Bonus Blog! Ayrton Senna - A Legend

Ayrton Senna – Perhaps the Greatest Formula 1 Driver of All Time and Possibly Its Biggest Paradox

You all should have expected my bonus blog to involve Formula 1. I’m going to tell you a little bit about Ayrton Senna, and link some themes from his life to our class. Now, before I get into it, I’m letting you know right now that this blog may be a little heavy on the videos. I apologize, but I don’t believe that my words alone can do Senna the justice he and his legend deserve.

If you have the time, I urge you to watch the following video (divided into two clips) created last year by the presenters of the British TV show, Top Gear.

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil on March 21, 1960 and passed from this life on May 1, 1994. He was the son of a wealthy Brazilian land owner, and at an early age he developed an interest in motor racing. By 1984, Senna had won two Formula Ford championships as well as the British Formula Three Championship, and he graduated to Formula One with the Toleman team. That year, his drive in a extremely wet Monaco Grand Prix showed flashes of brilliance to come.

He moved on in 1985 to the Lotus team, and with that team he scored his first few victories. In 1988 he moved on to McLaren, where he would become a star. It was with McLaren that his rivalry with teammate Alain Prost (another one of F1’s great drivers) began. Senna would win the 1988, 1990 and 1991 Formula One World Championships, all with McLaren. I’d like to focus on 1989 and 1990 as well as a few other incidents in Senna’s career that make his personality such a paradox (and relevant to this class).

I mentioned that Ayrton had a rivalry with Alain Prost, that is the understatement of the century. No two men before or since have ever had such an acrimonious relationship on and off the track as Senna and Prost. Senna’s character made him a very tough person to get along with, and this stemmed from his values as a racing driver. Some of Senna’s memorable quotes speak to this extent:

“Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.”

“Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.”

“Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that.”

You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.”

Clearly, on the racetrack Senna had one objective: to win. His determination to do so was so great, that it garnered him a reputation for being reckless. The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix was the first incident, which lead to a greater incident in his career one year later involving reckless determination. In ’89, while dueling with teammate and rival Prost for the lead and the championship, Senna and Prost made contact. Prost, his car too damaged to continue, retired from the race while Senna was pushed back onto the track by the track marshals and continued. He was then black flagged for receiving assistance and disqualified, handing the 1989 championship to Prost. Debate exists to this day about whose fault the accident was, but a year later, Senna took his revenge. In 1990, this situation again came down to the Japanese Grand Prix to decide the championship. This time, Senna started from pole, with Prost’s Ferrari in second. Prost gained the advantage at the start, leading into the first turn. Senna, determined to pass or at least secure his championship, dove to the inside where there was no room and drove into the side of Prost’s car. Both drivers retired from the race, and Senna won the championship

Yet, Senna also showed an amazing compassion for his fellow drivers. In 1992 at the Belgian Grand Prix, French driver Erik Comas was involved in a massive crash. Senna stopped his car and ran across the track to Comas’ aid. Later he visited Comas in the hospital.  The most somber event in Ayrton’s career also showed the Brazilian’s compassionate side.

The weekend of May 1^st, 1994 will live on forever in motorsports infamy. During Friday qualifying, young Brazilian Rubens Barrichello slammed heavily into the tire barrier, breaking his nose, arm, and swallowing his tongue. Barrichello was a protégé of Ayrton. Saturday during qualifying, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed when the front wing broke off his car, and he crashed into a concrete wall. Senna was visibly distraught after these two incidents, and in the Sunday (race day) drivers meeting, he called together his fellow drivers and urged them to recreate a Drivers’ Safety group. He volunteered himself to be its first leader. Despite the weekend’s already horrific events, Senna and the other drivers started the race. On lap 7, while leading the race after a caution restart, Senna’s car went off at the high speed Tamburello curve. He hit a concrete retaining wall at 135mph. After being airlifted to the Bologna hospital, Senna was pronounced dead. As track officials examined his wrecked car they found a furled Austrian flag, which Senna was going to raise upon winning the race in honor of Roland Ratzenberger.

Like that, one of the world’s greatest drivers was gone.

As his Formula 1 career shows, Senna was a paradox: obsessed with winning to the point of ruthlessness, but also deeply caring about his fellow drivers. Near the end of his career, Ayrton began to realize the plight of children in his home country. He donated around $400 million dollars to children’s charities by the time of his death. He created a cartoon character – Senninha for children’s books. Finally, he set the groundwork for what would become the Instituto Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian organization whose mission is:

 “Based on Ayrton Senna´s life and ideals, our mission is to positively intervene in the lives of Brazilian children and adolescents, providing them with conditions and opportunities to promote their full development as human beings, citizens and future professionals.”

http://senna.globo.com/institutoayrtonsenna/

So as we can see, Ayrton Senna worked to create positive social change in Brazil. I’d say he lived congruently with his values, but those values were often at odds with one another. Yet he remains a legend, not because of what he did on the track – that only made him great – but because of what he did with his fame and fortune off the track.

I’m hoping that this blog will lead to some discussion about values, congruence, and social change and whether or not it is acceptable for us to have values at odds with each other, or to struggle with perfect congruence. Regardless, I hope that you look more into Ayrton’s story, and that you find him as inspiring as I do.

I leave you with two quotes.

“Wealthy men can't live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.”

“And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.” – Ayrton Senna