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My tribute to Ayrton Senna Sunday 1st May 1994 was a black day indeed. No one could have imagined that our favourite sport would lose its one of its hero. That weekend in question started badly enough. Rubens Barrichello's Jordan literally flying at speed and crashing with a bang. Rubens was fortunate. On the next day Roland Ratzenberger would not be so lucky... Ayrton Senna was at the site of Roland's fatal accident. Ayrton was visibly shocked. We had not have an F1 accident since Elio de Angelis in 1986, and not for 12 years on a race weekend. God had His hand on F1 for those intervening years, one said, but took it away on the eve of the race day. Someone had to be chosen. It was the law of averages. For 8 years without an F1 death, Imola chose two. Ayrton Senna was the second. Future King Ayrton da Silva Senna burst into motor racing's pinnacle in 1984 at the age of 24. He had an impressive track record before that. Ron Dennis and Frank Williams would definitely testify to it. The rain-hit Monaco 1984 was most memorable as Ayrton was in a realistic position to win his first race in his first season in F1 in an unfancied Toleman-Hart. 1985 saw Ayrton win in torential rain which saw Alain Prost, amongst others spinning off. Again Ayrton demonstrated his true talent and skill in wet races. The race. Estoril. In 1986 Ayrton held off a charging Nigel Mansell on very worn tyres to win by the smallest margin in history of 0.0014 seconds. Here we witnessed the birth of Ayrton Senna the Strategist. However, despite some impressive and most of the times blinding qualifying and race performance in the ailing Lotus, it was not until the McLaren Honda days that Ayrton had a car worthy of his talents. Up till then Ayrton scored only 6 wins in 3 seasons. McLaren Honda Days With the McLaren Honda came an explosion. 8 wins in 1988 (then a record) and countless pole positions and rounding off by winning the Grand Prize. Ayrton clinched his first title in the rain in Suzuka. In 1988 and 1989 Ayrton frequently outraced his more illustrious and experienced teammate Alain Prost. Ayrton's mission when he set foot at McLaren was to take the crown from Alain, who was then widely acknowledge as the master of F1. Ayrton did just that. In 1989, Ayrton only finished in 8 races of which he won 6. When Gerhard Berger joined Ayrton in 1990, we saw Ayrton take the race to Alain who was now leading the Ferrari renaissance. The McLaren, never really the most well handling car, was off the pace of the flying Ferraris. Nevertheless true to his pre-season billing, Ayrton remained the man to beat in all the races started. Ayrton claimed his second world championship that year, after losing it to Alain in 1989. When Nigel Mansell joined the Williams Renault team in 1991, Ayrton's target shifted from Alain to Nigel. The Williams would prove to be THE package in 1991. However, that came only after Ayrton clinched wins in the 4 first races of the season. A feat not previously achieved by such greats as Jim Clark or Juan Manuel Fangio. Brazil 1991 saw one of Ayrton's greatest wins. Ayrton won the race with a McLaren limping in only sixth gear for several laps from the end, with a chasing Ricardo Patrese hot on his heels. Ayrton was spent after the race, having to be assisted out of the cockpit. Another memorable site from 1991 was the wheel to wheel drag race with Nigel at Barcelona. Nigel Mansell struck back in 1992 to win his first title. Ayrton was nowhere near the pace of the two Williamses. The highlight of the year came at Hockenheim when Ayrton finished second to Nigel, 4 seconds behind after several laps dogfight. Ayrton had only raced on only one set of C compound tyres. Of the leading bunch, only Michael Schumacher finished the race on one set. His were the more durable B compounds. The Vintage Year In 1993 McLaren lost Honda power. Instead McLaren had to resort to standard Ford V8 power. This time, Ayrton's nemesis was the returning Alain Prost in the Williams Renault V10. Nigel Mansell had already retired from F1. Clearly the Ford V8 was not in the same league as Renault's V10. Despite this, Ayrton won 4 races to Alain's 7 to fight back to second in the World Championship. For me, 1993 was one of Ayrton's finest year. In the underpowered car Ayrton won at the rain-hit Brazilian Grands Prix in which Alain spun off into retirement, and again at Donington. The fickle-weathered Donington race will go down in history as one of legends. At the wet start Ayrton dropped to fifth after qualifying fourth. By the end of the first lap Ayrton was in the lead, after first outbraking Michael Schumacher at the first turn and going round the outside of Karl Wendlinger at the second turn. Going up the hill, Ayrton took Damon Hill in a snaking maneuver. Alain was last as Ayrton dove down the inside at the hairpin. All in lap number 1. Ayrton held the lead since and at one point lapped everybody including Alain who finished third, a lap down. Only Damon was on the same lap after unlapping himself. Ayrton's driving has always been on the limit. Limit, of the chassis, engine, tyres and man. Ayrton often won races at qualifying. He would always have the pyschological advantage of starting from pole. So, even before the race started, Ayrton had already won. During his latter years Ayrton never lost that blindingly quick performance, but added to it a superior racecraft. By then Ayrton had already out-foxed Alain much as Alain out-foxed Niki Lauda before him. By 1994, with Alain retired, everybody thought that Ayrton, now in the Williams, would steal the title. Despite qualifying on pole on all the first 2 races, no points were garnered. Michael won both races. Michael would later say that had Ayrton been around, Ayrton would have been World Champion as Ayrton would be running rings around him. The prospect of another mouth-watering fire and brimstone battle between Ayrton and Michael was not to be. There would not be another Senna-Prost ('88 to '90), or Senna-Mansell ('91) classic duel. We were never meant to witness Michael Schumacher wresting the crown from Ayrton, as we saw in 1988. For me, Ayrton was de undefeated King, killed in battle. His legend will grow like that of Jim Clark before him.

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