PAST IMPERFECT:There was a gentler side to the Brazilian driver with a 'God- given right' to win, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
THE FIFTEENTH anniversary of that terrible day at Imola which claimed the live of Ayrton Senna passed on May 1st with a flurry of media articles. For a sport that continuously produces more than its fair share of drama, its true to say that that day in May traumatised it. Today, Ayrton Senna is remembered with veneration by many who were too young to appreciate his abilities when he was driving to three World Championships, and serves as a role model to many young drivers, most notably, Lewis Hamilton.
With the passage of time it could be expected that it would become easier to be more certain about Senna’s place in the pantheon of great racing drivers, but is such the case? Today, while his greatness in a racing car is not contested, it is his statue as a man outside racing that is best recalled by those who knew him, such as team owner Frank Williams.
Ayrton brought a new single-mindedness to his driving which changed Formula 1 forever and inspired such drivers as Michael Schumacher who was just emerging as a major force at the time of Senna’s death.
Like Senna, Michael Schumacher would have a career marked by controversy for his often ruthless driving actions. Like Senna, when he drove arch-rival Alain Prost off the circuit at Suzuka in 1989 to claim the world championship, Schumacher would employ similar tactics when he deprived Graham Hill of a world championship in 1994.
The record books state that Ayrton Senna took 41 Grand Prix wins in 161 starts, winning three World Drivers Championships in the process. He finished on the podium 80 times, scored 610 points and perhaps most tellingly of all, took no less than 65 pole positions. Driving Toleman, Lotus, McLaren and Williams racing cars during his career, those pole positions were mainly achieved in the latter two marques giving him a strike rate of roughly one in two when he had a car with the required capabilities. By any standards this was outstanding and is final evidence, if any were needed, of the Brazilian’s extraordinary speed.
Of his often bitter rivalry with Frenchman Alain Prost, it was perhaps inevitable that the two greatest drivers of their era should become engaged in such a struggle. By then Senna’s single-minded desire to win had become in his own psyche nothing less than “a God-given right to win”. Alain Prost was poorly equipped – despite his sublime skill as a driver – to deal with such single-mindedness and came off badly in the exchanges.
Yet, when Prost retired at the end of 1993, making room for Senna to join the Williams team, the Brazilian missed the challenge of a rival he truly respected, and to his credit, set about making peace between the two on the very weekend of his death.
These apparent contradictions were typical of Senna and reveal a complex man behind the racing drivers’ facade. The son of a wealthy Brazilian landowner, he expressed concern over widespread poverty in Brazil and privately spent millions of his fortune helping underprivileged children.
Not long before his death he created the framework for an organisation, today run by his sister Vivienne, dedicated to making life better for Brazilian children, named the Instituto Ayrton Senna.
That organisation invests in social programmes and in partnerships with schools to give children from a less-privileged background a batter start in life.
So, Ayrton Senna, one of motor racing’s greatest-ever drivers, but also an extraordinary and compassionate human being who lived life with an intensity rarely seen.