Ayrton Senna

1960–⁠1994

Contents

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Part One · The Life

  1. IBeco
  2. IIThe kart
  3. IIIEngland
  4. IVThe seasons
  5. VImola
  6. VIFarewell

Part Two · The Man

  1. VIIRivals
  2. Senna and Prost
  3. VIIIIn his words
  4. What they said
  5. IXMind and faith
  6. XSenna and Brazil
  7. XIThe machines
  8. The helmet
  9. XIIThe people around him
  10. XIIIAway from the circuit

Part Three · Legacy

  1. XIVLegacy

The seasons

Reference

Reference

Timeline A life in dates

Ayrton Senna year by year in 140 entries: São Paulo and the kart, England, 11 Formula One seasons, Imola in 1994, the farewell and the three decades since.

Time, … is the big thing.

Ayrton Senna to David Tremayne as he signed a book at a Honda gathering, Suzuka, October 1993
A pale McLaren sweeps through a bend on a streaming wet track, throwing up spray, its reflection shimmering in the water beneath it.
Senna’s McLaren MP4/8-⁠Ford throws up spray at Silverstone on the weekend of the 1993 British Grand Prix, in his sixth and last season with McLaren. Martin Lee · CC BY-⁠SA 2.0

Timeline

Five parts

The book’s chronology, part by part.

Every entry below is a row of the chronology on which the whole book rests, and every row stands on two independent sources. Each links to the chapter of its period. Where only the month or the year is known, the date says so.

Timeline

The early years and the kart

From São Paulo’s north zone to the karting World Championships.

The concrete entrance to a metro station under a sign reading ‘Jardim São Paulo–Ayrton Senna’, its doorway open and its gate folded back.
The Jardim São Paulo–Ayrton Senna metro station, in the district of São Paulo’s north zone where he grew up, renamed in 2011. Photographed in 2024. Jcornelius · CC BY-⁠SA 4.0

Beco

  1. Ayrton Senna da Silva is born in São Paulo, the second child of Milton da Silva and Neyde Senna.

  2. Aged about four, he is given a small kart built by his father’s business.

  3. The family leaves his maternal grandfather João Senna’s house near the Campo de Marte airfield, where they had lived until he was four, for a house of their own higher up in the same district, Santana, in São Paulo’s north zone.

The kart

  1. First official kart race, at the Interlagos kart track, aged 13. He wins.

  2. South American champion.

  3. Brazilian champion.

  4. First Karting World Championship, at Le Mans, France: 6th, driving for DAP.

  5. World Championship at Estoril, Portugal: runner-up to his DAP team-mate Peter Koene.

  6. World Championship at Nivelles, Belgium: runner-up to Peter de Bruijn.

  7. Brazilian champion for the second time.

  8. World Championship at Parma, Italy: 4th.

  9. Last World Championship, at Kalmar, Sweden: 14th.

Timeline

England

Formula Ford, Formula 3 and Macau.

Head-on view of a dark Formula 3 car with a pale front wing and the number 43 on its nose, a roll hoop and rear wing behind the cockpit, parked in a white display tent.
The Ralt RT3 sold in 2012 as the car in which he won his first Formula 3 race, at Thruxton, on show at Donington Park in May 2013, numbered 43; he raced it as number 2. Mathew Bedworth · CC BY 2.0

The junior formulae

  1. Marries Lilian de Vasconcellos Souza, a friend from childhood. The couple move to England.

  2. First car race: Formula Ford 1600 at Brands Hatch, in the previous year’s Van Diemen. 5th.

  3. First car-racing win, at Brands Hatch, on a wet track, two weeks after his debut.

  4. Wins at Snetterton in pouring rain and clinches the RAC FF1600 championship, his first title in cars.

  5. Wins the RAC and Townsend Thoresen FF1600 championships: 12 wins from 20 starts (and five seconds, a third, a fourth and a fifth).

  6. Retires from racing and goes home to Brazil to work in his father’s businesses.

  7. Decides to separate from his wife and return to racing in Europe.

  8. Formula 3 debut: wins the non-championship Thruxton race from pole in a West Surrey Racing Ralt RT3-⁠Toyota.

  9. Formula Ford 2000 with Rushen Green Racing: 22 wins; champion of both the British (Pace) and European (EFDA) series.

  10. Wins the opening round of the Marlboro British F3 Championship at Silverstone.

  11. Wins at Silverstone: nine consecutive wins from the start of the season.

  12. The run ends. He crashes at Silverstone while chasing Martin Brundle in the European-championship round.

  13. First Formula One test: Keke Rosberg’s Williams FW08C at Donington Park, on a Tuesday.

  14. Wins the final round at Thruxton to take the British F3 title: 12 wins, 132 points, against Brundle’s 123.

  15. McLaren young-driver test at Silverstone, with Brundle and Stefan Bellof, as his prize for the Marlboro F3 title.

  16. Tests a Brabham at Paul Ricard, before Macau.

  17. Wins the Macau Grand Prix, the first held for Formula 3 cars, winning both 15-lap legs.

  18. Signs a three-year contract with Toleman.

Timeline

The Formula One seasons

From Jacarepaguá in 1984 to Adelaide in 1993.

1984

  1. F1 debut, Brazilian Grand Prix at Jacarepaguá. Toleman TG183B-⁠Hart, no. 19. Starts 16th; retires on lap 8 with turbo failure.

  2. First championship point: 6th, South African Grand Prix, Kyalami.

  3. Belgian Grand Prix, Zolder: 7th on the road, later classified 6th (a point) when Tyrrell’s 1984 results are annulled.

  4. Fails to qualify for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola: the only DNQ of his career.

  5. Wins the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Race of Champions at the opening of the new Nürburgring, against a field of past and present Grand Prix drivers.

  6. French Grand Prix, Dijon-Prenois: first race in the Toleman TG184, and the first on Michelin tyres.

  7. Monaco Grand Prix: 2nd in heavy rain, in a race stopped after 31 laps (half points: 3). Fastest lap. First podium.

  8. Detroit Grand Prix: starts 7th, crashes out after 21 laps.

  9. Dallas Grand Prix, Fair Park: starts 6th, retires after 47 laps with a broken driveshaft.

  10. Nürburgring 1000 km in the New-Man Porsche 956 with Henri Pescarolo and Stefan Johansson: 8th, 197 laps.

  11. 3rd, British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch.

  12. Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort: on race morning Lotus announces that he will drive for them in 1985.

  13. Misses the Italian Grand Prix, suspended by Toleman for signing with Lotus without telling the team first.

  14. 3rd, Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril. Ends the season 9th with 13 points, level with Mansell.

1985

  1. First race for John Player Special Team Lotus (Brazil).

  2. First pole and first win, Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril, in heavy rain. Fastest lap and every lap led: a grand chelem.

  3. San Marino Grand Prix: leads most of the race, runs out of fuel and is classified 7th.

  4. Second win, Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. The race had been postponed from June because the new surface broke up.

  5. Season ends: 4th, with 7 poles, more than anyone else that year.

1986

  1. Brazilian Grand Prix: pole, and 2nd to Nelson Piquet.

  2. Wins the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez by 0.014 seconds from Nigel Mansell.

  3. In Detroit he skips the Saturday press conference to watch Brazil play France in the World Cup quarter-final.

  4. Wins the Detroit Grand Prix from pole, and carries a Brazilian flag on his lap of honour.

  5. The first Hungarian Grand Prix of the World Championship: pole, and 2nd to Piquet.

  6. Season ends: 4th again, with 8 poles.

1987

  1. First race for Lotus-Honda, in the active-suspension 99T (Brazil).

  2. First Monaco win, and the first Grand Prix win for a car with computer-controlled active suspension.

  3. Wins in Detroit. It is Lotus’s 79th and last World Championship win as a constructor (the works Team Lotus’s 74th).

  4. At Monza he is announced as a McLaren driver for 1988, with McLaren switching to Honda engines.

  5. First Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka: 2nd.

  6. Finishes 2nd in Adelaide but is disqualified for oversized brake ducts. 3rd in the championship.

1988

  1. McLaren debut from pole in Brazil. He switches to the spare car after the start procedure had begun and is disqualified.

  2. First McLaren win, San Marino Grand Prix.

  3. Monaco qualifying: pole in 1:23.998, 1.427 seconds faster than Prost.

  4. Leading by about 50 seconds, crashes into the barrier at Portier on lap 67.

  5. Wins the wet British Grand Prix from 3rd on the grid.

  6. Wins in Belgium. McLaren clinch the constructors’ title.

  7. Monza: tangles with Jean-Louis Schlesser while lapping him, costing McLaren their only defeat of 1988.

  8. First world title, at the Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka: he bogs down at the start from pole, is 14th at the first corner, and wins.

  9. Season ends: 13 poles (then a season record), 94 points scored and 90 counted.

1989

  1. First race carrying no. 1 (Brazil): 11th.

  2. Wins the San Marino Grand Prix after a restart following Gerhard Berger’s fiery crash at Tamburello.

  3. Mexico: pole no. 33 equals Jim Clark’s record.

  4. Phoenix: pole no. 34 breaks Clark’s record.

  5. Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril: out after a collision with Mansell’s Ferrari.

  6. Suzuka: collides with Prost at the chicane, rejoins, wins on the road and is disqualified.

  7. The FISA Court of Appeal in Paris upholds the disqualification, fines him US$100,000 and gives him six months’ probation (a suspended ban).

  8. Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide: out after a collision. Prost is champion; Senna is runner-up.

1990

  1. Wins at Phoenix after a duel with Jean Alesi.

  2. First F1 race at Interlagos: pole, then 3rd after a tangle with Satoru Nakajima.

  3. Monaco win with pole, fastest lap and every lap led: a grand chelem.

  4. Wins the Canadian Grand Prix, started in the wet. Berger, first on the road, carries a one-minute penalty for jumping the start.

  5. Monza win: another grand chelem.

  6. Second world title: at the first corner at Suzuka he collides with Prost, now at Ferrari.

1991

  1. First home win, at Interlagos, with his gearbox stuck in sixth for the closing laps.

  2. Wins the first four races of 1991: Phoenix, Interlagos, Imola and Monaco.

  3. Third world title, at Suzuka, after Mansell spins off; Senna finishes 2nd behind Berger.

  4. Wins the rain-stopped Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide, with the result taken at 14 laps and half points awarded.

1992

  1. Holds off Mansell by 0.215 seconds for his fifth Monaco win, equalling Graham Hill’s record.

  2. Canadian Grand Prix: his only pole of 1992; retires with an electrical failure while leading.

  3. Wins the Hungarian Grand Prix on the day Mansell clinches the 1992 title.

  4. At Spa he stops his car on the track to help the injured and unconscious Érik Comas at Blanchimont.

  5. Honda announces its withdrawal from F1 at the end of 1992. The statement is issued in Japan as Monza qualifying is about to begin.

  6. Wins the Italian Grand Prix.

  7. Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide: while chasing Mansell for the lead he collides with him at the end of lap 19. It is the last race before Honda’s withdrawal.

  8. Tests a Penske PC-21-Chevrolet IndyCar at Firebird International Raceway, Phoenix.

1993

  1. First McLaren-Ford race: 2nd in South Africa.

  2. Second home win at Interlagos, in a race interrupted by a cloudburst. It is McLaren’s 100th win.

  3. European Grand Prix, Donington Park: from 4th on the grid, he leads by the end of lap 1 and wins on a wet and drying track.

  4. Sixth Monaco win, breaking Graham Hill’s record of five.

  5. Alain Prost announces at Estoril that he will retire, which opens the Williams seat.

  6. Senna’s move to Williams for 1994 is announced.

  7. Wins the Japanese Grand Prix, in a race turned by rain. Afterwards he confronts the debutant Eddie Irvine.

  8. 41st and last win, Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide: his last race for McLaren and Prost’s last Grand Prix. McLaren’s 104th win moves them past Ferrari’s record.

Timeline

The last season

Williams, from the first test to Imola.

1994

  1. First test for Williams, at Estoril, where the Rothmans Williams Renault team is presented to the press.

  2. Launches Senninha, a children’s comic character, in São Paulo.

  3. Williams debut, Interlagos: pole. He spins out on lap 56 while chasing Michael Schumacher.

  4. Pacific Grand Prix, TI Circuit Aida: pole. He is hit at the first corner by Mika Häkkinen and then Nicola Larini, and retires.

  5. In Paris for Brazil’s friendly before the World Cup, at the Parc des Princes.

  6. Rubens Barrichello crashes heavily in qualifying. Senna’s pole time of 1:21.548 is set in this session.

  7. Roland Ratzenberger is killed in qualifying.

  8. The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola: leading on lap 7, he goes off at Tamburello. His death is announced that evening in Bologna.

Timeline

After Imola

The funeral, the Instituto, the trials and the anniversaries.

A dense crowd surges around a fire engine with uniformed men standing on top, mounted police beside it and a flag held up in the crowd.
The crowd presses round the fire engine carrying his coffin, outside the Assembleia Legislativa in São Paulo, in May 1994. Marco Antonio Cardelino / Alesp · CC BY 4.0

Farewell

  1. President Itamar Franco decrees three days of official mourning in Brazil.

  2. Autopsy at Bologna’s Istituto di Medicina Legale: it concludes that brain death had been instantaneous.

  3. The coffin is flown from Bologna to Paris in an Italian Air Force aircraft, then home on a VARIG MD-11.

  4. The coffin arrives in São Paulo and lies in state at the Assembleia Legislativa until the next morning.

  5. State funeral, with the honours of a head of state. Former and current drivers help to carry the coffin; the air force display team draws in smoke over the cortège; burial in the Cemitério do Morumby.

  6. Monaco Grand Prix: the front row of the grid is left empty and painted with the Brazilian and Austrian flags.

Legacy

  1. Brazil win the World Cup in Pasadena. The players unfurl the banner "Senna… Aceleramos juntos, o tetra é nosso".

  2. Instituto Ayrton Senna is founded by Viviane Senna.

  3. The first San Marino Grand Prix on the rebuilt Imola: Tamburello is now a chicane.

  4. Stefano Pierotti’s bronze statue is unveiled in the Parco delle Acque Minerali, inside Tamburello.

  5. Imola court (Judge Antonio Costanzo) acquits Frank Williams, Patrick Head, Adrian Newey, the race director Roland Bruynseraede and two circuit officials of culpable homicide.

  6. The Bologna appeal court upholds the acquittals.

  7. Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, Talladega.

  8. The Court of Cassation annuls the appeal acquittals of Head and Newey and orders a new appeal; Frank Williams’s own appeal is declared inadmissible.

  9. The Cassation files its written reasons (judgment no. 15461), more than a year late; only now can Bologna reopen the case.

  10. Retrial: Newey acquitted; the case against Head is time-barred.

  11. Michael Schumacher takes his 66th pole at Imola, breaking Senna’s record of 65.

  12. Final ruling of the Court of Cassation: the crash was caused by the failure of the badly modified steering column, attributable to Head; the offence remains time-barred.

  13. Asif Kapadia’s documentary film about him wins the BAFTA for Best Documentary.

  14. Twentieth anniversary at Imola: thousands walk the circuit and a silence is held at 14:17.

  15. Inducted, with every other Formula One world champion, into the new FIA Hall of Fame in Paris; Bruno Senna represents him.

  16. Milton da Silva dies in São Paulo, aged 94.

  17. Sebastian Vettel drives Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 at the Imola Grand Prix weekend, 30 years on.

  18. Max Verstappen equals Senna’s record of eight consecutive poles at Imola.

  19. Before the São Paulo Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton drives Senna’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B at Interlagos in the rain and takes a Brazilian flag from a marshal.

  20. Netflix releases a drama miniseries about his life.

  21. Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

  22. President Lula signs Law 15.447, inscribing his name in the Livro dos Heróis e Heroínas da Pátria.

Sources

  • StatsF1, “Ayrton SENNA”: driver page, every Grand Prix started, wins, poles and seasons. statsf1.com

  • The Ergast archive of Formula One results, through the Jolpica API: Senna’s results. api.jolpi.ca

  • ChicaneF1, driver profile, “Ayrton Senna”, and season summaries. chicanef1.com

  • F1DB, the open Formula One database. github.com

  • Motor Sport: its database entry, “Ayrton Senna”; its reports of 1983–⁠1995, among them David Tremayne, “When Senna drove Williams”, November 1993; and “Senna film wins two BAFTAs”, April 2012. motorsportmagazine.com

  • senna.com, the official site, “Anos de corrida”: the karting, Formula 3 and Formula One seasons. senna.com

  • OldRacingCars, British Formula 3, 1982 and 1983. oldracingcars.com

  • FIA, “Macau – the F3 race that built two legends”. fia.com

  • Tom Rubython with Keith Sutton, The Life of Senna (BusinessF1 Books, 2004), and Ernesto Rodrigues, Ayrton: o herói revelado (Objetiva, 2004). archive.org

  • Folha de S.Paulo, 1994–⁠1997: the death, the lying in state, the funeral and the Imola statue, among them “Ayrton Senna é enterrado em SP; 250 mil pessoas seguem o cortejo”, 6 May 1994; and José Henrique Mariante, “Senna ganha estátua ‘triste’ em Imola”, 26 April 1997. folha.uol.com.br

  • senna.com, “27 years of a historic tribute: ‘Senna… We’ve sped up together. The fourth title is ours’”. senna.com

  • Instituto Ayrton Senna, “Our History”. institutoayrtonsenna.org.br

  • International Motorsports Hall of Fame, “Ayrton Senna”. motorsportshalloffame.com

  • senna.com, “Ayrton Senna é homenageado em novo Hall da Fama da FIA em Paris”, 6 December 2017. senna.com

  • PR Newswire, “The Automotive Hall of Fame Unveils 2025 Inductees”, 6 February 2025. prnewswire.com

  • Terra, “Pai de Ayrton Senna, Milton da Silva, morre aos 94 anos de causas naturais”, 27 October 2021. terra.com.br

  • Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press, on the Netflix series Senna, 27 November 2024. apnews.com

  • The trials, 1997–⁠2007: The Irish Times, “Williams acquitted as Senna trial ends”, 17 December 1997; Pitpass, “Head and Newey acquitted”, 27 May 2005; Italy Magazine, “Senna death appeal rejected”, 16 April 2007. italymagazine.com

  • CNN, “Schumacher sets all-time pole best”, 22 April 2006, and Sky Sports on Max Verstappen’s eighth consecutive pole, 18 May 2024. edition.cnn.com

  • BBC Sport, “Ayrton Senna: Imola circuit holds silence for Brazilian 20 years on”, 1 May 2014. bbc.co.uk

  • Formula1.com, on Sebastian Vettel’s drive in Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 at Imola, May 2024, and on Lewis Hamilton’s drive in his MP4/5B at Interlagos, 3 November 2024. formula1.com

  • Presidência da República, Lei nº 15.447, de 30 de junho de 2026. planalto.gov.br