Ayrton Senna. The legend began 40 years ago

Formula 1 World Championship 2024 started in Bahrain, without any debutant driver. Four decades ago the story was different. On March 21, 1984, a young 24-year-old Brazilian appeared in the Jacarepaguá paddock, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and one of the most fantastic stories in motor sport began. It was only ten years, but they were the best ten years of Formula 1. Ayrton Senna da Silva is considered by many drivers, team directors, specialized journalists and fans as the best driver ever. Fearless, charismatic and with extraordinary skill, he won three world championships (1988/1990/1991), 41 victories, 80 podiums and 65 pole positions. Whenever he sat in a racing car he provided magical and spectacular moments. Brazilians lived the races intensely and there was a loud celebration whenever they won. He became the idol of a nation. The legend is still alive and to the question ‘Who are the best in the history of Formula 1’, ChatGPT responded: «1st Ayrton Senna, 2nd Michael Schumacher, 3rd Lewis Hamilton, 4th Juan Manuel Fangio, 5th. º Alain Prost». Ayrton Senna’s story goes far beyond his life as a pilot. His determination, courage and permanent search for perfection still motivates people to fight for what they aspire to. Moving on to motor sport, when you ask karting kids who their favorite driver is, they don’t hesitate to talk about Ayrton Senna, despite never having seen him race, but there are images to tell a story that remains unfinished.

When I put on my helmet and went out onto the track, driver and car came together in a perfect symbiosis. He performed maneuvers that no one else did and performed impressive qualifying laps, which left his opponents perplexed and we are talking about drivers like Niki Lauda, ​​Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger. «I don’t know any other way to lead other than boldly. When it’s time to overtake, I overtake. Each driver has their limit, mine is a little beyond that of others,” he said.

Ayrton Senna lived intensely. He always gave his best on the track, but he had other concerns. He fought to increase pilot safety, clashing head-on with the unspeakable president of the international federation. Little did he know that he would be the first and only world champion to die on the track. There is also another sad coincidence in Ayrton’s career; he was behind the wheel of a Williams that did the first Formula 1 test (Donington Park, 1983) and he was behind the wheel of a Williams that died 11 years later (Imola, 1994). Several projects remained to be completed. Ayrton wanted to equal Juan Manuel Fangio with five world titles, reach 100 pole positions and race for Ferrari; it would be the joining of two myths of Formula 1. The president of the Scuderia at the time, Luca di Montezemolo, later revealed that there was a negotiation for this to happen: «He wanted to come to Ferrari and I wanted him in the team», he recalled .

Ayrton had a meteoric and fulminating rise to reach Formula 1. Before being hired by Toleman, Senna tested with Brabham, Williams and McLaren, but opted for the more modest team. «It would be better to sign with Toleman than to retire from motorsport», he explained. Senna was a small step away from being Piquet’s colleague at Brabham, but he refused the financial proposal presented by the team boss, and even said: «Bernie has to put his hand in his pocket».

Running at home

His debut showed that he was not a pilot like the others. Ayrton knew how far he could go and, before qualifying, he stated: «The Toleman TG 183B is strong, resistant, but it is an outdated model in terms of speed. This will be reflected in the classification. It will be very difficult to start from a good position». He had the 16th best time in timed training among 27 drivers. Even though he was a rookie, he showed great knowledge of what Formula 1 was. «During the race, due to the low consumption of the Hart engine and the resistance of the car, the possibility of gaining positions is great. Eventually, at the end of the race I will be able to achieve a surprising classification. The important thing is to stay calm, give my best and see the result as a new phase in my career,” he said. However, he almost stopped running. When he was on his way to the starting grid he detected a gasoline leak, but the problem was solved in extremis.

Away from the spotlight of television broadcasts, he had a good start and gained three positions in the first lap. He continued to recover and reached ninth position before being stopped on the ninth lap with a Hart engine failure. «The turbocharger broke. Something happened, because the car started to vibrate a lot,” he explained. It wasn’t the debut he expected, but the best was yet to come. Fifteen days later, in the second race of the championship, held at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, he showed his talent and finished sixth, the first of the 614 points achieved in Formula 1.

A year later, Ayrton Senna took his first pole position in the beautiful Lotus 97T, with a Renault V6 1.5 turbo engine with 1,100 hp! Afterwards, he serenaded the rain at the Estoril race track and won his first grand prix. The race was held in torrential rain and with the track completely flooded. In the first lap he gave 2.5 seconds to his rivals and no one else saw him for two hours. He won with an average of 145.1 km/h and just didn’t double second place, Michele Alboreto (Ferrari), but the Italian was more than a minute behind. He also achieved his first Grand Slam, that is, victory, fastest lap and pole position. Nowadays it is impossible to see displays of this caliber for the simple reason that there would be no racing. Formula 1 (still) lives a lot of this memory.

At the end of the race, he commented: «The organizers had given us ten extra minutes to adapt to the rain. I was so lost in those conditions. After going from dry to wet with a full tank of fuel I had no idea how the car would behave. I left the pits “walking on eggshells”, afraid of losing the car on that lap and not starting. At the start I felt that the car was normal and I left». In the end he recognized that «the car was slipping everywhere, it was very difficult to maintain control. People think I didn’t make mistakes, but that’s not true, I have no idea how many times I got out! Once I had all four wheels on the grass, completely out of control, and the car returned to the track». Senna then revealed the secret to his speed on a wet track. «I remember my first kart race in the rain. It was a disaster, a total joke. I couldn’t do anything. It was strange, because dry it was quite good. That day I realized that I didn’t know anything about driving in the rain and I started training on wet roads. Whenever it rained, there I was, testing and training. That’s how I learned to walk in the rain».