Heading through Swindon in South West England on my way back to Warwickshire last Friday evening, I risk a brief downward glance at my phone to find the SMS news bulletin is telling me that Honda’s car plant will remain closed throughout April and May.  Tough times indeed for the global car market, and equally worrying times for the families of workers employed by the firm at Swindon, following the 3100 layoffs by Honda Japan.  The second largest car maker in the Far East has already announced there will be no successor to the popular S2000, and plans to replace the race-derived NSX have been shelved indefinitely.

Honda Redundancies?

I find the remaining hour of my drive home to be hugely melancholy.  I am not particularly concerned for those workers who risk the cull, because they should have purchased third-party income protection six months ago.  My disdain is attributable to the 1st of May being the fifteen-year milestone of the passing of arguably the greatest motor racing driver of the last half-century, Ayrton Senna.  The Brazilian was so revered by the Japanese that Honda’s Tokyo headquarters was besieged by tributes the day after his death, irrespective of Senna leaving McLaren a season before, and despite his car no longer using Honda power.  Indeed he was partly responsible for tuning the chassis of the NSX.

Birth of Aryton Senna The Legend

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on the 21st March 1960 to a wealthy landowner in Sao Paulo, Brazil.   He was a brilliant artisan during his school years, and an excellent gymnast.  Perhaps the combination of these two talents were to make him the Grand Prix driver he was to become, but the young Ayrton had real difficulty with Maths and physics, which is quite surprising given that these two skills are now hammered home to be rudimentary to young drivers who are just learning to compete these days.

Like most F1 hopefuls, Ayrton Senna began his racing career in Kart.  Starting at the age of 13, within four years he had won the highly competitive Brazilian Kart Championship.  The following year, he moved into the Karting World Championship, and despite being runner-up for two consecutive years, he never won that competition.  The almost standard move to Formula Ford happened the next year in ‘81, when Senna moved here to England, and within three years had taken the RAC, Townsend-Thoresen and Ford 2000 titles, on top of the British Championship. 

Quick Progression Through Junior Ranks

Senna quickly progressed into Formula 3 and battled for supremacy with F1-driver-turned-commentator Martin Brundle.  The season ended with a dramatic battle around Thruxton which Ayrton won, and almost entirely for this reason, I feel hugely honoured whenever I take an Elise around this circuit.

With this kind of progress, offers were starting to come in for the young Brazilian to try out for the major F1 teams.  Brabhams were the first to express an interest to sign him, but their number one driver Nelson Piquet refused to allow the move because he was concerned at Senna’s lack of topflight experience.  He eventually agreed a deal with newcomers Toleman, who had a reasonable car.   In his rookie season, Senna managed three podium finishes, most notable of which was a runner-up to Alain Prost at Monaco.  This was an event of two-folded poignancy, as most of the controversy that Ayrton was to be later subjected was attributable to his rivalry with Prost, and also for the circuit itself, as Monaco was to become Senna’s best circuit.

By the end 84’, the ink was already wet on a deal between Ayrton and Lotus-Renault for the forthcoming season.  In his second race of the season, he grabbed his first pole position, and would later become known as arguably the greatest qualifying lap specialist of all time.  Incredibly, the race in Portugal would also become Senna’s first ever F1 win.  That one pole would roll on to become seven by the time the season was out, and he notched his second win at gorgeous Spa-Francorchamps before finishing fourth in the Championship ahead of embittered team mate Elio de Angelis.  Senna would place forth overall the following season in 1986, again with Lotus-Renault.  This was an excellent chassis that was crying out for a stronger engine, which Honda would provide the following year.

Senna at Spa

Spa played host to more Senna drama the next year, when the Brazilian collided with Nigel Mansell, who after the race stormed after him in the pit lane.  Senna kept his cool though, and let his driving do the talking.  Wins at Monaco (the first of an unbeaten six wins there) and Detroit (a tough street circuit) cemented his position as one of the top talents in the game.  This was not enough to offset the Williams car advantage however, and they were victorious by season end.  The pill was made more to bitter for Senna by the deduction of points from him for an alleged rule-breaking on the part of his Lotus team.  Despite his excellent run of results it was an unhappy time for the South American.  The light at the end of the ‘87 tunnel appeared in the form of McLaren, and their incredible Honda-powered MP4, which Senna was to drive in the forthcoming season.

Prost and Senna Rivalry

1988 saw the sport’s two most intense rivals brought together within the same team.  Prost and Senna were untouchable in the McLaren, winning 15 of 16 races.   Competition between the two stars was ferocious, and both drivers were responsible at times for nearly killing their respective wing man.  Senna would go on to take the title for the first time this year, despite Prost scoring more points.  Did you think that the age of truly ridiculous FIA rulemaking began with our departing 2008 season?  Back in ’88 the rules regarding driver points meant that Prost had to drop three second place points, as only a limited number of a driver’s best results could be counted.

Prost was to gain retribution the next year, and bounced back to win the season in 1989.  This was another highly controversial year, littered with near misses and inflamed words between Formula One’s two leading men.  It culminated in a collision between the two drivers at Suzuka, where Senna later went on to allegedly cut a corner.  This resulted in a huge fine and temporary suspension of his licence to race.  

Impact on Senna's Career

You or I would probably have called it a day at this point, and started investing our huge sums of amassed wealth into vodka and self-destruction, but Senna opened the ‘90 season with six unassailable wins, and it would be just enough to carry him to his second Championship title.  This year was to be riddled with further controversy, and Suzuka was again to play host;  Senna battled hard with Prost for pole position, but this resulted in him being given the disadvantageous right hand side of the track, making the first corner difficult.  Senna was livid, as he was assured by race officials before qualifying that the left and right grid positions were to be reversed.  They were not.  Prost turned in on Senna at the first corner, taking both cars off.  Ironically this left Senna with his second world title.  He took his third in 1991.

Honda Involvement in Formula One

Honda pulled out of Formula One in 1992, realising that their V12 was now off the pace against hugely developed opposition from Williams.  Back then the recession of ’91 was behind us, and the decision was made by Honda on competitive grounds, rather than strict (and eternally depressing)  economic ones.  It is surely a sign of coming of age when one looks back over time and reminisces over a past epoch, but I swear that there was more on the news then over which we may become excited;  in this same year, Disneyland Paris opened, the English Premier Football League was created, Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro and Mafia boss John Gotti was sentenced to life imprisonment.   By contrast, 2008 will be remembered merely for The Credit Crunch, and Lewis Hamilton rightfully taking the F1 title, touchingly at the controls of a MacLaren.

Ayrton Senna's Last Race

By ‘94, Senna was driving for Williams-Renault.  It was a tricky car but had immense power, and now that Prost had retired, Senna could sign a contract without being partnered with his bitter rival.  The season clattered open like a perilous, incoming storm, and it’s ominous, metaphoric black clouds meant two retirements for the Brazilian at the start of the season.  If we look back in the annals of F1 records, we are to note that race three at San Marino lists his result as a retirement there also.  If only it was to be as nondescript as that.

In the practice before the race, 34-year-old Austrian driver Roland Ratzenburger had suffered front wing failure and hit a wall at a stratospheric 314km/h, resulting in his immediate death.  Senna, who had already become a prophetic publiciser of safety within the sport, was devastated.  However, he chose to race that weekend, along with a full starting grid.  The claws of fate are unyielding, and the race kicked off with an almighty pile-up, resulting in a restart.  With the benefit of hindsight, it would be ruefully obvious to have not tried a further time, but a competitor and winner must always race, and so began the restart of San Marino.

I’ve only ever seen my father cry twice.  The other time was upon news of the death of Princess Diana.

Senna was travelling at 135mph when he came off at Tamburello corner.  A piece of the front suspension upright had entered the cabin area and punctured his helmet, resulting in trauma to the head.  Senna was pronounced dead at Bologna Hospital. 

Inside the wrecked Williams, medical crew found a rolled fabric.  It was an Austrian flag which Ayrton had hidden inside the cabin; a victory flag which he was to present to the crowd on winning the race, to commemorate the death of his friend, Roland Ratzenburger.