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Ayrton Senna | Birthdate: | March 21st 1960 | | | | Country: | Brazil  | | | | Gender: | M |
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Ayrton Senna da Silva is still believed by many to be the greatest talent to ever grace a Formula 1 car. Born in Sao Paulo on March the 21st 1960, Da Silva first drove a Kart at the age of 4. As soon as Ayrton turned 13 he was racing competitively. In 1977 he won the South American Kart Championship, and then had many successful years in the world series, but never won the title.
When he moved to Europe he changed his name to his mothers maiden name, Senna, as Da Silva was a very common Brazilian name. Senna went on to win the Formula Ford and Formula 3 championships before being picked up by F1 minnow Toleman.
In 1984, his debut year, Senna should have won at Monaco. In treacherous conditions he overtook Prost's McLaren to lead on lap 31, however the race was red-flagged a lap later. However, due to the rule that should a race be stopped the classification would go back to two laps before, Senna lost the race to Alain Prost.
For 1985 Senna was driving for a big team, Lotus. Ayrton took his first win at Estoril in extremely bad weather. After 3 years with Lotus Senna opted to join McLaren, the first team who could give him a car capable of winning championships. And Senna duly delivered, winning his first title and putting one over on team-mate Alain Prost. The pairing were so dominant that they won 15 out of 16 races, and would've taken a clean sweep had Jean Louis Schlesser not rammed Senna at Monza.
In '89 Senna lost the championship to Prost after the pair collided at the final race in Suzuka. Prost blamed Senna. Senna blamed Prost. Whatever, it was the end of the relationship between the two team-mates. For in 1990 Prost moved to Ferrari, and Senna was outright number 1 at McLaren for the first time. However even this and a superior car couldn't help Ayrton to a convincing championship win, and the title once again came down to Suzuka. Senna took pole ahead of Prost. However pole was placed on the dirty side of the track, causing Prost to make the better start. The Ferrari was ahead into turn 1. However Senna, with his left front just inside Alain's car, didn't lift and took Prost out of the grand prix. Both drivers finished the race in the gravel. Senna was champion and called it payback for the year before.
Despite the sometimes dangerous driving, Senna was a legend. His wet weather skills were superb, demonstrated at Donington in '93 when he went from 5th to 1st in 1 lap. He also won Monaco a record six times and took a record number of pole positions: 65.
Sadly Senna's career would be cut drastically short. Following 6 years at McLaren which had brought him 3 titles, Senna made the move to Williams, who had won the titles with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell the two seasons before. Once again Senna's qualifying pace was superb, as he took pole in the first two races. However his lack of points in those two meant he went to San Marino a long way off the leaders.
Senna was strangely out-of-sorts that weekend, despite taking pole again. A practice accident involving his protege Rubens Barrichello and the death of Roland Ratzenberger on Saturday caused Senna to consider retiring. Unfortunately he didn't.
As the safety car pulled in at the end of lap 6, Senna led Michael Schumacher. However, during lap 7 Senna left the track at Tamburello, hitting the concrete wall at 135mph. Ayrton sustained damage to his head when part of his broken suspension pierced his visor. He died later in hospital. He was 34.
After Ayrton's death Brazil had to wait a long time for another superstar. So in possibly the most emotional victory ever Rubens Barrichello was cheered home to win the 2000 German Grand Prix for Ferrari. On the podium Rubinho cried into a Brazilian flag, remembering his, and so many others, hero.
Statistics
| Statistic | # | Percentage | First | Last | | Number of Grand Prix | 162 | 100% | 1984 |  1994 | | Number of starts | 162 | 100.00% | 1984 | 1994 | | Number of finishes | 105 | 64.81% |  1984 |  1993 | | Number of finishes on podium | 80 | 49.38% |  1984 | 1993 | | Number of finishes in points | 96 | 59.26% | 1984 | 1993 | | Number of retirements | 56 | 34.57% | 1984 | 1994 | | Number of wins | 41 | 25.31% |  1985 | 1993 | | Number of pole positions | 65 | 40.12% | 1985 | 1994 | | Number of fastest laps | 19 | 11.73% | 1984 |  1993 | | Number of doubles (pole position & win) | 29 | 17.90% | 1985 | 1993 | | Number of triples (pole position, win & fastest lap) | 7 | 4.32% | 1985 |  1990 |
| Seasons: | 11 (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) | | | | Championships: | 3 (1988, 1990, 1991) | | | | Leading: | 107 times during 2954 laps in 84 Grand Prix with a total of 13524.623 Km | | | | Points: | 610 (Average per start: 3.77) | | | Points per season
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| 13 | 38 | 55 | 57 | 90 | 60 | 78 | 96 | 50 | 73 | 0 | | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | | | | | Team: | Toleman Group Motorsport (1984), John Player Special Team Lotus (1985), John Player Special Team Lotus (1986), Camel Team Lotus Honda (1987), Honda Marlboro McLaren (1988), Honda Marlboro McLaren (1989), Honda Marlboro McLaren (1990), Honda Marlboro McLaren (1991), Honda Marlboro McLaren (1992), Marlboro McLaren (1993), Rothmans Williams Renault (1994) | | | | Chassis: | Toleman TG183B (1984), Toleman TG184 (1984), Lotus 97T (1985), Lotus 98T (1986), Lotus 99T (1987), McLaren MP4-4 (1988), McLaren MP4-5 (1989), McLaren MP4-5B (1990), McLaren MP4-6 (1991), McLaren MP4-7A (1992), McLaren MP4-6B (1992), McLaren MP4-8 (1993), Williams FW16 (1994) | | | | Engine: | Hart 1.5 L4T (1984), Renault 1.5 V6T (1985), Renault 1.5 V6T (1986), Honda 1.5 V6T (1987), Honda 1.5 V6T (1988), Honda 3.5 V10 (1989), Honda 3.5 V10 (1990), Honda 3.5 V12 (1991), Honda 3.5 V12 (1992), Ford HB 3.5 V8 (1993), Renault 3.5 V10 (1994) |
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last modification: Thursday 28 of July, 2005 [12:25:25 UTC] by Sennaesque
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