Ayrton Senna Success Story

Childhood

Ayrton Senna was born on March 21, 1960 at Santana, Sao Paulo. He was highly athletic boy who excelled in gymnastics and other sports. But he found his real interest in motor racing at the age of 4 itself. At the age of 7, he was driving a small modified jeep around his family’s farm for hours at a stretch. He went to the Colegio Rio Branco where he excelled in Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry. But his interest was in motor racing, so he stopped studying further to concentrate on his racing career. His first kart was made by his father using a lawnmower engine.

He entered his first kart competition at the age of 13 and finished with the pole position. His father was a big supporter of his son, so soon he appointed a full time manager for his son called Lucio Pascal Gascon. In 1977, Senna won his first major championship, the South American Kart Championships. Next he was able to take part in the Karting World Championships, where he came runner-up in the years 1979 and 1980. 

Career

In 1981, he went to England to participate in the Formula Ford 1600 Championships. In the first year itself he won the single-seater racing competition with utmost ease. In 1982 he won the European Formula Ford 2000 Championships.

In 1983 he drove for the West Surrey racing Team in the British Formula Three Championships and again won it his first attempt. That year he also won the inaugural Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix. With this win, many Formula One teams lined up to take Senna into their team. After much hype and fanfare, Senna joined the Toleman team for the 1984 F1 season. His team was a relatively new team and did not have enough resources to compete with the big teams like Mclaren and Brabham. His debut race was at the Brazilian Grand Prix and he scored his first championship points in his second race itself.