162 Facts About Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna then won the 1983 British Formula Three Championship amidst a close title battle with Martin Brundle, further winning the Macau Grand Prix that year.

Ayrton Senna signed for Toleman in 1984, making his Formula One debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Ayrton Senna remained at Lotus for his 1986 and 1987 campaigns, scoring multiple wins in each and finishing third in the latter World Drivers' Championship.

Ayrton Senna took seven victories, including his home Grand Prix in Brazil, as he secured his third title in 1991.

The dominant Williams-Renault combination prevailed throughout his remaining two seasons at McLaren, with Ayrton Senna achieving several race wins in each, including his record-breaking sixth Monaco Grand Prix victory in 1993 on his way to again finishing runner-up to Prost in the championship.

Ayrton Senna negotiated a move to Williams for his 1994 campaign, replacing the retired Prost to partner Damon Hill.

Ayrton Senna achieved 41 wins, 65 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 80 podiums in Formula One; he remains a legendary figure within motorsport for his raw speed and aggressive driving style, and is frequently cited as a national hero of Brazil.

Ayrton Senna was widely acclaimed for his wet-weather performances, such as at the 1984 Monaco, 1985 Portuguese and 1993 European Grands Prix.

Ayrton Senna was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Ayrton Senna was born at 2:35 BRT on 21 March 1960, in the Pro-Matre Maternity Hospital of Santana, a neighbourhood of Sao Paulo.

Ayrton Senna was born of both Italian and Spanish heritage: his mother was the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, and his father was born to a Spanish mother from Tijola, Andalusia.

The house where Ayrton Senna spent the first four years of his life belonged to his maternal grandfather, Joao Ayrton Senna, located less than 100 metres from Campo de Marte, where his family operated the Aeronautics Material park and an airport.

Ayrton Senna had poor motor coordination and had trouble climbing stairways by the age of three; an electroencephalogram showed no abnormalities.

At the age of seven, Ayrton Senna first learned to drive a Jeep around his family's farm and how to change gears without using a clutch.

Ayrton Senna attended the Colegio Rio Branco in the Sao Paulo neighbourhood of Higienopolis and graduated in 1977 with a grade 5 in physics, alongside other grades in mathematics, chemistry, and English.

Ayrton Senna started racing at Interlagos and entered his first kart racing competition at the age of 13.

Ayrton Senna started his debut race on pole position, against drivers who were several years older than him; he managed to lead most of the race before retiring after colliding with an opponent.

Ayrton Senna's father supported him throughout his karting career, with Lucio Pascal Gascon becoming his manager.

Ayrton Senna contested the Karting World Championship five times from 1978 to 1982, finishing runner-up in 1979 and 1980.

Ayrton Senna later stated that Fullerton was the rival he got the most satisfaction racing against, owing to the lack of money and politics at that level, describing it as "pure racing".

In 1981, Ayrton Senna moved to Eaton, a suburb of Norwich in England, to pursue an open-wheel racing career; he began his career in Formula Ford 1600, winning the British and Townsend Thoresen Championships that year with Van Diemen, amid a fractious rivalry with teammate Enrique Mansilla.

Ayrton Senna initially did not believe he would continue in motorsport.

For 1982, Ayrton Senna arrived with sponsorship from Banerj and Pool, dominating the British and European Championships, winning 15 of 17 races held at the former.

In 1983, Ayrton Senna drove in the British Formula Three Championship for West Surrey Racing.

Ayrton Senna dominated the first half of the season until Martin Brundle, driving a similar car for Eddie Jordan Racing, closed the gap in the second part of the championship.

Ayrton Senna won the title at the final round after a closely fought and, at times, contentious battle with Brundle.

Ayrton Senna was managed for most of his junior career by Armando Teixeira, who was assisted by Domingos Piedade.

Ahead of the 1984 season, Ayrton Senna was linked to many Formula One teams but received very few offers he liked.

Ayrton Senna had previously declined a long-term contract from McLaren, and that door was formally closed when Alain Prost received the second McLaren seat.

Ayrton Senna was linked to Lotus and Brabham, but both teams' title sponsors wanted drivers from their respective home countries, so Lotus retained Nigel Mansell and Brabham signed brothers Teo and Corrado Fabi.

Consequently, Ayrton Senna joined Toleman, a relatively new team, using less competitive Pirelli tyres.

Ayrton Senna was paired with Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto, a former Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion.

In 1983, Ayrton Senna tested for McLaren, Brabham, Williams, and Toleman, although Williams lacked a vacancy.

Ayrton Senna made his debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro, where he qualified 17th but retired when the Hart 415T turbocharger failed on lap 8.

Ayrton Senna scored his first World Championship point when he finished sixth in his second race at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami with severe cramp in his neck and shoulders, and replicated that result two weeks later at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ayrton Senna then suffered a fuel-pressure problem in the wet Saturday session at Tosa and did not have enough time for it to be fixed to allow him to make the grid.

Ayrton Senna quickly began to cut the gap to race leader Alain Prost.

At the time the race was stopped, Ayrton Senna was catching Prost by about 4 seconds per lap.

Early on his career, Ayrton Senna developed a reputation for providing very specific technical details about the performance of his cars and track conditions long before the advent of telemetry.

The car was reasonably competitive there, so we expected to have a good race, but Ayrton Senna spun early in the race.

Ayrton Senna then found his way back through the field in a quite effective way and we were looking for a pretty good finish, but then he hit the wall, damaged the rear wheel and the driveshaft and retired, which was a real shame.

Ayrton Senna did not take part in the Italian Grand Prix after he was suspended by Toleman for being in breach of his contract by entering talks with Lotus for 1985 without informing the Toleman team first.

Ayrton Senna became the first driver Lotus had signed not personally chosen by team founder Colin Chapman, who had died in 1982.

Ayrton Senna was partnered in his first year at Lotus-Renault by Italian driver Elio de Angelis.

Ayrton Senna had dominated testing times at Rio, although he retired with electrical issues during the race weekend.

At the second round of the season, the Portuguese Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna took the first pole position of his Formula 1 career.

Ayrton Senna converted it into his first victory in the race, which was held in very wet conditions, winning by over a minute from the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto, and lapping everyone up to and including third placed Patrick Tambay.

Ayrton Senna later argued it was the best drive of his career, an opinion shared by race engineer Steve Hallam, who recognised Senna's "truly special" talent.

Ayrton Senna led at the San Marino, Monaco, British and German Grands Prix but retired from all these races either from engine failure or running out of fuel, and he had a huge accident at the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard's fastest corner after an engine failure in the middle of the corner.

Ayrton Senna did not finish in the points again until coming second at the Austrian Grand Prix, despite taking pole three more times in the intervening period.

Two more podiums followed in the Netherlands and Italy, before Ayrton Senna added his second victory in wet-dry conditions, at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

In terms of qualifying, Ayrton Senna had begun to establish himself as the quickest in the field; his tally of seven poles that season was far more than that of any of the other drivers.

De Angelis was replaced at Lotus by Scotland's Johnny Dumfries after Ayrton Senna vetoed Derek Warwick from joining the team, saying that Lotus could not run competitive cars for two top drivers at the same time.

Nonetheless, Ayrton Senna was once more the top qualifier with eight poles, with a further six podium finishes included another win at the Detroit Grand Prix, thus finishing the season fourth in the driver's standings again, with a total of 55 points.

Ayrton Senna started the season with mixed fortunes: a podium at the San Marino Grand Prix was tempered by controversy at the following race at Spa-Francorchamps, where he collided with Mansell, and afterward in the pits an irate Mansell grabbed Ayrton Senna by the throat and had to be restrained by Lotus mechanics.

Ayrton Senna then won two races in a row, which helped him take the lead in the World Championship: the ensuing Monaco Grand Prix and the Detroit Grand Prix, his second victory in two years at the angular Michigan street circuit, and the first ever for an active suspension Formula One car.

Ayrton Senna became dissatisfied with his chances at Lotus and at Monza it was announced that he would be joining McLaren for 1988.

Ayrton Senna was fined $15,000 for punching a corner marshal after they refused to push his stalled car in Mexico then finished the season strongly, coming second in the final two races in Japan and Australia; post-race scrutineering at the final race found the brake ducts of his Lotus to be wider than permitted by the rules and he was disqualified, bringing his last and most successful season with Lotus to a sour end.

Ayrton Senna was classified third in the final standings, with 57 points, six podium finishes and only one pole position.

In 1988, due to the relationship he had built up with Honda throughout the 1987 season with Lotus, and with the approval of McLaren's number-one driver and then-double world champion, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna joined the McLaren team.

At the post-race team debrief, Prost voiced his anger at the move which prompted Ayrton Senna to apologize to Prost for the incident.

Tension and mistrust between the two drivers increased when Ayrton Senna overtook Prost at the restart of the San Marino Grand Prix, a move which Prost claimed violated a pre-race agreement.

Ayrton Senna took an early lead in the championship with victories in San Marino, Monaco, and Mexico.

Ayrton Senna led every lap of those races, a feat unequalled until Sebastian Vettel replicated it in 2012.

Prost had managed to leave the grid faster than Ayrton Senna by removing the gurney flap from his car, which was unbeknownst to Ayrton Senna.

On lap 46, Ayrton Senna had finally come next to Prost and attempted a pass on the inside at the tight last chicane.

Prost abandoned the race at that point, whereas Ayrton Senna urged marshals for a push-start, which he received, then proceeding with the race after a pit stop to replace the damaged nose on his car.

Ayrton Senna took the lead from the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini and went on to claim victory, only to be disqualified following a stewards meeting after the race.

Ayrton Senna was disqualified for cutting the chicane after the collision with Prost, and for crossing into the pit lane entry which was not part of the track.

Ayrton Senna claimed that Balestre had forced the race stewards to disqualify him so his fellow Frenchman Prost could win the championship, though the stewards of the meeting denied that Balestre forced their decision, claiming that he was not present when the decision was made.

Ayrton Senna finished the season second with six wins and one second place.

Ayrton Senna was replaced by the Austrian Gerhard Berger, who became Senna's close friend.

Ayrton Senna took a commanding lead in the championship with six wins, two second-places, and three thirds.

Ayrton Senna had gone out with a damaged radiator, and the gap between Ayrton Senna and Prost was now reduced to nine points with two races left.

Ayrton Senna later claimed that this agreement was not honored, possibly due to Balestre's interference.

Prost believed that Ayrton Senna's actions were intentional, as Ayrton Senna continued speeding up as the two went into the corner.

Ayrton Senna added that he considered retiring from the sport after the incident.

One year later, Ayrton Senna admitted that he intentionally wrecked Prost as payback for 1989, as well as his anger over the FIA's decision to disqualify him in 1989 and its pole position ruling in 1990.

Ayrton Senna said it was not how he wanted it to be, but it was how it had to be.

In 1991, Ayrton Senna became the youngest ever three-time world champion, taking seven wins and increasing his pole position record to 60 from 127 events.

Ayrton Senna won the first four races in Phoenix, Brazil, Imola, and Monaco as his rivals struggled to match his pace and reliability.

Mansell scored only six points by the time Ayrton Senna had 40 points.

Ayrton Senna won three more races to pull away from Mansell.

Once again, Ayrton Senna clinched the title in Japan when Mansell went off at the first corner while running third and beached his Williams in the gravel trap.

Ayrton Senna finished second, handing the victory to teammate Berger at the last corner as a thank-you gesture for his support over the season.

Ayrton Senna considered moving to Williams for the 1992 season, but Honda's CEO, Nobuhiko Kawamoto, personally requested that he remain at McLaren-Honda, which Ayrton Senna did out of a sense of loyalty.

Ayrton Senna won three races and finished fourth overall in the championship, behind the Williams duo of Mansell and Riccardo Patrese, and Benetton's Michael Schumacher.

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Schumacher accused Ayrton Senna of "playing around" while attempting to overtake Ayrton Senna, who had a problem with his engine, a fact that Schumacher was apparently unaware of at the time.

At the French Grand Prix, Schumacher collided with Ayrton Senna, resulting in Ayrton Senna's retirement.

Ayrton Senna later confronted Schumacher, who admitted responsibility for the accident.

Ayrton Senna grew increasingly worried about driver safety during the season.

Various drivers, including Ayrton Senna, criticized the poor condition of the circuit.

Ayrton Senna could hear that the stricken car's engine was revving at max RPM and could blow at any moment.

Ayrton Senna's actions were applauded and seemed to soften his hard-nosed image.

Ayrton Senna publicly accused Prost of cowardice, although the racing press noted that in 1986, Ayrton Senna had done the same thing to Derek Warwick.

Ayrton Senna declined a drive from Ferrari, which eventually went to teammate Gerhard Berger.

Ayrton Senna reluctantly re-signed with McLaren on a race-by-race basis, and reportedly received a salary of $1 million per race.

Ayrton Senna asked to switch to the Chrysler-backed Lamborghini V12 engine in midseason, but Dennis stuck with Ford for the rest of the season after Ford delivered an upgrade at round 11 in Hungary.

Ayrton Senna finished second at the season opener in Kyalami.

Ayrton Senna won his record-breaking sixth win at round six in Monaco, breaking a tie with Graham Hill at five, after polesitter Prost was handed a ten-second stop-go penalty for jumping the start.

Ayrton Senna's season was hampered by mechanical failures in Imola, Canada, Britain, Hungary, and Portugal.

In mid-October, Ayrton Senna signed with Williams to replace the retiring Prost for 1994.

However, at the following race, the Japanese Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna got into a heated argument with Jordan's Eddie Irvine and eventually tried to punch Irvine in the head.

Ayrton Senna turned down Prost's suggestion of a conciliatory gesture.

Ayrton Senna took his 41st and last Formula One win at the Australian Grand Prix.

Ayrton Senna said that he had a "very negative feeling" about the FW16.

Ayrton Senna was particularly upset by rumors that Michael Schumacher's Benetton B194 was still secretly using the electronic driver aids.

Ayrton Senna took pole at the first three races but retired from each of them.

Ayrton Senna pushed hard to overtake Schumacher, but spun on lap 56, forcing a retirement.

At the Pacific Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna's race was ended by a multi-car accident at the first corner, where Mika Hakkinen hit him from behind and Nicola Larini subsequently T-boned him.

Ayrton Senna took pole again at Imola but fatally crashed during the race.

Ratzenberger was killed by his crash, and Ayrton Senna brought an Austrian flag with him for the race, which he presumably intended to raise in honor of Ratzenberger.

On lap 7, Ayrton Senna fatally crashed at the high-speed Tamburello corner.

Ayrton Senna was airlifted to Bologna's Maggiore Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 18:40 CEST.

The hospital's head of emergency medicine, Dr Maria Teresa Fiandri, stated that Ayrton Senna sustained fatal skull fractures, brain injuries, and a ruptured temporal artery, any one of which would likely have killed him.

An analysis of the crash primarily focused on Ayrton Senna's steering column, which broke during the crash.

The night before the race, Ayrton Senna asked for the steering wheel to be shortened.

Ayrton Senna appealed anyway to clear his name, but his appeal was rejected in 2007.

Ayrton Senna's body was flown back to Brazil on 4 May 1994.

Ayrton Senna lay in state at the Legislative Assembly building in Sao Paulo.

Ayrton Senna was buried in the Morumbi Cemetery in Sao Paulo.

Ayrton Senna had a special relationship with company founder Soichiro Honda and was beloved in Japan, where he achieved a near-mythic status.

Ayrton Senna had met various members of the squad, including Ronaldo, as well as Leonardo Araujo, three months earlier in Paris, telling them "this is our year".

Ayrton Senna did not participate in many other forms of motorsport once he reached Formula One.

Ayrton Senna, who was a last-minute inclusion in the Mercedes race taking over from Emerson Fittipaldi, took the lead in the first corner of the first lap, winning the race ahead of Niki Lauda and Carlos Reutemann.

Ayrton Senna took part in the Nurburgring round of the 1984 World Sportscar Championship, driving a Porsche 956 for New-Man Joest Racing, alongside Henri Pescarolo and Stefan Johansson.

Ayrton Senna finished in 8th place but impressed the team and his co-drivers.

Ayrton Senna took part in the Masters of Paris-Bercy event in 1993, an indoor all-star kart racing competition held on a temporary circuit at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.

Ayrton Senna secured an IndyCar testing session with the support of compatriot and Penske driver, Emerson Fittipaldi.

In December 1992, Ayrton Senna visited Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona, near Phoenix in the United States, in order to test a 1992 Penske PC-21 CART IndyCar.

When McLaren boss Ron Dennis found out it was a very serious deal he promptly banned Ayrton Senna from competing at Indianapolis.

Ayrton Senna secretly donated millions of US dollars to help poor children.

Ayrton Senna married his childhood friend Lilian de Vasconcelos Souza in 1981, but she had difficulty adapting to her husband's racing life in England and they divorced in 1982.

Ayrton Senna was often chaperoned by her mother during dates.

Ayrton Senna shot back in a 1990 interview with the Brazilian edition of Playboy, declaring that he lost his virginity at 13 years of age to a prostitute arranged by his cousin, and insinuating that Piquet loathed him because he had previously slept with Piquet's future wife.

Ayrton Senna had an affair with American model Carol Alt, and briefly dated models Marjorie Andrade and Elle Macpherson.

At his death, Ayrton Senna's estate was estimated at $400 million.

Ayrton Senna owned several properties, including an organic farm in Tatui, Brazil, a beach house in Angra dos Reis, Brazil, an apartment in Sao Paulo, Brazil, an apartment in Monaco, an estate in Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera, and a house in Algarve, Portugal.

Ayrton Senna owned a private jet and a helicopter, the latter of which he piloted to travel between his various Brazilian residences.

Ayrton Senna helped test and fine-tune the NSX, working directly with chief NSX engineer Shigeru Uehara and his team during five testing sessions at Suzuka.

Honda credited Ayrton Senna's feedback, explaining that Ayrton Senna encouraged Uehara to increase the stiffness of the chassis.

Ayrton Senna drove two other NSX cars owned by Honda Portugal and Senna's friend Antonio Carlos de Almeida Braga.

In 1993, Ayrton Senna signed a lucrative agreement to import, market, and sell Audi cars in Brazil.

In 1999, Audi Ayrton Senna was created as a joint venture of Audi with Ayrton Senna Import.

Ayrton Senna endorsed the Ducati 916 motorbike shortly before his death in 1994.

The Ayrton Senna brand was used for apparel, watches, bicycles, motorcycles and boats.

Senna contributed several interviews to the Japan-exclusive Ayrton Senna Personal Talk: Message for the Future, a multimedia compact disc for the Sega Saturn.

Ayrton Senna continues to feature in video games following his death.

In 2013, Gran Turismo 6 released a Ayrton Senna-centered expansion pack, with some of the proceeds going to help the IAS.

Ayrton Senna enjoyed a range of physical activities including running, waterskiing, jet skiing, and paddleboarding.

Ayrton Senna had several hobbies, such as flying real and model planes and helicopters, boating, fishing, and riding Ducati motorbikes.

Towards the end of his career, Ayrton Senna became increasingly preoccupied with the dangers of his profession.

Ayrton Senna was proud of his driving ability, and responded angrily to criticism.

In 2000, Autocourse noted that "Ayrton Senna was the one driver who genuinely cared where he was ranked in [Autocourse's ranking of the year's] Top 10 drivers," and took being placed below his rivals as a personal slight.

Ayrton Senna was so outraged that despite being given the No 1 driver award in 1991, Ayrton Senna refused to write the usually customary foreword by the year's World Champion; Honda's Head of Racing wrote the foreword instead.

Outside Earth, minor planet 6543 Ayrton Senna is named for Ayrton Senna.

Ayrton Senna was featured in GP Boy, a two-volume manga published in Weekly Shonen Jump to commemorate Shueisha's sponsorship, and in F1 no Senko, published on Jump, which recounts the 1991 Formula One season from Ayrton Senna's perspective.

Ayrton Senna is mentioned in episode 151 of the Japanese animated series Gintama, along with two other F1 drivers, Jacques Villeneuve and Rubens Barrichello.

In 2024, Netflix released an eponymous biographical miniseries based on Ayrton Senna's life, starring Gabriel Leone as Ayrton Senna.

Ayrton Senna experimented with several designs to satisfy him, such as a white, yellow, and green helmet, before settling on a design by Sid Mosca that included a yellow background with a green stripe surrounding the upper visor and a light metallic blue stripe surrounding the lower visor that was first seen in 1979.

One such change was that Ayrton Senna occasionally altered the stripe from blue to black.

Ayrton Senna used a number of helmet brands throughout his career.