(
March 21 ,
1960 –
May 1 ,
1994 ), better known as '''Ayrton Senna''', was a
Brazil ian
Formula One triple world champion, and is considered one of the best drivers of all time. His life, character and the circumstances of his death have caused his story to approach what could arguably be termed a modern legend. A spectacularly talented driver with an unyielding desire to win, Senna was a complex character who fascinated Formula One fans the world over. His death whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in 1994 is still mourned, particularly in Brazil.
Senna was born in
São Paulo . As the son of a wealthy Brazilian landowner, he quickly developed an interest in motor racing. Encouraged by his father, a racing enthusiast, Senna got behind the wheel of his first kart at the age of four. He entered
Karting competition at the legal age of 13. Ayrton Senna himself describes his first ever kart race in a documentary that was made in the early 90s. He described how the circuits were made in regular streets and car parks. Starting positions were pieces of paper mixed in a helmet and were drawn. He mentions drawing the number 1, and therefore being in pole position for his first ever race. The competitors were far more experienced but could not keep up with him on the straights as he was much lighter due to being much younger than they were. He states that they were much better in the corners of course, and eventually someone hit him from behind and he spun off. In
1977 , he won the
South American Kart Championship , and was runner up several times in the World Championship but never won.
Heading for
Europe in
1981 , he entered the British Formula Ford 1600 competition, which he won. He also adopted his mother's maiden name, Senna, as da Silva is a very common name in Brazil.
In
1982 Senna combined the
British and
European Formula Ford 2000 Championships, winning both. In addition to winning the prestigious and high-profile
Macau Grand Prix , Ayrton saw off the challenges of
Martin Brundle in the
1983 British F3 championship, and after testing with
Williams ,
McLaren ,
Brabham and
Toleman , he managed to secure a seat with the latter in time for the 1984 Formula One season.
The
Toleman team was small in comparison to the big teams of that time like
Williams ,
McLaren , or
Brabham . Despite this, the team built a decent car powered by
Hart Turbo engines and it was to be in this car where Senna's talents soon started to attract notice. He scored his
First World Championship Point on
April 7 ,
1984 at the
South African Grand Prix at
Kyalami . Three races and two points later came the high watermark of Senna's debut season when he really impressed at the
Monaco GP . Rain had plagued the event come Sunday where he started 13th on the grid, but after the start of the race, he soon was picking his way through the field in the wet on a circuit not known for overtaking in the dry. By Lap 19, he passed second place man (and future World Champion)
Niki Lauda and soon chased after race leader
Alain Prost . However, the rain started lashing harder and on Lap 31 the race was stopped. (This would have unfortunate consequences for Prost. Half points for a win was less than full points for the second place he would have earned if the event had continued to two-thirds distance, enough to be counted full race. Few doubt Senna would have got by him.) It was an impressive first podium for the Brazilian. Two more podium finishes (thirds) would follow at the
British GP at
Brands Hatch and at the season-ending
Portuguese GP at
Estoril , ultimately placing Senna ninth in the standings, tied with
Nigel Mansell on 13 points.
The next year, Senna joined the
Lotus team powered with
Renault engines (albeit in a bit of controversy as he had to buy out the remaining year in his
Toleman contract) and it was expected that Senna would finally be able to deliver on his promising talent. He partnered
Elio De Angelis and drove one of the best Lotus designs for several seasons, the
97T . He scored his first of a record setting 65 pole positions at the season opener in
Brazil at the
Jacarepagua Circuit in
Rio De Janeiro , only to retire with an electrical problem. However, at the second round raced at the
Autódromo Do Estoril in
Estoril ,
Portugal on
April 21 ,
1985 , he finally scored his
First Grand Prix Victory , winning from pole position thanks to an impressive display of wet-weather driving in treacherous conditions which even saw second-place man (and later World Champion)
Alain Prost spin off into the wall. However, the remainder of his 1985 season was plagued with mechanical failures despite his outright speed and his ability to score pole position after pole position during qualifying. He only managed another win at the
Belgian GP at the famous
Spa-Francorchamps circuit (once again in wet conditions). At the end of 1985, he finished a respectable 4th in the World Championship with 38 points and four podiums (two seconds and two thirds), as well as snatching seven pole positions. It was during these years that he also established a relationship with
Bernie Ecclestone . A famous account is at Spa, where Bernie was standing very close to the guardrail at a very fast corner. Lap after lap Senna would edge his car closer and closer to the barrier to "test" the courage of Ecclestone. Ecclestone later described how incredible he had found Senna's car control as he ended up tapping the barrier with the tires at 320km/h (198 mp/h) lap after lap.
His second season with
Lotus however was even better, as the Lotus car was developed and proved to be a more reliable, if not consistent package. He started the season on a high finishing second to his fellow countryman
Nelson Piquet at their home event, the
Brazilian GP at
Jacarepagua in
Rio De Janeiro . He then took the World Championship lead for the first time in his career after winning an exciting
Spanish GP at the
Jerez De La Frontera circuit in which he managed to hold off the menacing
Nigel Mansell in his
Williams -
Honda for the victory by just .014 of a second. He would not last there for long however as the Championship would ultimately become a straight fight between
Alain Prost 's
McLaren -
TAG -
Porsche and the
Williams -
Honda duo of
Piquet and
Mansell ; key retirements due to mechanical failures once again befell his chase for the title. Despite this though, Senna still went on a strong charge, taking his second victory of the year at the
United States GP at
Detroit , and finishing the season fourth (again) with 55 points, 8 pole positions and six podium finishes (four seconds and two thirds).
1987 came with as much promise for better things as it had before. (the first of a record breaking six victories at the Principality) and the
United States GP at
Detroit for the second year in a row, once again taking the World Championship lead. This time, the
Lotus -
Honda seemed to be more or less on par with the all-conquering
Williams -
Honda cars once again driven by fellow countryman
Nelson Piquet and
Nigel Mansell . But
Piquet had an amazing run of consistency throughout the year that Senna was not able to match, and after a spin due to a faulty clutch in the third to last round in
Mexico , he was out of the championship hunt, leaving
Piquet and teammate
Mansell to fight it out for the last two races. Alas,
Mansell badly bruised his back in an accident while practicing for the
Japanese Grand Prix at
Suzuka , which effectively handed the World Championship to
Piquet since he would be out of the season-ending race at
Australia in
Adelaide as well. However, this meant that Senna still had a fighting chance to snatch the runner-up position in the standings if he managed to finish at least third in both remaining races, and he did more than that by finishing second in both
Japan and
Australia . Unfortunately at
Australia , scrutineering found the brake ducts of his
Lotus -
Honda to be wider than they should legally have been and he was disqualified, bringing his last and ultimately best season with Lotus to a sour end. After the disqualification, he ended third in the Final Standings, with 57 points, 1 pole position, and 6 podium finishes (four seconds, not counting the one in which he was disqualified, and two thirds). However, this season would mark the turning point of his career as throughout the year, Senna began to build a deep relationship with
Honda , a relationship which would pay off in big dividends once his contract with
Lotus expired at the end of the season and once the
McLaren team soon started calling.
In
1988 , thanks to the relationship he had built up with
Honda throughout the
1987 season with
Lotus , and with the approval of McLaren's #1 driver, Alain Prost, Senna joined the
McLaren team with then-two-time World Champion
Alain Prost as his team mate. The foundation for a fierce competition between Senna and Prost was laid, culminating in a number of dramatic race incidents between the two. The pair won 15 of 16 races in 1988 (The Italian GP was won by Ferrari) with Senna coming out on top, achieving his first World Drivers Championship. The following year their rivalry intensified into battles on the track and a psychological war off it. This searing rivalry was typified by their mesmerising race-long battle for victory in the
1989 German Grand Prix , which Ayrton won. Prost took the championship after the infamous Suzuka chicane incident, where their two cars tangled Prost as Senna attempted to overtake. If neither McLaren finished, Prost was world champion. In 1993 Prost admitted that he had knowingly not moved aside as he had seen Senna approach. Prost supporters may say that Prost had the inside line, while Senna supporters may say that Senna's car was ahead and that Prost appeared to actually turn slightly towards Senna causing the cars to lock together and go off the circuit, across the chicane. Senna managed to get back to the pits for a new nose cone, rejoined the race, retook the lead and won the race, only to be disqualified for illegally cutting the chicane.
At the Suzuka circuit in 1990, the pole position was located on the right, 'dirty' side of the track. Senna maintained that, before qualifying fastest, he had sought and received assurances from officials that pole position would be on the left, clean side of the track, only to find this decision reversed after he had taken pole. At the start of the race Prost pulled ahead but when attempting to take the first right-handed corner he was hit by Senna. Telemetry showed Senna made no attempt to decelerate as the corner approached. Both drivers were removed from the race, meaning that Senna won the championship. Senna later admitted that it was payback for Prost taking them both out the year before in the 1989 Suzuka chicane incident. For critics, it was an act of breathtaking cynicism and one for which Senna received much criticism. He was accused by some of introducing a "video game" mentality of "win at all costs" into the sport, an accusation later repeated against his successor
Michael Schumacher . On the track Senna could be ruthless, showing at times extreme determination and precision.
Senna was most renowned for his qualifying skill, a discipline he mastered like none before to produce a record 65 pole positions out of 161 races. This record stood for 12 years after his death, before it was surpassed by
Michael Schumacher while qualifying for the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, his 236th race.
"Magic" Senna, as he was known to his fans, also won the Monaco GP six times, a record in itself and a tribute to his skills which earned him the title "Master of Monaco".
Senna's absolute determination to win manifested itself in dismay at McLaren's inability to challenge Williams in 1992. With Prost signed up by the Grove based squad for 1993 and possessing a veto over Senna joining him, Ayrton considered a sabbatical from F1. He tested for
Marlboro Team Penske in Indycars, setting swift times and exciting the motoring press. Of course, this test was but a one-off, but the prospect of both Senna and Mansell racing Indycars in 1993 was a brilliant scenario.
In F1, wet weather racing is considered to be a great equaliser. Speeds must be reduced and car superiority in power or grip is eliminated. The rain demands great driver car control, ability and driving finesse. Senna is widely considered one of the best, if not the best driver ever in wet weather.
The 1984 season was Senna's first in F1. He came into a field of competitors from whose ranks 16 world championships would be reaped. Participating as a rookie in an uncompetitive car, the Toleman TG184, Senna had racked up three 16th places and a 13th place.
He started the first wet race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix (a notoriously difficult circuit for racing, as it is run on regular streets) in 13th place. The race was terminated after 31 laps due to monsoon conditions deemed undriveable. At the time the race was stopped, Senna was classified in 2nd place, and catching up to race leader Alain Prost, at 4 seconds per lap. Senna's performance in this race, on a track on which it is notoriously difficult to pass other competitors, should be contrasted with the events of recent races at Monaco in which passing has been the exception rather than the norm, especially in dry conditions.
In
1993 , at the
European GP at Donington Park, Senna drove for the McLaren team. The MP4/8, although one of the front running cars, was considered inferior to the leading
Williams FW-15C of Prost, and the Benetton B193 (which used a factory Ford engine) driven by Michael Schumacher and
Riccardo Patrese . Some maintain that the Williams FW-14B and FW-15C were probably "the most technologically advanced cars that will ever race in Formula One".
{Link without Title}
The start of the wet-weather 1993 European Grand Prix, by way of its uniqueness, is frequently referred to in racing lore as the best-ever lap. Senna was fifth going into the first corner, having nearly been pushed off the track by a swerving Schumacher. At the end of the first lap, having passed F1 champions with a cumulative world championship total of 12, he was first. Having overtaken Schumacher, Wendlinger, Hill and Prost he went on to lap the entire field. Examples of wet weather car control such as this gained Senna the title "The Rain Master" in numerous F1 publications in the early 90's.
Starkly contrasting to Senna's intense and unyielding will to win on the track, his exploits off it were humane and compassionate. He was renowned for his close relationship with
Gerhard Berger , and the two were always playing practical jokes on each other.
In
1992 at
Spa-Francorchamps in
Belgium when during Friday free practice
Erik Comas had crashed heavily on the back straight other drivers drove past the wreckage at high speed. Senna could be seen jumping out of his car and while endangering his own life, sprinting down the track to the wrecked car to reach inside and hit the electrics kill switch, to prevent a possible fire.
In
1993 again at Spa-Francorchamps when
Alessandro Zanardi crashed his
Lotus heavily at
Eau Rouge corner, Senna could again be seen jumping out of his car to help the injured driver.
After Senna's death it was discovered that he had donated millions of dollars to
Children's Charities , a fact that during his life, he had kept secret.
The last race of his life was at Imola, where just a day earlier Ronald Ratzenberger, an Austrian driver, had died. When Senna died, doctors found the Austrian flag in his pocket. Senna was sure he would win, and wanted to show his respect for Ronald Ratzenberger. Unfortunately Senna never finished the race.
In
1994 , Senna finally left the ailing McLaren team for the top team at the end of 1993
Williams-Renault . After the banning of active suspension Williams started the season trying to close the gap to Benetton. Senna failed to finish his first two races, despite taking two superb pole positions against the Benetton at both events. On
May 1 1994, he took part in his third race for the team, the San Marino GP. Senna took pole position yet again, but would not finish the race.
That weekend, he was particularly upset by two events. On the Friday of the Grand Prix, during the morning session, Senna's
Protégé , the then newcomer
Rubens Barrichello was involved in a serious accident that would prevent him from competing in the race. Senna visited Barrichello in the hospital (he jumped the wall at the back of the facility after being barred from visitation by the doctors) and was then convinced that safety standards had to be reviewed. On Saturday, the death of Austrian driver
Roland Ratzenberger in practice forced the issue and even caused Senna to consider retiring. Ironically, he spent his final morning in meetings with fellow drivers, determined by Ratzenberger's accident to take on a new responsibility to re-create a Driver's Safety group to look at safety changes in Formula One. As the most senior driver, he was asked (and accepted) the role of leader in this effort.
A crash at the start of the race involving
Pedro Lamy and
J. J. Lehto (in which a stray wheel hit spectators in the grandstand) caused the caution flag to wave, and Senna was leading the race after a decent start kept him ahead of
Michael Schumacher , the young German. On the second lap after the restart, Senna's car left the track in Tamburello and struck an unprotected concrete wall. Telemetry shows he left the track at 193 mph and managed to slow the car to 135 mph in less than two seconds but it was not enough. After Senna's car had come to a halt false hopes were raised when his head was clearly seen to move slightly. Professor
Sidney Watkins M.D., F.R.C.S., O.B.E. a world-renowned neurosurgeon and
Formula One Safety Delegate and Medical Delegate, head of the
Formula One on-track medical team, who performed an on site
Tracheotomy on Ayrton Senna, reported:
"He looked serene. I raised his eyelids and it was clear from his pupils that he had a massive brain injury. We lifted him from the cockpit and laid him on the ground. As we did, he sighed and, although I am totally Agnostic , I felt his soul departed at that moment."
Senna was 34 years old. The lack of information on the cause of death led to much speculation. What is known is that the front right tire with attached suspension piece became loose on impact, hit Senna on the head and pierced his visor, causing the fatal trauma. Images of Senna's battered helmet indicate that some sort of puncture had occurred at the top of the visor, just over his right eye. This led to the now most commonly accepted theory that one of the car's suspension bars had come loose and impacted with Senna's head.
The
FIA and Italian authorities still maintain that Senna was not killed instantly, but rather died in hospital, to where he had been rushed by helicopter after an emergency
Tracheotomy and IV administration were performed. There is an ongoing debate as to why Senna was not declared dead at the track. Under Italian law when a person dies at a sporting event, that death must be investigated, causing the sporting event to be cancelled. The Director of the
Oporto (
Portugal ) Legal Medicine Institute, Professor
Pinto Da Costa , has stated the following:
"From the ethical viewpoint, the procedure used for Ayrton's body was wrong. It involved dysthanasia, which means that a person has been kept alive improperly after biological death has taken place due to brain injuries so serious that the patient would never have been able to remain alive without mechanical means of support. There would have been no prospect of normal life and relationships. Whether or not Ayrton was removed from the car while his heart was beating or whether his supply of blood had halted or was still flowing, is irrelevant to the determination of when he died.
The autopsy showed that the crash caused multiple fractures at the base of the cranium, crushing the forehead and rupturing the temporal artery with haemorrhage in the respiratory passages. It is possible to resuscitate a dead person immediately after the heart stops through cardio-respiratory processes. The procedure is known as putting the patient on the machine. From the medical-legal viewpoint, in Ayrton's case, there is a subtle point: resuscitation measures were implemented.
From the ethical point of view this might well be condemned because the measures were not intended to be of strictly medical benefit to the patient but rather because they suited the commercial interest of the organisation. Resuscitation did in fact take place, with the tracheotomy performed, while the activity of the heart was restored with the assistance of cardio-respiratory devices. The attitude in question was certainly controversial. Any physician would know there was no possibility whatsoever of successfully restoring life in the condition in which Senna had been found." {Link without Title}
Professor Jose Pratas Vital, Director of the Egas Moniz hospital in Lisbon, a neurosurgeon and Head of the Medical Staff at the Portuguese GP, offers a different opinion:
"The people who conducted the autopsy stated that, on the evidence of his injuries, Senna was dead. They could not say that. He had injuries which lead to his death, but at that point the heart may still have been functioning. Medical personnel attending an injured person, and who perceive that the heart is still beating, have only two courses of action:
One is to ensure that the patient's respiratory passages remain free, which means that he can breathe. They had to carry out an emergency tracheotomy. With oxygen, and the heart beating, there is another concern, which is loss of blood. These are the steps to be followed in any case involving serious injury, whether on the street or on a racetrack. The rescue team can think of nothing else at that moment except to assist the patient, particularly by immobilising the cervical area. Then the injured person must be taken immediately to the intensive care unit of the nearest hospital". {Link without Title}
Rogério Morais Martins
{Link without Title} states that:
"According to the first clinical bulletin read by Dr. Maria Teresa Fiandri at 4.30 p.m. Ayrton Senna had brain damage with haemorrhaged shock and deep coma. However, the medical staff did not note any chest or abdomen wound. The haemorrhage was due to the rupture of the temporal artery. The neurosurgeon who examined Ayrton Senna at the hospital mentioned that the circumstances did not call for surgery because the wound was generalised in the cranium. At 6.05 p.m. Dr. Fiandri read another communiqué, her voice shaking, announcing that Senna was dead. At that stage he was still connected to the equipment that maintained his heartbeat.
The release by the Italian authorities of the results of Ayrton Senna's autopsy, revealing that the driver had died instantaneously during the race at Imola, ignited still more controversy. Now there were questions about the reactions of the race director and the medical authorities. Although spokespersons for the hospital had stated that Senna was still breathing on arrival in Bologna, the autopsy on Ratzenberger died the day before indicated that death had been instantaneous. Under Italian law, a death within the confines of the circuit would have required the cancellation of the entire race meeting.
That in turn, would have prevented the death of Ayrton Senna.
The relevant Italian legislation stipulates that when a death takes place during a sporting event, it should be immediately halted and the area sealed off for examination. In the case of Ratzenberger, this would have meant the cancellation of both Saturday's qualifying session and the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday.
Medical experts are unable to state whether or not Ayrton Senna died instantaneously. Nevertheless, they were well aware that his chances of survival were slight. Had he remained alive, the brain damage would have left him severely handicapped. Accidents such as this are almost always fatal, with survivors suffering irreversible brain damage. This is due to the effects on the brain of sudden deceleration, which causes structural damage to the brain tissues. Estimates of the forces involved in Ayrton's accident suggest a rate of deceleration equivalent to a 30 metre vertical drop, landing head-first. Evidence offered at the autopsy revealed that the impact of this 208km/h crash caused multiple injuries at the base of the cranium, resulting in respiratory insufficiency.
There was crushing of the brain (which was forced against the wall of the cranium causing oedema and haemorrhage, increasing intra-cranial pressure and causing brain death), together with the rupture of the temporal artery, haemorrhage in the respiratory passages and the consequent heart failure.
There are two opposing theories on the issue of whether the drivers were still alive when they were put in the helicopters that carried them to hospital. Assuming both Ratzenberger and Senna had died instantaneously, the race organisers might have delayed any announcement in order to avoid being forced to cancel the meeting, thus protecting their financial interests.
Had the meeting been cancelled, Sagis - the organisation which administers the Imola circuit - stood to lose an estimated US$6.5 million." [http://www.rogeriomartins.com/acuriculumvitaediretordearte.htm
The FIA dismisses that conception as an unfounded conspiracy theory.
The
Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari in Imola was immediately investigated by the FIA, and the track's signature Tamburello, a lightning rod of controversy because of the lack of run-off and two previous incidents – Piquet's 1987 crash in Friday practice caused by a tyre failure, which kept him out of the race, forced Goodyear to withdraw all tyres after the first practice, and replace tyres for Saturday's qualifying session. Two years later, Gerhard Berger's Ferrari was in flames after another tyre failure early in the race, surviving because of alert safety workers, and actually caused by a front wing failure. But Senna's death meant the end of the sweeper, and it was replaced by a chicane in 1995.
In
2000 , he was posthumously inducted into the
International Motorsports Hall Of Fame .
In period had reduced the pressures in Senna's tyres, thereby lowering the car. As the car entered the Tamburello bend, it bottomed-out and the loss of the
Ground Effect led to a sudden reduction in
Downforce , and hence grip. As Senna instinctively corrected the resultant slide, the downforce and grip suddenly returned, and Senna effectively drove off the circuit. The programme came to the conclusion that if Senna's reactions had actually been ''slower'', he might have survived the crash. To many within the F1 world including drivers of that era who had raced at Imola, the conclusions drawn from low tyre pressure as a cause of the accident seem highly implausible. Telemetry recorded that Senna took the bend at 190mph on lap 6 with cold tyres. The information released in the trial stated that Senna started the race with 86 litres of fuel and had planned a two stop race strategy, one less than Schumacher who started the race lighter on a 3 stop strategy. The theory that low tyre pressure caused the crash was defeated in court when Stefano Stefanini, head of Bologna's traffic accident unit, testified that Senna, with a heavier car than Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, recorded a time of 1.24.887 on the sixth lap, Ayrton's only lap at race speed and the 3rd fastest lap of the race. Alboreto and other drivers of the era claimed that given Senna's lap time, his tyres would have been at race temperature by the 7th lap and it was not a factor in the crash.
The ban on active suspension affected Williams more than any other team as it was the key development that had helped make the Williams car the class of the field from 1991-1993. 1994 started with the Williams drivers complaining of severe handling problems and a twitchy rear-end. The FW16 new rear end was introduced at Imola. It was ironic that at the beginning of 1994 Senna himself had told the press that he would be surprised if there would be no large accidents that year. He referred to the fact that after the wide "white label" 26" Goodyear slicks were banned for 1993 (replaced by "yellow label"), now the technology at the very core of the cars, the science around which they had been based for the last few years (active suspension, traction control and ABS) was also banned for 1994. He surmised that the cars would have trouble staying on the road, which is exactly what was observed at the beginning of 1994.
J.J. Lehto damaged his vertebrae at Silverstone in January and
Jean Alesi broke his neck in pre-season testing, prior to Ratzenberger's and Senna's fatal accidents at Imola. During qualifying for the next race at Monaco, Wendlinger suffered an accident which left him comatose for months; Ratzenberger's replacement,
Andrea Montermini , broke his feet in the Simtek in Barcelona, and
Pedro Lamy broke both knee-caps in testing at Silverstone in May. None of these accidents was deemed to be caused by driver error, although there is no evidence to suggest that the accidents were caused by the ban on driver aids.
There are other factors – Senna did not like the position of the steering column relative to his seating position and had repeatedly asked for it to be changed. At Imola Senna found himself in a car with his team's engineers struggling to cope and adapt to the ban of active suspension.
Patrick Head and
Adrian Newey agreed to Senna's request to shorten the FW-16's wheelbase, but there was no time to manufacture a shortened steering shaft. The existing shaft was instead cut, shortened, and welded back together with reinforcing plates. Many surmise, based on comparing hours of onboard video footage from Brazil and Imola that the movement of the steering wheel during the race at Imola was completely abnormal. Senna on his final lap is seen turning the wheel left to full lock with no movement of the front wheels. Others have raised suspicion at what can clearly be seen on the onboard footage as Senna looking down onto his steering wheel seconds before entering Tamburello.
Damon Hill, Senna's teammate at the time of his death, had this to say in an interview given on the subject 10 years later.
"After the warm-up we went to the drivers' briefing. Ayrton was upbeat and determined after his good performance, but he had concerns about the new safety car regulations. These fears were to be prophetic. It was a measure of the political climate of Formula One that A. S. felt it necessary to get other drivers to ask questions about the safety car so that he did not appear to be alone. The implication was that the bosses made the rules; if you had issues with that, they would make sure you knew who ran things. So we got on to the subject of the safety car (importantly distinct from the "pace car" used to spice up US racing).
Ayrton became vociferous, claiming that it was ill-conceived and dangerous for one specific reason — the temperature of the tyres of a Formula One car is critical in several respects. One, they only stick when they are very hot; two, the pressure varies enormously with temperature and, consequently, the stability of the tyre construction.
To sum up: if a Formula One car has to follow an ordinary road car it will not travel fast enough for the tyres to keep within their designed working temperature and pressure. I believe this was a contributing factor in Ayrton's accident, as the safety car was deployed directly after the start, exactly as he had feared.
And so it was we left the briefing on Sunday having agreed to pay some kind of tribute to Roland on the grid. We went to the normal sponsor functions and then back to the motorhome. I never really talked or spent any time with Ayrton before the race. Everything was extremely businesslike, with an added severity because of the death of Roland." {Link without Title}
The Williams team was entangled for many years in a court case with the Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, but they were found not guilty and no action was taken against Williams. In 2004, the case was re-opened, but closed again in 2005 when there was no new evidence.
His death was considered by many of his Brazilian fans to be a national tragedy, and three days of national mourning were declared. Senna is buried at the
Cemitério Do Morumbi in his hometown of
São Paulo .
Off the track, Senna was a deeply religious and compassionate man. After his death, his family created the Ayrton Senna Foundation, an organization with the aim of helping poor and needy young people in Brazil and around the world. As a result, Senna continues to impact the world today and has become a beacon of hope to millions of his countrymen and an example of professionalism and humanity to those who remember him.
In 2004 (when, ten years after his death, the Brazilian media revisited the entire life of Senna), a book called "Ayrton: The Hero Revealed" (original title: "Ayrton: O Herói Revelado") was published in Brazil. The book recalls several passages of Senna's career, and adds previously unknown information about his personal life. As the title suggests, the book "reveals" the human side of a hero.
As well, to mark the 10th anniversary of Senna's passing, on April 21, 2004, over 10,000 people attended a charity match in a football stadium near Imola. The game was organized by several devoted Italian and Canadian fans of Ayrton, bringing together the 1994 World Cup winning team of Brazil to face the "Nazionale Piloti", an exhibition team comprised exclusively of top race car drivers (of which Senna was a part in 1985). Michael Schumacher, Jarno Trulli, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso and many others faced the likes of Dunga, Careca, Taffarel and many of the team that won the World Cup in the USA ten years earlier.
That same weekend, Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he still believed Ayrton Senna was and remained the best F1 driver he'd ever seen.
Perhaps the unique duality of his character was most evident at the moment of his death. As track officials examined the wreckage of his racing car they found a furled, bloodsoaked Austrian flag. A victory flag that he was going to raise in honour of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, who had died on that track the day before.
At his memorial service an estimated one million people lined the streets to give him their salute.
- "On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit and you go for this limit and you touch this limit and you think, ok, this is the limit. As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you realise that you can suddenly go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and your experience as well, you can fly very high."
- "Being second, is to be the first of the ones who lose."
- "Racing, competing, it's in my blood. It's part of me, it's part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else."
- "It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen." - pre-season 1994.
