What an amazing group of people... some better than others. It happened at the F1 circuit of Formula 1 in France, Magny Cours, in 1991. Nigel Mansell won the race for Williams-Renault , with Alain Prost in second place driving for Ferrari and Ayrton Senna, collecting points in the third position, for Mclaren Honda.
In the front row, we have the President of the FISA, with a Nazi past, Jean Marie Balestre, and the President of France, François Miterrand.
This all happened in 1991. Good times.
The French GP had been moved to Magny-Cours for the first time which was not a popular move. The lack of local facilities was the main grievance, there being not enough hotels, and people having to drive for hours to get to the area. The system of pre-qualifying was developed in response to the increasing number of teams competing in Formula 1. It was decided that 30 cars were the maximum safe limit to compete for 26 grid places. The cars which had to pre-qualify were decided at the beginning and the midpoint of each season. The 26 cars which had achieved the best results in the previous two-half seasons automatically entered official qualifying for the race. All the other cars had to pre-qualify for the 4 remaining slots available for official qualifying. Those that failed to pre-qualify just went home.
Riccardo Patrese took his third consecutive pole position in his Williams while Ayrton Senna pushed hisMcLaren so hard that he lost control at the final corner and crossed the line while spinning into the wall. He was still third behind Alain Prost's Ferrari and ahead of Nigel Mansell's Williams. The top four were separated by only three-tenths of a second. Gerhard Berger (McLaren) was fifth with Ferrari's Jean Alesi sixth and then the two Benettons of Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno. The top 10 was completed by Mauricio Gugelmin'sLeyton House and Gianni Morbidelli in his Minardi-Ferrari.
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| From left to right, back row: picking his nose, Alain Prost for Ferrari, Nigel Mansell for Williams-Renault, Ayrton Senna for McLarenHonda Front row: FISA President -Nazi Jean Marie Balestre, President of France - François Miterrand |
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Podium Grand Prix France 1991 - Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna
Ron Dennis, McLaren's Team Principal, in his youth
In those times, even Ron Dennis had hair!
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Ayrton Senna is better than Sebastian Vettel
No doubt about that... even Sebastian Vettel acknowledges it
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Views about sex ... by Ayrton Senna
Interview Playboy 1990: Are you bothered by sex before races?
Senna: On the contrary. It’s good for me. I can face the race more relaxed.
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Juan Manuel Fangio and Bruce McLaren observing one of the McLaren's engines
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| Juan Manuel Fangio, 5 time Formula 1 World Champion and Bruce McLaren, founder of the F1 team of the same name |
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Senna was just unbelievably fast
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| Monaco 1988 - Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost drive their McLarens past the finish line |
The thing about Senna was that he was just unbelievably fast. Really, inhumanely fast. His car control was incredible. In terms of being able to control a car, control exactly where it went, drive absolutely at the limit of what was possible; he was the best at that. There are many ways to measure a racing driver, and you can’t really say one was just, simply the best because there are so man variables involved and it depends on the day and the track and the situation. That said, Senna is notable for his prodigious ability to actually drive a car at speed. I’ve heard before that if the fate of the world depended on a car race, and you had anybody through all of human history to choose from to drive for us; Senna would be perhaps the wisest choice.
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Visual accuracy was one of Senna’s strong points
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| Ayrton Senna discussing with his friend, doctor Sid Watkins |
Visual accuracy was one of Senna’s strong points. Sid Watkins, F1 doctor and a great friend of the world champion, realized this during a drive they once took together.
The two were looking for a reference point whilst trying to find the Jim Clark Museum in Scotland, when Senna saw a sign that was hidden away.
“I couldn’t even see the post that the sign was on, much less the sign, because it was about 100 meters away,” says Dr. Watkins.
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Miss you: Ayrton Senna
'Death is nothing. Just went to another world. I am me. You are you. What we were for each other, we still are. Name me the same way you always did. Talk to me the way you always talked. Do not change the tone to a sad or solemn one. Continue laughing with the same things that made us laugh together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray with me. Let my name be pronounced in your home the ways it always was. Without any emphasis, without any darkness. Life continues to be what it was. The union cord did not break. Why would I be out of your thoughts, just because I'm out of your sight? I'm not far, I'm just across the way. Now you will see, everything is all right ... You will rediscover my heart. And in it you will rediscover the purest tenderness. Dry your tears and if you love me, do not cry anymore. '- St. Augustine (354-430)
Source: Ayrton Senna - Formula 1
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Friday, October 25, 2013
Ayrton Senna posing in photo with HONDA engine, McLaren 1992, by Norio Koike
Norio Koike, who started his career in F1 photography in 1986 and worked with Senna for four years, shows us another of his favorite shots.
For this photo, taken in Japan in ’92, Norio explains that it was Senna’s idea to sit on the Honda motor and that he dodged his other appointments to make it to the session.
“It was very difficult to fit your plans into his agenda, but Ayrton and I had fun thinking of the best ways of escaping the press,” jokes Norio.
Source: Facebook Ayrton Senna Official
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Ayrton Senna is an idol and a legend for most people
An idol never dies. He always be eternal! Formula 1 will never be the same! Known as "Ayrton Senna of Brazil," as he was called in transmissions of Galvão Bueno, Ayrton was proud to say "I'm Brazilian". A born patriot! Example to be followed by all.
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New Tooned episode about Ayrton Senna, voiced by his nephew Bruno
Framestore and Formula 1 legends McLaren have been revving up racing fans with their series of cartoons ‘Tooned’. The unlikely partnership evolved following a chance encounter at a netball match, of all places, and since then Framestore have been collaborating closely with McLaren to develop the cartoon universe. This year is McLaren’s 50th anniversary, so with the latest series Framestore has been pulling out the stops with racing stars of the past and present. LBB’s Addison Capper caught up with Executive Producer, Simon Whalley, and one of the series’ two directors, Chris Waitt.
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Ayrton Senna will be present in the video game Gran Turismo 6
A special collaboration between the Ayrton Senna Institute and Gran Turismo 6 has just been announced at the 2013 Brazil Game Show in São Paulo.
During his appearance on stage at Sony’s press conference, Kazunori Yamauchi revealed that “a variety of content” related to Ayrton Senna will be coming to the game via downloadable updates.
According to a report by Brazilian news site Globo, it will be possible to play as Senna in the game. The official announcement also confirms that players will be able to “trace the roots of Ayrton Senna’s racing career”.
Although no specifics were mentioned, Senna is closely associated with the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo, where he first began racing on the karting tracks there at the age of 13.
An Ayrton Senna Limited Edition PlayStation 3 bundle will also be sold in Brazil, which will include a copy of GT6 along with the Anniversary Edition cars and bonus in-game credits.
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Sunday, October 20, 2013
Why we revere Senna the way we do?
Numbers do not mean everything in Formula One, at least in the eyes of the fan.
That is why Ayrton Senna, still a triple world champion, is often viewed by many as being the greatest of all time, despite the likes of Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio and MichaelSchumacher all having won more titles than the Brazilian.
That's not to say Senna is not among the greatest when it comes to statistics. He started 161 races, 65 from pole, and won 41 races. He finished on the podium 80 times and was world champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991. The latter was earned 22 years ago today, in the Japanese Grand Prix.
There was certainly something different about him. I am not pretending I knew him or was even able to watch him race (I was not even two years old when he died in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix), but I know from pouring over old footage, watching interviews with him and those who knew him and reading the thoughts and recollections of his peers that Senna was held in a different regard.
Senna was a hugely gifted driver
A Talent Lost Too Soon
Is he viewed differently because of his death? It is, after all, a question that can be applied to GillesVilleneuve or to Francois Cevert, both drivers who never reached the peak their potential suggested they might because they were tragically killed in crashes.
We will never know what Senna could have gone on to achieve were it not for his untimely death at Imola, and some would argue that it need not matter. His status as a three-time champion puts him in a rare club indeed.
Senna’s place in history will remain forever more, of that there is no doubt. Equally, there is no questioning his status as an F1 legend—but does his tragic story lend itself to people remembering him in a different light?
Do not view this as a suggestion that Senna was over-egged as a driver. He was a phenomenal talent; there are not enough on-board videos in the world to make most fans get tired of watching the Brazilian at work. He was that entertaining, that brilliant.
But had he survived and continued racing in 1995, 1996—maybe even 1997—and the trophy cabinet stayed the same, rather than swelled, would he still be the swashbuckling hero we remember him as? Senna had endured a difficult start to 1994 with Williams—arguably the best team that season—and had no points entering the race in San Marino.
Of course, it would be ridiculous to think Senna would not have scored points for the rest of the year, and it would have been a brave man to bet against him getting on top of the car and winning in it as well. But would he have been world champion? Up against the tricks of Benneton, would he have beaten Michael Schumacher?
All redundant questions, you might think, but would history view him different if his career ended with a few podiums and maybe a couple of top-five finishes in the championship standings? Probably. There would still be no disputing his quality as a driver, but maybe people would look back and say, “Senna, yeah, he was awesome—but he left it a bit late to retire. He was rubbish in 1996!”
Equally, he could have been phenomenal. He could have risen to the challenge of Benetton, stayed with Williams through its superb mid-'90s period and emerged as a four-, five-, or maybe even six-time world champion.
A Legendary Legacy
To get lost in the “ifs, buts and maybes” would be to lose sight of the bigger picture this article intends to bring to light, which is to look at why we revere Senna the way we do when looking back at the pantheon of F1 greats.
Ultimately, his on-track legacy is almost irrelevant compared to the impact he had on his home country. The people of Brazil revered Senna. There is a beautiful line in the documentary (which you should make every effort to watch if you have not already) that bears his name about him bringing hope where there previously was none.
Beyond his reputation, in Senna’s memory there was established the InstitutoAyrton Senna, run by his sister Viviane. The charity did some remarkable things in the two decades following Senna’s death, funded by the triple world champion’s legacy. It has worked to help millions of Brazilian children in a country infamously struggling with crime and poverty in its slums.
By donating Senna’s image rights and proceeds from his comic book characterSenninha, the charity used the estimated $20 million windfall to help millions of Brazilian children. In 2007 alone, it is estimated it worked with 1,350,532 children across more than 1,000 Brazilian cities. No number of titles or race wins can buy that sort of nationwide impact.
The positive impact he had on his home country was in stark contrast to the impact he had on his rivals when alive. The needle between the Brazilian and Alain Prost was built on competitive foundations but soured during their time as teammates atMcLaren.
The 1989 and 1990 world titles were decided by clashes between the two; the fault for both could be attributed to Senna. I'm not saying he was to blame, but there are arguments to be made either way.
He was controversial, but that was because he was ruthless. That characteristic was what defined him as such a remarkable racing driver, part of the package we have grown to revere. The beauty and brilliance of Senna—of his character, his ability and his character—is that his legacy is left to be viewed independently depending on what fans deem of greatest value.
Senna and Prost's rivalry was fierce
More Than A Driver
Some drivers won more races than Senna. Some drivers won more titles than Senna. No driver did what Senna did for his country; very few did what he did for the sport. A lot of that came before his death, not just afterwards.
He was a triple world champion. He was ruthless. He was fast. He got caught up in controversy. He was one of the greatest drivers to have graced the sport.
Was he the best ever? It does not matter, though BBC Sport says yes. Going even further, Autosport's compilation of votes from over 200 F1 drivers ended in a similar result.
Does his death mean we view him as a better driver than he was? It does not matter. Did he inspire a remarkable legacy that transcended sport and gave true hope to the hopeless, making a real difference to more than just the fans of a billion-dollar industry? Yes. Yes he did.
If you pushed me for an answer to the first of those questions, I would say no. History always encourages positive memories of those we remember; so aren’t all world champions given a bit of gloss over time? Do the majority remember Schumacher’s (many) follies now, or do they remember his seven world titles, 91 wins and revitalisation of an ailing Ferrari team?
So maybe we focus only on the positives when we look back at Ayrton Senna’s F1 career—that’s not a crime. F1 tends to do that with all its greatest characters. The only thing Senna’s death sped up was the time in which we grew to overlook his flaws and appreciate the legacy he left.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1817882-ayrton-senna-breaking-down-icons-standing-in-f1-historyBlog in English about Ayrton Senna da Silva's history, biography, facts, pictures, videos, Formula 1, McLaren, Williams, Lotus, Toleman, Renault, Honda, Japan, Suzuka, Imola, San Marino, Xuxa, Adriane Galisteu, Carol Alt, Viviane Senna, Cristine Ferraciu, Liliane de Vasconcellos, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Gerhard Berger, Bernie Ecclestone, F1, race, circuit, pole position, fastest lap, Michael Schumacher, Benetton, Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen, pilot, Brazil, Sao Paulo, death, accident, funeral, Morumbi, Italy, Adrian Newey, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Alfredo Popescu, Bruno Senna, Bianca Senna, Angra dos Reis, Quinta do Lago, Portugal, Senna Vive, Senna Lives On, Forever Ayrton, Damon Hill
Why did Ayrton Senna die?
Ayrton Senna was not only a great driver, perhaps the greatest: he was a living myth. This was a man who fascinated millions of people of all ages and backgrounds, even those far from the world of racing.
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| Ayrton Senna - South Africa 1993 - Grand Prix |
He was an ideal, a flagbearer for a poor country, who was able to show his great talent and to gratify his obsession with success in a rough and unforgiving world, one that was light years from every day reality.
Serious, well mannered, down to earth and so seemingly normal, Senna had a facility with words and such a positive presence, that he was immediately liked. Once in his car, he would transform into a phenomena: one that enchanted everyone for his easy control and the timing he achieved without ever appearing to strain himself.
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| Ayrton Senna saluting people in his home town Sao Paulo after winning his third Championship in 1991 |
He had an elegant way of driving: aggressive, but with incredible precision. With his 65 pole positions, it seemed that nothing could stop him. For those who love the Grand Prix, his victories in the early 90’s seemed mortgaged from a youth committed to show that he was the best: to his opponents, the world and most of all, to himself.
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| Ayrton Senna celebrating his win at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1993, behind him is Fangio |
In the business of the sport, he was a professional light years beyond the others. He presented his image brilliantly, gained profit from his ventures and was able to break through the barrier that normally separated race car enthusiasts from the rest of the world. He was famous everywhere. According to professional surveys, he was as popular as the Beatles, Clinton and Pele. His name was synonomous with race car driving.
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| Ayrton Senna in Japan, 1992. Suzuka circuit |
Senna's unexpected and inexplicable death came as he drove the finest car towards victory in yet another Grand Prix. It came at a time when he was close to being crowned prince of racing, and made a myth of the only driver capable of living his own legend.
Years have passed and the myth is untouched. Neither the passage of time nor the arrival of new figures imposed by mass media can alter his fame.
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| Ayrton Senna's thombstone at the Morumbi cemetery in Sao Paulo, his home town |
Senna continues to create a stir: merchandise bearing his name makes millions; the numerous publications about him continue to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, the charities carrying his name are flourishing. These latter continue to help poor children and to transmit the champion's positive message.
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| Ayrton Senna prsenting the charity project, the magazine for children "Senninha", in Febraury 1994, Sao Paulo |
But today, instead of victories, it is Senna's trial and the unsolved mysteries surrounding his death that draw the attention of the media, fans and the common reader. It was a long, complicated and difficult trial that could place in jeopardy a dangerous sport. The Formula One has sixteen dangerous appointments in eleven countries each year. The tracks differ not only geographically but also, and more importantly, juridically. Faced wih a tragedy like that at Imola in May 1994 - two men dead and a string of serious accidents - the very sport is questioned. Everything from the danger to the utility of improved techniques and the intangible legalities must be examined.
Senna's trial provoked great controversy. The International Automobile Federation threatened to withdraw from races in Italy. The teams were opposed to a homicide trial, maintaining that the risks of the race are well known and accepted by its protagonists. What could have been a simple search for facts and the truth of what happened that May afternoon at Imola, became an international case. The case was made even more interesting by the doubts and questions that emerged in hearings where great figures like Damon Hill and Frank Williams testified; details about a world so ascetic and distant as to seem incomprehensible.
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| Ayrton Senna on the starting grid at the Imola San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, where he would die in an accident few minutes later, at the Tamburello corner |
Why did Ayrton Senna go off the fastest place in the track at Imola when he was leading in his 160th Grand Prix? Why did he die? What happened to his car? Did the steering column give way? What are the reasons for his death?
A technical-juridical fact that might have been reported at the bottom of a page of a sport's magazine has become a regular news event that has been researched, fathomed and analysed from every possible viewpoint.
The Williams team was entangled for many years in a court case with Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, ending in a guilty verdict for Patrick Head.
The Italian Court of Appeal, on 13 April 2007, stated the following in the verdict numbered 15050: "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control".
The initial trial in 1997 resulted in acquittals after the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case, but a retrial was ordered by Italy's highest court. Patrick Head was not arrested as the sentence was backdated to the time of the crash, 1 May 1994. The statute of limitations under Italian law for culpable homicide was 7 years and 6 months, and the verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.
The charges focused on the car's steering column, which was found to have sheared off at a point where a modification had been made. The prosecution charged that the column had failed causing the accident, and Williams contended that it had failed on impact. Senna did not like the position of the steering wheel relative to his seating position and had asked for it to be changed. Patrick Head and Adrian Newey agreed to Senna's request to lengthen the FW16's steering column, but there was no time to manufacture a longer steering shaft. The existing shaft was instead cut, extended with a smaller-diameter piece of tubing and welded together with reinforcing plates.
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| Ayrton Senna with Chief Engineer Patrick Head, who was found guilty for Senna's death in the reopeoned trial in 2007 |
A 600-page technical report was submitted by Bologna University under Professor of Engineering Enrico Lorenzini and his team of specialists. The report concluded that fatigue cracks had developed through most of the steering column at the point where it had broken. Lorenzini stated: "It had been badly welded together about a third of the way down and couldn't stand the strain of the race. We discovered scratches on the crack in the steering rod. It seemed like the job had been done in a hurry but I can't say how long before the race. Someone had tried to smooth over the join following the welding. I have never seen anything like it. I believe the rod was faulty and probably cracked even during the warm-up. Moments before the crash only a tiny piece was left connected and therefore the car didn't respond in the bend."
Source: /www.atlasf1.com/99/bra/santoro.html
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
Carol Alt, ex-supermodel in the 80's, declares her love for Ayrton Senna
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| Ayrton Senna and lover Carol Alt, during vacation in the French Polynesia, 1990 |
Carol Alt in an interview in 2012 declared her past love for Ayrton Senna, wich whom she had had a love affair from the Grand Prix of Monza in 1990, until right up his death, at Imola, San Marino, on the 1st of May 1994.
"He told me that God was always with him ... It was beautiful and my positive Ayrton, with its unbridled passion for life, for driving, for his work, and also for women. He lived in great excitement, he was stubborn and had to get what he wanted , but he was a righteous man, generous and especially strong, with an incredible charm ... Even if we lived hiding, for me our story was very serious and important. We met in 1990 in Milan , both guests at a fashion show of Gianni Versace: I was married , but my marriage was in crisis, he had an official girlfriend. But the agreement between us was reached that same evening . It lasted for four years, during which we ran one after the another in every corner of the world, amid of long distance phone calls bills, between airports, race tracks and quiet places to stay together, away from reporters and our own guilt. We also projected to come out into the open sooner or later.
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt during a dinner in 1990, they met at the Monza Grand Prix that same year |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a party, Ayrton arrived driving a Ferrari |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a party, Ayrton arrived driving a Ferrari |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a party, Ayrton arrived driving a Ferrari |
Then - sometimes life is stranger than any fiction - all happened in one day. It was May 1, 1994, a cursed Sunday. I had just gotten the separation from my husband and I was in Florida on the set of a movie. A week later I had to be in Italy for the evening of 'Telegatti' and the prize would have been delivered to me by Ayrton himself. The phone rang and a friend told me that there had been a serious accident at Imola, he was dead. My world fell apart ... How do you survive in such pain?
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt, during vacations in the French Polynesia, 1991 |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt, during vacations in the French Polynesia, 1991 |
I jumped headlong into the work : photographic shoots, advertising , films, television. I did not want to stay still and think. I knew too well that to have met Ayrton and have lost him were the two most important things in my life, that there would be nothing so great, for better or for worse. And I also knew that I would never forgive myself for failing to seize the opportunity to live fully our love.
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alr during vacations in the French Alpes, 1990 |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a private party, 1990 |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a private party, 1990 |
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| Ayrton Senna and Carol Alt at a private party, 1990 |
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