Ayrton Senna | Biography, Titles, Death, Movie, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

What was the cause of death of Ayrton Senna? ›

Senna, a three-time world champion and one of the biggest names in world sport, died instantly when his Williams car ran off the road at 190mph and hit a concrete wall on the seventh lap of the Imola circuit.

HALL OF FAME: Three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna

Across 10 years in the sport, Senna claimed 65 pole positions, made 161 starts, scored more than 600 points, collected 80 podiums and 41 wins, and wound up with those three world titles from 1988, 1990 and 1991 respectively.

Did Ayrton Senna have kids? No, he did not have a son or daughter. However, he was close with his nephew, Bruno; Viviane's son. Bruno was briefly banned from karting after Ayrton's death but returned to racing and eventually made it to F1, where he drove for three seasons.

In it, an interview was played from 1993, where Senna—then a three-time F1 world champion—shocked the media by declaring not Prost or Mansell or Piquet but Fullerton the most satisfying driver he ever raced against: “He was fast, he was consistent, he was for me a very complete driver,” Senna said.

During their conversation, Senna said he had changed from being deeply depressed to being happy again. He asked her to come out to Faro airport with Juraci when she picked him up on Sunday evening and told her to be there at 8:30pm. They were the last words they ever spoke.

The exact G-force experienced by Ayrton Senna during his fatal crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix is not publicly documented with precision. However, it is widely acknowledged that the impact was severe, with some estimates suggesting it was well over 50G1.

The sheer amount of force from the car hitting the wall at such great speed caused massive trauma to his head and neck area. Basically, his head jerked because the body's muscles still contract and twitch at the point of and even after death, much as a chicken would still run around after its head has been cut off.

I thought it was important that somebody went to his." Senna was buried at the Morumbi Cemetery in São Paulo. His grave bears the epitaph Nada pode me separar do amor de Deus (Nothing can separate me from God's love).

If you were to ask any motorsport fan just who Ayrton Senna's greatest rival was, chances are the response will be "Alain Prost."

Senna's funeral was a grand affair, national days of mourning were declared across Brazil, while millions lined up to walk past his closed coffin, and millions more lined the streets for his funeral procession.

Who inherited Ayrton Senna's fortune? ›

Lalalli Senna is the niece of Brazilian racing legend and three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna. Before his death in an accident during the 1994 Grand Prix, Senna donated millions of his winnings to children's charities.

In February 1981, Senna was married to Liliane Vasconcelos, then a 19-year-old who was a childhood friend of Ayrton's. But the marriage lasted just two years, with Liliane finding that life in England as the wife of an aspiring Formula 1 driver wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Ayrton Senna: “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.”

During the crash part of the suspension had penetrated his helmet, causing a fatal head injury. The steering wheel was found to be broken. Italian prosecutors alleged that it had snapped prior to impact, leaving Senna unable to control his speeding vehicle.

He claims that Senna's coffin was originally to have been carried at the front by three-time champion Stewart and fourt-time champ Prost, but that Ayrton's PR agent and close confidante, Betise Assumpcao, decided that Emerson Fittipaldi and Gerhard Berger were more fitting.

Behind the wheel was Frenchman Erik Comas - a man who owed his life to Senna. The lives of Ayrton Senna and Erik Comas are intertwined. Intrinsically linked. One, a three-time F1 world champion and revered star.

Lilian de Vasconcelos Souza

Ayrton Senna / Spouse (m. 1981–1983)