Photos - Pictures Ayrton Senna Australian Grand Prix - Adelaide 1993 - Victory

Pictures - Photos of Ayrton Senna winning the Australian Grand Prix in 1993, in Adelaide. High Definition. Save on your computer and see full screen.

Ayrton Senna and Xuxa, a true love story

Ayrton Senna took the initiative of calling Xuxa on the phone and propose her to start dating

The first weekend that Ayrton spent with Xuxa was in 1998, year when he won his first world championship. The Monday after, Ayrton arrived to visit Galvao Bueno (main sports anchorman of TV Globo, close friend of Ayrton’s) looking like a college boy in love.

The very busy work schedule of both of them made it impossible for Ayrton Senna and Xuxa to be together, although he wanted to marry her once he would leave Formula 1

According to other friend, Alfredo Popesco, Xuxa was a milestone in the life of Senna. “Xuxa came at the right moment”, says businessman Marcos Jose Magalhaes Pinto, another friend. 

The only time friends and family saw Ayrton Senna truly in love with a woman was with Xuxa. They stayed together fomr Christmas 1988 until the Monaco GP in 1990

”After becoming champion, he took a weight away from his shoulders, and opened space for a relationship”. Used to having girlfriends at his feet, Ayrton soon became upset with the full agenda of Xuxa, and particularly with the influence of the career manager Marlene Mattos over her (indeed, Marlene became famous in Brazil for two reasons: her full control over the steps of Xuxa and the fact that she remained faceless, away from photographers and cameras for a long time). In the beginning of 1989, the couple was at the Airport of Rio ready to fly to Monaco when Marlene showed up and said that Xuxa won’t go; the manager and the driver had a comic fight over the possession of the luggage; Xuxa and Ayrton eventually flew out. 

Ayrton Senna declared publicly that the only woman he wanted to marry and have children with, was Xuxa

At the Cristimas of that same year, when Senna was feeling down because of the loss of the championship, he decided to do a suprise to Xuxa, visiting her in New York. She knocked on her door, in a Santa Claus costume. She sent him off. Senna didn’t insist, and returned to Brazil. Until Senna’s death, Xuxa would call him periodically.

Due to the intensity of the feelings of Ayrton Senna towards her in life, Xuxa deserved a privileged place at the driver's funeral in 1994, at the Morumbi cemetery, going together with the Senna family to the grave

Ayrton Senna: the greatest racing driver ever

He never wanted that role, but, history always writes itself and so Ayrton Senna is widely accepted as the greatest racing driver ever. He danced his F1 cars around the track with an unmatched intensity, often ending races with muscle spasms, dehydrated and totally.worn out. He bled racing, and tragically, the sport responded in kind. But even today, almost twenty years after his death, watching him drive carries the same level of excitement as seeing a great artist painting a canvas or a musical virtuoso play his instrument. 

There is a shift from mastery into total control. He never hesitated, never slowed his progression: it was not a competition against other racers, it was his competition for the perfection. He never shied from controversy and his vibrant personality was often misunderstood, but the Brazilian racer was a purist and he never lost his innocent love of the sport. 

Brazil memorialized his death with three days of national mourning and his sister established a foundation, which has donated over $400 million to children in need. Ayrton Senna is best remembered in this way: he was more than a driver, he was iconic of the best of Brazil, the best of mankind...

Senna runs to join Sid Watkins in the Medical car after Ratzenberger's fatal crash, Imola, April 30th 1994

Ayrton Senna runs to the track after hearing about Ratzenberger's death - Imola, San Marino, 30th April 1994

161 starts, 65 pole positions, 41 wins. 

Those are the statistics of none other than Ayrton Senna. The statistics, however, do not even begin to tell the story of the incredible man that was Ayrton Senna. A testament to his greatness was that during the recovery efforts after his fatal accident, the medics found an unexpected item - an Austrian flag, sadly bloodstained from the accident. Had Senna won the race, and he had every intention of doing so, he would have held the flag aloft on his victory lap to honour the memory of Roland Ratzenberger. It would have been a simple gesture, but it sums up the nature of Ayrton Senna perfectly.

Picture: Senna runs to join Sid Watkins in the Medical car after Ratzenberger's fatal crash, Imola, April 30th 1994