Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva (born 21st March, 1960 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian former Formula One driver who won the World Championship in 1989.

Ayrton's nephew, Bruno, also raced in Formula One.

Formula One

1987: Williams

Senna swapped seats with reigning driver's champion Guillaume Gauthier ahead of the 1987 season, with the Frenchman heading in the opposite direction to Lotus. After a single point in Australia, Senna would take a lights-to-flag victory at the San Marino Grand Prix. He'd follow that win up five races later at the French Grand Prix - another race he'd win from pole. From the German Grand Prix onwards, Senna would embark on a record nine straight pole positions - which would stretch until the first race of 1988 - but unfortunately for the Brazilian he was only able to convert the Portuguese Grand Prix into a win as he'd retire from ten races in 1987. A frustrating season in terms of reliability meant that Senna announced he would be leaving Williams at the end of 1987.

1988-1991: Ferrari

Senna's frustrations caught the eye of a then-ailing Enzo Ferrari, who saw fit to sign the Brazilian alongside the French star Alain Prost. After finishing his pole streak in San Marino, Senna took another characteristic pole and win at Monaco. Despite the far superior McLaren MP4-4, Senna was able to pick up another two wins in the Soviet Union and Japan as well as another long string of pole positions - with seven in a row between Britain and Belgium. Thankfully for Senna, reliability was less of an issue at Ferrari and he was a frequent podium finisher during this streak of poles - albeit often behind his McLaren rivals Gerhard Berger and Jérémy-Étienne Voeckler. Senna would finish equal on points with third-placed Prost, but it was Prost who would finish ahead of him due to the dropped scores - so Senna finished 1988 in fourth place.

Senna remained alongside Prost in 1989 and started in the best possible fashion by winning the first three races of the season. A slump in reliability allowed McLaren's Berger to get a brief hold of the championship lead in the middle of the year but a superb run of form - including two wins - in the final five rounds secured the title for Senna with a lead of fifteen points.

Senna and Prost's relationship had deteriorated over the course of 1989 once Senna had outperformed him all year - and Prost left the team a year early, accepting a lucrative offer from Williams with Nigel Mansell moving in the other direction. Senna's 1990 started relatively slow - the Brazilian failing to convert three pole positions in the first four rounds. Senna did manage to win in Monaco for the third year running and also in France but Ferrari were still well back on their British rivals in McLaren, Arrows and Williams.

In 1991, Senna was joined by former Tyrrell and Lotus driver Jean Alesi when Mansell opted for a sabbatical. Frustratingly for Senna, the 1991 car was not suited his driving style and he struggled for much of the season barring a win in the attrition-hit German Grand Prix. Tension was high at Maranello and after the Spanish Grand Prix, Senna was fired for repeated public criticism of the team's car, famously calling it "a truck", and Frenchman Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler was called up to fill in for him at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Senna, disenchanted with F1 due to its politics, then announced that he would leave for CART in 1992 to sign with Marlboro Team Penske.

Complete Formula One World Championship Grand Prix Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1987	Canon Williams Honda Team	Williams FW11B	Honda RA167E 1.5 V6t	AUS 6	SMR 1	BEL 9	MON Ret	CAN Ret	DET 4	FRA 1	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	YUG Ret	ITA Ret	POR 1	EUR Ret	JPN Ret	MEX Ret		7th	31
1988	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari F1/87/88C	Ferrari 033E 1.5 V6t	BRA 3	SMR Ret	MON 1	MEX Ret	CAN 4	DET 2	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 2	HUN 2	YUG 3	SOV 1	ITA Ret	BEL 2	JPN 1	AUS 3†		4th	66
1989	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari 640	Ferrari 035/5 3.5 V12	BRA 1	SMR 1	MON 1	FRA Ret	USA Ret	CAN Ret	GBR 3	GER 2	HUN Ret	SOV Ret	POR Ret	ITA 1	BEL 2	JPN 1	AUS 2	MEX 2		1st	73
1990	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari 641	Ferrari 035/5 3.5 V12	USA 12†	BRA 7	PAC 3	SMR Ret	MON 1	CAN 5	MEX 3	FRA 1	GBR Ret	GER 6	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 2	POR 1	JPN 3	AUS 2		3rd	54
1991	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 642 Ferrari 643	Ferrari 037 3.5 V12	USA 7	BRA 6	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	MON 5	CAN 3	MEX Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 9†	GER 1	HUN Ret	BEL 5	ITA 5	POR 2	ESP Ret	JPN	AUS‡	7th	27

Sporting Accolades
Preceded by: Jérémy-Étienne Voeckler	Formula One World Champion 1989	Succeeded by: Gerhard Berger