Ayrton Senna Story

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960 in São Paulo (Brazil).

Image Source

Senna was the second son of Nilton da Silva and Neide Senna da Silva.

His childhood was a childhood without financial problems due to his father being a businessman.

One of his favorite cartoons was Speed Racer.

At the age of 4, Senna received a karting car as a gift from his father, and it was his father who built it.
His whole family was amazed at how easily Senna was able to drive the kart.

Image Source

Over the years, his passion grew.

At the age of 9, due to Senna's knowledge of driving, his father started to let him drive some of his cars inside one of his properties.

Image Source

In 1977, Senna won the 1st South American karting championship.

In 1978, Senna won the 1st national karting championship in Brazil.

Image Source

In 1979, Senna won the national kart championship of Brazil for the 2nd time in a row, but at the World Championship, where he debuted the helmet that became his mark, he only got the 2nd place.

Image Source

In 1980, Senna won the national karting championship in Brazil for the third consecutive time, being tri-champion, but in the World Championship he was unable to win, returning to be in 2nd place.

After the two 2nd places won in the Worlds, Senna decides to start competing in Europe.

In 1981, Ayrton won the English Formula 4 1600 championship having won 12 of the 20 races representing the Ralf Firman team.

Despite winning the title at the end of the championship he had to leave Europe and return to Brazil due to not having found sponsors to be able to continue in Europe.
In addition, his family did not fully support him in this career, as he was afraid of the peripheries that the race tracks offered Senna.

When he returned to Brazil, Senna had to leave motor racing and start working for family companies.
But he was never able to stop thinking about his true passion.

In 1982, Senna returned to Europe to try his dream again.

That same year he became European champion and English champion of Formula Ford 2000 representing the Dennis Rushen team.

Image Source

In 1983, Senna started to compete in Formula 3 and in that same year he won the English championship.

At the end of this year, Senna was invited to test with a Formula 1 car from the Williams team.

Image source

The spectators present were amazed at Senna's facility to drive the car that they did not believe was their 1st time with this type of cars.

Image Source

the start was quite difficult, as he was not yet used to the impact of the car or the duration of the races.
However, he did not lower his arms and trained as hard as he could to be ready for this new stage.

Ayrton started attracting the attention of everyone in Formula 1 after having done a great race at the Monaco Grand Prix (taking 2nd place).
Despite this, Senna was not satisfied, as he thought he could give much more.

With Toleman he still won 2 more podiums until he was suspended from racing by the team due to having broken his contract by signing for Lotus for the following season.

Image Source

In the service of Lotus, in 1985, Senna won his first Grand Prix at the Grand Prix of Portugal held in the Algarve.

Image Source

In his first season at Lotus, he won 2 Grand Prix finishing 4th in the overall standings with 38 points and 6 podiums.

In 1986, Senna started the season well, finishing 2nd in the Grand Prix do Brasil.
After winning the Spanish Grand Prix, Senna took 1st place in the overall classification.

He won yet another Grand Prix this time at the USA Grand Prix but ended the season again in 4th place in the overall standings.

In 1987, senna had a very irregular season.
He started well by winning the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Grand Prix of the USA reaching the top of the championship.
However at the Grand Prix of Mexico he had to withdraw from the race due to a failure in his car and this made him practically out of the title fight.

Ayrton finished the championship in 3rd place after being disqualified from a race after irregularities in his car were detected.

In 1988, Senna signed for McLaren.

Image Source

At the Monaco Grand Prix he finished 2nd after an accident. At the Grand Prix of Japan, Senna started the race very badly, finishing 17th, but during the race he manages to recover and win this Grand Prix.

In 1989, Ayrton Senna started in the best possible way by winning the Monaco Grand Prix.
His relationship with his team-mate at this time was not the best, this was evident when Senna tried to overtake him and they ended up colliding the cars. senna managed to return to the race and after having his car repaired he ended up winning the Grand Prix of Japan.
However, he was disqualified due to having used the escape route to return to the race and still had his driving license suspended.

In 1990, the dispute between Senna and his teammate was still more heated than ever and at the Monaco Grand Prix they had an accident again.
This year Senna managed to win the title of champion.

Image Source

In 1991 Senna won the Grand Prix of Brazil despite several problems with the car.

At the Grand Prix in Japan he confirmed the title again.

In 1992, at the Monáco Senna Grand Prix, he won this race but failed to become champion again.

At this point Senna was discouraged with McLaren due to his car and so he decided to try to get into Williams but it was not possible because the other driver had a clause in his contract that did not allow Senna to be his teammate.

In 1993, Senna had a sensational performance at the Grand Prix of England.
At the end of this season he says goodbye to McLaren after winning another championship.

At this point, rumors began to exist that he was about to retire, but it was rumors because in reality Senna was hired by Williams.

Image Source

In 1994, Senna died in the Grand Prix of San Marine after a horrible accident that turned out to be due to a mechanical failure in his car.

He was transferred by helicopter to the hospital but was unable to resist.

Ayrton Senna is given as an example for people who want to achieve success due to the different "struggles" he fought to become one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula 1.