Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver and three-time Formula One world champion. He was born in São Paulo, Brazil on March 21, 1960 and died in Bologna Italy on May 1, 1994 (San Marino Grand Prix car accident).
Senna was widely regarded as the finest motor racing driver of his generation and one of the greatest of all time. He started in 161 grands prix, winning 41 and claiming a record total of 65 pole positions.
His final pole position was the one he took on Saturday afternoon during a final qualifying session at the tragedy-shrouded Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, when fellow competitor Austrian Roland Ratzenberger lost his life.
Senna will be remembered for his brilliant talent as a racer, but also for his unprecedentedly high level of commitment to winning grand prix races. It was this which cost him his life.
He had dedicated his adult life to succeeding in the business of grand prix racing after travelling from Brazil to enter the British Formula Ford 1600 Championship in 1981.
Prior to this he had enjoyed a hugely successful karting career which had begun at the age of four, when he first climbed aboard a motorised vehicle.
By the time he was 13 he was racing in go-karts. He went on to win the 1977 Pan American Championship and finished as runner-up in the karting world championships of 1979 and 1980.
He climbed the classic motor racing career ladder by driving in the British Formula Ford series, winning the British and European Formula Ford 2000 championship in 1982.
The following year he won the British Formula Three championship with West Surrey Racing before entering Formula One for the first time in 1984 with the Toleman team.
He made his debut in the 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix and that season collected 13 points to finish ninth in the championship, his startlingly brilliant and aggressive driving earning him admiration from many, but also incurring the wrath of several of his senior fellow-competitors.
Senna had the rare ability, and the courage, to go through gaps which others either could not see or felt they could not get through themselves.
The following season he transferred from Toleman to Lotus in a disputed move which led to accusations that he had broken his contract.
However, for Senna the only goal was success and in that season he claimed his first grand prix win in emphatic style in the rain at Estoril, Portugal. He finished fourth in the championship that year with 38 points.
That victory was the beginning of a dazzling collection as his career progressed from Lotus to the Marlboro-McLaren team, which he joined in 1988.
In his first season with McLaren he collected 94 points and won the world championship, despite a season-long duel with his team-mate and arch-rival, Frenchman Alain Prost.
Senna remained with McLaren for six years, winning the world title three times for the British team before departing at the end of 1993.
They were six glorious years for all those associated with the Woking-based outfit, as Senna established himself as the master of motor racing and arguably the greatest of his generation.
He made the decision to leave McLaren at the end of 1993 and joined Rothmans Williams-Renault. However, Senna was tragically unable to record a single race victory with the Williams team.
He was married early in his racing career to his childhood sweetheart, but his young Brazilian wife found it impossible to cope in Europe and they later divorced. He had established a durable relationship with his girlfriend Adriane for 12 months, prior to his death.
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