Ayrton Senna da Silva, (São Paulo, March 21, 1960) was a Brazilian racing driver and FF1M world champion. His nephew, Bruno Senna, has also raced in FF1M.
Masters Era[]
Senna began his motorsport career in karting and moved up the ranks to win the British FF3M championship in 1983. Making his Formula One debut with Toleman in 1984, he moved to Lotus-Renault the following year, and won six Formula One Grands Prix over the next three seasons. He moved to the new FF1M series for the first Masters Season where he joined fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa at Exolite-Ford. He won his first Grand Prix in the second round of the season at Kyalami in South Africa and finished the season in 3rd place in the championship, winning three races. He would go on to win eleven more races in his career but rarely found himself in the right team at the right time until the last two seasons of his career.
After a fierce battle with Fernando Alonso for the championship in Season 6, Senna finished as runner up and announced that he would be retiring after the following season. In Season 7 following another season long battle with Alonso, who was now his team mate at his new team AquinoPlus, Senna found himself six points behind the Spaniard with one race to go and it looked as though his great talent was going to go unfulfilled. However a brilliant win at Adelaide saw him crowned champion by six points after Alonso retired from the race.
Canon Era[]
Ayrton Senna took part in the 1986 season where he drove for Dark Wolf with a Lotus-Renault chassis-engine combination. He was part of a three-way championship showdown at the final race of the season alongside Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger, but ultimately, Senna had to settle for 2nd behind Prost.
Legacy[]
Despite only winning the Drivers Championship a single time in the masters era, Senna is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in the history of FF1M. In 2009, a poll of 217 current and former Formula One and FF1M drivers chose Senna as their greatest ever driver, in a survey conducted by British magazine Autosport. He was recognised for his qualifying speed over one lap and but for unreliability would have won the Championship more times. He is the fourth most successful driver of all time in terms of race wins.
Complete Results[]
FF1M[]
Racing Record[]
Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Podiums | Points | Ch. Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
S1 | FF1M | Exolite | 16 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 52 | 3rd | |
S2 | FF1M | Maestro Motorsport | 16 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 37 | 4th | |
S3 | FF1M | Gui Racing | 17 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 27 | 7th | |
S4 | FF1M | M-Sport | 17 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 51 | 5th | |
S5 | FF1M | Gui Racing | 16 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 69 | 4th | |
S6 | FF1M | Gui Racing | 16 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 67 | 2nd | |
S7 | FF1M | AquinoPlus | 16 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 87 | 1st |
Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Poles* | F/Laps | Podiums | Points | Ch. Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | FF1M | Dark Wolf | 10 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 42 | 2nd |
1987 | FF1M | Gui Racing | 10 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 45 | 1st | |
1988 | FF1M | Andy Racing | 16 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 62 | 2nd | |
1989 | FF1M | Darkfire | 10 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 40 | 1st |
1990 | FF1M | Darkfire | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8th |
1991 | FF1M | Gojira AutoSport | 10 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 44 | 1st |
1992 | FF1M | Darkfire | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 16th |
1993 | FF1M | Gojira AutoSport |
*Seven pole positions from the 1988 season are missing due to hardware failure.