From karting to immortality: was Ayrton Senna the greatest racing driver ever?

Ayrton Senna de Silva would have been 50 this year. Arguably the greatest ever Formula 1 driver, the Brazilian was a three-time world champion.  He died in a crash in 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy, while he was leading the race.

In a survey in 2009, carried out by Autosport magazine, 217 current and former drivers picked Senna as their number one racer of all time. His reputation was built on fierce competitive spirit, blistering one-lap qualifying times and wet weather driving skills that many believe have never been bettered.

Oddly, his driving career began when his older sister Viviane received a 1HP go-kart as a gift. She didn’t feel it was an appropriate present for a girl, but the young Senna felt differently. He was off. In 1977 he won the South America Kart Championship and he competed in the World Kart Championship between 1978 and 1982, gaining runners-up positions in 1979 and 1980.

Senna’s rivalry with the French driver Alain Prost is one of the most unforgiving head-to-head combats in any sport.  It culminated in the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989, when the two McClaren teammates crashed going into the final chicane. With both drivers off the track and Prost out of the race, the typically determined Senna managed to restart the car, replacing his injured wing in a pit stop, and going on to win the race, although he was later disqualified. A reminder of the duo’s epic racing battles can be seen in the above video, when the arch rivals returned to their karting heritage in 1993, just a year before Senna’s death.

Today, Senna is the inspiration for racing drivers and kart enthusiasts across the globe, as the top video highlights. What are your memories of Senna? Did you see him race? Did he inspire you to take up karting? We would like you to get in touch with your memories. And those that we publish on the site will receive activity vouchers, which you could use to go karting. If you would like to get into karting, click here.