The legendary Aryton Senna Aryton Senna, the legendary three time world F1 Champion, was born on 21 March 1960 at Santana, a posh neighborhood of Sao Paolo, Brazil. He was the second son of a rich and successful businessperson and landowner Milton da Silva.
At a very early age, Aryton was diagnosed with motor coordination problem. Milton, a racing enthusiast realized his son’s interest in racing and understood Aryton’s potential to make it big in the racetrack in future. At an early age of four, Aryton got a 1-hp kart as a gift and that was the first stroke of confidence and desire to race with time that overpower his little heart. Every weekend, the family would visit local parks where Aryton’s basic training in driving started.
Astonishingly, at the age of eight, he could drive the family car and Jim Clarke and Jackie Stewart became his inspirations.
This was the exact time when the great Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi was rising in the racing arena by driving with the Colin Chapman’s Lotus. On his tenth birthday, Aryton got a full size 100cc kart. However, at that time the minimum age for driving karts in Brazil is thirteen, he had to practice in a local kart circuit. His ultimate aim was to be the best ever.
When he turned thirteen, he was allowed to race legally and he, for the first time participated in a race along with the racing geniuses like Maurizio Sala, which was a part of the Interlagos’s complex. Interestingly, he won the race. In the consecutive year of 1977 and 1978, Aryton won the South American Kart championship. In the year 1979, he stood second at the World Championship at Estoril. In 1978, however, again he came second at the racing competition in Nivelles in Belgium. He came to England to race Formula Ford for Ralph Firman’s team Van Dieman.
In 1983, in the Formula 3 racing he achieved nine straight victories and continued to move forward with a greater determination to race at the Formula 1competition.
Senna made his Formula 1 debut in 1984. He drove for the Toleman team and finished eighth in the line. However, his career hit a low when he failed to get any expected results in race at the San Marino, French Grand Prix and the race at Monaco. Senna has often been compared to the great Juan Manuel Fangio, in his passion for motorsports and a voracious drive to win. Senna’s talent was something race drivers looked up to, whether it was navigating a tight corner, or driving in wet weather. Steering an extremely fast car in bad weather was supposedly something no one could do better than Senna, as was seen in the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, which he almost won.
Senna secretly negotiated with Lotus, while with the Toleman team, and was more determined than before to reach the zenith of success. However, the brilliance of Senna would remain until 1994, when he was racing in the new championship season with a new hope that this season would be successful in giving him another chance to uplift the reputation of the Lotus and of himself. The racing world was already suffering from the death of many great racers like Austrian racer Roland Ratzeberger and Rubens Barrichello.
To add to their loss, Aryton Senna crashed fatally at Imola. This was a tragic moment for the racing fraternity. Aryton Senna was a storehouse of talent, limitless energy and an indomitable desire to win. He will be remembered for his contributions to the Formula 1 racing for time indefinite. The world will miss the whiz of his wheels on the racetrack probably until the time racing sports survives. |