The Brazilian driving for JPS Lotus
And coming in and number two is many people’s favourite of all time, Brazilan Motor Racing legend, Ayrton Senna who is sadly no longer with us.
His talent was unquestioned, his character unflappable, and his pace unbelievable. He won three World Championships, all with Mclaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Senna’s skill was noticeable from a very early age, he started karting at 13 and in 1977 won the South American Karting Championship and finished runner up on two ocassions in the World Championship, before moving to Britain to race single seater cars, and pipped Martin Brundle to the Formula Three World Championship in 1983.
By then, F1 teams were queuing up to sign him as their driver, with Williams, Brabham, Toleman and Mclaren all offering him a test, and with Piquet not wanting Senna to join him at Brabham, he joined Toleman instead and worked wonders in a car which had no right to be at the front. The Monaco GP won him a lot of fans, working his way up the field in torrential rain, and got to 2nd before the race was stopped due to the conditions being too bad. Senna maintained he would have won the race if it had continued for one more lap.
He was suspened for the Italian Grand Prix for breaking his contract to sign for Lotus in 1985.
Senna won two races in the 1985 season, being partnered by Elio de Angelis, who also won an event that season which caused a rift as both drivers wanted top driver status.
Pole Positions seemed to be Senna’s expertise as he made seven in his first season, and eight in his second, also scoring two race wins. He finished 4th overall behind Prost, Piquet and Mansell.
1987 promised better things as Lotus had acquired the same Honda engines that Williams were using for Mansell and Piquet. However, the Lotus was still miles behind in terms of performance, and Senna was infact lapped at the British GP by both cars. Despite that, the Brazilian claimed two wins, and finished third in the championship behind the Williams drivers. Senna’s relationship with Honda was very strong, and this won him a seat with the Mclaren team in 1988 alongside Alain Prost.
They dominated 1988 winning 15 of 16 races, and Senna claimed the championship despite scoring less points because only the best 11 scores counted.
1989 was a dramatic season with the ‘dream team’ colliding in Suzuka to decide the championship. Senna took out Prost but rejoined the track to replace his nose cone after a push start, and was promptly disqualified despite winning the event. He finished runner up.
1990 would give Senna his 2nd championship but arguably cheated to do so. He qualified on pole but after an agreement to switch the position to the other side of the track, FIA president Jean Marie Balestre reversed the decision, infuriating Senna who believed it gave him an unfair advantage being on the dirty side of the track. He lost 1st place off the start and rammed Prost into turn 1, virtually eliminating them both and gifting himself with the championship. He later admitted he had caused the incident and Prost called the actions ‘disgusting.’ The Frenchman had left Mclaren at the end of 1989 to join Ferrari.
1991 would see Senna win his final championship with 7 victories to his name, which should have been 8 but he ran out of fuel on the last lap at Silverstone, allowing Mansell to win his home Grand Prix. The Brit memorably gave Senna a ride back to the paddock on his victory lap. Although halfway through the season Mansell was challenging him heavily, the Brazilian demanded that Honda step up their engine development to aid his quest for the title. They did so, and Senna won three important races to secure the title.
1992 would possibly go down as his worst season in a Mclaren. The car had to run an old model as the new one wasn’t ready until round 4, and its engine power didn’t really challenge Williams until Monaco, where Senna managed to keep Mansell behind him for 5 laps near the end, despite the Brit being 3-4 seconds a lap quicker! He finished 4th in the championship behind Mansell, Patrese, and Schumacher.
1993 wouldn’t be an awful lot better, with Mclaren failing to match the Williams cars of Prost and Hill, and Senna at one point drove on a race by race basis although he saw the season to the end, winning his final Grand Prix in Australia, he did well to finish runner up to Prost despite Damon winning three races on the trot.
1994. The less said the better in the Senna family as his life would come to a premature conclusion at the San Marino Grand Prix. Ayrton had failed to finish in the first two races in Brazil and Japan, and came into the race needing good points to challenge a fast improving Michael Schumacher. After a safety car period, Senna led Schumacher by just over a second, but on lap 7, while the world was watching Schumacher work hard inside the cockpit, it was visible that Senna had left the track at considerable speed. He ploughed into the wall at Tamburello and didn’t move significantly for the next few minutes. He was airlifted to Bologna hospital where he was pronounced dead. The right front wheel had hit him on the head causing multiple fractures of the skull, and he didn’t recover. Michael Schumacher went on to win the title.
Senna would be many people’s number one and I would fully understand that. In my opinion he probably WAS the quickest driver of all time and was consistently a force to be reckoned with. His rivalry with Prost and his indiviudal moments of brilliance will be what many people remember. His death was untimely and goes down as possibily the worst moment in the sport’s history.
Ayrton Senna is rightfully my number two.
Videos below feature his astonishing opening lap at Donington Park in 93 and his final moments at Imola in 1994.
Tags: ayrton senna, balestre, lotus, mansell, mclaren, prost, schumacher, senna, toleman
