Ayrton Senna da Silva was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil to a wealthy family. When he was four years old his father Milton bought him a go-kart, and by age eight Ayrton was regularly competing in karting events. His career progressed quickly, and in 1982 he moved to England to pursue his racing. In 1984 he came to the attention of the whole world by racing in Formula One. Over the next ten years he won the World Championship three times and engaged in some controversial racing with France's Alain Prost and England's Nigel Mansell. Ayrton Senna was killed on 1 May 1994 in a race at the San Marino Grand Prix when his car, which had been beset with problems the entire season, inexplicably left the track and crashed into the concrete barrier. His was the last death in Formula One due to the major safety reforms that the tragic weekend at Imola had brought about. He was voted by over two hundred of his fellow Formula One drivers as the best driver of all time in a 2010 poll. Senna was also a humanitarian who discreetly donated millions to help those less fortunate in his native country.
Born at 2:45 p.m.
Ayrton Senna was one of the most important pilots of Frmula 1 of all the times.
Formula 1 Champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
Raced for Toleman , Lotus (1985-1987), McLaren (1988-1993) and Williams.
Although in Formula One Grand Prix wins he was behind his chief rival Alain Prost, at the time of his death he had achieved 65 Pole Positions, one short of twice as many as Prost and the other second place holder, Jim Clark, who had 33 each. Michael Schumacher took 12 years to beat Sennas record, recording his 66th pole position, ironically, at the San Marino Grand Prix in 2006.
Died in a Bologna hospital from severe head injuries resulting from a crash on Imolas famous Tamburello bend.
Many experts were convinced that the cause must have been mechanical failure: Senna could not have lost control of his vehicle for any other reason. An inquiry concluded that the accident was caused by a snapped steering column. As a result, manslaughter charges were brought against six members of Sennas Williams racing team. However, all of them were eventually acquitted, and in 1997 the prosecutors appeal was rejected.
First win race in Formula One: Portugal
He always had a Brazilian flag hidden in his car in the case he won the race. At the time of his death he had an Austrian flag in his car to commemorate a fellow race car driver Roland Ratzenberger of Austria, who was killed on the same track the day before in a car crash as well.
Had his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de linfo" .
Held the record of most pole positions in Formula One with 65 of them. Since his first in pole position in June 1985 until his tragic death on the 1st of May in 1994, he had earned altogether 65 pole positions. Eventually he was overtaken - more than a decade later - by Michael Schumacher in April 2006, but his record for pole positions remained to be the hardest one to overtake during the time of modern tracks.
Younger brother of Viviane Senna and older brother of Leonardo Senna.
Son of Neyde Senna and Milton Theodoro Silva.
His last girlfriend was Adriane Galisteu.
F1 Racing Magazine voted him the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time in 2004.
Teammates in Formula One were: Johnny Cecotto, Stefan Johansson, Elio De Angelis, Johnny Dumfries, Satoru Nakajima , Alain Prost , Gerhard Berger , Michael Andretti , Mika Hkkinen and Damon Hill.
1988-1990: Boyfriend of Brazilian TV presenter Xuxa.
Voted athlete of the century in Brazil in 1999 by the magazine "Isto ".
Voted the best driver in the history of Formula 1 in 2012 by the "BBC".
Depicted in the animation "Tooned: The Ayrton Senna Story".
Salary: -1989 - 8 million dollars (5th overall and 1st among drivers) -1990 - 10 million dollars (4th overall and 1st among drivers) -1991 - 13 million dollars (5th overall and 1st among drivers) -1992 - 22 million dollars (3rd overall and 1st among drivers) -1993 - 18.5 million dollars (3rd overall and 1st among drivers).
In November 2017, a musical entitled "Ayrton Senna, O Musical" was premiered in Rio de Janeiro.
He spoke four languages; besides Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian.
There are no small accidents on this circuit" - talking about the race,at Imola circuit [30 April 1994],If I have achieved what I have, and managed to do everything I did, it,is largely due to having had the chance to grow up well in a family,environment, living decently with no economic problems, and being,guided towards the right road at decisive points in my life.
I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.
Emotion, pleasure and challenge. - when asked about what he felt at 300,km/h,I am not designed to come secondor third, I am designedto win.
I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.
And so 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.
If you have God on your side, everything becomes clear.
And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.
When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.
I was already on pole, then by half a second and then one second and I just kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. .
