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[kerc]

This is what I most admire about Ayrton Senna:

After Senna's death it was discovered that he had donated millions of dollars of his personal fortune (estimated at $400 million at the time of his death) to children's charities, a fact that during his life he had kept secret. His foundation in Brazil, Instituto Ayrton Senna, has invested nearly US$ 80 million over the last twelve years in social programs and actions in partnership with schools, government, NGOs, and the private sector aimed at offering children and teenagers from low-income backgrounds the skills and opportunities they need to develop to their full potential as persons, citizens and future professionals.

[Mikep99]

Good photos of the man

[texasmr2]

Oh my god that pic is awesome and what I find amusing is the song I'm listening too right now is 'All by Myself' by Eric Carmen. Daym I miss that man he was invincible to me. Thank's Roc, NOT, because I did not want to get this emotional tonight but you have motivated me to watch atleast one of his race's tomorrow.

[McLaren Fan]

Great photographs. Also, just think that the four in the bottom have ten world championships between them.

[7UpJordan]

Good photos of the man

Imagine if someone tried to do that today, the safety car would be out in a flash and Senna would have been pushed away from his car by the marshalls.

The bottom picture is perhaps one of the best photos in F1 history. So fitting too as it was taken towards the end of that season and of those moments which doesn't need a caption to describe it.

[darwin dali]

Great photographs. Also, just think that the four in the bottom have sixteen world championships between them.

Could you illuminate us on your math???

[SENNA71]

I was fortunate enough to have seen him Live and In Colours in Estoril!

Some races I saw were beyond words...I can remember Donington 1993, Monaco 1992, so many wonderfull memories

I was there in 1994 when he debuted in Williams...it was a very cold month of February, and we Senna Fans were all expecting a wonderfull and triumphal season...that unfortunately was never meant to be ...for me the REAL Formula 1 ended 1st May, 1994


That time was very difficult as if it was a nightmare being awake....

But the MEMORIES WILL LIVE FOREVER!


ACELERA AYRTON!

[SENNA71]

This is what I most admire about Ayrton Senna:

After Senna's death it was discovered that he had donated millions of dollars of his personal fortune (estimated at $400 million at the time of his death) to children's charities, a fact that during his life he had kept secret. His foundation in Brazil, Instituto Ayrton Senna, has invested nearly US$ 80 million over the last twelve years in social programs and actions in partnership with schools, government, NGOs, and the private sector aimed at offering children and teenagers from low-income backgrounds the skills and opportunities they need to develop to their full potential as persons, citizens and future professionals.

true.

Besides being the GREATEST DRIVER he was also a GREAT HUMAN BEING

[SENNA71]

well, I found this that I had posted some years ago in other forum and would like to share it with you




(FROM THE MELBOURNE HERALD SUN)
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common ... 73,00.html

Schu will never be worthy of lacing Senna's boots
Byron Young, in Imola
24apr04

THE silence in the shade is serene.

The Ayrton Senna I knew would have loved this place.
Ivy tumbles down the wall, plants grow wild and there is a cool, calm peace that is missing in the crazy world on the other side of the concrete.
A gentle wind caresses you from nowhere and you can hear bird song.
A giant advertising hoarding on the outside of San Marino's Tamburello Bend shields you from the full glare of the April sun.
Behind it there is a narrow alleyway between two high safety fences hidden from most of the world.
Unless you clamber over a tyre wall and negotiate a slit in the fence, you would not even know it is here.
On the other side, the world's greatest driver lost his life on May 1, 1994.
Here Senna fans have come to pour their hearts out, relieve their grief and to wonder and worship.
On five giant metal stanchions of the safety fencing, his distinctive yellow helmet has been spray-painted.
Up and down each, along a distance that on the other side of the wall covered his journey from living legend to dead icon, hundreds of messages of grief are carved in English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and even Japanese.
Many tears must have been spilled in this place but I sense only tranquillity.
One message dated 01-06-94 says in Italian: "Ayrton, one month after it is even worse. You were my guiding light and my point of reference".
Another: "In a black and white world you bought colour to our days".
As his public relations man in 1987, I can understand their devotion. We shared a frantic season of globetrotting. It was my first in Formula One and his last at Lotus before moving on to McLaren and the glory years that would see him crowned champion three times.
His intensity and kindness inspired devotion. Despite the growing legend, he was polite and pliable.
He never let me down when we agreed to a public appearance or a press conference.
He certainly had an ego but his word was his bond.
Ruthless as a racer, he was probably too sensitive for his own good in the wider world. I never heard him raise his voice once.
Michael Schumacher can win 20 titles with his team orders and superior contracts and will never be worthy of lacing Senna's boots.
The Brazilian wanted to win and liked nothing better than beating his rivals on equal terms. Schumacher wants victory at any price.
In eight frantic months leaping from continent to continent, I cannot say I got to know him well.
At Monaco, a race he was destined to win, we walked back to the pits and I asked how he could justify the enormous $20 million salary he reputedly demanded.
"It is never enough when you are risking your life," he said. Nothing more.
The driving came naturally, but the public appearances and the enormous adulation embarrassed him.
In Detroit for the first time in 12 months and there was a 30cm high pile of letters waiting at his hotel. Some included pictures, several of very beautiful women and a proportion were semi-naked.
After every success he would hand the champagne from the podium and ask me to take it to his mechanics.
I spent one evening with a small clique of journalists in his hotel suite in Adelaide talking about poverty and the comparison with his world of privilege.
"Motor racing is nothing," he said. "It is going around and around in circles. If it disappeared tomorrow the world would be no different. There are far more important things in life; poverty, war, famine. These are the important things."
Journalist friend Mark Fogarty and I were the last writers to interview him on the weekend he died.
Senna talked about a new bicycle he was promoting, building the Senna brand, his flourishing business empire and wanting to ensure his employees had jobs when his racing career ended.
Was the sport's greatest driver possibly planning for retirement? Before we got the chance to ask he was called away to another technical debrief.
He promised to talk again the following day but, grief stricken by Roland Ratzenberger's death, postponed the meeting until the next race in Monaco.
The following day he died.
Senna was hounded by a fame that made it difficult for him to walk across the paddock without being mobbed.
Consequently he made frequent trips to Brazil to jet ski, run on the beach, ride horses, play with his beloved radio-controlled planes, or just relax.
He liked his secluded places but could never be parted, for long, from his racing machines or his fans.
That is why 10 years on I know he would have loved this place.

Ayrton Senna da Silva
In Life Unbeatable - In Death Irreplaceable

[SENNA71]

I took this pictures in 1994 , February, during the 1st tests Ayrton made in Estoril , still with a Williams FW15C

the quality is not great because my camera was crap, but they mean a lot to me , was the last i SAW him (really!) , alive, about 20m from where I stood

[McLaren Fan]

Good article and wonderful pictures.

[AKR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAAbvJGa ... re=related

Check it out. Senna was not only good, but he was "good hearted". Why does God take away the good people from the Earth so early on in their lives? I doubt any other driver would of done this had they been the one to drive past the wreck first.

[McLaren Fan]

Unfortunately, that's the way the world works. It's a real shame. Senna had so much left to give, not just to Formula One, but to the world. Even though the Senna Foundation does a lot of good work, had he still been alive, his profile, money and businesses he was trying to start up could have helped many more people.

[AKR]

Unfortunately, that's the way the world works. It's a real shame. Senna had so much left to give, not just to Formula One, but to the world. Even though the Senna Foundation does a lot of good work, had he still been alive, his profile, money and businesses he was trying to start up could have helped many more people.

Agreed.

[12doorAnglia]

i had the good fortune to have been able to see him race from the begining of his career in the uk, from ff1600,2000, f3 and up to f1 .It was obvious from those early days he had exceptional talent, but could not count him among my favourite drivers, don't know why