Ayrton Senna was born into a wealthy Brazilian family. He competed in 161 Grand Prix over ten years. And he took 64 Pole Positions, winning a massive 41 of them. He has been described as being charismatic, single-minded, and totally focused, as well as lauded by his peers as "an extraordinary driver, and an extraordinary person". Aryton Senna was the idol for millions of Formula One fans, one of them being current champion Lewis Hamilton, who lists Senna alongside Alain Prost as his heroes. To so many of his fans and colleagues, he is remembered as one of the greatest Formula One champions of all time. Senna became interested in racing car driving at an early age. So much so that he entered a Brazilian Cart competition at the age of thirteen. By 1977 he had won the South American Cart Championship, and contested the World Carting Championship on several occasions, finishing second in 1979 and 1980. In 1981 he moved to England with his wife Lilly-Ann, and began racing single-seaters in Europe, winning the British Formula Four 1600 Championship. He followed that up with wins in the British and European F4 2000 Championships in 1982. He moved onto F1 racing in 1984, meeting future rival, talented French driver Alain Prost for the first time. Senna drove for Tollman. Lotus. McLaren and finally Williams Renault during his illustrious but short 10 year F1 career, winning 3 World Titles. The San Marino Grand Prix was, according to Senna, where his 1994 season would start, with 14 races, as opposed to 16, in which to win the title. Despite this, the GP got off to a bad start, with Senna's protege, Rubens Varicello, involved in a serious accident and unable to continue to race. The next day the Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a accident during practice. As a result of this, Senna founded the Grand Prix Driver's Association, aimed at making driving conditions safer at the Formula One level. A day after Ratzenberger's death, Senna was leading a race around the treacherous Tamburello curve when his car left the track and hit a cement retaining wall at 135 miles an hour. Senna was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries, and was given a state funeral attended by his peers, and most notably, his most fierce rival, Alain Prost.
We use cookies to help you navigate our website and to keep track of our promotional efforts. Some cookies are necessary for the site to operate normally while others are optional. To find out what cookies we are using please visit Cookies Policy.