Ayrton Senna

1960–⁠1994

Contents

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Part One · The Life

  1. IBeco
  2. IIThe kart
  3. IIIEngland
  4. IVThe seasons
  5. VImola
  6. VIFarewell

Part Two · The Man

  1. VIIRivals
  2. Senna and Prost
  3. VIIIIn his words
  4. What they said
  5. IXMind and faith
  6. XSenna and Brazil
  7. XIThe machines
  8. The helmet
  9. XIIThe people around him
  10. XIIIAway from the circuit

Part Three · Legacy

  1. XIVLegacy

The seasons

Reference
Ayrton Senna in close portrait at 26: tousled dark hair, a level gaze straight into the lens, the collar of his racing overalls open at the neck.

An independent tribute

Ayrton Senna

São Paulo  Monaco  Suzuka  Imola

A boy in a home-made kart on a São Paulo street became a three-times world champion. This is his life, in pictures, in races and in his own words.

Begin

Cover: FORTEPAN / Urbán Tamás · CC BY-⁠SA 3.0

I am intense about everything I do. I have an attitude about life that I go deeply into it and concentrate and try to do everything properly. It’s part of my personality.

Ayrton Senna interview with Gerald Donaldson, 1990

Introduction

A man in a ‘Nacional’ cap and racing overalls glances back over his shoulder at the camera with a small, knowing smile, spectators blurred behind a fence.
At Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, July 1993, in the last of his six seasons with McLaren. Martin Lee · CC BY-⁠SA 2.0

The whole man

He was about four when he first drove, on an unpaved street in the Santana district of northern São Paulo, in a little kart built for him at his father’s metalworks. The family called him Beco. At 13, the youngest age allowed, he won his first official race, at the kart track beside Interlagos, and he raced karts for nine more years: champion of South America, twice champion of Brazil, twice runner-up in the Karting World Championship and never its winner.

In 1981, aged 20 and newly married, he went to England, and in his first season in cars he won both the Formula Ford 1600 championships he entered. Then he gave up racing and went home to join his father’s business; within months he was back. Somewhere in the next two seasons he stopped racing as da Silva, a name as common in Brazil as Smith is in Britain, and took his mother’s: Senna. In 1982 he won 22 races and two Formula Ford 2000 titles. In 1983 he won the British Formula 3 Championship after a summer-long fight with Martin Brundle, and that November the Macau Grand Prix, the first held for Formula 3 cars.

His first Grand Prix was in Brazil, at Jacarepaguá, in March 1984, in a Toleman; his last, in a Williams, was at Imola, in the San Marino Grand Prix of May 1994. Between them came three seasons with Lotus and six with McLaren, and three world championships, in 1988, 1990 and 1991, each of them settled at Suzuka.

When Denis Jenkinson of Motor Sport asked him in 1989 how he approached a qualifying lap, he tapped his forehead. At Toleman, before cars carried data recorders, his engineer found that he could recall every lap afterwards, even the engine revs out of every corner; at McLaren a debrief could run for two hours, setting by setting, corner by corner. Jenkinson noticed that where onlookers measured the gap to the car in front in seconds, he measured it in distance.

He could be ruthless. At Suzuka in 1990, with the title in reach, he drove into Alain Prost’s Ferrari at the first corner, and a year later he admitted that he had lined up intending to do it if Prost got away first. He could be generous. At Spa in 1992 he stopped his McLaren in practice and ran across the track to Érik Comas, unconscious in his Ligier, switched off its engine and held his head until the doctors came; Comas later credited him with saving his life. The people around him saw both sides.

He was a believer. Brought up a Catholic, he came back to his faith, he said, after a crisis that reached its peak at Monaco in 1988, and a Bible travelled with him in the small case he kept at his side. Of the last lap at Suzuka that October, the lap that made him champion, he said: “I saw God”.

Six months after Imola, in November 1994, his sister, Viviane, founded the Instituto Ayrton Senna, to do what he had asked of her for the children of Brazil, and it is still at work in the country’s schools. Polled by Autosport in 2009, 217 Formula One drivers voted him the greatest of them all.

The numbers

World Championships
3
1988 · 1990 · 1991

The record

Grand Prix wins
41
Pole positions
65
The record until 2006
Podiums
80
Grands Prix started
161
Monaco Grand Prix wins
6
1987 and 1989–⁠1993, a record
Every win and every pole

A life in brief

1960–⁠1994

  1. Ayrton Senna da Silva is born in São Paulo, the second child of Milton da Silva and Neyde Senna.

  2. Aged about four, he is given a small kart built by his father’s business.

  3. First official kart race, at the Interlagos kart track, aged 13. He wins.

  4. Wins the RAC and Townsend Thoresen FF1600 championships: 12 wins from 20 starts (and five seconds, a third, a fourth and a fifth).

  5. Formula Ford 2000 with Rushen Green Racing: 22 wins; champion of both the British (Pace) and European (EFDA) series.

  6. Wins the final round at Thruxton to take the British F3 title: 12 wins, 132 points, against Brundle’s 123.

  7. Wins the Macau Grand Prix, the first held for Formula 3 cars, winning both 15-lap legs.

  8. F1 debut, Brazilian Grand Prix at Jacarepaguá. Toleman TG183B-⁠Hart, no. 19. Starts 16th; retires on lap 8 with turbo failure.

  9. Monaco Grand Prix: 2nd in heavy rain, in a race stopped after 31 laps (half points: 3). Fastest lap. First podium.

  10. First pole and first win, Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril, in heavy rain. Fastest lap and every lap led: a grand chelem.

  11. Wins the Detroit Grand Prix from pole, and carries a Brazilian flag on his lap of honour.

  12. First Monaco win, and the first Grand Prix win for a car with computer-controlled active suspension.

  13. Monaco qualifying: pole in 1:23.998, 1.427 seconds faster than Prost.

  14. First world title, at the Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka: he bogs down at the start from pole, is 14th at the first corner, and wins.

  15. Suzuka: collides with Prost at the chicane, rejoins, wins on the road and is disqualified.

  16. Second world title: at the first corner at Suzuka he collides with Prost, now at Ferrari.

  17. First home win, at Interlagos, with his gearbox stuck in sixth for the closing laps.

  18. Third world title, at Suzuka, after Mansell spins off; Senna finishes 2nd behind Berger.

  19. European Grand Prix, Donington Park: from 4th on the grid, he leads by the end of lap 1 and wins on a wet and drying track.

  20. Sixth Monaco win, breaking Graham Hill’s record of five.

  21. 41st and last win, Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide: his last race for McLaren and Prost’s last Grand Prix. McLaren’s 104th win moves them past Ferrari’s record.

  22. Williams debut, Interlagos: pole. He spins out on lap 56 while chasing Michael Schumacher.

  23. The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola: leading on lap 7, he goes off at Tamburello. His death is announced that evening in Bologna.

  24. State funeral, with the honours of a head of state. Former and current drivers help to carry the coffin; the air force display team draws in smoke over the cortège; burial in the Cemitério do Morumby.

  25. Instituto Ayrton Senna is founded by Viviane Senna.

The whole life, date by date

The book

Contents

A lone kart rounds a bend edged with painted kerbs on a narrow track set in rough grass, with the tower blocks of a city on the horizon.
The kart track at Interlagos that bears his name, in about 2011. His first official race was run here, in 1973. RicardoSAPO · CC BY 3.0

IV · The seasons

Great drives

Three of the book’s six great drives, each told in full in its season

I

Monaco

 · Toleman TG184-⁠Hart

In pouring rain he climbed from 13th on the grid, passed Niki Lauda for 2nd on lap 19 and cut Prost’s lead by seconds a lap. Then the red flags came out: the result was taken at 31 laps, with the Toleman 7.4 seconds behind the McLaren. It was his first podium.

A narrow street circuit climbs between the ornate façades of grand hotels towards a glimpse of the sea, a single racing car rounding the bend between the barriers.
The climb past the Hôtel de Paris at Massenet, Monaco, in practice for the Grand Prix of 2016. Matthew Lamb · CC BY-⁠SA 2.0
Grid
13
Finish
2
The 1984 season

II

Estoril

 · Lotus 97T-⁠Renault

A roundabout garden with a small stone marker reading ‘Praça Ayrton Senna, 1960–1994’ and a tall abstract stone sculpture shaped like a looping S, the circuit’s long white grandstand behind.
Beside the main grandstand at Estoril, the Praça Ayrton Senna: a stone marker and a tall sculpture, photographed in 2020. GualdimG · CC BY-⁠SA 4.0
  • Pole in the dry
  • Victory in the rain
  • Every lap led

The Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, his second race for Lotus. The rain came just before the start and did not let up; Prost aquaplaned into the wall, and when Senna gestured to the officials to stop the race, the clerk of the course refused. After two hours and 67 laps only Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari was still on his lap, more than a minute behind.

The 1985 season
A pale McLaren numbered 8 corners on a wet track, the driver’s striped helmet sharp in the cockpit, a blurred hoarding with a large emblem behind.
In practice on a wet Donington Park, April 1993, in the McLaren MP4/8. Martin Lee · CC BY-⁠SA 2.0

VI

Donington Park

 · McLaren MP4/8-⁠Ford

Easter Day at Donington Park, where, nearly 10 years before, a test in a Williams had been his first drive in Formula One. From 4th on the grid, in a McLaren with a customer Ford engine, he was 5th into the first corner and led before the lap was done. Through the showers he changed tyres four times, and he won by 1 minute 23 seconds.

  1. 5Redgate, the first corner
  2. 4Schumacher, by the Craner Curves
  3. 3Wendlinger, round the outside
  4. 2Hill, at McLeans
  5. 1Prost, at the Melbourne Hairpin
The 1993 season

VII · Rivals

Senna & Prost

Three drivers in team overalls and caps spray champagne on a podium in front of sponsors’ boards; the youngest, at right, grins broadly with his bottle raised.
Prost, Niki Lauda and Senna spray the champagne at Zandvoort, 25 August 1985: Lauda had won, Senna was 3rd, and Prost would be champion that year. Fotopersbureau De Boer / Noord-Hollands Archief · CC0

Five years older and already a winner when Senna arrived, Prost was the rival he set out to beat. Team-mates at McLaren in 1988 and 1989, they settled two titles by colliding at Suzuka, and began to make peace on the podium at Adelaide in 1993, at Prost’s last race.

SennaProst
ChampionWorld title, 19882nd
2nd1989Champion
Champion19902nd
2nd1993Champion
Races won between them at McLaren, 1988–⁠1989
25 of 32

Ayrton represented more panache. I was the ‘Professor’, clinical. He was ‘mystic’ and people liked that.

Alain Prost, his McLaren team-mate, 1988–⁠89, and great rival interview with Damien Smith, Motor Sport, March 2024

There were others. Nigel Mansell fought him for eight seasons and lost to him by 0.014 seconds at Jerez in 1986 and by 0.215 at Monaco in 1992. Nelson Piquet, the other Brazilian champion of those years, was never a friend. And in 1994, Michael Schumacher won every race they started together.

A Williams rounds a curve with a second driver, in dark overalls and a pale helmet, sitting on its sidepod, a darker car following, a grandstand and trees beyond.
Silverstone, 14 July 1991: his McLaren out of fuel on the last lap of the British Grand Prix, Senna gets a lift back to the pits on Mansell’s Williams. Stavros1 · Public domain
The rivals

VIII · In his words

That day, I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving conscious. And I was in a different dimension, for me. The circuit for me was a tunnel, which I was just going, going, going. And I realize I was well beyond my conscious understanding.

Ayrton Senna filmed interview, recalling qualifying at Monaco in 1988
Seconds between his pole and Prost’s, Monaco, 1988
1.427
More of his words

What they said

Those who knew him

It’s the deepest personal relationship that I’ve ever had with any driver. Whenever I got to the circuit and ran into Senna, he was usually being interviewed or surrounded by people. And the moment he saw me, his face would always light up with a beautiful grin. Because he had that wonderful humility, which is not common amongst racing drivers.

Sid Watkins, F1’s medical delegate and his friend in the film Senna, 2010

Team-mates and rivals, the men who ran his cars and built his engines, his doctor and his family: what they said of him, warm and sharp, fills a chapter of its own. Here are four of them.

Close-up of a driver in a full-face helmet, visor raised so only his eyes and the bridge of his nose show; the car’s side carries part of the name ‘Gerh’.
Gerhard Berger in his Arrows at Zandvoort, August 1985. From 1990 to 1992 he was Senna’s team-mate at McLaren, and his friend. Fotopersbureau De Boer / Noord-Hollands Archief · CC0
A balding man in an open-necked shirt looks down, lips pressed together, leaves blurred beside him.
Ron Dennis, who ran McLaren, at Phoenix, March 1990. Stuart Seeger · CC BY 2.0
An elderly man with white hair and glasses, in a checked shirt, looks towards the camera in a room with lamps and plates on the wall.
Professor Sid Watkins, Formula One’s medical delegate and his friend, March 2012. Ben Sutherland · CC BY 2.0
A woman with a dark bob and large hoop earrings smiles as she speaks into a hand microphone.
His sister, Viviane Senna, at the Instituto Ayrton Senna, December 2011. Instituto Ayrton Senna · CC BY 2.0
All the voices

XI · The machines

Four teams, four engine makers

Toleman, Lotus, McLaren and Williams; Hart, Renault, Honda and Ford. From 1987 to 1992 there was a Honda behind him, and every one of his titles was won in a McLaren-Honda.

A white Toleman numbered 19, lettered ‘Candy’ and ‘Segafredo’, streaks past in a panning shot, the lorry and bank behind it a blur of speed.
A Toleman TG184-⁠Hart, the type in which he first finished on the podium, at Monaco in 1984, on Goodwood’s hill in June 2014. Nic Redhead · CC BY-⁠SA 2.0
First race
Toleman TG183B-⁠Hart
First win
Lotus 97T-⁠Renault
First title
McLaren MP4/4-⁠Honda
Second title
McLaren MP4/5B-⁠Honda
Third title
McLaren MP4/6-⁠Honda
Last win
McLaren MP4/8-⁠Ford
Last race
Williams FW16-⁠Renault
A pale McLaren numbered 12, ‘Shell’ and ‘Honda’ on its flanks, runs past the camera, its driver in a striped helmet, the background a blur.
Bruno Senna, Ayrton’s nephew, at the wheel of a McLaren MP4/4-⁠Honda, the car of the first title, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2009. Bahnfrend · CC BY-⁠SA 3.0
Every car he raced

The helmet

Close-up of a yellow racing helmet with a green band, its dark visor signed in white ink ‘Ayrton Senna 91’ beneath a blue band lettered ‘Honda’, with ‘Nacional’ across the chin.
One of his helmets, a Rheos, its visor signed Ayrton Senna 91, at the Honda F1 Exposition in Tokyo, March 2015. Morio · CC BY-⁠SA 3.0

In colour

A driver’s face

For the Karting World Championship of 1978 or 1979, Sid Mosca’s workshop in São Paulo painted one design for the whole Brazilian team: yellow, a green stripe above the visor and a blue one below.1 Senna asked to have it for himself alone. A helmet’s colours, Mosca used to say, are a driver’s face.

The story of the helmet

X · Senna and Brazil

The little flag

For 10 years Brazil rose early on race Sundays to watch him, through years of runaway inflation. From Detroit in 1986 he carried the flag on his slowing-down laps, and TV Globo played its victory theme for him 38 times, more than for anyone.

A small Brazilian flag on a thin staff, its green field, yellow diamond and starry blue globe bright against a clear blue sky.
The flag of Brazil against a clear sky, 2023. Chris Boland · Unsplash Licence
What he meant to Brazil

V · Imola

He reached Imola with no points from two races in the Williams. On the Friday Rubens Barrichello was hurt in a heavy crash in qualifying; on the Saturday Roland Ratzenberger was killed. On the Sunday, from pole, Senna led. At the start of the seventh lap, at about 14:17, his car went straight on at Tamburello and hit the concrete wall. He was flown to the Ospedale Maggiore in Bologna, and that evening his death was announced there. He was 34.

Four days later he was given a state funeral in São Paulo and buried in the Cemitério do Morumby.

The weekend at Imola
The foot of a tree ringed by a clipped hedge on a wide lawn, flowers heaped against it, small plaques set flat in the grass.
The Cemitério do Morumby, São Paulo, where he is buried: the tree above his grave, September 2005. Morio · CC BY-⁠SA 3.0

XIV · Legacy

What remains

A smiling driver in a sponsor’s cap raises his arm high in a wave from a podium, a large ‘Champion’ backdrop behind him.
Spa-Francorchamps, 27 August 1989: a wave from the podium after he won the Belgian Grand Prix in the rain. madagascarica · CC BY 2.0
How he is remembered

Notes

  1. The sources, his official archive among them, disagree. Le Mans in September 1978 is the date in Ernesto Rodrigues’s biography, in an Instituto tribute and in two of the official site’s own articles; Estoril in September 1979 is the date in three others there, and in McLaren’s. Nothing dated from the time has been found to settle it. ↑

Sources