Ayrton Senna: A legacy that will live forever
- Carl Hilliard
- May 1
- 11 min read
Updated: May 19
Written by Carl Hilliard, Edited by Dhara Dave
1st of May 2025 marks the 31st anniversary of the death of one of the biggest talents to ever compete in Formula One. Ayrton Senna has left behind a legacy that few have managed to achieve, with a career spanning 65 pole positions, 80 podiums, 41 wins, and 3 World Championships.
The impact that Ayrton Senna has made in motorsport is something that few are able to match. The sheer race craft that was on display, and the level of determination towards winning and achieving, are things that don’t come around too often in the sport.
There are a host of different views on the legacy of Senna himself, although the common factor is that he was unique in his own right, his pace perhaps the quickest, and truly one of a kind no matter what side of the fence one sits on.
Esteemed longtime F1 journalist since 1977, award-winning writer and author of over 30 books, and commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live: Maurice Hamilton, told DIVEBOMB: “Ayrton Senna was the fastest F1 driver I have ever seen. But not necessarily the greatest.”
“He was incredible to watch when on a fast lap,” Hamilton told me. “His car was a captivating blur of dancing on the very edge of adhesion.”
“But beneath his wonderful innate skill lay a chilling sense of entitlement that changed - not in a good way - the rules of engagement within the sport,” Hamilton concluded.
Former F1 commentator, current podcaster, Author of 'Michael Schumacher: The Edge Of Greatness,' and Senior Executive at Motorsport Network: James Allen, also reflected on Senna while in conversation with DIVEBOMB.
“Senna was by far the most charismatic person I have ever met,” Allen told me. “He had a real presence in a room, like big stars of movies or music. He commanded attention; when he spoke in a press conference, for example, you could hear a pin drop.”
“He was emotional, intense, thorough and relentless,” Allen added. “One-on-one, he was inquisitive and thoughtful. If I had to highlight one quality, however, it would be his commitment. He was all in, more than any other driver I've seen, and he paid the ultimate price for that.”
These views, while quite different, share a very common opinion in that Senna, as a driver, possessed unmatched pace and determination that few could come close to. Senna displayed a racecraft and an attitude that would define a generation, something that many drivers of the more modern era have adopted.
This is a commemoration of Senna’s journey that propelled him to the pinnacle of motorsport.
Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960, in São Paulo, Brazil, to mother Neide Joanna Senna da Silva and father Milton Guirado da Silva. Senna garnered a huge interest in karting from a very young age, as he raced through the streets of São Paulo in a kart built by his father.
When Senna turned 13 years old, he finally began to race in a semi-professional manner, claiming a race win on his debut at a karting track not far from the São Paulo F1 circuit itself. This would lead to Senna going on to win the South American Karting Championship in 1977, after which he set his sights on Europe.
Senna would race in single-seaters once he arrived in Europe, claiming victories and titles in Formula Ford 1600, British and European Formula Ford 2000 and British Formula 3 throughout the 1980s. Throughout his European career, he eventually caught the eyes of many team bosses within F1, with his next destination being the small team Toleman.
The Brazilian made his debut with the Toleman F1 team in 1984, and in only his second outing with the team, he managed to score his first set of points. A masterclass drive from Senna in Monaco saw him cut his way through the midfield of the grid with relative ease, and claim a second-place finish behind the McLaren of soon-to-be teammate and rival, Alain Prost.
This race was not without its question marks. The first in a long line of controversies, as Senna was catching Prost and cutting the gap significantly, Prost called for the stewards to stop the race due to worsening conditions. The session was red-flagged, and despite Senna getting past Prost as he slowed down to a stop, Prost was given the victory as he led the race while it was stopped.
Senna would go on to join the Lotus F1 team, where he would claim various pole positions and eventually, his very first F1 win. After just 16 race starts, the taste of victory came at the rain-stricken Estoril Circuit for the Portuguese Grand Prix in 1985. Senna won from pole position, led every lap and finished over one minute ahead of the cars behind, some of which were losing control and finding the conditions rather difficult. This would also mark the beginning of the famous moniker that Senna would later receive, 'The Rainmaster.'
“Whilst last month marked 40 years since his maiden victory in Estoril, Ayrton is also remembered for the hope and prosperity that he brought to the people of Brazil, who treated him like a saint,” Lewis Hallett, Insight Executive for F1 Fan Voice, told me.
Senna would also claim his second win at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps during the Belgian Grand Prix, another wet race dominated by the Brazilian. Senna would gather a few more podium places over the course of the season and finish in an impressive fourth place in the Drivers’ standings.
Senna’s 1986 season was another one that started off very strong, finishing in P2 on home soil at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and winning the Spanish Grand Prix by a margin of 0.014s ahead of Nigel Mansell.
Senna was the top qualifier that year, with eight pole positions, however, reliability issues plagued the driver in the later stages of the season, meaning he once again could only manage a fourth-place finish in the standings.
Senna would finish the 1987 championship season in third place, where he only managed one pole position, but six podium finishes were enough to cement the top-three finish. Wanting more and aching for that Drivers’ Championship which he knew had to be coming, Senna decided to leave the Lotus team and made a move to the team which would give him everything he needed.
McLaren entered the picture in 1988, as they signed Senna to be the man in the second car, next to 1985 and 1986 World Champion Alain Prost, for the upcoming season. The world now witnessed the domination of the McLaren MP4/4, the car which became most associated with Senna himself, the striking white and red livery becoming instantly recognisable all around the world. Senna took pole position 13 times, and won eight out of 16 races that year, with Prost winning seven races despite only two pole positions. Senna beat his French teammate and claimed his first ever F1 World Championship at 28 years old.
The 1989 Championship season became a turning point for the relationship between Senna and his French teammate, igniting the infamous Senna/Prost rivalry, which would later result in tense and heated exchanges between the two. Prost and Senna collided during the Japanese Grand Prix, the former retiring his car and now almost certain the championship was his, with Senna’s car seemingly out of the race also. However, Prost watched on as Senna nursed his car back onto the track and managed to win the race. Prost and the stewards believed Senna had rejoined the race illegally by taking the escape road to rejoin the track, disqualifying him from the race and, in turn, handing Prost the championship title.
Prost soon decided that he would leave McLaren at the end of that same year, joining Ferrari in a bid to claim yet another World Championship trophy while driving for the Scuderia. Prost would also say in a famous interview that it was “becoming impossible to work with Ayrton.” The two’s relationship had reached an eventual breaking point, with a bitterness and sense of resentment coming between the duo.
During that 1990 season, with Prost having left the team, Gerhard Berger was confirmed as Senna’s teammate, with the two getting along well and becoming close friends, a stark contrast to the tension that was involved between the previous driver pairing.
“He was absolutely the best I’ve met over the years,” Berger said about Senna while speaking to Motorsport Magazine. “He was 100% dedicated to motorsport. I myself liked to have a beer once in a while in the evening, and there was also the odd party. Of course, I was also highly focused, driven, and committed, but not like him.”
Prost’s title dream with Ferrari was the goal in 1990, with the Ferrari 641 being the machine he hoped to dominate the opposition with. This ultimately never came to fruition, however, as Senna claimed his second Championship with McLaren in 1990, beating Prost and Ferrari. Senna took pole position 10 times and won six of the Grands Prix that season.
Prost managed five wins, despite ironically never claiming a pole position that year.
The 1990 season also saw Northern Irish driver Martin Donnelly crash his Lotus during a practice session in Jerez. The crash would bring an unfortunate end to his career in the sport, but the driver was alive and well. This seemed to be the accident that truly scared Senna in a sense, as he then sought a relationship with the head of on-track medical team, Sid Watkins, in a bid to add more driver safety measures to the sport to prevent further incidents.
“I was in the pits, practice was stopped,” Senna said about the Donnelly incident in Jerez. “I hear by different people there was an accident, was Donnelly. Was bad, was too bad, was disaster. And I decide to go to the place to see myself.”
“Million things went through my mind, in the end, I realised I was not going to give up my passion, even having seen what I had seen. I had to put myself together, and walk out, go to the racing car, and do it again.”
This was a testament to Senna’s mentality, simply refusing to give up what he believed he was born to do. Racing was in his nature.
“He had immeasurable talent, and the ability to drive like no one else, keeping his right foot flat in places where no other drivers could dare,” Lewis Hallett added.
The 1991 season finally gave Senna his first win on home turf in Brazil during the São Paulo Grand Prix, although not without hardship. Senna was leading the race with relative comfort, however a gearbox issue meant he was stuck in sixth gear for the later stages of the race. With a gearbox problem, worsening conditions, and a chasing Ricardo Patrese, Senna overcame these obstacles to prevail and claim victory.
1991 ended with Senna claiming victory at seven of the 16 races that year, beating Williams and Nigel Mansell to the trophy. Mansell would win the Championship the following year in 1992, with the dominant Williams-Renault FW14B winning nine races on the calendar. Senna won only three races, and finished fourth in the standings behind Michael Schumacher, Patrese and Mansell. The McLaren that Senna was driving, while still showing scattered glimpses of its talent throughout the season, was still a far cry away from what it once was.
1993 was the final year of Senna at McLaren, as the Brazilian won five of the races on the calendar that year. It wasn’t enough to claim another Championship for the Brazilian, however, that honour once again went to Prost in his new partnership with Williams-Renault. Prost won seven races to claim his fourth Drivers’ Championship. Prost ended the year with 99 points in the standings, enough to beat out Senna, sitting in second place on 73 points.
The eventual move to Williams was a seemingly obvious choice for Senna, who hadn’t won a Drivers’ Championship with McLaren as a result of the former being so dominant with a car piloted by Mansell and Prost in the years prior. However, a change in regulations for the 1994 season, which laid down a ban on ‘electronic driver aids’, would see Senna struggle to hit the ground running at his new team, failing to win at the opening two races that year.
The third race in the 1994 season, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, would immediately go down as one of the darkest weekends the sport has ever seen. This was the fated day of Sunday, May 1st, 1994.
The race weekend began with Brazilian driver Rubens Barichello’s Jordan car being thrown into the air after going over a kerb and crashing into a barrier at 140mph. Barichello was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Barichello suffered a broken nose and other non life threatening injuries as a result of the accident.
Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was competing in his rookie season at F1 that same season while driving for Simtek. During the qualifying session on Saturday, Ratzenberger’s front wing got stuck under his car, eventually causing the Austrian to collide with a barrier. Ratzenberger died instantly, and despite the tragedy that had just occurred, the race was still to go ahead as intended the following day.
Senna started on pole position in his Williams FW16 at Imola, with up and coming driver Schumacher behind in his Benetton. During lap seven, following a safety car restart, as Schumacher chased him down, Senna went straight off the track at the old Tamburello corner, colliding with the barriers straight ahead.
The medical team got to the wreckage of the car soon after, with the Brazilian being airlifted via helicopter to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna. Senna was pronounced dead at 6:40 pm, roughly four hours after the initial incident. The on-track medical staff at the circuit had also pulled an Austrian flag from the wreckage of the Williams car, which Senna had seemingly planned to raise on the podium in honour of Ratzenberger, should he have won that race.
When Senna was transported back to São Paulo, thousands of fans lined the streets in honour of the late driver. Before his death, Senna spoke to his longtime rival Prost about bringing back the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) to help with driver safety and future precautions. The GPDA is still in effect to this day.
The Ayrton Senna Institute was founded in 1994 by Senna’s family, with a united goal of changing children’s lives through education, which according to a report revealed at the end of Netflix’s Senna series, has helped more than 36 million children in the country of Brazil.
Senna’s legacy doesn’t just live on through these programs, as it lives on firmly within F1 as a whole today. Lewis Hamilton, seven-time World Champion, drove Senna’s MP4/5B at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix weekend to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. In Hamiltons’ own words, it was “the greatest honour of my career.”
In 2017, Hamilton was presented with one of Senna’s race helmets, as he equalled the Brazilian’s record of 65 pole positions, which was recorded during the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
“Ayrton is the one who inspired me to be where I am,” Hamilton said in 2017. “To match him and receive this is my greatest honour. For the Senna family to send me this - is the most special thing I have above and beyond all my trophies and everything.”
Since Senna’s passing, the safety within F1 has been massively improved, and no deaths have occurred in the sport from 1994 up until Jules Bianchi, who tragically lost his life in 2015 as a result of injuries sustained during the previous year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
There is always the question of what could have been, had Senna not lost his life on that Sunday in Imola. This is something one will never know, but the legacy he has left behind has shown to be truly timeless. Above all else, the safety features and procedures that have been introduced into the sport since his passing, are something that Senna himself pushed for time and again, and something he would be proud of. There are various features and many different safety measures that have been put in place that now ensure maximum security and safety for the current drivers, to the best level that today’s technology can possibly allow.
“Being a racing driver means you are racing with other people, and if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing. We are competing to win, and the main motivation for all of us is to compete for victory. It’s not to come third, fourth, fifth or sixth.” - Ayrton Senna
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