Ayrton Senna was the most dominant driver of his era, basing his success on the strong ability he had to dominate whatever car he drove. Here is an small Ayrton Senna biography so you could get to know him better.

Senna’s father business success allows him to race since he was very young. Hi did his firstrace when he was just 8 years old, the pole was decided by picking up a piece of paper

from a helmet with the numbers in it, he was the first to pick and picked number one, so he got the pole position for his first go kart race held in brazil.

His father supported him from the very beginning and hired the services of Lucio Pascual Gascon to help improve the young talent. Immediately Lucio spot Senna’s potential because of the passion he puts into each race to be the first one. Senna entered each race with the mode that he was to be the first or nothing he was a truly perfectionists and he brought that to formula one as well.

He moved to Europe 1981 to pursue his plans to be a Formula One Driver. Immediately he started establishing himself as a competitive driver winning the Townsend-Thoreson Formula Ford 1600 Championships with the Van Diemen team. In 1982 he won the British and European Formula Ford 2000 championships and in 1983 he won the British Formula Three Championship with West Surrey Racing.

As it used to be, talented and mediocre drivers always started their careers on small F1 teams and Senna was not the exception. In 1984 he got the opportunity he was waiting for with the Toleman Team. But Senna’s talent helps him differentiate over the young and established drivers on small teams. On his first Formula One Race he out qualify his teammate by a gap of 2 seconds.

In his fifth race he came from a distance fourteen place to take second place on wet conditions and in the narrow streets of Monaco. The pace he established in the last few laps gave him the chance to catch race leader Allan Prost, unfortunatelly the race was stop due to unsecure racing conditions. Some have speculated that this was one of the many times the FIA (Federation Internationale dE l’Automovilismo) and its President Jean-Marie Balestre boycotts Senna’s chances so that the Frenchman could win in his home race.

Senna’s first win came in 1985 when he switched to a bigger team known as Lotus Team. He did it from the pole position and in very tricky conditions. Unfortunatelly Lotus was on a down path on its development and this condition forced Senna to look for a better team who better suits his ambitions to win races and most important championships.

In 1987 he joined the Honda Mclaren team who was led by Team Manager Ron Dennis known for his ability to recognize and hired the services of the most talented drivers in and out of Formula One. His new teammate was Allan Prost also knows as the “Professor” because he planned every step he will take in the race in order to look for the points needed to win championships.

What started like a seeming fellowship soon became a battle in and out the racetrack. The first year they were together Senna won the championship with a thrilling last race in Suzuka where he started from pole position and after a disastrous start he came up to win it from the fourteen spot.

The next year was the one where the big rivalry started. Once againg in Suzuka as a deciding race Prost knew that if Senna didn’t finish the race he will automatically became World Champion. When Senna try to overtook Prost on the the last corner of track Prost clearly push Senna out of the racetrack by turning in to the corner sooner than what he will normally do. Both cars stopped and Prost climbed out of his while Senna stood in the car and asked the marshals to push him so he can start the engine again. Once they helped him, he took the scape road to return to the track but as outrageous as it may sound this was not permitted by the FIA regulations. Prost was then declared as the 1989 World Champion.

For the 1990 championship Prost moved to Ferrari and Senna stood at Mclaren. This allowed him to compete with less pressure from his teammate and given the superiority of the McLaren MP4/5 car over Ferrari and Ayrton Senna’s talent he went to conquer that year’s championship.

In 1992 Senna competed against Nigel Mansell for the tittle. Once againg at Suzuka, Nigel went wide on the second corner leaving a clean path to Senna who became a 3 time World Champion. This was going to be Ayrton’s last championship before his tragic accident at Imola.

Formula One is known by its cutting edge technology and constant improvements and in 1993 the sport was victim of its own ambitions. The Williams Rothmans was introduced with and advance stability system which allow its driver to go flat out on the fast curves. This advantage was so clear that Senna couldn’t change the inevitable outcome and Allan Prost who came from a sabbatical year got his 4^th Driver Championship Tittle.

Williams ’92 F1 technology (ABC, ABS, TCS..) from zitofilm on Vimeo.

Before the 1993 season finished, Senna left clear that he wanted to race for the Williams Team. Therefore he started 1994 Championship as a Williams’s driver but, unfortunately the electronic stability system was banned from the sport. From this point on Senna started to run out of luck, with the ban on the stability system the car was very unstable representing a constant threat on its driver’s safety.

Senna last race was the 1994 Imola Grand Prix. This event was by far one of the most tragic race weekend ever. First it was Senna’s compatriot Rubens Barrichello who caught air and had a heavy impact with a tyre barrier, luckily he scape with minor injuries. The next day it was Roland Ratzemberger who had a tragic crash at the speed of 314 km/h in Villenueve corner due to the fact that his front wing went off the car, the car lost grip and went straight to the corner. Some say that after this accident Senna didn’t want to compete the next day, however, he started the race and after a safety car period on the 6^th lap the car went off on the 5^th curve hitting the barrier at a very high speed. On that tragic race weekend the world lost the most passionate and one of the best (if not the best) driver that motorsport has ever known.

For Ayrton Senna’s funeral an estimated three million people tribute him as the coffin was traveled through the city. This is actually known as the larger funeral there has ever been in Brazilian soil.