A generation of car gods Elton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva (21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the F1 world championship three times in 1988, 1990 and 1991. Senna was killed by a blow shaft puncture in the head in an accident at San Marino Station in 1994. Senna is quite popular with car fans and is known as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history.
The contest between the car god Senna and professor Prost Ten wonderful moments in the career of the car god Senna
In 1994, senna's last three F1 matches in his life, the direct battle with Schumacher was like the coronation of the new king
In his later years, F1 "professor" Alain Prost recalls his former rival Senna, who will achieve each other's best rivals
Background
Senna came from a wealthy family in São Paulo, Brazil, where his father, Milton da Silva, owned several farms, ranches, and ran retail stores and auto repair shops. Milton was a car fan himself, influenced by his father, and Senna has been involved in motorsport since childhood.
Senna first drove a 1HP kart his father had built for him at the age of four, and by the age of 13, Senna began racing in go-karts. In 1977, Senna won the South American Karting Championship.
In 1981, Senna traveled to England to compete in the Ford Formula 1600 Championship, where he won the title. However, Senna's father opposed him to continuing to pursue motorsport, and without sufficient financial support, Senna had to temporarily abandon racing and return to Brazil to work for his father's company. But four months later, Senna couldn't forget racing and was back on the track.
In 1982, Senna competed in the Ford Formula 2000 Championship in England and won the championship again. The owner of the McLaren F1 Team, Ron Dennis, offered Senna a willingness to sponsor him to the British F3 Championship on the condition that Senna could not join other F1 teams, a condition that Senna refused.
In 1983, Senna competed fiercely with Martin Brundle in England F3, winning the annual title in the final leg. At the end of the English F3 season in the same year, Senna went to Macau to participate in the Macau Gran Pidge Racing, and won the championship.
In 1984, Senna joined F1's Toleman Racing, finishing sixth in the second race in South Africa, earning points for the first time. In the next Monaco stop, Senna drove the uncompetitive Dooman car in heavy rain to chase Alain Prost of McLaren, and finally due to excessive rain, the conference issued a red flag to suspend the race, and Senna was relegated to the second place, but this race buried the factor of the future Senna and Prost duels. In the same year, Senna announced the signing of Team Lotus when the Duman team was unknown, so he was suspended by the team in Italy.
In 1985, Senna joined the famous Lotus Team, and in the second leg of portugal, Senna won the first pole position of his career in a Lotus race car, and the next day, Senna walked alone in the torrential rain and won the first sub-station of his F1 career. He won two races and seven pole positions, finishing fourth at the end of the year. Senna's outstanding performances in qualifying, as well as in rainy days, made him start to get the attention.
In 1986, Senna won two races and eight pole positions, and was a favourite for the world championship in the first half of the season, but the decline in the competitiveness of the Lotus team in the second half of the season made him finish only fourth in the year.
In 1987, Senna also won only two races, as well as one pole position, when the traditional giants Lotus team has gradually declined, Senna understands that lotus team's state can no longer help him to go to the next level, in order to seek a breakthrough, at the end of the season, Senna left Lotus team to join McLaren team.
Senna won the world championship for the first time in 1988
In 1988, Senna joined McLaren and engaged teammate Prost in a legendary confrontation in F1 history. This year, the McLaren team is significantly more competitive than other teams, winning a total of 15 of the 16 races throughout the year. Of these, Senna achieved 8 and Prost 7. Although Prost beat Senna's 94 points by 105 points, F1 only had to calculate the best 11 points of the year, so Senna surpassed Prost's 87 points with 90 points to win the title of world champion.
At this year's Portuguese station, prost blocked Senna's overtaking in order to protect the parking space during the corner, and the two cars collided, causing a rift in the relationship between the two, and the competition in the future gradually became fierce. (From the documentary "Forever Car God, Senna")
In 1989, McLaren's team's advantage was still evident, with the world champion still not out of the line between Senna and Prost. The second leg of San Marino, Senna violated the "gentleman's agreement" between the two, the relationship between the two people was more tense, to the penultimate station of the year, Japan, Senna tried to surpass Prost, but instead collided with the other party, Prost withdrew, and Senna returned to the field and was far ahead of the finish line, but was disqualified by the FIA, making Prost win the world championship.
Senna's behavior at the Japanese station led him to be labeled "dangerous driving" by the FIA and almost stripped of his super license. And the crash also caused him and Prost to completely break up.
In 1990, Prost left McLaren to join Ferrari F1 Team. But the conflict with Senna is getting hotter and hotter, and it is also the penultimate stop in Japan, when the situation is the opposite of last year, and Prost must defeat Senna to save the chance to win the title. In qualifying, Sena took pole position, Prost came second, and after the start of the race, Prost took the lead, and in the first corner, Senna knocked Prost out of the track directly from behind, and Senna won his second world championship.
The following year, Senna admitted that he had made up his mind before the game to knock the other side out if he could not take the lead, in retaliation for the fact that the FIA had deprived him of the championship a year earlier. Two legendary drivers, Senna and Prost, collided at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan for two consecutive years, resulting in a world championship title each, but also made the two inseparable.
In 1991, the strength of the Ferrari team fell sharply, Seine continued to maintain the lead after four consecutive wins in the season, the São Paulo Grand Prix, Senna led all the way from the starting point, but in the final seven laps, the car transmission stuck in sixth gear, at this time the car is very difficult to control, but Senna has never won in his hometown, he struggled to finish the race and win the race, after the race he had spasms on his shoulders and backs, and could not even lift the trophy on the podium. In the end, Senna beat rivals Williams F1 Team's Nigel Mansell to win the world championship for the third time.
In 1992, the year williams team dominated, Mansell opened the post-war five-game winning streak, making the season lose its suspense early, and it was not until the sixth leg of Monaco, Senna, barely suppressed Mansell. This year, Senna won only 3 races, and 1 pole position, falling to fourth place in the annual ranking, making him defeated the defending world champion.
Elton Senna finished 4th in Germany in 1993
In 1993, the performance of the Williams team was still difficult to resist, and the opposite McLaren team lost the power advantage after losing the Honda engine to replace the Ford engine, and at the opening station in South Africa, Senna fought very hard to kill the opponent Williams Prost, but it was no opponent. Senna won five of his 16 races throughout the year, and his sixth at Monaco, breaking the record of two-time world champion Graham Hill for five monaco titles and his five consecutive victories in monaco. Late in the season, due to the low performance of the McLaren team this year, Senna revived the idea of changing teams.
In 1994, Senna left McLaren to join the strongest Team at the time, Williams, hoping to reach the second peak of his career. However, this season, the FIA began to ban the use of various electronic devices for assisted driving and established a rule of "pit stop refueling"; after the Williams FW16 of that year dismantled the active suspension and track control systems prohibited by the rules, the overall control became extremely difficult. The focus of the pre-race tests fell on Michael Schumacher's Benetton team. Although the engine of Benneton's car is not as good as Williams, but with a new design with a front lift and a large wind breaker, the downforce is larger, the handling and agility are superior to williams who have not yet adopted such a design, and Senna said before the San Marino race that he was surprised by the speed of Michael Schumacher's car.
In the first Brazilian race of the season, Senna lost control on his way to catch up with Schumacher, causing the car to stall and retire. In the second race, at the Pacific Race at the Okayama Circuit, Senna was unable to finish the race by Mika Häkkinen and Ferrari's Nicola Larini in the middle of the race. In both races, although Senna won pole position, unfortunately he was unable to score points due to his withdrawal in the middle of the game. On the other side, Schumacher of the Bennet open team won two consecutive races, putting a huge pressure on Senna by a gap of 20 points.
Immediately afterward, Senna greeted the third leg of San Marino in a very difficult state, and the game has been plagued by ominous accidents since the first day. During the practice session on 29 April, Sena's compatriot driver Rubens Barrichello had a serious accident and suffered a facial contusion and was taken to hospital for treatment. The next day, in qualifying on April 30, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger's car spun out of control and crashed against the parapet, killing Ratzenberg with a broken neck.
Ratzenberg's fatal crash was F1's first driver to lose his life on the track since the unexpected death of Riccardo Paletti in 1982. These two accidents had a big impact on Senna's confidence, almost making him feel uneasy. Ironically, the morning before the race the next day, Senna discussed with other drivers to re-establish a driver safety team to improve the safety of F1 cars. Due to his highest seniority, he was also selected for the leadership role of the group.
In the regular race on May 1, Senna took the lead after starting from pole position, but Schumacher, who opened the second consecutive victory, launched a fierce pursuit from behind, constantly putting pressure on Senna. On lap 7, at 2:17 p.m., senna was passing through the Tamburello bend when the car suddenly lost control and rushed directly to the parapet at 310KM/h (210~220KM/h before impact).
After the accident, Senna was taken directly by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Bologna. But when Senna crashed, the right front wheel with a broken suspension arm popped out and hit Senna in the head, and one of the suspension arms was like a harpoon directly penetrating the helmet Senna was wearing and then inserted into his skull, and by 6:03 p.m. that day, Senna was in a brain-dead state. At 6:40 p.m., four hours after the accident, the hospital declared Senna dead at the age of 34.
The site of the accident in Senna
The San Marino circuit was modified in several corners after the accident
According to the investigation after the fact, the cause of Senna's death is generally believed to have the following three points:
Insufficient tire grip: Because the day's race ran together on a series of chase accidents, the assembly therefore dispatched a safety car (Safety Car) to guide all the cars around, until the fifth lap to return to the pit station, because the safety car was out of action for too long, the car was running at a low speed for a long time, resulting in the car's tires failing to reach the working temperature, the tire pressure dropped, so that the chassis of the car was closer to the ground than the general situation. When Senna's car passed the fatal corner, the chassis began to touch the ground, and the underground flow of the car was interrupted and the body slid on the ground, causing the grip of the car to be reduced, resulting in loss of control.
Steering shaft breakage: Because Senna constantly reported to the team before the race that the car had understeer and oversteering, he had to work very hard to control the car, but because he could not find the right part, that is, the longer steering wheel steering shaft, the team technician sawed the steering shaft away and welded a thinner steel pipe to barge it. However, although the steering wheel steering shaft of the accident car was found to be broken afterwards, according to the data of the racing recorder, the front wheels were steered at the moment before the car rushed to the parapet, in other words, the steering shaft was most likely broken, so it was difficult to confirm that the steering shaft was broken during the race, resulting in a sudden accident when Senna could not save the out-of-control car.
Foreign Body Flying Strike: Because of the accident at the start, some of the remaining car fragments on the track have not been completely cleared, and when Senna's car passed the accident site, the air flow rolled into the debris and hit the steering system, causing the car to lose control.
Since then, the technical rules of F1 racing have been drastically revised, the movable suspension system and acceleration control system have been banned, the engine volume has been reduced from 3.5 liters to 3.0 liters, and the downforce before and after the car has been reduced. In addition, the Imola circuit where the accident occurred was also revised. Under FIA President Max Mosley's strong policy of racing safety and the prohibition of electronic devices, no drivers were killed in F1 races for the next 20 years (until 2015, when French F1 driver Jules Bianchi died nine months after the accident).
Senna's Tombstone: Nothing can keep me away from God's love.
On May 4, 1994, Embraer sent a special plane to escort Senna's body back to Brazil, where the Brazilian government held a state funeral for him, and more than 1 million Brazilians mourned Senna along the way. But Michael Schumacher was absent from the funeral (because some irrational fans believed that Schumacher's pursuit of Senna was the cause of the crash, and threatened to retaliate against Schumacher, but this is quite absurd, there is no doubt that the car chasing the car in front of him on the racing track is beyond doubt, in other words, Senna will follow Schumacher and he will do the same). Brazil buried Senna's body in its hometown of São Paulo with the courtesy of a head of state, with the inscription on Senna's epitaph: "Nothing can keep me away from the love of God." (Original Portuguese: NADA PODE ME SEPARAR DO AMOR DE DEUS.)
In July 1994, the Brazilian national football team won the World Cup in the United States, the fourth time in history. The team showed a banner after the game that read, "Senna, let's accelerate together!" The fourth world champion is ours! ”。
In 1997, after an investigation, the Italian government found that the safety of williams cars was problematic, so it indicted members of the Williams team on manslaughter charges, and the case was not brought to trial until 2004. Race car designer Adrian Newey, technical director Patrick Head, and team owner Frank Williams were acquitted without definitive evidence of an accident.
In 2000, Senna's name was inducted into the World Racing Hall of Fame.
Friends who like racing, your attention is encouragement to me. The old ghost will share racing information for everyone.