Senna remembered

It is getting towards ten years since that day in May 1994. A defining moment of modern GP racing.

He is very important to many here at ten-tenths. He touched everyone. Whether it was his driving or his charisma.

As only a eighteen year old not only did racing change that day, but so did the world little.

He certainly touched me. For me, he was the epitome of what a racer should be. To be the fastest on every lap, be it in practice or race. I feel privileged to have watched him race. To me, F1 has been a pale shadow since his death. I've just re-read The Death of Ayrton Senna and it brought a lump to my throat - even 10 years on. Even my long-standing moniker is down to him.

To say he is sadly missed by F1 is the understatement of the decade.

The greatest of all time - still. Mesmerising speed coupled with an unrivalled will to win. What he had above all those before and since though was that he was only to keen to prove how good he was against the toughest competition. He remains the only driver in recent history who's qualifying laps alone are the stuff of legend. I can only echo Ayse's sentiments in saying that F1 really hasn't been the same since we lost him.

R.I.P Ayrton...

one of if not the best ever racing drivers.
sadly missed :(

i consider myself privledged to have met and witnessed first hand on the track both jim clark and aryton senna and i remember the first time i saw senna at speed, it was imola in 1985....to the group that i was attending the race with i remarked, "he reminds me of clark"....there was just 'something' about his driving style.....his death affected me like clark's....you just couldn't imagine it happening to them, the greatest drivers of their respective eras...to this day it is still difficult to fathom......

One of the saddest week-ends of my and many, many other people's lives.

His stunning performances on the race track, especially in qualifying, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and still does.

So very sad.

For me he will always be the greatest. And this is coming from a Prost fan.

I still remember his *perfect* *single* laps at the end of the qualifying session.

"made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and still does."

Thanks Pitstop! Couldnt find a better description.

Each time I drive on a state road a few kms far from where I live, there is a kart track where a teenager Ayrton firstly drove in Italy. Useless to say, at his very first laps he broke the track record, freshly set by the karting world champion.

As well I very well remember that sunny sunday of ten years ago.
Ten years have passed since, but I still I'm not sure I have realized what happened, still seems to me impossible. :(

Great Champion!!

the guy who got be hooked to f1... i remember his incredible quly laps. he just knew how to do the perfect lap!!

an incredible hunger to win and he pulled some of the greatest drives ever!

no doubt the darkest weekend in f1!!

i can still remember that weekend vividly, it was my boyfriends at the times birthday and i remember that mainly of what happened at imola
Senna was [b]The{/b] F1 driver to me, when i first started watching f1 it was him that drew me to watching even more otherwise i may have ended up just being a casual watcher

Ten years goes so quickly, still remember sitting watching the race as he's accident happened and sitting there stunned at what I had seen waiting for him to climb out of the car, sadly as we all know this was not to be.

To me he is the greatest driver to have graced the F1 circuits, just his utter determination to be the best, that he was not happy unless he blitzed the opposition, and that he did just that at a time when F1 in the mid to late 80's had several current or ex world champions - he didn't worry about who his team mate was!

Indeed he is very sadly missed and believe that the current F1 story and records would have not been the same had that terrible accident never happened, but such is life and we will never know, I content myself in watching old videos of the golden years and still marvel at what he did

R.I.P Ayrton

Howard

While i was a Prost fan & not a Senna fan when Senna had that fatal accident it suddenly hit me that if Senna could die in a racing accident anyone could. It's hard to believe it's been ten years since that fateful weekend which thankfully ten years on has never been replicated.

He was my hero.

And he always will be.

It says a lot that fans of other drivers are affected almost as much as those of us who were Senna fans. Most of us are still Senna fans, and F1 is nowhere near as good as it was when he was racing. I find it immensely satisfying that the pole position record is still standing ten years later above and beyond all the other records that have fallen to Michael Schumacher, and there's still the Monaco wins record left too. Very appropriate that it is Senna's legacy left for Schumacher to eclipse.

I suppose it is one of "those" moments in racing enthusiasts' lives- like the moon landing was to those who were witness to that.

Senna was my hero too, as inspiation for me then and still now. I watch the tapes every now and then, the F1 reviews of the seasons he won the WDC (and 1989!) and have almost all the books. Ten years has passed quickly but you never forget those few seconds of TV, do you?

Senna was bigger than F1 and occupied a place in this world which transended sport. Always wanting to be the best and push the limits in every walk of like. Intense and i am sure somewhat troubled he tried to repay his debt to his people with his charity works which still to this day help the people of Brazil. As a driver, must be the best along side Fangio. The big difference between him and Schumacher is that Senna had real competion throughout his whole F1 career and not just one person. Schumacher has never really had an equal to test him. If Senna had lived i dont think Schumacher would have made these records. I can think of 3 World Championships which would have been Senna's. I had the pleasure to compete in the FF1600 championship he won in the early 80s and he was sublime even then. Great driver, Great man, much missed. RIP Ayrton

He will always be the greatest ever F1 driver to me.
It was a black day for F1 that day.


The Grumpy1

I found Ayrton's official site www.ayrton-senna.com and when you enter the site a slogan appears on the screen which sums everything up perfectly.

"Ayrton Senna Da Silva"
" In life Unbeatable - In Death irreplacable"

I cant believe that ten years on i am still getting all emotional about his death.
I dont know why this man whom I never met is just about bringing me tears as I type this.

How did this happen ?
Why did this happen ?

I still dont know the answers but there is one thing in my life that i am eternally gratefull for and that is the opportunity to see Ayrton race.

He ignited my passion for racing he epitimized everything in life I wanted to be , he was to me at least the complete package.

I so wanted him to be beaten on the track just because if he was i knew the guy that beat him had simply beaten the greatest driver that ever lived (IMO)

Ten year on and i still cant come to terms that he is gone , there have been 3 deaths in motorsport that have really moved me to tears but this one really affected me big time , I simply dont know how to put it into words

On the sad day of Ayrton's death I bought a puppy and didnt know what to call him by the Monday morning I knew exactly what his name would be , ten years later my puppy "Ayrton" is going strong and running around like crazyand everytime i look at him it brings a smile to my face for several reasons.
Firstly because he is so cute and such a lovable dog and secondly because he reminds me of the great things Senna achieved in his life and the memories come rushing back.

In my time at ten tenths I dont think i have ever spent so long on a post I wanted it to be perfect i have no idea if it is but i simply cant type any longer.


RIP Ayrton we miss you and hope your still winning races above :)

Originally posted by foreversideways
Senna was bigger than F1 and occupied a place in this world which transended sport. Always wanting to be the best and push the limits in every walk of like. Intense and i am sure somewhat troubled he tried to repay his debt to his people with his charity works which still to this day help the people of Brazil. As a driver, must be the best along side Fangio. The big difference between him and Schumacher is that Senna had real competion throughout his whole F1 career and not just one person. Schumacher has never really had an equal to test him. If Senna had lived i dont think Schumacher would have made these records. I can think of 3 World Championships which would have been Senna's. I had the pleasure to compete in the FF1600 championship he won in the early 80s and he was sublime even then. Great driver, Great man, much missed. RIP Ayrton

That about sums it up.

It is still etched in my mind -the raw speed of Senna in one race going through Eau Rouge in the wet,

absolute mastery of a racing car- even on TV it looked awesomely fast!!!

That ten years has gone so quickly.


I remember sitting up late watching that May 94 Imola race

on TV and even have the original tape still.




RIP Ayrton the ultimate race driver the world has ever seen!

In life unbeatable... In death irreplacable...
What else can I say. The greatest of his era... perhaps the most dedicated, most thorough most complete driver ever..he lifted the level of driving to an art form that exceeded that of the Stewart/Fittapaldi/Lauda era and set a new standard for every driver to aspire to.

The London Times is running a very nice series of articles about Senna this weekend.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,12771,00.html

Damon Hill wrote a very nice piece on the events leading up to the start of the race and who it affected Aryton.

I didn't get to see Senna race. I didn't start my motorsports addiction soon enough. I do realize what he meant to the sport and how much the sport misses him, though.

I was one of the lucky ones to have seen the great man race in fact it was the first GP i ever went to silverstone 93 and i can remember it as if was yesterday. We arrived at the track on the friday morning of the race weekend and with this my first GP was amazed by the noise of the cars and also with it being a wet session i was also amazed at the spray from the rear of the cars. Looking at the huge tv sreen on the in field of the track i could see senna leaving the pits in his bright orange and white mclaren. I remember thinking this is it this is what i have been waiting for. When he arrived at are part of the track even with the naked eye you could see how later he was on the breaks how mind blowing faster he was out of the corners. I heard one of the fans in the grandstand say "thats why they call him the rainman".

My first ever GP was Donnington 93. I must have been about 9 or 10 and i was in a grandstand on the main straight. The only thing i really remember about the race was THAT first lap and the cheer that erupted when Senna finished the lap in the lead. I feel very priveledged to have seen that race and what a first lap of my first GP to witness.

RIP Ayrton

I was 10 when Senna died. He was the biggest name in the sport so I knew how significant his death was and that it was a big thing. He was a fantastic driver and a brilliant champion. I would have loved to have seen him race Michael Schumacher for the Championship. My mum told me the news that evening. She is no big sports fan but she knew how huge a name Senna was which shows how far reaching a tragedy it was.

RIP Ayrton

A true but little known fact, Senna agreed to become the godfather of Thierry Boutsen's second son, Cedric Boutsen the day before that fateful day.

Also, Dr. Sid Watkins invited Senna to go fishing for salmon with him in Scotland instead of racing at Imola when Ayrton visited him just hours before the race and told Dr. Watkins that he didn't really want to race that day.

If if if... :(

www.senna.tv

I really can't believe its been 10 years, its gone by so quickly. Yet at the same time it seems like so long ago in that things have changed so much.

To me Senna was the greatest and still is the greatest, there was something special, something different about him not only as a driver but also as a person. I think a big part of Formula One and motor racing died that day.

Even though I was only nine when it happenned I've been watching and going to motor racing my whole life and it took a long time to get back into the sport again. I just lost interest and it still isn't the same. I know of many Brazilian relatives who haven't watched F1 since.

But the memories are there, at least thats something. And he died doing what he did best. Winning the race.

Valeu Senna!

Good posts. Good to read them. I don't have anything to add, but for some reason just wanted to register I had been here today.

Me too. He was, and still is, the best driver to have raced during my lifetime.

It feels like yesterday, but a lot has happened in 10 years. It was totally different back when Senna was racing to what it is now. Racing in a field of several multiple world champions, he took the challenge of going to the team of then world's best driver Alain Prost, and beat him on the first attempt, in a season when Prost was favoured by many at McLaren. Such an achievement told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Obrigado, Ayrton - Simply the best.

As a marshal, I'm not supposed to have favourites but I had the privilege of working in the pit lane at Donington 93 and had been given the Maclaren team to work with. I had not been a Senna fan until I saw him work. He was totally dedicated to his art and at the end of the race (how did he do that overtaking on the first lap without falling off?) he came up to me, kissed me and thanked for being "his" pit marshal.

In the July of the same year I was at Silverstone, again looking after Maclaren and Senna. He walked out of the garage on the Friday morning, stopped, turned round and said to me "Hi, how've you been since Donington?" The fact that the "great man" remembered one little figure in orange impressed me no end.

When he died I said I would never go near a race track again. Sorry Ayrton, it's just something you have to do.

I have a poster on my wall - black and white - Ayrton and his Maclaren. The words are - "Racing is life - all else is incidentals". Guess that sums it up really.

RIP Ayrton.