You will never know the feeling of a driver when winning a race. The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood.”
Ayrton Senna da Silva
Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian driver who captivated the world with his skills and competitive spirit. He competed in Formula 1 for 11 seasons before suffering a fatal accident at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, in 1994. Although his time in the elite ranks of motorsports was brief, his talent gave fans unforgettable moments that remain etched in the memories of people around the globe.
1. His first podium and the birth of a new legend
In 1984, on a Sunday that time itself seems to have been preserved, the young Brazilian driver delivered one of the most unforgettable performances in Formula 1 history. In torrential rain, on the narrow and unforgiving streets of Monaco, Ayrton Senna started from a lowly 13th position.
Overtaking there was difficult under normal circumstances; that day, it bordered on the impossible. Yet, Senna defied both the soaked asphalt and the limits of his car, carving his way through the field lap after lap, overtaking established champions such as Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda.
By the time he reached second place, he trailed Alain Prost by an astonishing 34 seconds—but with breathtaking skill and fearless determination, he slashed that gap to just seven seconds. Then, on lap 31, the race was controversially stopped by race director and former driver Jacky Ickx. Ickx later revealed he had acted under orders from Jean‑Marie Balestre, then president of Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) —French like Prost and a close personal friend of the McLaren driver—fueling suspicions that linger to this day. For fans, however, that afternoon marked something far greater than a result: it was the birth of a legend. Even without the official victory, Senna conquered memory, emotion, and history forever.
2. The King of Rain – Senna’s first win
Forty-one years ago, Ayrton Senna with his Lotus won his first Grand Prix in Portugal. On April 20, 1985, he secured his first pole position, and the next day, he proved he was in the sport to win.
The race began with heavy rain that tested the track, the tires, and the drivers, but from the start, Senna gave his rivals no chance, building a solid lead and setting the fastest lap. Italian driver Michele Alboreto was in second place in his Ferrari, exactly one minute and two seconds behind Senna—an eternity in F1 terms. Third-place finisher Patrick Tambay, driving a Renault, was a lap behind, and starting with fifth-place finisher Nigel Mansell of England in his Williams, everyone was at least two laps behind the Brazilian.
The storm that caused 13 of the 26 drivers who started the race to spin out in breathtaking fashion, combined with the Brazilian driver’s performance, led the British publication Motoring News to write that “Senna glided along, navigating safely like an experienced captain on a track full of pitfalls, while other veteran drivers were shipwrecked by hydroplaning.”
After his first podium finish in Monaco in 1984, the Portuguese Grand Prix cemented Ayrton Senna’s reputation as the “Rain King,” establishing him as the greatest driver in Formula 1 history on wet tracks. His unmatched mastery in adverse conditions has never been surpassed; that title still belongs to Senna.
3. Ayrton Senna’s first championship
Ayrton Senna was crowned world champion for the first time at Suzuka in 1988, securing the title ahead of schedule. Before that race, the Brazilian driver had won seven races, while his teammate, Alain Prost, won six times. The math was simple: Either Senna would win that race and take the championship, or the champion would be decided two weeks later, at the season finale in Adelaide, Australia.
On Sunday, the front row was a true reflection of the season: Senna in first, with Prost in second. When the race got underway, the Brazilian’s car wouldn’t move, so he raised his arms to signal the problem, hoping to avoid being hit by any of the more than 20 drivers behind him.
Senna’s car was damaged, and the starting grid was on a downhill stretch when he got the car running. By then, he had already lost 16 positions. Prost accelerated, took the lead, and all seemed lost for the Brazilian’s fans. However, Senna had the determination and will to win, and on the very first lap, he passed eight cars and continued his pursuit of Prost and first place. At the end of the tenth lap, he passed Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari and took third place; now only Ivan Capelli of the March Engineering team remained ahead, but the Italian was 10 seconds in front. Of course, Ayrton Senna didn’t give up.
Lap after lap, Senna methodically closed the gap between himself and his two rivals, who had been held up by a few backmarkers along the track and lost precious time. On lap 19, he caught up to the leaders, and on the next lap, Cappelli had to retire from the race, and Senna appeared in Prost’s rearview mirror.
For several laps, Senna relentlessly chased Prost—a race within a race between the two McLaren drivers that left the crowd breathless. On the 28th of 51 laps, the unthinkable happened. The Brazilian surged past Prost, calculated his move even before entering the pit straight, and executed his 15th—and most magnificent—overtake of that race.
Prost still tried to close the gap, squeezing Senna against the pit straight wall, but nothing he did was enough to prevent the maneuver. The Brazilian took the lead, something that had seemed impossible after the problem at the start.
Until the end of the race, the Frenchman tried to fight back, but Senna didn’t allow any attacks and even extended his lead with authority. Prost crossed the finish line 13 seconds behind the new world champion, while Senna secured a victory that has been etched in the memory of Brazilians and motorsport fans alike.
4. The collision with Alain Prost and the second championship title
Due to his intense rivalry with Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost left McLaren and joined Ferrari for the 1990 Formula 1 season. The move, however, did little to ease the tension between the two drivers, whose relationship had deteriorated into open hostility on and off the track.
At that point in the season, Senna had 78 points to Prost’s 69. For Alain, only victories in the season’s final two races would secure his fourth championship. For the Brazilian, all he had to do was prevent Prost from winning any of the races.
On Sunday, Senna started in first place and his rival in second. That is, on a track like Suzuka, where passing was difficult, Senna decided that he would take the first corner in the lead or would not allow Prost to take the top spot from him, no matter the cost.
Prost managed to pass the Brazilian driver right at the start, thanks to better traction, but Senna knew the power of his Honda engine and accelerated. The Frenchman, who was in the middle of the track, drifted slightly to the left, and Senna took advantage of the space to dive on the inside.
Prost slowed down slightly to turn right into the first corner, and Senna kept his foot on the gas. The result? The two cars collided and spun out of control into the gravel. Both got out of their cars, retiring from the race right at the first corner; however, Senna didn’t mind, as he had prevented his biggest rival from having any chance of winning the championship, and Ayrton Senna da Silva was crowned two-time world champion.
The most curious thing is that all three championships Senna won were clinched before the end of the season and at Suzuka.
5. The famous victory achieved using only sixth gear
Brazil, 1991: Senna was a two-time world champion, but he had never won a race on homeland—at Interlagos.
That year, he was pushed to his limits on every lap of the race. He started from pole position and got off to a strong start, building a solid lead over the Williams cars driven by Riccardo Patrese and Nigel Mansell.
With 12 laps to go, Mansell had gearbox trouble and retired from the race. Now, the Brazilian driver just needed to manage his 40-second lead over second-place Patrese. It seemed like an easy task, until it wasn’t. Senna had experienced some gearbox issues during the race; with 20 laps to go, he lost fourth gear, and then gradually lost the remaining gears over the next few laps—fifth, third—until only sixth gear remained with seven laps to go.
The physical effort required to control the car was intense. He had to keep the engine revving high to navigate the low-speed corners, trying to adapt to the car’s capabilities to overcome that immense adversity, while also striving to maintain some distance from the driver in second place. With two laps to go, Patrese was 4 seconds behind Senna and had a car running perfectly. Then help arrived, as if everything were conspiring for his first home victory: the classic Interlagos rain began to fall- light, but enough to wet the track.
And it was in the drizzle that Ayrton Senna managed to hold off Patrese and win his first home race, using only sixth gear and finishing less than 3 seconds ahead of the runner-up. He won with grit, and the Brazilian people went wild, welcoming their champion with open arms. The country was ecstatic.
Due to the immense physical effort, the driver suffered muscle spasms, and on the podium he was in so much pain he could barely lift the victory trophy: a heroic scene of someone who had achieved one of the greatest goals of his career and fulfilled not only his own dream, but the dream of an entire nation.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of his victory.
6. The most famous ride in Formula 1
In 1991, Nigel Mansell and Senna were the stars of the season, and at the British Grand Prix, only 25 points separated Ayrton, who was in the lead, from his rival.
Mansell took pole position, but the Brazilian overtook him at the start. However, the Williams car proved to be the better car during the race.
Despite all of Senna’s efforts to catch up to the leader, he was unable to do so, and on the final lap, his McLaren came to a stop due to a lack of fuel. Mansell crossed the finish line and, as he made his victory lap, he found Ayrton stopped at the corner of the track and decided to do something unexpected: he offered him a ride. Senna accepted, and the two of them created one of the most iconic moments in the sport. Videos and photos of that scene went viral around the world.
7. Ayrton Senna saves Érik Comas at the Belgian Grand Prix
During one of the practice sessions for the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix, French Ligier driver Érik Comas crashed heavily at the Blanchmont curve, and his car came to a stop across the middle of the Spa-Francorchamps track. He was unconscious, with his foot still on the accelerator.
As Senna drove past the scene of the accident, he stopped his car without a second thought and went to help his colleague. Realizing that the driver’s foot was still on the accelerator, he turned off the car’s ignition, preventing an explosion.
And after that, he helped administer first aid and saved Comas’s life, preventing something even worse from happening.
This heroic and compassionate act left a lasting impression on an entire generation, which, to this day, recounts that moment to anyone who will listen.
Whoever you are, whatever social position you have in life, the highest or the lowest, always have as a goal a lot of strength, a lot of determination, and always do everything with a lot of love, that one day you’ll get there. Somehow you get there.”
Ayrton Senna da Silva
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The article above was edited by Duda Kabzas.
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