Black and white effigies of the late, great Ayrton Senna still billow in the wind at every Grand Prix around the world as he continues to cast a gaunt, omnipotent shadow across the sport and his successors. May 1st 2004 will be the 10th anniversary of his death, but the Brazilian still looms large over the sport and fans he was not given a chance to walk away from.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy surrounding his loss was that Senna could well have retired soon after the crash in the San Marino Grand Prix. As it was he became an immortal talisman, tied to the track for eternity as an impossible yardstick for future greats.
Having won three World Championships at the age of 32, the Brazilian was elevated to near deity status in his native Brazil. A multi-faceted and complex man, he repeatedly risked his own life on the circuit in pursuit of glory. Off track he was an enigmatic superstar, quiet, private and insular, but with a true aura of greatness.
What happened on that fateful day has been reported thousands of times, in hundreds of languages, and picked over by the courts. According to Italian law Williams bosses Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head faced manslaughter charges after the Brazilian's death, with the investigation focusing on a modified steering column, but both were exonerated.
After a restart at the San Marino Grand Prix on lap seven, with the first six laps run under caution, Senna led Michael Schumacher into Tamburello corner at a frantic pace on cold tyres.
Several theories have been proffered why his Williams speared off the circuit, with bottoming out being the most popular, but even the courts couldn't be 100% sure. He slowed to 130 mph before the car hit the unprotected wall, but it was not enough. The world held its breath in that moment, everyone knew it was a life-threatening crash.
In the ensuing chaos wreckage speared through his helmet and snuffed out the life of the most charismatic and enigmatic personality ever to grace the Formula One fray.
His death was announced hours later, as racing fans around the world waited for the news. Brazil immediately announced three days of public holidays to mourn the loss of a national hero.
The outpouring of grief was immense when a man who had become a spiritual leader was laid to rest in Sao Paulo in a full state funeral on May 5. 500,000 turned out to witness the event and signs of respect were made all over Brazil.
Sao Paulo will host a number of celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of its favourite son's death and interest in the driver is still sky high. His grisly death has added a macabre interest to his legend, too, and anything he touched is now valuable. One of his Toleman F1 cars recently went on sale for $1 million. With any other driver's name on it would be up for less than 10% of that.
The Brazilian was revered by the fans but often lambasted by other drivers, the press and even the sport's governing body for his aggression and ruthlessness. On the track he drove like a man possessed, forcing rivals on to the grass and legitimising the physical tactics seen by the likes of Schumacher years later.
His contemporaries felt he was dangerous, and prepared to risk too much for the win. His focus and determination scared his rivals, and enthralled his fans.
Off track he dumped his wife after just one year together as she would not support his racing, clashed with the sport's governing body and proved a one-man career wrecking ball - terminally damaging the careers of nearly all his team-mates.
The feud with Alain Prost defined perhaps the golden era in the sports' history. Fiercely proud men, they fought for their whole careers in a classic Maverick Vs Ice Man Top Gun confrontation.
Prost was neurotic, complaining about preferential treatment for Senna within the McLaren team. On the track he was always cautious and drove like a metronome, never risking a crash.
The Brazilian raced with his heart and the seat of his pants, hurling his car past his rivals at every opportunity and half-chance.
Greatness on the track is not always measured in pure numbers - Gilles Villeneuve won only six Grands Prix for instance - and Senna produced one-off moments of brilliance as well as three consistent World Championship-winning campaigns.
They included what was arguably the best single lap of all time at Donington in 1993 in wet conditions, when he stormed from fifth to first on the opening lap and went on to win by a country mile.
He also held Nigel Mansell at bay for most of the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix, in an inferior car with shot tyres on the tortuous street circuit. He took his fifth win in F1's greatest race the next year, a feat not even Schumacher has not come close to matching.
Senna was cool out of the cockpit, brooding and more insular, and very Latin. On the track he let it all hang out each and every time. When his car was not the best he became famous for crashing on his quickest qualifying lap.
He knew he was going to crash, but he also knew he would come through the final corner significantly quicker and take pole position. It was hard not to love such acts of sheer lunacy.
For Senna second place wasn't an option. It just didn't exist.
In consecutive seasons the title was decided at the first corner at Suzuka - first in favour of Prost and then Senna - when the two smashed into each other at high speed - driving down the escape road and out of the race. The animosity was palpable: they hated each other, but equally they needed each other.
The pair had the best car and only each other to fight against. When things turned nasty, the two pushed each other beyond rational limits. Team boss Ron Dennis played the role of mediator more than once, but the simple fact was Senna was faster than elder statesman Prost, and the Frenchman couldn't deal with it. Prost got his revenge with a clause in his Williams-Renault contract barring Senna from the team in 1993. This undoubtedly cost Senna a shot at one more title, but when Prost finally retired at the end of the year the Brazilian was finally presented with his chance to drive the best car on the grid.
Williams had to pay $20 million for the privilege, something he has never done since. The Grove team boss is notoriously tight when it comes to driver deals. His shocking generosity in this instance, therefore, suggests it wasn't just the public who bought into the mythology surrounding the Senna legend.
Despite arriving to Imola with no points after a disappointing start to 1994, there were few in the paddock that doubted the title was his for the taking. Had he chosen to continue after that year, he could have collected up to three more World Championships.Whether he would have continued is a moot point, however, as his friends say his heart wasn't in racing in '94. He had won three titles and could have matched Prost's total of four with victory in the '94 campaign.
Beating Prost's record and going for five titles would, in fact, have been the Brazilian's only motivation for continuing. He had taken numerous records and clearly established himself as the best of his generation.
Most drivers ploughed on to the age of 40 in those days. But the Brazilian was not like most men and had offered to retire years before on a point of principal after a dispute with the sport's then governor Jean Marie Balestre. With another title in his belt and the desire fading, he could easily have left F1 never to return in '94.
Senna was also concerned about the change in technical regulations forced through at the last moment stripping the cars of electronic driver aids, turning well thought out racing cars into unstable and potentially dangerous missiles.
"We will be lucky if something serious doesn't happen," he wrote in a column before the start of the year, not realising the way hindsight would distort his words into macabre prophesy.
On the eve of the San Marino Grand Prix, after digesting the death of Roland Ratzenberger out on the track in practice, Senna was distraught. Suddenly acutely aware of his own mortality he told those close to him he did not want to race. He spent drivers' briefings in tears, wept openly on the phone to then girlfriend Adriane Galisteau. He was so badly affected that good friend and FIA medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins asked him to quit, on the spot, and go fishing with him.
It was clear that Senna's perception of racing was changing. He had other things on his mind and was perhaps becoming a more complete person at the expense of the single-minded racing legend.
He even made his piece with Prost, sitting down with him at Imola and talking at length. Senna was a changed man.And as Senna softened, he was suddenly confronted with a young lion in the face of Schumacher. The German was a fierce competitor, the new order of champion, and Senna would have recognised that better than anyone.
He eventually died leading the German into Tamburello, desperately attempting to break the young buck's spirit on cold tyres and pushing too hard in the process. Had Senna survived the impact, he may well have understood how hard he was trying to stay ahead.
Senna was also increasingly concerned with his business empire in Brazil. He invested in a seven-storey office block in Sao Paulo and was the first driver to realise the potential of licencing and merchandise as well as setting up outside businesses.
Then there was his love life. Galisteau had the honour of being his girlfriend when he died, but she was unlikely to last. Prior to the latest blonde, Senna had lived the millionaire Playboy lifestyle, dating a string of models, but his heart belonged to one woman.
Xuxa Meneghal, although a relative unknown outside of Brazil, was and is more famous than Senna in their homeland. The children's TV presenter has built a media empire in Sao Paulo, and it was this that turned her love affair with Ayrton into Mission Impossible. Xuxa needed to be in Sao Paulo, Senna was in Europe, and the relationship fizzled out.
When he retired, his family believed he would reunite with the woman he once flew round the world to be with for hours at a time. Together they would have been King and Queen of Brazil's super rich A-List and would have held a huge amount of political sway. What they could have achieved together remains a dream, but Senna could easily have dwarfed his achievements as a sportsman in his life after F1.
It also meant that at least the first few of Schumacher's crown and Damon Hill's World Championship pot rested firmly in the shadow of the great man himself. Nobody believes that Senna could have lost in the best car, so Schumacher will always face doubts over whether he was as good as the great Senna at his peak, it is just something he'll have to live with even though he could have badgered the Brazilian into retirement himself.
Senna's Legacy
Prior to his death Ayrton gave millions to charity, mainly to help the underprivileged street children of Sao Paulo.
Born into a relatively privileged family, Senna never wanted for anything as a child, but living in the world's third biggest city it is impossible to avoid the daily realities of the Favela - made famous in the film City of God.
Education and basic rights are denied to millions of forgotten people in Sao Paulo, and Senna was determined to give the street kids a chance to avoid a life of petty crime.
"Wealthy people can no longer live in an island surrounded by an ocean of poverty," he said. "We all breathe the same air. We should give everyone a chance, at least an opportunity to get education, food and medical care."The Senna Foundation was Ayrton's dream, which he discussed with sister Viviane before leaving for Europe in 1994. After his death she continued with his ideal and now more than one million children boast support from the nation's most famous ever sportsman--it is a fitting tribute to the man himself.
The Effect on F1
Senna's death sent shockwaves reverberating through Formula One: the sport's brightest light that had been extinguished.
Few remember that two men died that weekend, with Roland Ratzenberger falling victim to a practice crash the previous day. Had the Austrian been the only one to succumb, F1 would have gone on regardless, but Senna's loss was a kick in the guts.
Circuit safety was overhauled, with tyre walls going in everywhere and tracks altered to lower speeds with the insertion of chicanes. Drivers have since said this was a massive kneejerk reaction and has removed much of the spectacle, as did the introduction of grooved tyres several years later.
The cars themselves were strengthened exponentially, too, and now arguably the safest place to be when a Grand Prix car hits the wall is inside it. Two marshals have been killed in recent years having been hit by debris, but Senna was the last driver to die in modern F1.
The FIA continues to press ahead with revolutionary safety steps, including the fully extractable safety seat. To say Senna's death saved many more would be dangerously close to buying into the deity-like myths, but there is certainly an argument to be made.
"The Life of Senna"
by Tom Rubython
BusinessF1 Books
7 Mallow St
London
EC1Y 8RQ
RRP: $45
Ten years after the death of Ayrton Senna officianados still pore over his every move. His death placed him beyond the ranks of racing driver demi-god. A full state funeral witnessed by half a million Paulistas said it all: he was Brazil's favourite son.
But he was more than that, he was a leading light in motorsport, a global hero, an ambitious businessman and a great humanitarian. In one of the latest books to tackle the enigma of Senna and his subsequent legend Tom Rubython provides the most thorough blow-by-blow account of his life to date.
It started out as a series of articles on the great man in the now defunct F1 Magazine, where Tom gained the ear opf many of Senna's contemporaries and used the access to devastating effect to reveal a series of hitherto unseen snapshots of the Brazilian's life. But the author is entranced with Senna, one-off articles would never be enough and a book was always on the cards.
This book is arguably the most thoroughly researched out there, with the team working under Editor Rubython went back through years of recorded interviews with the man himself as well as extensive contact with the Senna family, team bosses, team-mates and servants.
Every aspect of his life, from growing up in a relatively well off area of Sao Paulo and only overcoming a severe co-ordination problem when he climbed into a go-kart to turning his back on his wife and family business to return to the savage cold of England with almost no money, is lavishly covered here.
He went on to carve out what was arguably the greatest ever list of achievements, although his records have mostly fallen to Michael Schumacher now, and his career from Formula Ford right through to his three World Championships are chronicled in exacting detail with every single qualifying session and race making the cut.
Only retrospectively could the full story of his war with Prost truly be told, due to the fact that they both raced for the McLaren team and Ron Dennis. This book covers their war of words in the press in the context of their true emotions behind the scenes. It is a torrid scene of handbag fights, paranoia, back-stabbing, clashes with the governing body and two massive on-track collisions to decide two World Championships. It is soap opera stuff and the book's best asset.
The two settled their differences only on the weekend of his death, making the Senna-Prost feud integral to his life story. They may have hated each other, but now they are tied together for eternity.Rubython's band also covered brave territory, Senna's love life. The brooding Brazilian was a difficult man to figure, but his own family felt sure he would return to Xuxa Meneghel - perhaps the only woman more famous than Senna in their homeland - to enjoy a happy life together.
Rubython has presented perhaps the most rounded assessment of his background, life and subsequent impact on the world at large. Senna's story does not stop with his death, and nor does the book. As well as the monumental effect the Brazilian's death had on F1, including the FIA's massive drive on safety, the success of The Senna Foundation and the way the lives of those closest to this mythical man have been changed.
In fact everything is covered, with an intensity that is disconcerting at times. Tom Rubython appears to love F1 and particularly Ayrton Senna like small girls love Justin Timberlake, so every morsel, fact, statistic and supposition is just too important to leave out.
The same ground is retrodden from different perspectives and there is a frustrating sense of deja vu on several occasions. A savage Editor would have scalped 100 pages from this tome and potentially reshuffled it. The Life of Senna would have been all the better for it.
Still, if you love Senna and want the definitive book of his life, to learn everything about the man himself, there is no better book on the market. If you're not besotted with the racing legend, though, this 700-page monster and the price might prove even more intimidating than one of Senna's late-braking manoeuvres.