The Life of Senna Read online

  The biography of Ayrton Senna

  Ayrton Senna was in many people’s opinion the most brilliant Formula One driver who ever raced. His death on Sunday 1st May 1994 was as shocking as it was public. Over 200 million people watched him perish on television, and the knowing realised he was dead as soon as his car came to rest. In this first full account of the life of Ayrton Senna, the author and his collaborators examine each detail of the driving maestro’s life – from his earliest days to his first race, his pole positions and his world championships, and finally his death and its aftermath. It is a story that has never been fully or properly told, and it is a story that needed to be told.

  ________________________________________________

  also by Tom Rubython –in hardback Life of O’Reilly

  – the biography of Tony O’Reilly

  and in hardback and paperback The Rich 500

  – the 500 richest people in Britain

  also by Keith Sutton in hardback Nigel Mansell

  – The Complete Pictorial Record

  and in hardback Ayrton Senna – A personal tribute

  and in hardback Everlasting Hero – Ayrton Senna

  and in hardback F1 through the eyes of Damon Hill

  The Life of Senna is published by:

  BusinessF1 Books

  A biography of Ayrton Senna written by Tom Rubython and

  photographed by Keith Sutton.

  Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the Publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Nor may this book be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without prior consent of the Publisher. Enquiries outside these terms should be sent to the Publisher at the address below.

  Proof Edition first published on 1st January 2004

  Hardback First Edition published on 1st May 2004

  This Softback edition published on 14th October 2006

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 0-9546857-0-9

  Epub ISBN 978-0-95698-934-5

  Kindle ISBN 978-0-95698-935-2

  Copyright © 2006 Tom Rubython and Keith Sutton

  First edition in softback

  The text of this book is set in Bembo 11/14

  Printed and bound in England by Butler and Tanner, Somerset

  Additional Research by Caroline Reid and Ania Grzesik

  Copy-editing by Paul Jones and Shelley White

  Book design by Jo Maxwell

  BusinessF1 Books

  a division of BusinessF1 Magazine Limited

  7 Mallow Street London England EC1Y 8RQ

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Tom Rubython

  FOREWORD: My Friend and Team-mate

  Gerhard Berger

  PROLOGUE: Memories of Ayrton

  Keith Sutton

  PREFACE: A Chance of Fate

  Tom Rubython

  CHAPTER 1: Life: 2:17pm Sunday 1st May 1994

  Thursday 7am to Sunday 2.17pm

  CHAPTER 2: 1960-1980: Early Life

  Against all the odds

  CHAPTER 3: The First Year in England

  An overnight success in Formula Ford

  CHAPTER 4: Return of the Prodigal Son

  Indecision as the best-laid plans go wrong

  CHAPTER 5: The Decisive Year

  Formula Three on Ayrton Senna’s terms

  CHAPTER 6: Senna vs. Brundle

  When careers collided and divided

  CHAPTER 7: A Day of Dreams

  Senna’s first test in a Formula One car

  CHAPTER 8: 1984: The Toleman Year

  The rookie learns the ropes

  CHAPTER 9: Race of the Champions

  The day Senna scalped the greats

  CHAPTER 10: 1985: Lotus and the first win

  The search for perfection

  CHAPTER 11: 1986: Champion Potential

  So near and yet so far with Lotus

  CHAPTER 12: 1987: The start of the Honda Years

  Giving up on Lotus

  CHAPTER 13: 1988: The Golden Car

  Instant glory and personal happiness

  CHAPTER 14: 1989: Losing the Battle

  Winning Xuxa but not the Championship

  CHAPTER 15: 1990: Senna vs. Prost

  The Confrontation Year

  CHAPTER 16: Afternoon of a Hero

  Witnessing tragedy for the first time

  CHAPTER 17: The Feud with Prost

  Six years of continual conflict

  CHAPTER 18: 1991: Title by Default

  A World Championship to forget

  CHAPTER 19: 1992: Sensational in Monte Carlo

  But little other glory

  CHAPTER 20: The James Bond Years

  Three golden seasons with Gerhard

  CHAPTER 21: 1993: The Split with McLaren

  A year of pleasure and complication

  CHAPTER 22: The Best Lap Ever Driven

  Senna’s finest two minutes

  CHAPTER 23: The Secret IndyCar Test

  Senna Sizzles in the desert

  CHAPTER 24: Senna’s Polar Passion

  A colossus in qualifying

  CHAPTER 25: Senna’s Quest to Win

  The groundwork of victory

  CHAPTER 26: The Last Love Story

  So close to happiness

  CHAPTER 27: The Invincible Philosopher

  The bodywork was his second skin

  CHAPTER 28: Fear, Death, God and Racing

  One man’s beliefs and motivations

  CHAPTER 29: 1994: The Williams Year

  A brief shining moment

  CHAPTER 30: Death: 2:18pm, Sunday 1st May 1994

  The final accounting

  CHAPTER 31: Anatomy of an Accident

  The ingredients of tragedy

  CHAPTER 32: Funeral in São Paulo

  The long goodbye

  CHAPTER 33: The Trial

  The worst country to die in a race car

  CHAPTER 34: The Aftermath for Brazil

  The consequences of Sunday 1st May 1994

  CHAPTER 35: Senna’s Legacy to the Drivers

  More consequences of Sunday 1st May 1994

  CHAPTER 36: The Consequences for F1

  How Senna’s death changed the sport

  Appendices

  APPENDIX I: 1974-1982 Karting

  APPENDIX II: 1981 Formula Ford 1600

  APPENDIX III: 1982 Formula Ford 2000

  APPENDIX IV: 1982 Formula Three

  APPENDIX V: 1984-1994 Formula One

  APPENDIX VI: 1982-1984 Other Races

  APPENDIX VII: Championship Tables

  APPENDIX VIII: 1985-1993 Formula One wins by season

  APPENDIX IX: 1985-1993 41 Formula One wins

  APPENDIX X: 1985-1994 Formula One pole positions by season

  APPENDIX XI: 1985-1994 65 Formula One pole positions

  APPENDIX XII: 1984-1994 Formula One career statistics

  APPENDIX XIII: Top 20 pole scorers of all time

  APPENDIX XIV: Top 20 race winners of all time

  APPENDIX XV: Top 20 point scorers of all time

  APPENDIX XVI: Top 20 races led of all time

  APPENDIX XVII: Senna’s Formula One Cars

  Lide of Senna: Bibliography

  Index

  “If I ever happen to have an accid
ent that eventually costs me my life, I hope it is in one go. I would not like to be in a wheelchair. I would not like to be in a hospital suffering from whatever injury it was. If I am going to live, I want to live fully. Very intensely, because I am an intense person. It would ruin my life if I had to live partially.”

  Ayrton Senna

  Estoril, Portugal

  January, 1994

  Acknowledgements

  Many individuals in London, Australia, Portugal and Brazil helped to research and write this book, and many asked for anonymity. In three cases, individuals agreed to provide answers through intermediaries. The Senna family had asked many individuals who were involved on the day he died not to comment about the experience and in all cases we respected this wish. Many working journalists gave us access to taped interviews recorded over the years. And we examined almost everything ever written about Ayrton Senna in press archives in London, São Paulo and Lisbon.

  Insiders will know that The Life of Senna was planned as a book of some 400 pages and ended up being 600 pages, after we uncovered new material and spoke to more and more people. We felt obliged to include everything relevant about his life. By necessity the book is also nearly two years late, three times being postponed and finally fatefully ready on the 10th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death.

  The book started life when I edited Formula 1 Magazine after we all realised a short series of articles we had published justified something much worthier of the man who, in my opinion, was clearly the greatest Formula One driver who ever performed on the circuits. I am indebted to current and former colleagues who have helped in this production.

  I would especially like to thank my close collaborators, Gerald Donaldson, David Tremayne, Caroline Reid, Peter Collins and Ania Grzesik for their help in researching the nuts and bolts of Ayrton Senna’s remarkable life. Also the others whose help in individual chapters was invaluable and include: Josef Leberer, Ralph Firman, Dennis Rushen, Dick Bennetts, Martin Brundle, Peter Goodman, Alan Challis, Peter Warr, Gerhard Berger, the late Tony Rudd, Professor Sid Watkins, Jo Ramirez, Martin Donnelly, Nigel Mansell, Murray Walker, Eddie Baker and Andrew James. I thank Julian Jakobi for casting his eye over crucial chapters and Andrew Frankl for making sure everything was shipshape. The book would not have been possible without Keith Sutton throwing open his vast library of Senna images, especially from the early days. Also his staff for scrutinising proofs.

  Rowena Cremer-Price and Jo Maxwell did a remarkable job in organising the production process. And Paul Jones and Shelley White were amazing as they edited every word and read it all again, twice. Luckily they were fans.

  The efforts of all were unstinting, although the words that follow – and any errors or omissions – are naturally my responsibility alone.

  FOREWORD

  My Friend and Team-mate

  by Gerhard Berger

  Ayrton Senna had a concentration level different from all of us. He could find in himself such a high concentration mode and nobody understood how he could do it.

  During my three years with Ayrton at McLaren, I was thinking at night how was I going to beat this guy. Usually you always find a weakness in a team-mate and then I would work on this weakness, increase this weakness. But not with him. Ayrton Senna, my friend, was strong in qualifying, unbelievably quick in the racing – consistently quick in lapping, quick in the rain, quick on the quick circuits and quick on the street circuits. Every day I was racing I was thinking, ‘Shit, how am I going to beat this guy’.

  By nature, he was an extremely hardworking and ambitious fellow. That, and his extraordinary ability, perhaps made him unapproachable for many: a supernatural being whom one couldn’t relate to. He taught me a lot about our sport; I taught him to laugh.

  We had many great times together, especially at the end of the 1980s. I call them our ‘James Bond years’, which have formed the basis of one of the chapters of this book. Before the Brazilian Grand Prix, I sometimes went to spend a few days at his beach house in Angra, and in Europe he was sometimes on my boat as we sailed around the islands of Sardinia or Ibiza.

  What happened on 1st May 1994 should never have happened. We could and should have done something about Tamburello. After all, we had had plenty of warning. When I had my big accident in 1989, in exactly the same place, before I went into the wall I remember thinking I was going to die. I was disabused of this a few moments later by Professor Sid Watkins, whose efforts to get a tube down my throat to assist my breathing hurt more than the accident.

  Afterwards I said to Ayrton – and I remember my exact words – ‘we have to change that terrible wall, it’s too dangerous.’ I wish we had. We certainly had opportunity. The following year after a test session at Imola, Ayrton and I walked to Tamburello. He looked behind the wall and saw there was a river, and he said to me: “Gerhard, we can’t change it as there is a river behind it.” We looked at each other and said okay, we cannot change it; and I said to Ayrton: “I know we can’t do anything but someone is going to die at this corner.” Sure enough, he died at exactly the place where we were standing and talking. River or no river, we should have done something.

  I last saw him in Bologna hospital. I knew he was dying and there was no chance of him pulling through. Professor Watkins let me into his room for a few moments alone with him, for the last time. I spent a few minutes with him, and then that was that.

  In this life you are a little prepared for death. In fact, during my career a lot of my team-mates and friends have died – Michele Alboreto, Elio de Angelis, Roland Ratzenberger, Manfred Winkelhock, Jo Gartner and so on. But of all of them, Ayrton was my closest friend and although it wasn’t entirely unexpected, it really hurt.

  Afterwards, actually getting back into a car was one of my hardest achievements in motorsport. The soul-searching was very difficult, especially when my daughter came and asked whether it was true that Ayrton was dead. It was tough, but all the drivers in 1994 had to face the same thing. Did we want to do this anymore? Was it crazy? It was a very emotional and difficult time.

  My last real memory of Ayrton is of him turning around to smile at me on the grid, as the drivers’ names were called out on the loudspeakers and the San Marino crowd cheered. It was the smile of a friend who was pleased to see the people’s support and love for me. That is the last thing I remember of him.

  Gerhard Berger

  San Marino

  Italy

  Sunday 20th April 2003

  PROLOGUE

  Memories of Ayrton

  by Keith Sutton

  I officially became a pukka freelance photographer in 1980, at the age of 20, just as Ayrton Senna was doing the same thing in race cars. After three years covering motor races around England as a hobby, I took the plunge and would sink or swim on my talents.

  Travelling around Europe and England, taking in as many races as I could, was a struggle. Then, at the start of 1981, luck came my way when I met Ayrton Senna da Silva by chance. I first saw Ayrton at Thruxton circuit in England on 8th March 1981. As fate would have it, I was there working for a Brazilian motorsport magazine that wanted photographs of Brazilian drivers racing in England. Otherwise I would probably have paid him no attention at all.

  I was shy in those days so I never introduced myself. I just took lots of photographs of him in the paddock, on the track, everywhere. He must have wondered why this photographer he had never seen before was taking so many rolls of film of him at only his second outing in a race car. But I was just doing my job – taking photos of Brazilians. That day he finished third and I thought no more of it, apart from developing the photos and worrying about getting paid for them.

  The following weekend I was at a loose end, so I took out a free British Rail promotion ticket I had been given and used it to travel to Brands Hatch circuit, where Ayrton was racing. Recalling it now, I am certain that I only went because of the free ticket and for no other reason. It was pure fate and my life was destined for a change of course. I
have no idea what I was thinking of as I embarked on the eight-hour journey that day. The distance between my home in Manchester, in the north of England, and Brands Hatch, south of London, was some 230 miles.

  When I arrived in the paddock it was a normal Brands Hatch Sunday, with the sloping paddock packed with transporters and loads of hopeful young drivers. The chances of not seeing someone you knew were very high. But almost as soon as I set foot in the paddock he was in front of me, out of nowhere, as if by magic. He instantly recognised me from Thruxton and came up to me. I have no idea if he had been planning to approach me or it was spontaneous. I never asked him. He had a reputation for being shy but he just marched up and said: “Are you a professional photographer?” They were his first words. There was no ‘hello’ or ‘how are you?’, just straight down to business in his very poor English. “Yes, of course,” I replied.

  “Well, I need photographs, can you help me out?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “I need the photographs to send to Brazil on a regular basis.”

  “Yes, of course”, I repeated for the third time.

  And that was it. From that day on for over three years, I was effectively his personal photographer. Although it seemed perfectly normal at the time, in a few moments, an obscure Brazilian Formula Ford driver had acquired a personal photographer – a luxury even today’s Formula One drivers do not have. I am not sure why I agreed but he was special and I guess I sensed that.

  That day he went on to win his heat, and win the race. It was very exciting and I was there on the podium to capture the moment. It was late evening, the light was fantastic and I took some memorable black-and-white photographs of him with his then wife Liliane.

  It was the start of my relationship with Ayrton. I carried on working with him and taking photographs. I effectively became his PR man as well. I wrote his press releases and answered his fan mail for years. I suggested to him that we send photographs and press releases after each race to all the magazines around the world and the Formula One team managers such as Ron Dennis, Bernie Ecclestone and Ken Tyrrell, letting them know about Ayrton’s performances. Headed notepaper was organised for him, with his helmet in full colour, and the bottom of the paper proudly stated: ‘For further information, contact Keith Sutton, 17 Ashfield Road, Cheadle, Cheshire’.