Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960 in Sao Paulo,
Brazil. He lived in Monte Carlo and Sao Paulo in his last years and
was divorced with a girlfriend Adriane. He had no children. He
enjoyed model aircrafts, jet-skiing, waterskiing, jogging and tennis.
His Favourite music he once said was "Everything good from pop to
classical". He was 5ft 9ins. and weighed 155 pounds.
His racing career started at the age of 4 in go-karts and he
had his very first go-kart race at the age of 13 professionally. His
first racing car ever was a Formula Ford 1600 van Diemen in 1981.
In the year 1977 he was the panamerican Kart Champion and runner-up
in 1980 as the Kart World Champion. He once mentioned that his most
cherished victory was - "Clinching the 1988 World Championship by
winning the Japanese GP at Suzuka".
In 1981 he was the British Formula Ford 1600 Champion. In
1982 he became the British and European Champion in the Formula Ford
2000 class. In 1983 he was the British F3 Champion.
By the time the 1984 F1 season started, Ayrton Senna now had
a ride with Toleman-Hart and drove their turbo-charged car. He never
won a race that year and did have an accident when he crashed his car
during practice for the Detroit Grand Prix by hitting the wall near
the pits. He finished the season ranked 8th with 13 points.
The 1985 season started and Ayrton Senna managed to lead in
races at Imola, Monaco, Silverstone, Nurburgring, Detroit, Brands
Hatch and Adelaide. He finished the season with 38 points in 4th
postion.
1986 Season saw Ayrton fetch 8 Poles and win 2 races. He
ended up with 55 points in 4th position overall driving his Lotus-
Renault.
In 1987, Arton drove his 99T amazingly in Detroit. He
finished the season with his Lotus-Honda at 57 points and 3rd
overall.
1988 had Senna winning his first Formula One World
Championship in his McLaren-Honda. He had 94 points in total.
1989 and Ayrton Senna finishes 2nd overall due to a few
mechanical fairlures at Montreal, Paul Ricard, Monza and Phoenix
and some driving errors of his own doing in a few other races.
This was also the year of the famous clash with Nigel Mansell in
Estoril, Portugal which saw them both crash off the circuit and
out of the race. He also drove a wonderful race in the wet at
Montreal, Spa and Adelaide although he was taken out due to
mechanical failure in Montreal. His Marlboro-McLaren-Honda gave
him 60 points for the season.
1990 once again had Ayrton becoming World Champion with
78 points in his Marlboro-McLaren-Honda.
In 1991, Ayrton became the World Driving Champion for the
third and last time of his career. Nelson Piquet won the first 4
races of the season in his McLaren MP4/6 and Senna's Williams FW14
Renault was to later catch up and win the championship. Ayrton won
with a failed gear-box at Interlagos in the rain. He won again at
the Hungaroring and came 3rd in Mexico. He also later that year
admitted openly that he had contributed to the 1st corner shunt
at Suzuka in 1990 and it sort of made his World Championship for that
year not so valued anymore. He finished the season with 96 points
in his Marlboro-McLaren-Honda.
1992 had Senna finishing 4th overall and his McLaren MP/6
crashed hard in practice at Mexico City only bruising his legs.
He stopped for tyres 4 times in the race at Estoril this year. He
drove the car to a total of 50 points.
1993 was Ayrton Senna's last full season in Formula One and
he ended runner-up in the World Championship for the last time in
his career. He won at Interlagos, Suzuka and Donnington Park all in
the wet and won in Adelaide. He spun at Hockenheim on the first
corner in the opening lap and also pushed his McLaren MP4/8 into the
back of Martin Brundle's Ligier putting Martin off the road. Ayrton
Senna was now getting $1 million per race on a race by race agreement
with McLaren but the outcome was #1. He also decked Eddie Irvine
after the race in Suzuka for a confrontation on the race track during
the Japanese Grand Prix. 73 Points were had by Senna this season.
1n 1994 Ayrton Senna joined team mate Mika Hakkinen at
Williams. He accomplished Pole Position in Brazil, Pacific and the
San Marino Grands Prix. Then came that horrible day in San Marino
during the Formula One race.
Michael Schumacher said of the crash and death of Ayrton
Senna - "What has happened is so dramatic and so bad that I feel no
satisfaction in winning."
