Ayrton Senna
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Formula One Career | |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
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| Active years | 1984 - 1994 |
| Team(s) | Toleman Hart, Lotus, McLaren Honda, Williams |
| Grands Prix | 162 |
| Championships | 3 (1988, 1990, 1991) |
| Wins | 41 |
| Podium finishes | 80 |
| Pole positions | 65 |
| Fastest laps | 19 |
| First Grand Prix | 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| First win | 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1993 Australian Grand Prix |
| Last Grand Prix | 1994 San Marino Grand Prix |
Ayrton Senna da Silva (March 21, 1960–May 1, 1994), better known as Ayrton Senna, was a Brazilian Formula 1 driver who won the championship three times, in 1988, 1990 and in 1991. He died in a horrible accident that took place on the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola, in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
[edit] Life before Formula 1 Racing
Senna was born in São Paulo, a city in Brazil. When he was four years old, he first got into a kart. When he was 13, he entered a karting competition for the first time. A fun fact is that he started his first kart race on pole position. The start places were written on pieces of paper and put in a driver's helmet, and he drew number one. Because he was a lot lighter than the other racers, he was much faster than all of them. He won the South American Kart Championships in 1977 and was runner-up in the World Championship, but he never won it.
In 1981 he raced in the British Formula Ford 1600 championship, and won it aswell. He also changed his name to Senna, since da Silva is used a lot in Brazil.
In 1982 Senna won two European championships; the European and the British Formula Ford 2000. After testing with Williams, McLaren, Brabham and Toleman, he got a place within the Toleman team for the 1984 Formula One season.
[edit] Into Formula One
The Toleman team was a small team compared to teams like Williams, McLaren and Brabham. Even though, the team built a car good enough to let Senna impress with his talents. Ayrton Senna scored his first championship point on April 7, 1984 at the South African Grand Prix. Three races later, Senna impressed at the Monaco Grand Prix, where it was raining. Senna started on the 13th position, but right after the race started, he soon was gaining position after position on the track that is known for its small roads. On the 19th lap, he took second place from Niki Lauda and was making up a lot of time to the race leader, Alain Prost. It started to rain harder and the race was stopped on the 31st lap. Even though almost everyone agrees Senna should've won the race, Senna had a result to be proud of. In the rest of the season he would finish third place in two races, the Britisch and the Portugese Grand Prix. He finished his first year in Formula One racing on a shared 9th position and 13 points, sharing his 9th position with Nigel Mansell.
