Ayrton Senna is arguably the most admired and adored personality in the history of Formula One Racing. His racing brilliance coupled with his ardent passion to win were the cornerstones of Senna's sensational racing career. Even the harshest critics and fiercest rivals of the three time world champion, proclaimed Senna as a genius, given his obsession with speed and his ability to push himself beyond the extreme. His fatal accident at Imola in 1994 saw the entire racing world come to a standstill, as fans world over moaned the death of the great Senna, a true legend in every sense of the term.

Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960 in Sao Paulo, as the son of a wealthy Brazilian landowner. At the tender age of four, young Senna took to racing in his 1-hp racing kart under the encouragement of his doting father, a racing enthusiast. By the time Senna was 13, the minimum legal age to race, he competed in his first kart race and immediately emerged victorious. He secured his first kart championship in 1977 when he won the South American Kart Championship, a competition Senna dominated also in the year that followed. The next step in his pursuit to conquer the racing world was the World kart championship which saw Senna come second on a couple of occasions at Estoril and Nivelles.

After his successful kart endeavours, Senna switched to Formula Ford 1600 in England racing for Ralph Firman and his Van Diemen team in 1981. At this point of time, Aryton adopted his mother's maiden name Senna over da Silva as the latter is a very common name in Brazil. Senna continued his impressive run by securing third position finish in his second race to be assigned the newest car by Firman for the rest of the championship. Senna raced his new car to victory to secure the 1600 championship that season. Despite of winning this championship, Senna's racing career still came to a standstill at the end of 1981 due to the lack of sponsorship to support his future racing ventures.

In 1982, however, Senna re-entered the racing arena by participating in the British and European Formula Ford 2000 Championships with the help of his father who agreed to partly sponsor Senna's racing career with the remaining funds coming from a bank. Senna took full advantage of this opportunity and clinched both titles to break his way into the Formula Three (F3) Championships. Senna stormed into F3 with West Surrey Racing in 1983, taking nine straight wins and a sensational victory in front of Martin Brundle at the last F3 race of the season, the Macau Grand Prix in Portugal, to lift his first F3 title. This thrilling conquest in F3 helped Senna carve his way into Formula One (F1) and secure a seat with the Toleman F1 team.

Senna made his F1 debut in front of his home country in 1984 and looked forward to kickstart his F1 career as successfully as his previous F3 exploits. However, his F1 debut proved no match to his past successes. Senna managed a humble 8th finish in his debut race and achieved similar results in a series of races that followed. It wasn't until the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix (GP) when Senna had finally arrived. The rain plagued event saw Senna start the race from the 13th position on the grid and steadily pick his way through the field to pass the then double world champion Niki Lauda on lap 19th to take second spot. Senna further reduced the 33.8 seconds margin between him and race leader Alain Prost on lap 20 to just 7.4 seconds by lap 31 before the race was stopped and Prost was declared the winner. It was an impressive first podium for the Brazilian who later went to take two more podium finishes (thirds) at the British GP at Brands Hatch and at the season-closing Portuguese GP at Estoril, ultimately placing Senna ninth in the standings.

After the 1984 season, Senna switched to team Lotus for the 1985 season after buying his way out of the Toleman team, in his pursuit for achieving better results. During his three seasons with Lotus, Senna won 16 of the record 65 pole positions in his F1 career and was victorious in six races. Failing to achieve the level of success he has anticipated with Lotus, Senna then moved to McLaren in 1988.

At McLaren, Senna was to partner one his hardest competitors, Alain Prost, but the Brazilian speedster was up to the task. In the 1988 season, McLaren dominated the circuits by winning 15 of the 16 races. Among these, eight were won by the resilient Senna handing him his first world title with a one-win margin over team mate, Prost. Senna's debut championship sparked one of the most severe championship battles between him and partner Prost. In the intensely close fight for the 1989 F1 crown, Prost took out Senna at the Suzuka chicane at the penultimate Japanese GP and won the title based on his consistent season finishes. An infuriated and revenge starved Senna achieved salvation in the next season by taking out Prost, now racing for Ferrari, on the same Suzuka circuit and went on to win his second F1 championship.

Senna won his third F1 crown in 1991 when he destroyed his competition taking seven wins and establishing a 24-point lead in the driver's championship tally. After two more years with McLaren, in 1994 Senna then moved to Williams, a team he had long sought to join. What was anticipated to be such a promising season, with Senna racing for his dream team, turned out to be one of the worst ever in F1 history.

On May 1, 1994, the San Marino Grand Prix saw Senna's race-leading Williams mysteriously spin off the Imola track and hit the concrete wall at Tamburello corner. The sport had lost its Brazilian legend, a great man both on and off the track. Millions flocked down to attend his state funeral in Sao Paulo including Alain Prost, to pay homage to one of the greatest drivers of all times.