The Life of Senna

by Rubython, Tom

  It was not what she had signed up for and nothing like she had imagined. Very early on she decided that this would be her first and last season if it was to be her husband’s full-time occupation. She loved her husband but he was pursuing a career he loved. To relieve the tedium she started cooking for the whole Formula Ford paddock and often went to races laden with food. Her speciality was Brazilian-recipe banana cakes.

  Her husband was having trouble adapting as well, as he said: “Everything was new to me. I didn’t know the language, there were new people, new customs, and the weather…” But he was quickly accepted by the Van Diemen mechanics and quickly gained the honour of a nickname, which meant he had earned his place in the team. He was called ‘Harry’ by those who struggled to pronounce his Brazilian-Portuguese name.

  Senna also found himself with some experienced team-mates in the guise of fellow South Americans Enrique Mansilla and Enrique Toledano – it was a good yardstick and they made him feel at home.

  His first race was the opening round of the P&O Formula Ford 1600 championship at Brands Hatch on 1st March 1981. He had time only for a minimal amount of testing before this first outing in the previous year’s car, the Van Diemen RF80.

  Senna’s debut was impressive, but not sensational. From a grid position of eighth, he made his way up to fifth by the end of the race, eight seconds behind the winner, Argentine Enrique Mansilla, after 12 short laps. Some in the paddock felt he could have gone faster if he had wanted to, but was slowly getting used to racing so as not to show himself up.

  Senna himself was unimpressed. He said at the time: “I didn’t enjoy the race because the car was not so good. I had virtually no experience but still finished fifth, which was a bonus for me. It was not in my contract, so I couldn’t really complain.”

  Brands Hatch was the first and last time Senna competed in the P&O championship – after that he concentrated on the two other major Formula Ford 1600 series. In 1981, there were several 1600 series in Britain, the two principal ones being the Townsend Thoresen and RAC championships. The same crowd of drivers competed in each one and there was a great deal of crossover between them. Races would often be held for one championship on the Saturday/Sunday and the other on the Sunday/Bank Holiday Monday at different tracks around the country. It was an intensive programme.

  A week after his debut race for the P&O at Brands Hatch, Senna was at Thruxton, competing in the Townsend Thoresen championship. He finished in third place, winning the battle for the final podium spot from the aggressive Enrique Mansilla.

  A week later he was back at Brands Hatch, again competing in the Townsend Thoresen championship. Senna arrived at the track determined to be a success. He had been thinking hard about the importance of publicity in pushing forward a young driver’s career and the week before had decided to hire someone to do his public relations. Astutely, he decided a photographer would be his best bet.

  He had spied a likely candidate in young snapper Keith Sutton, then in only his second year as a professional photographer. He had spotted him the previous weekend at Thruxton but the two men had not spoken. As Sutton remembers: “I was at Thruxton working for a Brazilian motorsport magazine that wanted photographs of Brazilian drivers racing in England. I was shy in those days so I never introduced myself – I just took lots of photographs of him, in the paddock, on the track – he must have wondered why this photographer he had never seen before was taking so many rolls of film of him at only his second event in a racing car.

  “For some reason I decided to go down to Brands Hatch the following weekend on the train, using a free British Rail promotion ticket. It was a long way from my home in Cheadle – in fact it took me eight hours’ travelling time there and back. I had just arrived in the paddock when Senna approached me after recognising me from Thruxton. He asked me why I had been taking photos of him. ‘Are you a professional photographer?’ he enquired. ‘Yes of course,’ was my reply. ‘Well I need photographs to send out to Brazil on a regular basis. Can you help me out?’ Naturally I agreed.” Senna’s hiring of Sutton was to have an immediate effect on his career, as the young photographer set out to get Senna noticed as well as photographing his every move. He paid Sutton a few hundred pounds for the work: the young Mancunian had chosen a good weekend to sign up.

  It rained all weekend. Brands Hatch in soggy March was not the glamorous motor-racing venue Senna would later inhabit – and race day Sunday 15th March 1981 was even wetter than normal. The scheduled Formula Ford 1600 race went ahead despite the downpour, the spindly little cars running on the short Indy circuit, just around the pits and back, rather than the famous Grand Prix track. Few knew beforehand that this race would make history – they didn’t even realise afterwards.

  A full lap of the circuit was a little over a mile, and the junior race lasted for just 15 of these short laps. The names of the frontrunners on the spectators’ dog-eared race programmes were only slightly more familiar then than they are now – Andy Ackerley, Rick Morris, Alfonso Toledano, Ayerton da Silva. The spelling of the first name, ‘Ayerton’, was a careless mistake by the organisers, based on the tri-syllabic Brazilian pronunciation that was abandoned in later years.

  The grid positions for round two of the Townsend Thoresen championship were to be decided by two qualifying races. Senna went in the second heat, starting from third spot. The track was wet and the Brazilian stormed into the lead, winning by a second after 10 laps and setting the fastest lap on the way. This put him in pole position for the main race.

  Owing to rain delays, it was after the scheduled time slot of 4.30pm when the cars lined up on the grid. They shuffled cautiously into their grid spots between the puddles in a three-two-three-two pattern, the young man in car number 31 slotting into pole position. Senna demonstrated the first signs of his wet-weather mastery that day.

  The race started and even as the cars pushed off the grid, he was pulling ever so slightly away. By the first corner he already looked invincible. “He just drove away into the distance,” remarks then Van Diemen mechanic Malcolm ‘Puddy’ Pullen. “You could see he was going to be a winner.”

  The Brazilian took victory by 9.4 seconds from his friend, Mexican racer Alfonso Toledano, pulling away at roughly two-thirds of a second on each 59-second lap. It is probable that if pushed he could have gone even faster; he did not set the fastest lap as he had done in the heat, but he did not need to go faster.

  “It was fantastic,” Firman admits. “But I’m a pretty laid-back sort of chap. To me he was just doing his job.”

  When an emotional Senna cruised into the pitlane after his victory lap he was immediately met by Liliane, who rushed to congratulate her husband with a kiss before he had even climbed out of his car. She had been watching events unfold from the pitwall with the team. Malcolm Pullen had stood beside her during the final lap: “There is no feeling on earth like winning for the first time. As he went over the line Liliane nearly picked me up off the ground. She was ecstatic – I mean she was nearly in tears.”

  Liliane joined Senna on the podium for the victory celebrations, overjoyed with her husband’s success. Evening was drawing in, victory was a novelty and the celebrations were beginning to roll. On the podium, Senna was understandably delighted and with Liliane clinging around his neck he was presented with the reward for his efforts: a laurel wreath, a winner’s trophy and a cheque for £70. But the real prize that day was a new-found reputation and a boost to his racing career.

  Firman says: “His talent was starting to come through and it did on that particular day. It was his driving force, his total dedication to succeed. That’s one of the main reasons he was so successful.”

  The next two rounds of the Townsend Thoresen championship were both held at Mallory Park, two weekends apart. Once he had tasted victory, Senna did not want to lose but he was unlucky in both. Even so, at the first event he clocked pole position, although the race was overshadowed by an altercation with Mansilla. Senna had lost out to Mansill
a at the start but chased him down until, on the last lap, Mansilla edged him onto the grass and Senna had to settle for second best. The Brazilian was furious – there was a scuffle in the pitlane and the pair had to be dragged apart by onlookers. Senna felt he had been denied victory unfairly, and even at that early stage of his career, it rankled him more than anything.

  On 21st March 1981 Senna celebrated his 21st birthday, although there was little time for a big party as the focus was on racing. The early season had been frustrating with only one victory. And it was to get worse before it got better.

  At the second Mallory Park race, following a tangle with another teammate Alfonso Toledano, Senna was pipped to victory in the last few corners by the experienced Rick Morris, losing the battle by only a fraction of a second. Snetterton on 3rd May was a different story. Again it was wet and again Senna took pole position. He led all the way, taking a small lead and building it up while the other drivers were taking care in the rain. Observers who had thought he was a good driver before were beginning to see the makings of greatness in the Brazilian novice.

  Three weeks later at Oulton Park, Senna entered the first round of the RAC Formula Ford 1600 championship, which was contested by most of the familiar drivers from the Townsend Thoresen event. He won there on the Sunday, then at Mallory in the Townsend Thoresen championship on the Bank Holiday Monday, then again in the Townsend Thoresen championship at Snetterton two weeks later. He seemed unstoppable.

  Firman recollects that after his initial caution he was predicting great things for the Brazilian: “At about the middle of that season I was convinced he was going to be world champion in Formula One. There wasn’t a flash of light or anything – it was a gradual feeling that this one could go all the way.”

  But Senna was about to come down to earth with a bump. A fortnight later at the International Trophy meeting at Silverstone in the RAC championship, he was beaten at the last corner by Rick Morris, who executed an audacious overtaking manoeuvre that left Senna speechless. The Brazilian had burst into the lead at the start and looked to have a convincing lead until Morris caught him in the closing laps. A fraught last-lap struggle ensued and as the cars approached the final corner, the Woodcote Chicane, Morris went for the inside line. Senna blocked him, but unperturbed Morris ran around the outside, bumping over the kerbs a fraction inside the penalty line. Morris went home with a tale to tell his grandchildren. Senna was furious.

  So furious in fact that in the next race against each other, a Townsend Thoresen round at Oulton Park less than a week later, Senna pushed Morris out of the way for the lead on lap one and won the race. Some years later Morris would complain: “Senna was the first Brazilian I didn’t really get on with the way I did with the others.” Even halfway through his first season of racing, all the familiar Senna characteristics were there: wet-weather brilliance, determination to succeed, strong anger when he felt he had been cheated, ruthlessness against those who stood in his way.

  At Donington Park for the next RAC round in early July, Senna started in second but put in an amazing first lap to get away at the front from the rest of the pack, build up a lead and stay there – something of a dress rehearsal for the time almost 12 years in the future when he would produce the best opening lap in Formula One history at the same track. Firman had noted this as a particular skill in Senna: “He won so much of the time because he did it on the first lap. The lights went out and bang, he was away. In a few more laps the other drivers would be lapping as quickly as he did but by that time it was all over. They’d lost the race.”

  He should have won the next round at Brands Hatch, but a late excursion onto the gravel meant a damaged water pipe and he slipped back to fourth. On 25th July he won the Townsend Thoresen round at Oulton Park, then on the following day the RAC race at Mallory Park. A week later he took victory in a Townsend Thoresen race at Brands Hatch, and another week later, on 9th August, again in the pouring rain at Snetterton, he claimed his first car-racing championship with victory in the penultimate round of the RAC series. As other drivers skidded off in the storm Senna simply glided on to victory. Another week, and he won at Donington Park in the Townsend Thoresen championship and then wrapped up the title in the penultimate round as well with a victory at Thruxton, much to the delight of Liliane, his parents Milton and Neyde and brother Leonardo, who had travelled all the way from Brazil to watch. It was six wins in a row – in an intense racing career of just six months he had claimed two championships and 13 race victories.

  Senna recalled: “After some problems, I won both of the important British championships, the RAC and the Townsend Thoresen. It was a fantastic first season.”

  Fantastic it was – he had the world at his feet, the best possible start to a career in motor racing and looked as if nothing could stop him. But however glorious things appeared on the surface, there was trouble lurking in the depths.

  In mid-September Senna went to the world kart championship in Parma, an event he had never been able to win before. A controversial change in the rules meant he lost out to racers with quicker karts. He finished fourth. After that he returned to Formula Ford for the final round of the Townsend Thoresen series on 27th September 1981. It was a small national club meeting at Brands Hatch. The race was won by Rick Morris, while the runner-up’s spot on the podium was snatched by Senna, who had no need to win with the championship already sewn up. There was a particular end-of-season atmosphere on the podium and everyone was looking to the future. After congratulating Morris on the win, circuit commentator Brian Jones turned to the Brazilian and asked him about his options for the following year. Senna simply said: “I am finished with racing. I go back to Brazil.”

  It was not the expected response – everyone thought Senna would move to either Formula Ford 2000 or even Formula Three for 1982 – there had been no warning signs that he was considering quitting so it came as a complete shock. He had won everything in sight and looked to have an amazing future ahead of him – admittedly lots of people do that in Formula Ford but very few to Senna’s level of dominance.

  The decision to quit took immediate effect, and Senna and Liliane returned to Brazil almost immediately. He told Sutton he might return for the season finale, the Formula Ford Festival, but he didn’t. On 18th October, Firman signed Irish racer Tommy Byrne to take his place: Byrne won.

  Most thought that Senna had made a quick, and seemingly final return to Brazil, in order to save his marriage. That was probably true but he never admitted it. He blamed the financial situation and the collapse of the Brazilian economy for his return.

  Several years later he explained his decision to quit racing in financial terms: “When I left I was unhappy for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons was that in order to find a sponsor you need good publicity. That is especially important in Brazil because it is so far away. Of all the Brazilians who have come to England I was the first to win two championships in the first year, the RAC and the Townsend Thoresen. I won 13 races out of the 18 I entered. It was a very good result but I couldn’t get good press in Brazil and without it I couldn’t find a sponsor. I knew that I needed a sponsor before I moved into Formula Three and I tried very, very hard. I was competing for space in the newspapers with Roberto Moreno and Raul Boesel, who were winning in Formula Three, and also Nelson Piquet who was winning the world championship. After all that there was no room for Formula Ford 1600.”

  Senna had debuted in an age of talented Brazilians. The surge in popularity of motorsport in Brazil had conversely made it more difficult for young drivers to make the break. Senna felt that Moreno and Boesel were getting the better deal, but despite winning three races in the British Formula Three championship, Moreno could only afford to compete in half a season, although he secured a prize test drive with Lotus for his efforts. Boesel’s family was wealthy even by the standards of Brazilian racing families. He had also won three British Formula Three rounds – albeit over a full season – and was testing for McLaren. Nels
on Piquet took three Formula One wins in 1981 and emerged from the season as world champion. Senna’s great Formula Ford achievements just did not have the same cachet, even though he was sending scores of press releases to journalists back home with the help of his young photographer Keith Sutton. Sutton was continually harassing Formula One team principals about his driver. But at the end of the day Piquet was the man in the news and no one was interested in the young man from São Paulo.

  On top of that, sponsorship was becoming more difficult to find because Brazil had plunged into recession. Milton da Silva had promised his son a year funded by the family, but no more. He had not really wanted his son to pursue the dangerous, expensive and fickle business of racing.

  Another reason for Senna’s quick exit was the possible humiliation of not being able to get a drive in 1982 and therefore having to give up his career almost as quickly as it had started.

  There was a drive on the horizon in senior Formula Ford 2000 for 1982, even though Senna should have moved straight into Formula Three. His potential new team-owner, Dennis Rushen of Rushen Green Racing, had offered to give him a year in the British and European championships of the Formula Ford 2000 series, the next rung on the ladder, for £10,000. But Senna could not raise the money and his father refused to give him any more.

  Milton da Silva saw racing as an expensive hobby and wanted his son to return to Brazil to learn the running of the family farming and building supplies businesses.

  Apart from his wife’s unhappiness Senna himself had experienced homesickness, living on a foreign continent, struggling with a language he spoke little of, far away from the life he knew. But for Liliane it was much worse. Her husband had his racing, but she did not like the sport. It made her nervous for his safety. Her English was minimal and the rented bungalow close to Snetterton in Norfolk was a far cry from the luxurious family home in sunny Brazil where she had servants to do the chores. There was little money that did not go on racing; Senna’s father was paying for the drive and even the race-winner’s prize money was just £70, with decreasing amounts for the rest of the top six and a fund of £100 for the eventual champion. Liliane had little to keep her occupied and she had no friends in England. Few could blame her for wanting to return home.