A tribute to the legends...!!

hpindia · 04-08-2009, 01:32 AM

Formula 1 has seen many a driver come and go. Some have managed to find their way into people's hearts, but its only a select few who have become Legends.

Ayrton Senna
March 21, 1960 - May 1, 1994

Active years: 1984–1994
Teams: Toleman, Lotus, McLaren, Williams
Races: 162 (161 starts)
Championships: 3 (1988, 1990, 1991)
Wins: 41
Podiums: 80
Career points: 610
Pole positions: 65
First race: 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win: 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix
Last win: 1993 Australian Grand Prix
Last race: 1994 San Marino Grand Prix

Arguably, Ayrton Senna is considered one of the greatest drivers in F1 history. Born to a successful businessman and landowner in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ayrton was diagnosed as having a motor coordination problem at a very early age. Senna began his motorsport career in karting and moved up the ranks to win the British Formula 3 championship in 1983. Making his Formula One debut with Toleman in 1984, he moved to Lotus-Renault the following year, and won six Grands Prix over the next three seasons. In 1988 he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, Senna and Prost won fifteen out of the sixteen Grands Prix which took place that season, with Senna winning his first World Championship, a title he would go on to win again in 1990 and 1991. McLaren's performance declined in 1992, as the Williams-Renault combination began to dominate the sport, although Senna finished runner-up in 1993. He moved to Williams in 1994.

Senna and controversies went hand in hand. His rivalry and confrontation with Alain Prost, another legend of the sport, was well-known world over. Their rivalry never ceased to exist even when they were team mates at McLaren. Their mutual animosity reached a peak in the 1990 Japanese GP, when Senna knowingly crashed onto Prost's car just so that he can win the World Championship title, which he sure enough did. This was a repeat of the 1989 incident in the same track with Senna at the receiving end from Prost. Later in a press conference, Senna justified his actions of 1990.

Quote:

"I think what happened in 1989 was unforgivable, and I will never forget it. I still struggle to cope with it even now. You know what took place here: Prost and I crashed at the chicane, when he turned into me. Afterwards, I rejoined the race, and I won it, but they decided against me, and that was not justice. What happened afterwards was... a theatre, but I could not say what I thought. If you do that, you get penalties, you get fined, you lose your license maybe. Is that a fair way of working? It is not...At Suzuka last year I asked the officials to change pole position from the right side of the track to the left. It was unfair, as it was, because the right side is always dirty, and there is less grip — you sweat to get pole position, and then you are penalized for it. And they said, "Yes, no problem". Then, what happened? Balestre gave an order that it wasn't to be changed. I know how the system works, and I thought this was really s***. So I said to myself, "OK, whatever happens, I'm going to get into the first corner first — I'm not prepared to let the guy (Alain Prost) turn into that corner before me. If I'm near enough to him, he can't turn in front of me — he just has to let me through." I didn't care if we crashed; I went for it. And he took a chance, turned in, and we crashed. It was building up, it was inevitable. It had to happen." So you did cause it then, someone said. "Why did I cause it?" Senna responded. "If you get f***** every time you try to do your job cleanly, within the system, what do you do? Stand back, and say thank you? No way. You should fight for what you think is right. If pole had been on the left, I'd have made it to the first corner in the lead, no problem. That was a bad decision to keep pole on the right, and it was influenced by Balestre. And the result was what happened in the first corner. I contributed to it, but it was not my responsibility"

Behind all this aggression and anger, there was a very different Ayrton hiding quietly somewhere. He was a very religious man, and also had a lot of concern on the poverty that was widespread in Brazil. Unknown to anybody until his death in 1994, Senna had spent huge amounts of his private wealth on underprivileged children, estimated to be around $ 400 million at the time of his death. A foundation in his name, Instituto Ayrton Senna, exists to this day.

Senna met with an untimely death in 1994. At the third race of the season, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Senna, having not finished the two opening races of the season, declared that this was where his season would start, with fourteen races, as opposed to sixteen, in which to win the title. Senna again placed the car on pole for the 65th and final time, but he was particularly upset by two events. On Friday, during the afternoon qualifying session, Senna's protégé, the then F1 newcomer Rubens Barrichello, was involved in a serious accident that prevented him from competing in the race. The next day Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying. Senna spent his final morning meeting fellow drivers, determined after Ratzenberger's accident to take on a new responsibility to re-create a Drivers' Safety group (i.e. Grand Prix Drivers' Association) to increase safety in Formula One. As the most senior driver, he offered to take the role of leader in this effort.

Senna and the other drivers all opted to start the Grand Prix, but the race was interrupted by a huge accident at the start line. A safety car was deployed and the drivers followed it for several laps. On the restart Senna immediately set a quick pace with the third quickest lap of the race, followed by Schumacher. As Senna entered the high-speed Tamburello corner on the next lap, the car left the track at high speed, hitting the concrete retaining wall at around 135 mph (217 km/h). Senna was removed from the car by Sid Watkins and his medical team and treated by the side of the car before being airlifted to Bologna hospital where 34 year old Senna was later declared dead. As track officials examined the wreckage of his racing car they found a furled Austrian flag -- a victory flag that he was going to raise in honour of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, who had died on that track the day before.

Alain Prost, Senna's arch-rival had much to say about him in this interview to Nigel Roebuck in 1998, 4 yrs after Senna's death.

Quote:

"Honestly, it's very difficult for me to talk about Ayrton, and not only because he's not here any more. He was so different, you know, so completely different from any other racing driver - any other person - I've ever known..."

"When he died, I said, that I felt a part of me had died also, because our careers had been so bound together. And I really meant it, but I know some people thought it was not sincere. Well, all I can do is try to be as honest as possible."

Senna remains a national hero in Brazil and his grave attracts more visitors than the graves of John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley combined.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna
Grand Prix Hall of Fame - Ayrton Senna - Biography
prostfan.com - Alain Prost vs. Ayrton Senna -- Senna fans beware..!!
prostfan.com - Ayrton Senna by Alain Prost -- Get to know about the weird guy Senna was, through the eyes of his arch-rival, Prost. Do not miss this..!!!!