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Ayrton Senna 1960 - 1994

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Thirty years ago today Sunday May 1st 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix the world lost the greatest Formula 1 driver.

Ayrton Senna 1960 - 1994

“I race designed to win”

“There is no compromise.”

“You give everything you have.”

“Everything.”

“Absolutely everything.”

R.I.P Ayrton

 
BBC Top Gear Ayrton Senna Tribute -

“I think Senna I will put him in number one” Fernando Alonso

“For me Senna is number one” Felipe Massa

“For me he was number one” Rubens Barrrichello

“I will put Ayrton Senna as number one” Jarno Trulli

“For me Ayrton Senna undoubtedly was the number one” David Coulthard

“I will put him number one you know he was definitely the greatest driver” Mika Hakkinen

“If you ask me I put Senna as well in number one” Michael Schumacher

“He had a God given talent that I haven’t witnessed anywhere else. A sixth sense of where the grip was before he turned into a corner” Martin Brundle

“You know I’ll be honest with you. I was never a Senna fan. I always thought Gilles Villeneuve was the greatest racing driver of them all. But to make this film I’ve watched hours and hours and hours of footage and the thing is Villeneuve was spectacular on a number of occasions, Senna was spectacular every single time he got in a car” Jeremy Clarkson

 
Watch the footage of Ayrton on the 'podium' after his first Monaco win.. there is a man who has, indeed, given it Everything.
 
Remember the race well, saw his car -just- top L of frame shoot off straight on at that big Imola corner at full speed. I knew immediately that's seriously wrong. The commentary & camera just kept on the other cars following. Then my fears were confirmed from another camera shot. So sad. Roland Ratzenberger was also killed on the Saturday iirc.

Senna was too good for that car. Never been anyone so ahead of his rivals, perhaps in any sport ever; maybe Mike Tyson was, but Senna wasn't beaten by any at the end as Tyson was. And a splendid man off the track too by all accounts.

Capt
 
He was a really good driver to work with. I have over the years told the odd story about events with him. But to put his skill into perspective I have the following short description of an internal McLaren experience:

We were testing the Honda V12 engine in 91 I think. Jonathon Palmer was driving and we had got o a point where it was as good as it was going to get and Honda wanted Ayrton to drive it. So the seat and pedal etc positions were adjusted for Ayron and he got in. He was immediately 1 second a lap faster than Johnathon and said the gear ratios were all wrong for the corner exits now and he would go faster with them changed as he would get more out of the engine.
 
IanW said:
He was a really good driver to work with. I have over the years told the odd story about events with him. But to put his skill into perspective I have the following short description of an internal McLaren experience:

We were testing the Honda V12 engine in 91 I think. Jonathon Palmer was driving and we had got o a point where it was as good as it was going to get and Honda wanted Ayrton to drive it. So the seat and pedal etc positions were adjusted for Ayron and he got in. He was immediately 1 second a lap faster than Johnathon and said the gear ratios were all wrong for the corner exits now and he would go faster with them changed as he would get more out of the engine.
Click to expand...

The MP4-6 is my favourite F1 car because it was the last of the proper mechanical cars with manual gearbox and the V12 engine. Ayrton had to drive the wheels off it to win the championship against the superior Williams. There’s some great qualifying footage at Silverstone on YouTube.
Many years ago they had chassis number 10 (which I believe is the one he drove at the start of 1992) unattended on static display at Goodwood and we got to have a really close look at it. Shouldn’t really have been moving the steering wheel or gear lever but we were very careful
 
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