Ayrton Senna – The Legend
The 1st of May marked the 15th death anniversay of the legendary Brazilian Formula 1 driver, Ayrton Senna. Senna passed away after crashing in the opening laps of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix while he was in the lead. Widely regarded as the best driver in the formula 1 history, Senna graced the sport between 1984 and 1994.
Ayrton Senna da Silva was born into a wealthy Brazilian family on the 21st of
March, 1960. He stepped into his first go-kart at the tender age of 4, after his sister had rejected the kart as a gift. The moment he started racing, his talent was there for everyone to see. He won the first karting race he took part in. At 17, he won the South American Kart Championship. In 1979 and 1980, he was runner-up in the Karting World Championships after which he moved from his native Brazil to Britain. He gradually moved up the ranks and won the British Formula 3 championship in 1983. He thus, caught the eye of many formula 1 teams and tested for McLaren, Williams, Brabham and Toleman. During the test for Williams, Senna took the car around the Donington Park circuit faster than their regular drivers(including reigning world champion Keke Rosberg). However, for various reasons, he couldn’t get a drive for McLaren, Williams or Brabham and had to be content with the midfield Toleman.
He scored his first point in his second race, the South African Grand Prix. But, the highlight of his first season in Formula 1 came in the rain-hit Monaco Grand Prix(a race he went on to win a record 6 times). The race had to be stopped after 31 laps and in those 31 laps, Senna moved up from 13th to 2nd, and was closing in on race leader Alain Prost at an alarming pace. The race also marked the start of a famous rivalry between the two champion drivers. Senna ended the season 9th, but was suspended by Toleman for that season’s Italian Grand Prix for being in breach of his contract as he had signed for Lotus for 1985 without informing Toleman first. This was another beginning of the love affair between Ayrton Senna and controversy.
Senna stayed at Lotus from 1985 to 1987. He took his first pole and his first
victory with the Lotus. But relations with his team-mate Elio de Angelis soured over the season, which resulted in de Angelis leaving the team for Brabham at the end of the season. Senna finished the season in 4th and de Angelis at 5th, the two separated by 5 points. However, in terms of qualifying, Senna had begun to establish himself as the quickest in the field winning seven poles over the season – the most by any driver. The 1986 season saw a new team-mate for Senna in Johnny Dumfries after Senna vetoed Derek Warwick from joining the team, saying that Lotus were not able to run competitive cars for two top drivers at the same time. As Senna himself said, this incident affected his relation with Derek. Although the season started well for Senna, relaibility issues for the Lotus car saw him drift behind the Williams pairing of Nigell Mansell and Nelson Piquet, as well as the eventual champion, Alain Prost. Thus, he again finished the season in the 4th place. However, Senna continued to be the top qualifier with 8 pole positions.
In 1987, the Lotus had a new engine deal with the Hondas and Senna had a new team-mate in the 34 year-old Japanese driver, Satoru Nakajima. The season again started well for Senna with a podium finish in the first race. However, at the Belgiun Grand Prix, he collided with Mansell and was confronted by the angered Englishman in the pits afterwards. Senna then won two races in a row, but the Williams cars domination was made obvious at the British Grand Prix where Mansell and Piquet lapped the Lotuses of Senna and Nakajima. Senna soon became dissatisfied with his chances at Lotus and later it was announced that next season, he would be moving to McLaren. Thus, in 1988, Senna joined McLaren with the approval of McLaren’s number one driver and then-double world champion, Alain Prost. The racing world was to see a number of dramatic racing incidents between the two champions over the next 5 years.
The 1988 season saw a total domination by the McLaren pair. The pair won 15 of the 16 races in the McLaren MP4/4 with Senna coming out on top taking 8 wins to Prost’s 7. He thus won his first World Championship. At the year’s Portuguese Grand Prix however, Senna came under a lot of flack from Prost. After trading positions a few times over the opening lap, Senna swerved to block Prost, forcing the Frenchman nearly to run into the pitwall at 180 mph. Senna got away with a warning from the FIA and even apologized to Prost after the race. The following year saw the batle between the two intensify. Senna took an early lead by winning three of the first four races but reliability issues and some non-finishes swung the title in Prost’s favour. In the crucial Japanese Grand Prix, which Senna needed to win to seal the championship, there was an accident involving the McLaren team-mates. Senna had attempted an inside pass on Prost who turned-in and cut him off resulting in both the McLarens in the Suzuka chicane escape road. Senna then got a push start from the marshals, pitted to replace his nose and then went on to win the race only to see himself disqualified for cutting the chicane after the collision, and for crossing into the pit lane entry (not part of the track). He was also slapped with a large fine and temporary suspension of his Super License. Senna was infuriated and was later involved in a war of words with the then FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre. Senna, thus ended the season in 2nd place with 6 wins and one 2nd place.
Meanwhile Ayrton Senna was growing into a cult figure. It was for the first
time that the racing world was seeing a person who simply loved putting his life on the line. Intensely introspective and passionate in the extreme, Ayrton Senna endlessly sought to extend his limits, to go faster than himself, a quest that ultimately made him a martyr but did not diminish his mystique. Alain Prost once famously stated about Senna that ‘he cared more about winning than living’. But Senna was a person who understood what he was doing. In a press conference, he once said “You are doing something that nobody else is able to do. (But) the same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile. Because in a split second, it could be gone”. He drove like a man possessed – some thought by demons. His ruthless ambition provoked condemnation from critics. But, there was no denying the fact that the man was a genius. Ayrton Senna could stretch his car to phenomenal levels of performance, which even it’s designers woudn’t have thought possible. But beyond his driving genius Senna was one of the sport’s most compelling personalities. In his press conferences you could hear a pin drop as he spoke with such hypnotic effect. Everyone marvelled at how he put so much of himself, his very soul, into everything he did, not just his driving but into life itself. Behind the wheel, the depth of his commitment was there for all to see and the thrilling spectacle of Senna on an all-out qualifying lap or a relentless charge through the field evoked an uneasy combination of both admiration for his superlative skill and fear for his future.
The following year, Prost moved to Ferrari and Senna became the undisputed lead driver at McLaren. The 1990 championship again saw Senna take a commanding lead in the beginning with 6 wins, two 2nd places and three 3rds. However, Prost soon warmed-up to the challenge with 5 wins and the gap between Senna and Prost was now reduced to 11 points with 2 races to go. It was again the Japanese Grand Prix which played the stage for the two drivers to go at each other for the championship. Senna took pole ahead of Prost. At the first turn, Senna aggressively kept his line while Prost turned-in. The McLaren and the Ferrari ended-up outside the track, but this time handing the championship to Senna.
In 1991, Senna won his third championship, this time staying largely clear of controversy. With a downturn in performance at Ferrari, Prost was no longer a serious competitor. By mid-season, Nigell Mansell in his Williams-Renault was able to put up a serious challenge. With the Williams car making rapid progress, Senna insisted that Honda step-up their engine development programme. Thanks to Senna’s consistency and the William’s unreliability, he eventually won the season at the Japanese Grand Prix(again). The 1992 season, however, saw the McLaren car falling behind the compaetition. The Williams all-conquering FW14B car was setting the pace. Moreover, Senna’s McLaren car had several shortcomings. That season, he finished 4th behind the Williams duo of Mansell and Patrese, and a so-called Michael Schumacher in his Benetton.
For the 1993 season, Senna did not have a contract with any team. He felt the McLaren was no longer competitive enough, especially with the Hondas bowing out of F1 at the end of the 1992 season. Prost had secured a drive for the Williams but he also had a clause on his contract vetoing Senna as a team-mate. Senna was desperate for a drive with the Williams team and even offered to drive for them for free. An infuriated Senna later called Prost a coward in a press conference. Finally, Senna had to continue driving for the McLaren, which was now powered by a Ford engine. However, Senna declined to sign a one-year contract but agreed to drive on a race-by-race basis, eventually staying for the year. The next year, Senna finally got to drive the Williams as Prost’s no-Senna clause didn’t extend to 1994. However, this led to Prost’s retirement from the sport with one year left in his contract with Williams.
When Senna joined Williams for the 1994 season, his position as the king of F1 was unquestioned. The team had dominated F1 in 1992 and ’93, and the season was expected to be a cake-walk for Senna. However, with the FIA banning driver aids, such as active suspension, traction control and ABS (to make the sport more ‘human’) the FW16 exhibited none of the superiority the FW15C and FW14B cars that had preceded it. The new Williams car was quick but it was difficult to drive. Surprisingly, the Benetton car driven by Michael Schumacher, although less powerful, looked very good in pre-season testing.
In what was to be Senna’s last season in Formula 1, he got off to his worst start ever. The man’s genius again put his ill-handling Williams on pole in the season-opening race in Brazil. During the race, he lost the lead to Michael Schumacher in the pits. Not willing to settle for 2nd, Senna set-off in hot pursuit, pushed too hard, spun the car, stalling it and retiring from the race. The whole world was waiting to see one of F1′s greatest rivalries – the young pretender challenging the supremacy of the veteran master, who was determined to hang on to his position. The second race was the Pacific Grand Prix, where Senna was on pole again, but he was hit from behind by Mika Hakkinen and his race came to an end.
Going into the fateful San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Senna was trailing Schumacher by 20 points. Before the race weekend, Senna declared this was where his season would begin and that he had fourteen races, as opposed to sixteen, to win the driver’s title. On Friday, during afternoon qualifying, Senna’s protégé, the then F1 newcomer Rubens Barrichello suffered a heavy accident which would take him out from the race. Saturday saw Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger killed in an accident. These events had a deep impact on Senna and he tried convincing fellow drivers on the importance of forming a Drivers’ Safety group, to increase the safety in the sport.
“I want to live fully, very intensely. I would never want to live partially, suffering from illness or injury. If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs my life, I hope it happens in one instant.” And so it did on May 1, 1994 when his race leading Williams inexplicably smeared out of control at the high-speed Tamburello corner. Senna hit the concrete retaining wall at around 135 mph. Millions of shocked Senna fanatics watched it live on television. Many Brazilians considerd it a national tragedy and the Brazilian government declared three days of national mourning.
Senna’s state funeral took place in Sao Paulo and was attended by many members of the shocked Formula One community. Among the several drivers escorting the coffin was Alain Prost. One among the sad mourners was Frank Williams, who said: “Ayrton was no ordinary person. He was actually a greater man out of the car than in it.” The last friday marked the 15th year since Ayrton Senna da Silva left us. But his legend lives-on.
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