We Remember
Destined for
greatness
Senna was always destined for
greatness. His career started early,
at the tender age of four on a kart
built by his father. At the age of 13 he
was racing semi-professionally and in
1977 he won the South American kart
championship. He continued in karting
until 1981 when he moved to England
and entered two domestic Formula Ford
championships (the RAC & Townsend
Thoreson) which he won at his first
attempts.
My friend Mark Peters, who was the
BARC Junior FF champion that year,
had attended one of Senna’s first FF
test sessions at the Snetterton circuit
in Norfolk. Here, on a track he hadn’t
driven before, Senna was extremely
fast right from his first lap. On his fourth
lap he posted a time just 0.1 seconds
outside the lap record which he
proceeded to smash on his sixth tour.
This ability to be fast within a handful of
laps at an unfamiliar venue is reserved
for the most talented of drivers who
probably can be listed on the fingers of
one hand.
Move to McLaren
In 1988 Senna made the move from
Lotus (with his victory tally at six) to
McLaren where he partnered Prost. It
was one of the most explosive – and
exciting – partnerships in the history of
the sport which culminated in a number
of race incidents between the two
warring drivers over the next five years.
My allegiance was with the Frenchman
– the Professor, as he was known
– because I admired his calculated
approach to racing and his ability to
deal with the intense battles with Senna
- both on and off the track.
It was always close: Senna won the
world championship in ’88 and Prost
took it in ’89 after a collision with Senna
at the Suzuka circuit in Japan settled
the matter. Prost left McLaren for rivals
Ferrari for the following year (1990) but
the fractious relationship with Senna
prevailed. At the penultimate round of
the championship at Suzuka – where
the pair had collided the previous year
- Senna took pole position ahead of
Prost. The championship was once
again on the line. At the start Prost
pulled ahead of Senna, who didn’t slow
as the cars headed to the first corner.
Fearlessly, Senna collided with Prost
and as both drivers were out of the race,
Senna was declared world champion,
almost by default.
In 1991 Senna became the youngest
ever three-time world champion, taking
seven wins and increasing his pole
position record to 60. Prost, hampered
by an under-performing Ferrari, was no
longer a serious competitor. In 1992,
Senna’s determination to win was
overcome by the shortcomings of his
McLaren and it was Mansell who took
the title for Williams. The following year
(’93) Prost took over as team leader
(as Mansell headed for the USA) and
promptly won the title in a car that
Mansell had said ‘any monkey could
drive to victory’ (as it was so good).
So disenchanted was Senna with
McLaren, now powered by a lack-lustre
Ford ‘customer’ engine, that there were
doubts whether he would race at all in
1994. He declined to sign a contract
as rumours of a Ferrari deal swirled
around the paddock. Nevertheless at the
season-opening race in South Africa he
declared he would continue on a raceby-race basis with McLaren. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, the year proved to be
successful with wins in Brazil, Monaco,
Japan, Australia and at the European
GP at Donington Park in the UK where
he produced one of his greatest drives.
He was fifth at the first corner in a race
started in atrocious weather conditions.
He passed four cars to lead at the end
of the first lap. He lapped all the cars but
one on his way to victory.
He finished runner-up in the
championship in ‘93 and was itching to
get his hands on a Williams for the ’94
season. But by then all the Williams’
revolutionary electronic driver aids –
including active s