety and courage were of such magnitude that he dwarfed his generation of drivers." - Ron Dennis

"I was proud to compete against him. Professionally, he was the only driver I respected. In Senna's honour, I will never sit in a Formula One car again." - Alain Prost (Senna's team mate and rival)