Ayrton Senna, is the second finalist of our Champion of Champions competition. The Brazilian driver defeated Damon Hill, Mike Hawthorn, Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda to reach the final.
Biography
Ayrton Senna de Silva was born on the 21st March 1960 in Santana, Sao Paulo, Brazil to Milton da Silva and Neide Senna. Ayrton was a middle child, with and older sister and younger brother Viviane and Leonardo.
Ayrton would start his motorsport journey on the family farm, where at the age of seven he would learn how to drive a jeep and also how to change gear without using a clutch. the earliest recorded racing event attended by Ayrton was a fun race, where at the age of 4 he secured pole (through a lot) and then went onto win.
He would continue to develop throughout his younger years securing the South American Kart Championship at the age of 17.
In the early 80’s Ayrton would travel to the UK, competing and winning the 1981 Formula Ford 1600 Championship. During this time he would settle on Senna as his name, rather than the more common de Silva. in 1982, Senna would win the European and the British Formula Ford 2000 Championships.
Formula 1
Ayrton’s drives throughout the early 80’s drew the attention of a few different teams including McLaren, Williams, Brabham and Toleman. Ayrton secured a drive with Toleman for the 1984 season.
Ayrton Senna would race in all but one race in the 1984 season, he would miss the Italian GP after Toleman discovered that Senna had signed for Louts for 1985.
Ayrton would end the season in ninth with 13 points. The highest point for the Brazilian driver was a second place at the Monaco GP.
After an impressive first season Ayrton headed over to Lotus, where he would win his debut race at second round in Portugal. the race was held at the Estoril track under extremely wet conditions, In what has been described as one of the best wet weather drives in Formula 1 history, Ayrton Senna lead the race from start to finish, lapping all but the second place car.
Senna would finish fourth in the Drivers Championship with 38 points. this would include five further podium finishes including his second victory at the Belgium GP.
Ayrton Senna would continue with Lotus until 1988, where he would move to McLaren-Honda. He would partner Alain Prost, which would begin one of the most infamous and fierce rivalry.
Prost v Senna
In 1988, Senna would take his first title in the McLaren-Honda MP4/4, the season was a dominate season for the McLaren team, who had won all but one race. Ayrton would pip his teammate Alain Prost to the title as he had won 8 races to Prost’s 7.
during the season there were moments of contention between the McLaren teammates, one of these occurred at the Portuguese GP, after Prost had made a better start than the Brazilian, leading to Senna diving down the inside of a fast corner to retake the lead. When Prost attempted to pass his McLaren teammate at the end of the first lap Senna swerved to block Prost, this almost sent the Frenchman into the pit wall at 180mph. Prost didn’t not lift and made the pass.
The FIA would only give Senna a warning for the incident, the normally calm Prost was incensed by it that it was brought up at McLarens post race debrief, this lead to Senna giving Prost an apology.
One of the more notable incidents in the 1989 season came at the Japanese GP, this was the penultimate race of the season, a race that Ayrton Senna needed to win in order to remain in contention for the title.
During the race, Prost had managed to take the lead in the race, Ayrton managed to catch up with Senna on lap 46, heading into the tight chicane, Senna came down the inside of Prost, when Prost turned in to take the corner, the McLaren’s tangled wheels. Alain Prost would retire, but Senna would get a push from the Marshall’s and used an escape road to re-join the track. He would take the lead and the victory, however Senna was disqualified from the race by the stewards for getting a push and also cutting the chicane. The decision to disqualify Ayrton handed the title to Alain Prost.
Ayrton Senna was irate at this, engaging in a public war of words with then President of the FIA Jean-Marie Balestre
Even with Prost now at a new team, this wouldn’t stop the pair continuing their rivalry. Ayrton and Alain would crash again, this time it was on the first lap and it would also mean that Ayrton Senna was the 1990 World Champion.
The 1991 season gave Ayrton his third title after 7 wins and numerous pole positions, Alain Prost was unable to mount a serious challenge due to a downturn in competitiveness at Ferrari.
The next two seasons were not to the standard that Senna expected, he was unable to mount a challenge against the dominate Williams FW14B, the Adrian Newey designed cars was almost unbeatable.
The Williams domination would continue into 1993, McLaren boss Ron Dennis attempted to secure a supply of the superior Renault engines, Ayrton also approached the Williams team trying to secure a drive with the team for the 1993 season, even offering to give up his annual salary. Ultimately this would fail.
Williams had decided to hire Alain Prost who had been fired form Formula 1 at the end of 1991, he was given a large severance package not to race in 1992.
As part of Alain Prost’s contract with Williams was the inclusion of a veto on the teams choice for the other vacant seat in the team. Prost would decide to use this to stop Senna from joining the team.
This left Ayrton with the only option but to remain with McLaren, who were not competitive.
Ayrton Senna would end the 1993 season with a win at the Australian GP, this proved to be the Brazilian racer’s last win in Formula 1.
1994 would end in tragedy for Ayrton Senna and Formula 1 world, after finally securing his move to Williams Ayrton Senna was an early season favourite for the 1994 title, however after a slow start to the season and a resurgent Benneton team with rookie Michael Schumacher, Ayrton entered into the third round of the championship with no points.
With Senna leading after an incident packed first few laps, he would crash in his Williams at the fast lleft handed Tamburello corner. Ayrton would leave the track and hit a concrete wall at speeds of around 145mph.
Ayrton Senna was taken to Bologna Maggiore Hospital, however his death was confirmed at 18:40.
