If Ayrton Senna had gotten out of his car alive on that May day in 1994, what would Formula 1 be like today 29 years later? This is a question that will never be answered. Time stopped for the Brazilian on the track at Imola. He was 34 years old and had won three world championships. For many, Senna is still the best of the bunch, even if he couldn’t make it to the end of the track, which was cut off at the concrete barrier of the Tamburello corner.

“If I ever have an accident that could cost me my life, it’s better to be outside. I don’t want to live in a wheelchair. I also don’t want to end up in the hospital with serious injuries,” the Brazilian Formula 1 player said a few months before the accident. Some spoke of premonition, others of tragic irony.

Unlike most of his compatriots, for whom sport is a means of escaping from poverty and banditry, Ayrton Senna da Silva came from a very wealthy family. He was born on March 21, 1960 in São Paulo and his father, who was an industrialist and landowner, introduced him to motorsport from a very young age, as he was taught to drive a go-kart at the age of 4. At the age of eight, he had already distinguished himself and in 1977 won the South American Championship, and in 1978 and 1980 he took second place in the World Championship. Now karting seems too “narrow” to accommodate his talent and dreams, stretching all the way to the glamorous world of Formula 1. Having the opportunity to afford it, he leaves his native country and moves to England to be closer to the “backbone” of F1. His first steps have already been taken – like any new driver in Formula 2000 and 3000, and scouts of big teams immediately mark Senna’s name in their notebooks. It is Toleman who gives him his first chance to try his hand at the highest level, and Sena does not miss him. He takes a car far from a title contender and manages to pull away, going all the way to 2nd place at the Monaco Grand Prix in June 1984 when the Brazilian defied the laws of physics with superb driving on a wet and narrow road. . royal roads.

His performance with Toleman will see him transition to flashy black and gold Lotus cars next year. He won his first race on 21 April 1985 at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, and in his two years with the English team he would take six wins. Now, having successfully completed his “farming”, he will receive another transfer to McLaren in 1988, with the goal, of course, not only to win some kind of individual Grand Prix, but also to win world titles.. Although he has the holy monsters of Formula 1 in front of him, such as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, he was the first to cut the thread in the 1988, 1990 and 1991 seasons, with his duels – on and off the track – with a French driver who made history. Characteristically, in his first title in 1988, he himself admitted that at some point he even exceeded his own limits, wanting to defeat Prost. “I didn’t drive consciously, but instinctively. I was in another dimension. I pushed the boundaries and could go even further. I knew I was in a different atmosphere, out of my mind,” he said during qualifying, and in the next race he retired after a crash despite leading by such a margin that his teammates told him to slow down. speed. t do. “He didn’t just want to beat me, he wanted to humiliate me. And that was his big mistake,” Prost will say, forcing Senna to press the gas pedal even harder. In the “finale” that won him his first title, Sena will say that he saw God in the rain, provoking ironic comments from his great rival: “He thinks he can’t die because he believes in God. This is extremely dangerous for him and for other drivers.”
His cycle at McLaren ends in 1994.when he leaves for Williams, where he took the place of Prost, who retired, wanting to return to the top, from which he was absent for three years. However, as it became known later, the Brazilian, like a maniac, “chased” precisely for this position – after all, a year earlier, the Frenchman announced the end of the games – even calling the team owner Sir Frank Williams late at night, trying to convince him that he was the best driver and should drive the best car…

But things didn’t go as Senna had planned. Although his presence behind the wheel of the Williams gave him and his team the title of favorite to win the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships, he did not even manage to finish in the first races of the year despite taking pole position. Senna’s car had a problem with both understeer and oversteer at the same time, and he stressed that it was too unstable. In fact, at one point he called it a “blank log” as despite the efforts of him and his engineers, they were unable to find a solution to the problem.

News of his death spread like wildfire around the world, causing mourning in his hometown of São Paulo. Thousands of his fans went to his father’s house in tears. The then President of Brazil, Itamar Franco, after announcing his death on television, declared a three-day national mourning in the country, while placing the presidential plane at the disposal of his family to transport his body to Brazil. The team’s six engineers were charged with Senna’s death but acquitted by a Bologna court in 1997.
Formula One drivers declared Senna the best of all in 2010, and they know it better than anyone. But where the Brazilian would actually go if he managed to get out of Williams alive, we will never know. And it’s the difference that takes Sena from a top to a legend that will never be forgotten…