Senna was born march 21st 1960, he had a wealthy family who could accommodate his Karting needs, he and his brother and sister all enjoyed a advantaged upbringing, his family was so well off, he didn’t need to race for money at any time. Senna started racing when he was gifted a miniature go kart, his racing career blasted off from there, and it blasted off with a bang in 1964.

At the age of 13, Ayrton took to professional go Karting, in his first race, he won instantly, proving to any viewers of the race that Senna was supremely fast, and consistent.

8 years later he travelled to Britain to race single seater, once he joined it he won 5 championships In 3 years, this was enough to convince Toleman F1 that he was worthy enough to race in formula one, he joined in 1984, at Monaco he achieved second place, to future team mate Alain Prost.

It became clear to Ayrton that Toleman didn’t have the resources to maximise his potential, he bought out his contract with Toleman, and joined Lotus, in the time he was with the British squad, he achieved 16 of his 65 pole positions and won 6 times.

After three years of successful racing at Lotus, he joined the very successful McLaren team, where he joined Alain Prost, where he was the faster of the two drivers ,beating him to the world championship by three points, and Senna won 8 times, never qualifying less than 3rd position, this proved that he was sensationally quick on one lap. At Monaco he finished 1.4 seconds faster than Alain Prost, who was in the same car, and 2.7 seconds ahead of the next non McLaren runner, Gerhard Berger.

In 1989 Senna and Prost were great rivals, they battled throughout the season until they clashed at Suzuka. Its hard to say who was at fault, however a video can be found Here

Senna won the world championship in 1990 by seven points again from Alain Prost, they were rivals. They crashed once more, but a video of that can be found Here

In 1991, Britain’s Nigel Mansell was the next big challenger, but he couldn’t get anywhere near Ayrton in the final standings, Senna finishing 24 points, underlining his extreme speed, this would be his last championship win.

In 1992, things took a turn for the worse, McLaren didn’t provide a reliable car, resulting in Ayrton finishing a miserable 4th, with only three wins.

1993 was better, McLaren solved some of the reliability issues that plagued the 1992 campaign, thus Ayrton raced to second and 5 wins, which would be his last full season of Formula one racing.

Felling that McLaren wasn’t right for Ayrton, he moved to Williams, presumably after Williams won the last two seasons of F1 racing, the FW16 would be the car which killed Ayrton, the sports greatest driver.

The season was full of mixed results, Ayrton got three pole positions out of three, which all turned into retirement.

And came that fatal weekend, which would be dubbed the blackest weekend in formula one history, why people were injured and killed throughout the weekend.

Rubens Barrichello was injured in Friday practice, things got worse as Roland Ratzenburger lost his life, as film footage showed that he was in fact dead, if the FIA had declared him dead at the scene, the race would have been postponed, and Senna would still be living.

May 1st is remarked to be a bad day, not just in my mind, but in many other peoples too. As this would be the day when death cruelly took Ayrton Senna’s life.

So, what caused the fastest driver in the world to crash? We’ve been doing some research, and investigating on the matter. This is the series of events that caused the great champion to die.

In the early 1990’s formula one cars ran just a few millimetres away from the ground, which in some ways it was great, you got heaps of downforce for relatively nothing, this was called ground effects, but this technique had just one vicious flaw, that finally made the F1 world realise that ground effects was incredibly dangerous.

Senna’s car was running very close to the ground, this was to prove fatal, but ground effects were not the only cause in Ayrton Senna’s death. The Williams team had to make a last minute change to Senna’s steering column, Senna wanted it longer, the team didn’t have the time to make a new one, so they cut the steering column in two, and welded a plate of steel as they thought this wouldn’t create a problem… how wrong they were.

At the start of this horrific grand prix, there was a multi-car pileup, which sprayed shards of carbon fibre debris all over the circuit. A thin piece was still left on the circuit. As Senna went through Tamburello, the tyres were less pressurised and colder, than they would be normally; this caused the tyres to lower the cars height beyond the minimum they were supposed to be.

Imagine yourself in Senna’s condition, you didn’t want to race in the first place, but are doing to keeping the press quiet over the safety of formula one. Although things were looking up, despite having a poorly handling car, Senna got pole, he was leading the race, as the safety car pulled into the pits, its time to look professional and win the race.

Senna zoomed over the start finish line to start lap 6 which would be his last racing moment. Senna was accelerating up to one hundred and ninety miles an hour, racing up to the Tamburello. The car hit the bit of debris and bottomed out, the car slid along the ground, Senna slammed his breaks on, trying to stop the car hitting the wall, he managed to get the car down to one hundred and thirty which was recorded just before the time of impact. Senna couldn’t turn as the car’s steering was rendered useless, although people think that the steering column broke as well.

What is left in our minds, is the blue and white car of Ayrton Senna swerving into the barrier. Although Senna survived the initial crash, his head was hit by his front right tyre, which had bits of the suspension arms on it, these arms hit his head and punctured his helmet, this caused a brain haemorrhage which killed Senna a few hours later.

After Senna’s death, the Williams team didn’t take place at the next race, they modified their car, and put a Ayrton’s logo on the front wing, that still remains there today.

Although Senna and Roland were no doctors, they in a way have helped formula one, new crash tests have been put in place, and the development of safer cars has had a significant impact on the sport, as new improved helmets have been designed, and new neck restraints and other lifesaving devices have been embedded onto current formula one cars.

Had Senna survived the crash, he would of certainly thought about coming back to racing. At the Spanish grand prix, David Coulthard entered the sport to replace Senna. In 2004 the Williams team were found not guilty of manslaughter, Senna’s car was returned to the factory.

Senna was committed to keeping his fellow rivals alive, he hit the electronic kill switch on Erik Comas's, at the 1992 Belgium Grand Prix, to prevent a fire occurring, while he did this, cars zoomed past, Senna risking his life to save a fellow driver. He did the same at the 1993 grand prix, where he helped save Alessandro Zinardi.

Senna’s talent and his selflessness was immeasurable, and even today he is remarked to be the greatest, fastest driver that has graced God’s green earth.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes

McLaren F1 Poll