Ayrton Senna and the charity: he gave away $4 million a year to the poor

Senna got a lot of pleasure out of spending his vast fortune but his wealth troubled his conscience. He soothed it by giving away around $4 million a year in charity to the poor of São Paulo. As Senna got wealthier with his near-$20 million-a-year income from driving and sponsorship, his attention was turned to what he could do for the poor. His focus was on children, He said: “Brazil has lots of problems, lots of difficulties."

Josef Leberer remembers: “We were driving through São Paulo and I had to ask him, ‘you are a wealthy guy, you see these poor areas, what do you think about it?’. He was such a good person. And you could see that it went deep into his heart because he said, ‘this is a big problem in Brazil and sometimes it is difficult with the corruption, but I would like to do something already’. He was supplying children in hospitals but he was never talking, he said ‘I don’t like to talk about it, I like to do it’. I remember I thought I was really proud to have the chance to meet someone like him.