Ayrton Senna Anniversary

Last Friday (1 May) is the 15th Anniversary of the death of what maybe the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time, Ayrton Senna da Silva. This Brazilian was to make a mark in F1 that was difficult to emulate even by the great Michael Schumacher with whom he is always compared.

As with most of the F1 drivers Ayrton came from Kart Racing, onto Formula 3 and eventually onto F1 in 1994 with the Toleman team. He moved to Lotus in 1985 and had 3 seasons with them with differing results although many podiums.

Then he moved to Mclaren in 1988 and won his first world championship. That was to be followed by a further 2 in 1990 and 1991. He left Mclaren and moved to Williams in 1994 in controversial circumstances between himself and Alain Prost.

The first 2 races of the season were not good for him, in fact his worst start to a season. Onward he went to San Marino where on Friday, during the afternoon qualifying session, Senna's protege, the then F1 newcomer Rubens Barrichello, was involved in a serious accident that prevented him from competing in the race. The next day Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying. but unfortunately was killed in at the San Marino GP in that year.

Having put the car on pole the drivers were put behind the safety car after a huge pile up at the start. Senna then set the pace with his now great rival Michael Schumacher behind him. As Senna entered the Tamburello corner at 137mph his Williams left the track and hit the retaining wall. After being airlifted to hospital he was pronounced dead later in the day.

Ayrton Senna is the last driver to die at the wheel of an F1 car, a testament to the pressure he started towards driver safety.

During his career he had 3 world championships, 41 races, 80 podiums, scored 610 points and has 65 poles. One wonders what would have happened had he been around more in the early years of Michael Schumacher's career, all we can do is ponder the thought.