For several years, the mercurial brazilian, who as seen as the heir of Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet, was a sensation of F1.In the last possible moments, Ayrton was the man to stretch the limits and steal the pole position in thrilling flying laps, defying all the limits.He surprised F1 in Monaco 84, starting in 13th and finishing 2nd, challenging the almighty Niki Lauda and almost beating the one which would become his fierce rival, Alain Prost. Ironically, had that race continued, and his rival would have been world champion.In his Lotus years, Ayrton got 16 poles in 48 races, which is a fantastic rate of 33.33%. But, the mythic car, which was immortalized by Jim Clark, and later assumed the unforgettable golden and black colors with Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Mario Andretti, has never been a car to enable Ayrton win a WC.
Frank Williams stated that "Ayrton was as fast as Schumacher, but much more clever. He could foresee 3 or 4 moves beyond"Yes, it is true, Ayrton perceived that Lotus had never been a winning car in the 80's, and even he pushed Lotus, the structure was not good enough to challenge the reigning Mclaren neither Williams-Honda.Yet, in his final year in Lotus with Camel, Ayrton got in touch with the japanese. Probably, it was written in the sky. There were great synchronicity and affinity amidst Ayrton and the Honda staff. The Honda engineers were marveled by Ayrton's careful approach for the tiniest details and his enormously precise description of his flying laps, yielding informations about the engine's reaction. It was fantastic, every information was precise and corroborated by telemetry.Ayrton conquered Honda's admiration. And as a very skilful chess player, he started talking to Ron Dennis and Honda simultaneously. In the japanese side, Ayrton tried to sell the idea of Mclaren Honda team, and build a better and more sympathetic image of Dennis, who had been ruthless for the japanese in his first approach.So...at last, in his fifth season Ayrton had a car to win a WC!
The beggining of Senna in Mclaren may have been a little bit tense. Ayrton felt that opportunities such as what he was grabbing in 1988 were very rare, and that was the chance to fulfill your childhood dream: vanquish all opponents and claim the world championship!On the other hand, he should be quite cautious. Ron Dennis and Alain Prost were the winners of the turbulent relationship amongst Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. The Frenchmen won in an unexpected way in Adelaide, surprising the majority F1 fans. Both Ron and Alain knew that the success of Woking team would depend heavily on the inner relationship. At first, the mercurial brazilian driver was welcome by the cartesian Professor. In the picture above we can see Viviane, Ayrton's sister, the super man in the center, and his future bitter nemesis, Alain Prost. They started a friendly relationship that would become a turbulent and the fiercest ever feud that F1 has already seen...Prost, along Piquet, was acknowledged as the supreme master of settings. Ironically, it is said that the Frenchmen recommended Ron to hire "the most talented young driver", which undoubtedly was Ayrton.Senna, was the mercurial driver, with a strong resemble to Jim Clark. He blasted his opponents in thrilling and dangerous flying laps, and managed to fight Alain, Nigel and Piquet with his outpaced Lotus. In terms of sheer speed, he was the number one, but there were a lot to learn if he were to beat Prost.
