Ayrton Senna (1960

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Biography

Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1984 to 1994. Senna won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with McLaren, and—at the time of his death—held the record for most pole positions (65), among others; he won 41 Grands Prix across 11 seasons.

In Their Own Words (5)

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit.' As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

Interview for Racing is in My Blood, 1991 , 1991

If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs me my life, I hope it is in one go. I would not like to be in a wheelchair. I would not like to be in a hospital suffering from whatever injury it was. If I’m going to live, I want to live fully, very intensely, because I am an intense person. It would ruin my life if I had to live partially.

Interview, January 1994 , 1994

We are made of emotions, we are all looking for emotions, it's only a question of finding the way to experience them. There are many different ways of experience them all. Perhaps one different thing, only that, one particular thing that Formula One can provide you, is that you know we are always expose to danger, danger of getting hurt, danger of dying.

Interview for Racing is in My Blood, 1991 , 1991

If you take away Eau Rouge, you take away the reason why I do this.

Interview, 1993 , 1993

Basically our championship starts here. Fourteen races, not sixteen. It's not a comfortable position to be in, but that's the reality. The team is conscious about the challenge we have to make to recover the ground over Benetton.

Interview by Murray Walker, April 28, 1994 , 1994

Timeline

The story of Ayrton Senna, told in moments.

1960 Birth

Born Ayrton Senna da Silva in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Wealthy family. His father builds him a go-kart with a lawnmower engine when he's four. He starts competitive karting at 13.

A lawnmower engine go-kart at four years old. Did you know right then? Was racing ever a choice or always the only option?

1984 Event

Monaco Grand Prix. His second Formula One race. Torrential rain. He's driving a Toleman, a backmarker car with no business being near the front. He carves through the field from 13th to 2nd before the race is red-flagged. Every team principal in the paddock watches.

Monaco in the rain, your second race, a backmarker car. Did you know the paddock was watching? What was going through your mind catching car after car?

1988 Event

Joins McLaren alongside Alain Prost. They win 15 of 16 races that season, the most dominant season in F1 history. Senna takes his first championship by three points. The rivalry between them will poison the sport and electrify it.

Did the rivalry with Prost make you faster or more reckless? Fifteen wins out of sixteen races. Was that McLaren or was that you?

1991 Event

Wins the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Sao Paulo. His home race. His gearbox fails, locking him in sixth gear for the final laps. He drives the last seven laps one-handed because his left arm has cramped from wrestling the car. Third championship.

Driving one-handed in sixth gear at Interlagos. How much pain were you in? Was winning your home race worth more than the other championships?

1993 Life

Wins his sixth Monaco Grand Prix. No one has won six before or since. The circuit is too narrow, too walled-in, too punishing for anyone else to do it. He says driving in Monaco is like riding a bicycle in your living room.

Six Monaco wins. Why were you so much better there than anyone else? Was it really like riding a bicycle in your living room?

1994 Death

Imola. San Marino Grand Prix. Lap seven of the race, Tamburello corner. His Williams FW16 leaves the track at 190 mph and hits the concrete wall. A piece of suspension pierces his helmet. He is 34. Over a million people attend his state funeral in Sao Paulo.

Did you sense something wrong with the car that morning at Imola? What should we know about Roland Ratzenberger and that Austrian flag?

1994 Legacy

After his death, investigators find an Austrian flag in his cockpit. He'd planned to unfurl it on the podium for Roland Ratzenberger, killed in qualifying the day before. His Instituto Ayrton Senna has since provided education to over 25 million Brazilian children.

25 million Brazilian children educated through your foundation. Would that matter more to you than the racing? What would you tell young drivers about the risks?