Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva (21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in, , and while driving for McLaren.

Senna was born at 2:35 BRT (5:35 GMT) on Monday, 21 March 1960, in the Pro-Matre Maternity Hospital of Santana, a neighbourhood of São Paulo.

The middle child of a wealthy Brazilian family, he was born to landowner and factory owner Milton Guirado da Silva and his wife Neide Senna da Silva; he had an older sister, Viviane, and a younger brother, Leonardo.

He was left-handed.

Senna's mother was the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, while his father was born to a Spanish mother (from Tíjola, Province of Almería) and a Brazilian father from São Paulo.

The house where Senna spent the first four years of his life belonged to Neide's father, João Senna.

It was located on the corner of Avenida Aviador Guilherme with Avenida Gil Santos Dumont, less than 100 meters from Campo de Marte, a large area where they operated the Aeronautics Material park and an airport.

Senna was highly athletic, excelling in gymnastics and other sports, and developed an interest in cars and motor racing at the age of four.

As a small boy, he had poor motor coordination and had trouble climbing stairways by the age of three.

An electroencephalogram (EEG) was unremarkable (i.e. showed no abnormalities).

Senna's parents nicknamed him "Beco".

At the age of seven, Senna first learned to drive a Jeep around his family's farm and also how to change gears without using a clutch.

Senna attended Colegio Rio Branco in the São Paulo neighbourhood of Higienópolis and graduated in 1977 with a grade 5 in physics along with other grades in mathematics, chemistry, and English.

He later enrolled in a college that specialised in business administration but dropped out after three months.

Overall, his grades amounted up to 68%.

Senna's first kart was built by his father using a small 1-HP lawnmower engine.

Senna started racing at Interlagos and entered a karting competition at the age of 13.

He started his first race on pole position, facing rivals who were some years older than him; despite this, he managed to lead most of the race before retiring after colliding with a rival.

His father supported his son and Lucio Pascal Gascon soon managed the developing talent.

Senna went on to win the South American Kart Championship in 1977.

He contested the Karting World Championship each year from 1978 to 1982, finishing runner-up in 1979 and 1980.

In 1978, he was the teammate of Terry Fullerton, from whom Senna later felt was the rival he got the most satisfaction racing against also because of the lack of money and politics at that level.

Senna began his motorsport career in karting, moved up to open-wheel racing in 1981 and won the 1983 British Formula Three Championship.

He made his Formula One debut with Toleman in, before moving to Team Lotus for the season and winning six Grands Prix over the next three seasons.

In, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren.

Between them, they won all but one of the 16 Grands Prix that year, and Senna claimed his first World Championship.

Senna then won his second and third championships in the and seasons.

Senna managed to finish the season as runner-up, winning five races and negotiating a move to Williams in.

Senna was recognized for his ability to extract the maximum performance of his cars, as well as his fast qualifying speed.

From until, he held the record for most pole positions.

In 1981, Senna moved to Eaton, near Norwich in England, to begin single-seater racing, winning the RAC and Townsend Thoresen Formula Ford 1600 Championships that year with the Van Diemen team.

Despite this, Senna initially did not believe he would continue in motorsport.

At the end of that season, under pressure from his parents to take up a role in the family business, Senna announced his retirement from Formula Ford and returned to Brazil.

He was also acclaimed for his wet weather performances, such as the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, and the 1993 European Grand Prix.

He holds a record six victories at the Monaco Grand Prix, is the sixth-most successful driver of all time in terms of most Grand Prix wins, and has won more races for McLaren than any other driver.

Senna courted controversy throughout his career, particularly during the turbolent Prost–Senna rivalry.

In the Japanese Grands Prix of 1989 and 1990, each of which decided the championship of that year, collisions between Senna and Prost determined the eventual winner.

Senna's death occurred as a result of an accident while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, driving for the Williams team.

Before leaving England, Senna was offered a drive with a Formula Ford 2000 team for £10,000.

Senna is one of three Formula One drivers from Brazil to win the World Championship, setting 65 pole positions and winning 41 Grands Prix, with the former being the record until 2006.