Ayrton Senna

Nationality: Brazil
Date of Birth-Death: 21 March 1960 - 1 May 1994
Drivers championships: 1991, 1990, 1988
Grand Prix victories: 41
Races started: 161
Pole positions: 65
Teams: Williams 1994, McLaren 1988 - 1993, Lotus 1985 - 1987, Toleman 1984

Ayrton Senna career

Ayrton Senna was one of the great racing drivers. He was born in Sao Paulo in Brazil and started his racing career in karts before moving to England to race lower formula cars before joining Toleman for the 1984 season. He joined Lotus for the 1985 season and scored his first Grand Prix win in the second race of the season. The 1986 car had reliability problems, but for 1987 Lotus had a Honda engine and Ayrton Senna finished 3rd in the drivers championship including the first of his 6 victories at Monaco. In 1988 he moved to McLaren where to started his rivalry with team mate Alain Prost. The 1988 McLaren MP4/4 won 15 races with Ayrton Senna winning the championship from Prost. The 1989 and 1990 seasons continued the rivalry between Senna and Prost with the championships in both years being decided by accidents involving both drivers, with Prost winning in 1989 and Senna in 1990. Senna won his third title in 1991 after battling Nigel Mansell in his Williams through the season. The 1992 and 1993 seasons were relatively successful with Senna finishing fourth and second. Ayrton Senna moved to Williams for 1994 though with the banning of electronic driver aids this not as good to drive as the previous years car. In the third race of 1994 at San Marino, Ayrton Senna was killed in a high speed accident at the Tamburello curve.