2022-08-18

Hear ye, hear ye! The CEA militias have been dethroned! I’ve dug up my 3rd Grade speech of 2700 words.

Today we will talk about Brazil’s greatest sports idol. But it isn’t Pelé. It isn’t Neymar. It’s someone you’ve likely never heard of. Born in the wealthy family of Milton da Silva and Neide Senna, we will take a look at Ayrton Senna, and why Brazil voted him as the greatest athlete in their history.

He was born on March 21, 1960, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Growing up, he was an awkward child, later diagnosed as having a motor coordination problem. However, from a young age, he took an interest in cars, much like his father. Because of this, his father bought him a little 1 hp go-kart at the age of 4. This decision would define the rest of his life. Behind the wheel, he was no longer an awkward child, but a confident and focused boy. The key to his success had been found and every weekend the family would go to local parks where Ayrton could drive his kart. His abilities were sharp, and by the age of 8, he could drive the family car. So for his 10th birthday, his father gave him a new, 100cc full-size kart. However, the legal racing age in Brazil was 13, so he had to settle for making laps around Parque Anhembi, the local karting track.

By 1972, Brazil had its first F1 world champion, and soon it would have its own Grand Prix. The resulting Brazilian Grand Prix was won by Fittipaldi and all of Brazil celebrated. But in the midst of the excitement, a young Senna could finally chase his dream. He was finally old enough to race legally, and he entered his first race, which was held at the kart track in the Interlagos complex. Racing against him were all the local hotshots, including Maurizio Sala. Senna flexed his muscles and showed what he was capable of by taking the coveted pole position after qualifying and dominated the whole race, subsequently winning after the chequered flag waved. 4 years later, he won the South American Karting Championship and repeated the feat the next year. Then, in 1979, he went to Europe for further training and finished runner-up in the championships at Estoril, repeating it the next year at Nivelles.

In 1981, Senna was married to his childhood sweetheart Lilian Vasconcelos Souza, and he went to England that year to compete in the Formula Ford championships. He landed in a seat at the Van Dieman team, where the young Senna quickly adapted to the new cars. He finished 8th in his debut, and a week later, he finished 3rd. He then won in wet conditions, where few could rival him. Unsurprisingly, the debuting Senna won the championship. By this point, he was stretching his resources to the limit, and desperately needed to find sponsorship. With several other Brazilian drivers ahead of him in higher formulas, the sponsorship money required was not available. Frustrated, Ayrton announced his retirement stating that a bad driver with money could always get the best car but a good driver without the same was left out. He then returned to Brazil to work in his father’s building supplies business. However, after 4 months, he returned to motor racing. In 1982, his father decided to partly sponsor his son himself, with a local bank pulling in the rest of the funds. After this, Lilian Souza and Senna decided to seperate.

On his returning season, he won 22 races and the championship. The next stop would be Formula 3, which was the last step before Formula 1 at the time. The British F3 championship was made of about 20 races. He was one of the pre-season favorites, along with future F1 competitor Martin Brundle. Senna promptly ran up nine straight victories before crashing out in practice for the next race which was won by Brundle. The series now became a contest between the two pre-season favorites with neither driver backing down. The Championship would be decided in the final race at Thruxton. Senna, showing the determination and attention to detail that would be his hallmark, had his engine re-built and tuned by the master tuners Novamotor of Italy. Senna took pole and won the race, and with it the title.

The end of the year for Formula Three was celebrated in the Portuguese colony of Macau at the Macau Grand Prix with drivers from all of the national series. Senna won and negotiations between him and a number of Formula One teams became serious. This also became a time where Senna was introduced to the politics of the senior Formula. After wanting to go to Brabham but being vetoed by fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Toleman became his only option. Strictly a second-tier team, Toleman was in no position to win any major titles, but Senna had few other options. Senna then made his Formula One debut in front of his home country in 1984, but things were different than Formula Three. Here even the best driver without the right car and engine would not be able to make much of an impression on the leader board. The team would eventually form the basis for the extremely successful Benetton team, but at that time was strictly a backmarker; the best that he could do was qualify eighth. The next race at San Marino was a new experience for Ayrton; he failed to qualify. After the initial series of races in his inaugural season, the results were slow in coming.

For the French Grand Prix, he was given a new car but the results were the same when he suffered turbo problems, and had to retire. The next race was at Monaco and Senna qualified well back in thirteenth place. The race was run under threat of rain and Senna began to feel that he might have his first real opportunity. Wet weather, as it always was in racing, is the great leveler and by the seventh lap, Senna was in sixth place. On lap eleven he almost crashed when he jumped a curb and his Toleman became airborne. Nigel Mansell, a much more experienced driver, saw the opening and assumed the lead. Once ahead, he began to stretch his lead too quickly and spun into the barrier. Racing veteran Niki Lauda, who was in second place made a small error and also spun out. On lap 20, Alain Prost, Senna’s future arch-nemesis, led the oncoming Senna by 33.8 seconds. On lap 31 the gap was reduced to 7.4 seconds. The weather conditions continued to be treacherous and every time that Prost crossed the finish line he would signal for the race to stop. On lap 31 the race was stopped, and Senna was denied his first victory, but the legend was born.

Monaco was the highlight of the season, but for Senna, it wasn’t enough. He knew he needed a better car to compete for the championship. Senna had been secretly negotiating with Lotus for the following season, and even though he had a three-year contract with Toleman, the contract did include a buy-out clause. Lotus represented to the young Senna the pinnacle of racing as the team of Jim Clark and Fittipaldi, but Lotus had been on the downward slope after the death of their founder Colin Chapman. To the team, Senna was the man to return them to the top.

After showing the racing world a glimpse of the future at Monaco, Senna was more determined than ever to make a breakthrough. Driving in treacherously wet conditions, he would win his first race at Estoril. This was followed by another win at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. But not even Senna could not return Lotus to their prior glory and in 1988 he moved to McLaren. Ironically, instead of vetoing Senna as his teammate, Alain Prost initially welcomed the Brazilian. At last, all of the pieces were in place and that year saw him win 8 races and his first World Championship.

In 1989, he came in second to his teammate Alain Prost despite having more wins. The relationship between the two had deteriorated to the point where Prost left McLaren to join Ferrari. In 1990 and 1991 Senna, now joined at McLaren by Gerhard Berger, won back to back titles while being involved in fierce battles with Prost and Nigel Mansell. Eventually, the loss of Honda power units and the rise of Renault would bring about the decline of McLaren. So, in 1994, Ayrton joined Williams. It was a dream he had since his debut; he even offered to drive for free once.

In his first race with Williams at his home track of Interlagos, he took pole position. He was leading the race comfortably until the first round of pit stops. Benetton’s pit stop, which took place on the same lap, was quicker, and then-rookie Benetton driver Michael Schumacher took the lead. Williams had trouble refueling, costing him 1st place. At Interlagos, Senna’s Williams skidded a lot on the low-speed corners and jumped too high at track surface irregularities, quickly wearing away its tires. And as the Williams’ Renault engine burned more gasoline than the other engines, refueling took longer. On lap 35, something scary happened: a four-car pile-up. Benetton driver Jos Verstappen crashed into Eddie Irvine’s Jordan, collided with Eric Bernard’s Ligier and climbed over Martin Brundle’s McLaren, who was almost hit on the head with a piece of the car. Verstappen also flipped over, but everyone walked away unharmed. Irvine ended up being blamed for the accident because he had pushed Verstappen’s car into the grass prior to the crash. Meanwhile, Senna tried to get closer to Schumacher – by this point, he was the only driver still on the same lap as the German. On lap 44, Senna made an early pit-stop, in an attempt to mount an offensive at the end of the race. But on the following lap, Benetton was 1.1 seconds quicker than Senna’s Williams and Schumacher kept his place. After 47 laps, there was a difference of 7.9 seconds between Schumacher and Senna. Ayrton was gradually gaining on the German but, on lap 56, he let the podium-finish slip away, as well as any chance he had of winning. Senna spun-out at the Junction Corner, when he was less than 5s away from his rival. Also, Ayrton was already having gearbox problems and he was not able to shift to the right gear. He tried to put it into third gear, then fourth, but nothing worked, and eventually, the engine failed. It was the end of the race for Senna; Schumacher got the win, the third in his career. Damon Hill and Jean Alesi rounded out the podium.

During qualifying at the subsequent Pacific Grand Prix in Aida, Japan, he again claimed pole position. Aida was hosting the World Championship for the first time, and expectations ran high during the qualifying sessions to see who was poised to dominate the Pacific Grand Prix. Determined to redeem himself in the second race, Senna had a spectacular qualifying session at Aida, in one of his many great duels with Schumacher. The battle came down to tenths of a second. With a time of 1:10.218, Ayrton beat his opponent by 0.222 secs and secured the 64th pole position in his career. Damon Hill would be starting in third and McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen rounded out the second row. After the qualifying sessions, the Williams mechanics worked through the night in order to adjust the suspension and make other changes asked by the drivers. During the warm-up lap, Senna’s Williams car was perfect: fast and well-balanced – exactly what he needed at the particular track, with 11 corners and a 2.3-mile length. But Senna’s excitement about the car lasted less than a lap. Before exiting the first corner, he got involved in a crash with other drivers and was forced to postpone his dreams of winning with his new team once again. Ayrton himself described the accident that took him out of contention: “Since Schumacher had a better start than me, I slowed down to avoid a crash on the first corner. But then, Mika Hakkinen clumsily rear-ended me and took me out of the race. I was already out of the track when Nicola Larini t-boned my Williams, bringing my race at Aida to an end. Rubens (Barrichello) and Christian (Fittipaldi) were all I could be happy about,” Senna told reporters. At the end of the 88 laps, Schumacher won from beginning to end and wasn’t bothered during the race. Gerhard Berger, who started in fifth place with his Ferrari, finished in second and Jordan’s Rubens Barrichello rounded out the podium. It was Rubens’ first podium finish in F1. Footwork’s Christian Fittipaldi finished in fourth place. The result put Schumacher way ahead of the competition. The German now had 20 points, while Rubens Barrichello was in second, with seven. Hill and Berger trailed him, with six points each. Around this time, Senna began having talks with his sister about starting a charity benefiting children.

Going into qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix, he again claimed pole position, alongside Schumacher. But the atmosphere wasn’t of celebration. It was one of sadness. During qualifying, young and promising Austrian Roland Ratzenberger crashed at Villeneuve corner due to a front wing failure. He then plunged straight into the wall at almost 200mph. Ratzenberger was killed instantly. Senna then was asked if he wanted to back out of the race, to which he responded: “You know, there are some things beyond my control.” On race day, Senna started well, taking the lead and maintaining a healthy distance from Michael Schumacher. But then, at the start of the sixth lap, Ayrton’s car went straight off the track at Tamburello Corner. The Brazilian tried to turn the car in the final moments before hitting the wall but there was no escape. The car hit the wall at nearly 150mph. And with the impact, the front suspension of his car came back and hit him in the head, piercing his helmet and penetrating into his brain. The car bounced back towards the track, throwing debris into the air, and slid to a halt beside the track. The doctors fought to save Senna’s life and he was rushed by helicopter to Bologna. But from early on, it was clear that there was no hope. Ayrton Senna died that evening. He was 34 years old. At the crash site, they found a bloodied Austrian flag. If he won, he would have waved the flag as a gesture of respect; he died less than 250 meters from who it was meant for.

You might ask: “Why have you chosen this athlete as your secret leader?” Well, many people start their careers in racing due to this one man. And, in his honor, Instituto Ayrton Senna, a non-profit intended to give opportunities to young Brazilians was established. It still operates to this day, 25 years later. And, due to his death, new safety measures have been implemented. Drivers now wear a HANS device, and new helmet regulations are in force, which have undoubtedly saved the lives of many drivers since 1994. Suspensions have also been kept on a tighter leash, with certain requirements for tensile strength being enacted in recent years. Numerous other regulations to protect drivers have since been enacted.

Senna will undoubtedly be among the most famous and talented men of all time – that is why I have chosen him as my leader.

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