Ayrton
Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born in São Paulo in 1960. He entered his first kart race at 13, in a kart his father had built around a lawnmower engine. He was runner-up at the Karting World Championship in 1979 and 1980. In 1981 he moved to England and won British titles in Formula Ford 1600. In 1983 he took the British Formula Three championship after a close fight with Martin Brundle, and won the first Formula Three Grand Prix at Macau.

He made his Formula One debut in 1984 with Toleman at the Brazilian Grand Prix and finished ninth in the championship, with podiums in the rain-hit Monaco race, in Britain and in Portugal. He joined Lotus in 1985 and took his first pole position and first win at the Portuguese Grand Prix in heavy rain, adding a second victory in Belgium later that year. In 1986 he won in Spain and Detroit, and in 1987 in Monaco and Detroit. His three Lotus seasons ended with championship positions of fourth, fourth and third.

In 1988 he moved to McLaren to partner Alain Prost. The MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races, Senna took eight of them and his first world title. In 1989 he collided with Prost at Suzuka, was disqualified from that race and finished the season second. In 1990 the two met at Suzuka again, with Prost now at Ferrari. A collision at the first corner made Senna world champion. He won a third title in 1991 with seven victories. In 1992 he was fourth behind the dominant Williams cars, and in 1993 second to Prost. His 1993 win in Monaco was his sixth there, a record at the time. He took his 41st and final victory in Australia.

Senna joined Williams for 1994. He started the first three races from pole position but retired from all of them. On 1 May he was killed in a crash while leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. About three million people are estimated to have attended his state funeral in São Paulo. Formula One's safety standards were substantially reworked after his death.

Over 161 starts he won three world titles, 41 races and stood on the podium 80 times. His 65 pole positions were a record when he died. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Source: Wikipedia, “Ayrton Senna”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.