Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1988, 1990, and 1991. One of three Formula One drivers from Brazil to become World Champion, Senna won 41 Grands Prix and set 65 pole positions, with the latter being the record until 2006. He died as a result of an accident while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, driving for the Williams team.
Ayrton Senna
Senna at the age of 3
Senna began racing go-karts in Brazil at the age of 13.
21-year-old Senna in his British Formula Ford 1600 single seater
1988 Formula One World Championship
The 1988 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 42nd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 3 April and ended on 13 November. The World Championship for Drivers was won by Ayrton Senna, and the World Championship for Constructors by McLaren-Honda. Senna and McLaren teammate Alain Prost won fifteen of the sixteen races between them; the only race neither driver won was the Italian Grand Prix, where Ferrari's Gerhard Berger took an emotional victory four weeks after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari. McLaren's win tally has only been bettered or equalled in seasons with more than sixteen races; their Constructors' Championship tally of 199 points, more than three times that of any other constructor, was also a record until 2002.
Ayrton Senna won the first of his three Drivers' Championships in 1988, in his first year with McLaren
One of three new teams on the grid, EuroBrun entered F1 with driver Oscar Larrauri.
1987 World Champion Nelson Piquet moved to Lotus (pictured here with his championship rival Nigel Mansell).
Ayrton Senna won eight races in his McLaren-Honda en route to first Drivers' Championship.