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Ayrton Senna was one of the greatest drivers in the world, which makes it no surprise that even after 20 years of his death, he is still widely remembered and revered. Thus, commemorating his 20th death anniversary on 1st May 2014, here is a look at his career and why Senna enjoys the status of a legend.
Ayrton Senna, born in Brazil in a wealthy family, got hooked to racing when he started racing karts. In Brazil, during his adolescence he won several races before moving to the United Kingdom in 1981 to further realize his racing ambitions in open wheel racing. There, he slowly moved up the ranks and in 1983 clinched the prestigious British Formula 3000 title, narrowly beating Martin Brundle, who was later going to join him on the Formula 1 grid. This championship success was enough to garner the attention of influential eyes in Formula 1. During this time he tested for several teams like Williams, Brabham, McLaren and Lotus, but after talks with them failed, in 1984 he finally made his Formula 1 debut with a much newer team, Toleman.
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Although the team wasn’t competitive, he still impressed with some splendid performances. His main highlight during this time was the Monaco Grand Prix, where he came in second, just behind Alain Prost. For the next three years, he was signed by Lotus, a team which he revived after having faced failure since the death of Colin Chapman, it’s owner in 1982. Here he impressed even more, getting several poles, podiums and wins. These performances, along with his fledgling relationship with Honda, proved instrumental in his signing with McLaren in 1988.
Senna and Prost in 1988
1988 marked the beginning of one of the biggest and greatest rivalries in 1988, between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. After some great duels between the two, Senna finally won his first world championship. That year at the Monaco Grand Prix, he remarkably out-qualified his teammate, the then double world champion Alain Prost, by an astonishing 1.4 seconds.
Senna was widely known for driving on the limit, something which was evident from his stellar performance at the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, where he described his experience as above normal conscious level, something out of instinct.
“I was already on pole and I was going faster and faster. One lap after the other, quicker, and quicker, and quicker. I was at one stage just on pole, then by half a second, and then one second…and I kept going. Suddenly, I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my teammate with the same car. And I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was kind of driving it by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, not only the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit for me was a tunnel. I was just going, going – more, and more, and more, and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.
Then, suddenly, something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and I realized that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are. Immediately my reaction was to back off, slow down. I drove back slowly to the pits and I didn’t want to go out any more that day. It frightened me because I realized I was well beyond my conscious understanding. It happens rarely, but I keep these experiences very much alive in me because it is something that is important for self-preservation.”
Such an explanation of driving experience would not be believed from anyone else, but Senna, as when one saw the way in which he handled the car, especially through the on-board camera, one would easily believe what he said and be in awe of his skill.
Ayrton Senna driving the MP4/7A at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.
1989 was a much more turbulent season for the teammates as there was conflict and tension between them both on and off the track. The season ended controversially when they collided at Suzuka, which ended Senna’s title challenge and Prost became the champion. Prost finally left the team in 1990 to join Ferrari and in his place Gerhard Berger was brought in. Berger was a more light-hearted person than Senna and helped in cooling down the environment within the team. As has been humorously quoted by Berger himself:
“He taught me a lot about our sport, I taught him to laugh.”
The season was tuning out to be very well for Senna as he got six victories and was leading the championship. But Prost had closed up that gap with five wins and was just 11 points behind Senna with two races to go. At the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Senna complained about pole position being on the dirtier side of the track which gave an advantage to the driver in second place, but the FIA, led by it’s President Jean-Marie Balestre, did not pay heed to it.
At the start of the race, Prost went ahead of Senna and at the first corner as Senna tried to overtake, Prost turned in. Senna didn’t stop, accelerating the car, and they hit each other and retired from the race. This meant that another championship had been decided by a collision between them, but this time the beneficiary was Senna, who clinched his second world title.
Senna vs Prost 1990 Japanese Grand Prix
In 1991, instead of Prost, Nigel Mansell’s Williams proved a serious threat for the title to Senna, but he managed to keep the challenge at bay and became the youngest three-time world champion at the time. In the succeeding two seasons, in 1992 and in 1993, Senna’s McLaren proved to be less competitive than the ever improving Williams. The higher technical superiority of the Williams with advantages like traction control gave an edge to its drivers against others, which helped Mansell to finally achieve a well deserved world title and the in the following year, Prost won his fourth and final title with the team before retiring.
Senna was known to be ruthless and had a concrete will for winning as evidenced by his actions at the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix, where he almost ran his teammate Alain Prost into the pit wall, and also the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix where he intentionally collided with Prost to win the championship. In an interview with Jackie Stewart in 1990, where Stewart questioned him relating to his controversial collisions in the past few years, Senna had replied thus:
“By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, we are competing to win. And the main motivation to all of us is to compete for victory, it’s not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it’s possible. Sometimes you get it wrong? Sure, it’s impossible to get it right all the time. But I race designed to win, as long as I feel I’m doing it right.”
But besides this, and in stark contrast to his ruthless attitude during racing, Senna was a devout Catholic and was known to be warm and humble. This further came to light during the qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix, where French driver Erik Comas had crashed out on the track. Senna, who was the first one who arrived on the scene, came out of the car to help him.
1993 also bore witness to another of Senna’s spectacular driving displays in the rain at the European Grand Prix at Donington Park, United Kingdom. That year, Senna’s car proved no match to the Williams, but under rainy conditions, he skillfully mastered all others on the grid. In the race, Senna didn’t have a good start and dropped from 4th to 5th and as the race progressed, Senna passed Schumacher, Wendlinger, then Hill and finally Prost at the final corner of the lap to take the lead. Thus, Senna masterfully outclassed his rivals and went unbelievably from 5th to 1st within a single lap. This kind of performance was not an occasional display, but he was consistently on the limit and it came to clearer interpretations only during mixed conditions.
Senna had earlier said that when he was young he couldn’t handle the kart during rains. Thus frustrated by it, he had practiced under such conditions until he had totally mastered it. Similar kind of performances under such conditions were also given by him in races like the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, where he finished second in an inferior car and also at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, his first victory, where he lapped the entire field barring Michele Alboreto in second place.
Ayrton Senna (BRA) Williams FW16 in action before his tragic fatal accident.
In 1994, Senna finally signed for Williams hoping to be in a much more competitive car. But because of the rule changes, the technical advantages which the Williams had enjoyed over the previous years had declined, due to which the car had become difficult to drive. Senna himself had complained about the condition of the car on several occasions. In the first two races of the season, Senna though on pole, retired from both the races. At the third race of the season in Imola, Italy, Senna was again on pole, but the race weekend was marred by the death of Roland Ratzenberger in qualifying on Saturday and also Rubens Barrichello on Friday had luckily survived a huge crash.
Sid Watkins, medical chief at F1 races and close friend of Senna, had after the tragic events of the previous days asked him
“You know Ayrton, you’ve been 3 times world champion, you’re the fastest man in the world, and you like fishing, so, why don’t you quit, and i’ll quit and we’ll just go fishing.”
But Senna had replied, “Sid. I can’t quit.”
The race began on Sunday, that is 1st May, 1994, amidst gloom surrounding the atmosphere. At the start, JJ Lehto’s Benetton stalled and was hit by Pedro Lamy’s Lotus from behind. This incident brought out the safety car which remained till lap 6. When the race resumed Senna led from Schumacher, and as he approached the high speed Tambulrello corner on Lap 7, his car left the racing line, ran in a straight line off the track and slammed into an unprotected concrete barrier.
From the accident, Senna suffered serious brain and skull injuries and ruptured arteries which proved fatal. Later, it was also found out that Senna had kept an Austrian flag in his cockpit, which he had intended to unfurl at the end of the race in honor of Roland Ratzenberger.
After Senna’s death, there was a huge uproar around the world relating to safety in Formula 1, which prompted the FIA to introduce major changes which helped improve safety in the sport.
The following improvements have been made since:
1. Helmets have been made stronger and are tested to endure high impacts, the use of removable strips on the visor has been introduced and also Hand and Neck Support (HANS) has also been made compulsory.
2. Cars now have to go through tough crash tests in order to ensure safety.
3. The medical facilities and staff have been updated, now medical help can reach drivers within 30 seconds of any accident.
4. The track designs have been altered, like runoff areas have been introduced at high speed corners.
5. Also, among other changes, use of safety cars to slow down the cars while the debris is being cleared out and pit lane speed limiter has been introduced to limit racing in the pit lane.
These improved safety standards have indeed made Formula 1 safer as now for 20 years there hasn’t been a driver fatality on a race weekend. But still one wonders that if these changes had been introduced a bit earlier, then we wouldn’t have lost two great drivers in Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.
Love him or hate him, but no one can deny the fact that he was one of the world’s greatest drivers, who had the talent and skill which was neither seen before nor has been afterwards. He brought a certain kind of aura with him, which astonished those who met him, and witnessed him racing. In fact, he was hugely responsible for making Formula 1 much more famous than it ever was. Ayrton Senna will not only be remembered by his home country Brazil, but such has been his impact that he will always be revered by the whole world, no matter how much time goes by.
