A s rain poured over the Imola circuit, Sebastian Vettel set off from the start line. As usual, he was flanked by members of the F1 grid and yet this occasion was different. It was May 2024, Vettel had retired two seasons prior, and instead of a four-stroke 1.6-litre turbo V6 powering him, the German four-time World Champion had nothing but his feet beneath him.

Vettel, wearing a yellow T-shirt with a band of blue and a band of green going horizontally across it, was leading the grid from the Imola start line to the Tamburello corner and a secluded area away from the circuit. Nestled in the trees, sat a bronze statue from artist Stefano Pierotti with the figure of a man, head bowed and curly, untamed hair falling to just above his shoulders.

The expression on the bronze design is contemplative, a man deep in thought, clutching a red rose, the only present colour in this otherwise monochrome piece of art. This is not the only statue of Ayrton Senna da Silva but it is the most poignant one. Hanging around his shoulders is the bandeira do Brasil, the country’s iconic flag, and it can be seen a hundred times tied to the fence or painted on the wall behind him. This blink and you’d miss it spot is a few hundred yards away from where Senna lost his life during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix after his Williams FW16 gave way in an event that shook F1 to its core. The only World Champion to lose his life behind the wheel and the sport’s brightest flame gone out far too soon.

Senna’s status has made the statue something of F1’s mecca, an unmissable stop should you be visiting the Imola circuit, but Senna’s impact stretches far wider than this region of northern Italy.

Bruce McLaren said, “Life is measured in achievement, not in years alone” and if that is the case, Senna lived a hundred lifetimes despite dying at the age of 34.

 

 

 

 

No driver has had a bigger impact on Formula 1 than the Brazilian. From a safety point alone, it is monumental. Before Senna, 30 drivers perished behind the wheel of F1. Since Senna, just one.

But more than what his death did to the sport, his life left an unmistakable mark and one that resonates just as richly now 30 years on from his passing as it did during the time he was alive.

In many ways, Senna’s is the perfect Formula 1 story. Born in Sao Paulo in March 1960, his was not an easy rise to the top. Growing up in Brazil, he was a million miles away from the European home of motorsport. This was the nation of football, the nation of Pelé and it would be another 12 years before a Brazilian, Emerson Fittipaldi, first lifted the Drivers’ Championship.

 

 

 

 

Senna may have been born into a wealthy family and his father’s status as a landowner and factory owner made racing a possibility for the bright-eyed Brazilian but karting in rural Sao Paulo is not the natural route into the premier motorsport series.

His karting competition came at the age of 13, late by modern standards, and was powered by a 1-HP engine built for a lawnmower but it was here when his remarkable talent first began to shine through. Senna swept aside the competition, winning the South American Kart Championship in 1977, and off the back of a successful start in Brazil’s karting competitions, Senna moved to England and Norfolk in 1981, shunning the easy life on offer to him in Brazil to follow his motorsport passion. But life in England was not a fairy-tale story by any means. He spoke minimal English, lived in a semi-detached bungalow on an unremarkable street in Eaton and after his father divided against bankrolling his son’s ambitious dream, he faced a make-or-break year, secure success in single-seaters on return home with his tail between his legs.

Naturally, it was the former. He won 12 of the 20 races he competed in on his way to two Formula Ford 1600 championship titles but with next to no money coming in, Senna quit motorsport for good at the end of the season and decided to return to Brazil.

But before he boarded the plane back to Sao Paulo, an offer was made for Senna to drive with a Formula Ford 2000 team, in a move that would give him a £10,000 pay cheque and with the matter of financial security no longer a problem, the ‘what if?’ question in his mind was too much to leave unanswered.

 

 

 

 

He returned to England, opting to use his mother’s maiden name to distinguish himself from other da Silvas in the motorsport world and the story of Senna truly began. Senna rose up the ranks in an upward trajectory similar to that of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen but it was the manner of Senna’s performances that made him special.

His first battle came against now Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle. A close British Formula 3 Championship was won by Senna by just nine points – third place was 55 points behind – and the season left a lasting impression on Brundle. As both progressed up the F1 ranks, Brundle never waived in his belief that Senna was “the greatest driver of all time” one with “a God-given talent for grip and speed and understanding of how a car works.”

That God-given talent was best demonstrated in 1990 in Monaco, a circuit the Brazilian had come to master. Arriving in Monte Carlo that season, Senna was a World Champion but had lost out the season before to his closest rival Alain Prost. With the Frenchman now at Ferrari and Senna at McLaren, the pair touched down in Monaco with the Brazilian ahead in the championship by just one point.

What came next was arguably the one moment that most elevated Senna to the pantheon of the gods and left Prost as a talented driver but a mere mortal compared to the Brazilian. As qualifying neared its end, Senna set out in his MP4/5B for a final flying run. Cameras had been added to the engine cover to allow viewers a grainy but clear enough image of what Senna saw as he hurtled through the tight and narrow streets.

It is a work of art. A matador fighting every second to tame the bull. Senna pounds around the corners, his right hand changing gears frantically as his left hand grips the steering wheel. He is wearing red gloves against the black steering wheel with Honda’s logo in white in the middle. To the side you can see the instantly identifiable red and white livery of the McLaren and in the rear-view mirror, Senna's iconic blue, green and yellow helmet.

The spectators, the walls, the barriers, and the chicanes all fly by at a hundred miles an hour as the camera cuts in and out. The noise of the 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V10 engine ripping into the microphone.

The lap is an astonishing feat of performance, one of the rare moments when machine and man are so perfectly intertwined, so in sync, that the two become one to produce perfection. Senna took pole by half a second but more than that, he produced genius. A moment that transcended sport into the acts of art. Senna had many of these moments in his career but that lap, in that venue is what many remember why they think of him.

Those who saw Senna in the flesh say watching him was like nothing else, no one had a better understanding of cars and how to drive them. They say he could see grip before driving into it, could calculate the precise angle to approach a corner while travelling at 200mph into it, and could conquer rain in a way very few could. 

As to what gave him that gift, natural talent was a part, but obsession was also a key component of Senna’s make-up. Senna was obsessed with the extra tenth of a second that remained out there, regardless of how good a lap was. He spoke of finding the limit and then looking to go further. Damon Hill said he could go into a “transcendental” state of mind, one where he did not feel as if he was driving the car, instead he and the car were one. Gerhard Berger, Senna’s closet friend in the paddock, said once he was focused, he felt no pain or stress, he was living in another world and one that was a step ahead of everyone else.

Prost, himself an all-time great, said that during a race, Senna had the ability to transport himself mentally out of the car, look at how it was behaving on track, analyse where he was going wrong then be back in the cockpit to correct it.

The Brazilian may be best known for his on-track ability, but it was this off-track demeanour that added to his legend. As well as his praise, Brundle described Senna as a “complex individual.” Photographs of him smiling are rare, instead, he almost always seems deep in thought.

 

 

 

 

“He was very dedicated, very serious,” Gary Wheeler, Senna’s former mechanic, told me at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, just a few feet away from the MP4/6, Senna's last championship-winning car. “But you could tell that this guy was a talent. 

“I personally think it doesn't matter what era he would have been born in, he was still going to be one of the fastest drivers, because to this day, he is still the fastest driver I've ever worked for. The speed he could make those cars go is incredible.” 

But how he achieved that speed was not mere luck. Senna was meticulous, often hoping straight out of a car and providing his mechanics with a long list of exactly what he wanted to change with the car. When David Coulthard tested the Williams car in 1994, he expected to be the only driver at the circuit but when he returned to the pits, he found Senna waiting for him, waiting to hear the Scot’s feedback.

I asked Fernando Alonso this year why Aston Martin’s upgrades were not working as they should to which he replied, “I’m a driver, not a technician”. It is hard to imagine Senna adopting this attitude.

Senna was the perfect mix of brains and ability, and nothing went unaccounted for. In 1984, Senna produced an uncharacteristic crash in lap 47 at the Dallas Grand Prix. He clipped a wall in a move that was understandable for a driver just seven races into his F1 career, but it speaks volumes of Senna’s self-belief and attention to detail that he blamed the crash not on his mistake but on a wall inexplicably moving.

 

 

 

 

Pat Symonds, chief engineer at Senna’s first team Toleman, laughed it off but when they went to look at the particular area Senna hit, they found it had moved by just a few millimetres due to an earlier incident.

Senna was also convinced the world was against him, something that current Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes is a trait all great F1 drivers share. During their title fight and after Brundle had begun to close the gap, the Brazilian was convinced the engine going into the Briton’s car was faster than the one going into his despite them being made by the same manufacturer.

In the title-deciding race of 1990, Senna qualified on pole but asked for the starting position for P1 and P2 to be swapped as he believed he was on the dirty side of the track. The steward initially agreed but Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile president Jean-Marie Balestre later rejected it, warning Senna if he attempted to cross early in the race it would hand him a penalty, only furthering Senna’s rage.

 

“If you no longer go for a gap which exists you are no longer a racing driver.

 

The grand prix began, and Prost made the better start, moving into the lead on the inside. Senna came across and hit the Frenchman, sending both out of the race and giving Senna the title. After the race, Senna produced a quote that became almost as iconic as him: “If you no longer go for a gap which exists you are no longer a racing driver.”

Senna was a tough competitor but one with a deeply personal side. When he followed mechanic Wheeler to McLaren, the Brazilian made one request, that Wheeler work on his car. It was one of few driver requests Ron Dennis granted.

The day before he was killed in Imola, another driver Roland Ratzenberger also lost his life. The Austrian was killed just three races into his F1 career during qualifying at Imola. Senna had no connection to the 33-year-old but still chose to visit him in the medical centre. He spoke with neurosurgeon Sid Watkins who informed him that Ratzenberger had succumbed to his injuries and suggested a visibly upset Senna withdraw from Sunday’s race. Senna simply responded, “I cannot quit, I have to go on.”

Another driver on the grid, Johnny Herbert, said Senna had a vision of his death the night before he died, something he shared with Watkins. As the cameras panned to the sport’s biggest star on the grid, his eyes appeared distant as if Senna’s mind was elsewhere. Senna careered into Tamburllo at 131mph. His Williams car tore in half with the right front wheel and nose cone spinning away from the rest of the chassis. The suspension shot up through the cockpit, striking Senna on the right front area of his helmet and almost certainly killing him instantly. As the camera lingered, Senna with his famous blue, green and yellow helmet, sat motionless, for once no longer in control. Photographer and a friend of Senna, Angelo Orsi was one of the first on the scene and took pictures of the driver but to this day, those have never been seen by the public.

The race was stopped for just 37 minutes in a decision that seems remarkable now. Michael Schumacher, one of few drivers who can claim Senna’s crown as the best ever, won before breaking down in tears in the press conference.

Senna’s death remains the darkest day in F1 history and although plenty had died before him, it changed Formula 1.

Many greats have died young. Kurt Cobian, Freddie Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, the list goes on, but Senna is the underbelly among them.

"I started watching F1 with my dad when I was just four or five years old. I would come home and often put on a video of Ayrton,” said Lewis Hamilton. “I wanted to be like him. I aspired to drive the way he drove and to achieve something similar to what he achieved." Hamilton is one of just seven current drivers to have been born when Senna died but all 20 of them have spoken of what the Brazilian meant to them. Thirty-four years on from his incredible pole, this year’s Monaco Grand Prix saw the bridge connecting the paddock to the pit lane decorated in Senna tributes, one from each of the 20 drivers. McLaren’s car was blue, yellow, and green.

Sporting greats have the ability to make us mortals feel something special, to question our own eyes as to what we have just seen. Senna was able to do that with his peers.

"I only raced against him in one Grand Prix and that was Brands Hatch 1985,” former F1 racer John Watson told Off the Ball in 2019. “But I saw something which I'd never, ever in my life seen prior and probably haven't seen since.

"Senna was probably the first driver who I'd heard changing gears, going down the gears, flipping the throttle, turning the steering wheel into the next corner. And he was left foot breaking which I'd never known anyone in Formula 1 to do. He was keeping the engine spinning to try and keep the boost pressure in the turbocharged motor up. So that when he got back on the throttle, he was going to have more horsepower than if he'd been lifting off the throttle.

"Just having the mental capacity to do all these things simultaneously and the pace he was going...

"The car was literally like a stone skimming across the water. It was just dancing across the racetrack and carrying so much speed.

"And I went, 'Can I believe what I've just witnessed? Can I believe what I've just heard'? Because I had never ever seen a racing driver commit and carry so much speed in a difficult part of Brands Hatch. It was a three or four-second glimpse of an utter genius behind the wheel.”

That genius made a generation fall in love with motorsport, fall back in love with Formula 1 and kickstarted a new era of the sport with Schumacher the next great. Visit any grand prix in 2024 and you will see the yellow cars with Senna tributes printed on them. He is one of just four drivers to have a bust in the McLaren factory.

“I think he’s an incredible driver,” Vettel said, surrounded by his peers all dressed in a yellow shirt with the word FOREVER printed on them as the rain fell at Imola. “He stands for so much with the results and the achievements that he had. But on top of that, apart from the incredible level of skill and the races he pulled off, he stands for so much more.

“He had compassion, he stood up for his country. He was a leading figure, a voice trying to fight the lack of education, trying to fight poverty. A guy that basically like all of us had the gift, skill, determination and will to win but realised there is more to life than just sitting in the car than everyone else.”

Schumacher and Hamilton have the titles, the likes of Fangio and Stewart have the history, but no one captured the imagination in the way that Senna did and no one else ever will.