By Phil Huff (01/05/2004)
May 1 2004

To start with, I'm not really sure that I should be writing this, as this is a BAR fan site, and writing about Ayrton Senna can be a very personal thing. However, he was Honda's greatest driver, and I know a lot of people will be coming here looking for information. Ayrton Senna won all but 9 of his 41 race wins driving machinery powered by Honda engines, driving through a period where Honda simply dominated. However, Ayrton had the ability to drive beyond his machinery, not so much driving the car, as leading it. His race wins in uncompetitive vehicles showed the class of the man.



I was fortunate enough to be at Donington in 1993, where I saw Ayrton run in what many regard as his greatest race. Sitting in the grandstand at McLeans, there was disappointment to see Senna head round Redgate in 5th, one place down on his qualifying position. However, he got that place back down through Craner Curves. The cars disappear out of sight through the Old Hairpin, before emerging up through Schwantz curve. Amazingly, Senna was on the outside, in the pouring rain, simply driving around the opposition. Squeezing inside Hill at McLeans, he only had Prost left to get by, but surely he couldn't do that.

By the time he appeared next, he was a few seconds in the lead. The crowd literally fell silent. We were aware then that we were witnessing history in the making.

Only one other driver stood out over the weekend. A young, aggressive man, visibly quicker than his team-mate, and most others around him. That was Michael Schumacher, winner of just one race. If only we'd had the chance to see the two racing head to head for a few more years.

Alain Prost thinks the same, saying "Everybody misses Ayrton, because of the way he was on the track. You still want to see him on the track, fighting against Schumacher!"

There's no way of saying that Senna was the greatest ever. How can you compare Fangio to Senna, Senna to Schumacher, Schumacher to Fangio? There's little doubt, however, that Senna was simply the most passionate and driven driver to have graced the F1 grid. Yes, Schumacher is a driven man, but applied in a different, less passionate manner. Schumacher's speed comes from his head, Senna's from the heart.

After qualifying at Monaco 1988, Senna spoke of how he 'went outside of the car', looking down at what was wrong – with the car, not his driving – then going back into the car and driving to perfection. Prost, sitting alongside, was dumbfounded: "How could I explain that I lost pole position to somebody who was looking at his car from the sky?"

Senna very nearly became bigger than F1, such was his greatness. However, like all men, Senna had flaws, but he was never able to admit them. He could justify driving Prost off the road at Suzuka 1990. Breaking an agreement not to overtake his teammate at San Marino 1989 was fine, as it was a restart and not the original start, so the agreement didn’t matter. And Monaco 1988, when he threw away a virtually guaranteed win.

Still, aren't all geniuses flawed?

While it's easy to talk about Ayrton Senna (and I could go on for hours), few people remember we lost another driver on that fateful weekend – Roland Ratzenberger. Again, I wasn’t sure whether to write this, as Roland never drove a Honda powered car, but I felt a short comment was in order.



Roland had worked his way into F1, despite a lack of financial support from his parents. We can’t all be born into a millionaire’s family, sadly. Once he got there, he instantly became one of the most liked people in the paddock, always ready to talk to people, always ready to help.

Less than 15 minutes before qualifying at Imola, Roland was still talking to the Austrian media. "Let's continue after qualifying," he said to Gerald Pototschnig of Kliene Zeitung.

"I'm running out of time."