Ayrton Senna da Silva He was born on March 21, 1960 into a wealthy family in Sao Paulo. With the encouragement of his father, he got into karting for the first time when he was four years old, won his first race at the age of 13, won the South American karting championship in 1977, and won the world championship silver medal in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, he got married, moved to Europe and joined the British Formula Ford 1600 racing series. The following year he won the British and European Formula Ford 2000 championships, and in 1983 the British Formula 3 championship.
In Formula 1, on March 25, 1984, he presented himself as a competitor of a small team, Toleman. He scored points in his second race, and was able to stand on the podium three times in his first season. From the following year, he raced for Lotus and took six race wins in three years, the first on April 21, 1985, in Estoril, Portugal. In 1988, he signed a contract with McLaren, where he is a two-time world champion Alain Prost became his teammate. The rivalry between the two, which became legendary, eventually escalated to the point that they did not even speak to each other with the Frenchman referred to as “Professor” except on officially required occasions. The two were fire and water, Prost driving with infinite clarity and deliberation, while Senna was obsessively chasing victory and prone to taking risks.
At the 1988 World Championship, Senna won eight of the 16 races, including the World Cup title, but the following year he only finished second behind the Frenchman. At the penultimate Japanese Grand Prix, only victory would have been enough for the Brazilian, but he collided with his teammate, and because his car was pushed back by track workers, he was disqualified even though he finished first. In 1990, he became the world champion again, the fate of the title was again decided by an accident in Suzuka. Senna and Prost, who was already competing with Ferrari at the time, collided in the first corner and both were eliminated, thus the Brazilian’s advantage in the overall became unattainable. Senna later admitted that he caused the crash on purpose because he felt it was unfair that Prost was allowed to start on the clear side of the track even though he had pole position. The Brazilian became world champion for the third time in 1991, winning seven of the 16 competitions. In 1992, he finished fourth with a weaker McLaren, and in 1993, with a new car equipped with traction control, he was considered a contender, but in the end he finished second behind Prost.
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Gallery: One of the most charismatic Formula 1 drivers of all time died 30 years agoPhoto: Patrick Behar / Getty Images HungaryGallery: One of the most charismatic Formula 1 drivers of all time died 30 years ago (Photo: Patrick Behar / Getty Images Hungary)
He transferred to the Williams team for the 1994 season, but his season started badly. He crashed out of the first two Grand Prix, starting from the front, followed by the San Marino Grand Prix. The race weekend started with ominous signs: the Brazilian in the first free practice Rubens Barrichello he hit the wall at full throttle, but survived the accident, the next day the rookie Austrian Roland Ratzenberger lost control of his vehicle traveling at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and died in the hospital.
The competition started on May 1, 1994. In the seventh lap, Senna, who was racing at a speed of 310 kilometers in the lead, slid off the track in the Tamburello corner and continued straight ahead and crashed into a concrete wall that was not protected by the rubber barrier. The competitor sitting in the wrecked car showed no signs of life, and hundreds of millions of TV viewers could watch in shock as the rescuers unsuccessfully tried to revive him. The competitor was taken to the hospital by helicopter, where he was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. The time of death was given as the moment of the collision, 2:17 p.m. One and a half million people attended his funeral in Brazil and three days of national mourning were ordered.
The accident led to lawsuits against the Williams team managers and track operators, but they were all acquitted in 1997. According to the expert investigation, the steering rod broke before the accident, so Senna, sitting in the car that became uncontrollable, could not do anything. His death was caused by three – separately fatal – head injuries, forehead and skull base fractures caused by the right front wheel suspension breaking off during the collision, which resulted in cerebral hemorrhage and edema. The designer of the car Patrick Head an Italian court found him responsible in 2007, but no punishment was imposed because the case had expired by then.
After the tragedy, safety regulations were tightened in Formula 1, Senna himself fought for this as a pilot. The tracks were rebuilt, the racing cars were redesigned, and the HANS system, which protects the neck and head, was introduced. Thanks to this, since then, a fatal racing accident has only occurred at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, the French Jules Bianchi He died in 2015 from the injuries he suffered in the Suzuka accident.
Ayrton Senna was both a genius and a tyrant, the benevolent and modest competitor in private life changed completely due to his extraordinary desire to win on the track.
In qualifying sessions, he was the fastest 65 times out of 161 races, 22 more times he started from the front row, and in the races he drove for 13,645 km, 982 laps. Only the German, the seven-time world champion, holds the record for training firsts Michael Schumacher he was able to overthrow it twelve years later. Senna won six races at Monte-Carlo, his five consecutive victories at this track between 1989 and 1993 is still a record.
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Gallery: One of the most charismatic Formula 1 drivers of all time died 30 years ago Photo: Pascal Rondeau / Getty Images HungaryGallery: One of the most charismatic Formula 1 drivers of all time died 30 years ago (Photo: Pascal Rondeau / Getty Images Hungary)
A number of statues and memorials have been erected to the legend of motorsport, who died at the age of thirty-four, one of them at the Imola circuit, the site of the fatal accident. He was a role model for millions of people, and many books, films and even songs were written about his life. He is considered a national hero in his country, several streets, highways, tunnels and squares bear his name, and the Brazilian national football team dedicated their 1994 World Cup victory to his memory. In 2020, based on the calculations of the Amazon Web Services computer algorithm, he became the fastest Formula 1 driver of all time.
The local government and several organizations are paying tribute to the memory of Senna and Ratzenberger with a day-long event at the scene of the accident, during which they will also hold a one-minute mourning break. He participates in this, among other things Stefano Domenicali (Head of Formula One Management) and Giancarlo Minardi, also the founder of the former F1 team, Minardi. The track museum also exhibits Senna Williamses car, helmet, and photos of him.
(Index / MTI)
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