Ayrton Senna - Personal Life

Personal Life

Senna was a devout Catholic, once saying "Just because I believe in God, just because I have faith in God, it doesn't mean that I'm immune. It doesn't mean that I'm immortal" (1989). He often read the Bible on long flights from São Paulo to Europe. In Senna, a documentary about his racing career that was released in 2010, Ayrton's sister, Viviane, revealed that following, first the accident of his friend Rubens Barrichello followed the next day by the death of Roland Ratzenberger during the San Marino Grand Prix of 1994, Senna had sought strength from the Bible. "Faced with a night of turmoil, of conflict, no one knew what his decision would be on Sunday morning, on race day ...'On that final morning, he woke and opened his bible and read a text,' explained Viviane 'that he would receive the greatest gift of all, which was God himself.'"

As his profile rose, Senna expressed concern over the widespread poverty in Brazil. After his death it was discovered that he had quietly donated millions of his personal fortune (estimated at around $400 million) to help poor children. Shortly before his death, he created the framework for an organisation dedicated to Brazilian children, which later became Instituto Ayrton Senna.

Senna was often quoted using driving as a means for self-discovery and racing as a metaphor for life: "The harder I push, the more I find within myself. I am always looking for the next step, a different world to go into, areas where I have not been before. It's lonely driving a Grand Prix car, but very absorbing. I have experienced new sensations, and I want more. That is my excitement, my motivation."

Towards the end of his career, Senna became increasingly preoccupied with the dangers of his profession. On the morning of his death he initiated the re-formation of the GPDA safety organisation, with which he had intended to work to improve the safety of his sport.

In the late 1980s, to take advantage of the close relationship Honda had formed with Senna, the Japanese company asked him to help fine-tune the Honda NSX's suspension setting during its final development stages. The tests were conducted at Suzuka Circuit with chief NSX engineer Shigeru Uehara and his engineering team present to gather Senna's direct input. Senna found the prototype NSX initially lacked chassis stiffness to the level he was accustomed to, so the final production version was further reinforced to his satisfaction.

Senna was also instrumental in bringing Audi cars into his native country, both as an import and manufacturing business. Audi entered Brazil in 1994 via Ayrton Senna's company, Senna Import, founded in 1993. Sales began in April that year, just a month before his untimely death. In 1999, Audi Senna was created as a joint venture of Audi with Senna Import. Senna's personal car in 1994 was an Audi S4.

Senna exercised his strong entrepreneurial spirit in the early 1990s by developing his own logo, the double S, after his full surname, "Senna da Silva". This logo is meant to represent an S chicane on a racing circuit. The Senna brand was on apparel, watches (TAG Heuer), bicycles (Carraro), and boats. TAG Heuer and Hublot have created limited edition watches to honor Senna, both during his lifetime and after his death.

Regarding politics, Senna disliked giving statements about avoiding revealing votes in elections. He maintained a position that was considered more conservative, having been an admirer of the notorious leader of right-wing politician Paulo Maluf, who was governor of São Paulo and mayor of the state capital at the time of Senna's death.

Senna owned several properties, including an organic farm in Tatuí, Brazil, a beach house in Angra dos Reis, Brazil, an apartment in São Paulo, an apartment in Monaco, and a house in Algarve, Portugal.

Senna enjoyed a range of physical activities including running, waterskiing, jet skiing, and paddleboarding. He also had several hobbies, such as flying real and model planes and helicopters, boating, fishing and riding his favourite Ducati motorbikes. His private jet was a British Aerospace 125 (BAe HS125), and he also piloted his own helicopter between his residences in Brazil along with travelling to races. He was left-handed.

At his time with McLaren, the Japanese Honda engineers would call him "Harry" because they had difficulty pronouncing "Ayrton".

Senna was close friends with McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger, and the two were always playing practical jokes on each other. Berger is quoted as saying "He taught me a lot about our sport, I taught him to laugh." He calls their three seasons together (1990 to 1992) "the James Bond years" since, as biographer Tom Rubython notes, "money, success, and girls littered every corner of their lives." In the documentary film The Right to Win, made in 2004 as a tribute to Senna, Frank Williams notably recalls that as good a driver as Senna was, ultimately "he was an even greater man outside of the car than he was in it."

Senna was married to Lilian de Vasconcelos Souza from 1981 until 1982. Vasconcelos, whom he had known since childhood, was used to an easy life with servants in Brazil and could not handle the freezing cold of England and comparatively spartan and isolated lifestyle her husband's racing demanded. Though he did not have much of an income early in his racing career, Senna insisted on supporting his wife with no help from his father out of a sense of pride. The marriage ended in divorce. Afterwards Senna dated several women including model Marjorie Andrade. He subsequently courted Adriane Yamin, daughter of an entrepreneur from São Paulo, who was 15 years old when they began the relationship in 1985 and often chaperoned by her mother during meetings with Senna. They were briefly engaged, but the relationship was broken off by Senna in late 1988. Senna dated Brazilian TV star Xuxa from late 1988 until 1990. He then dated Christine Ferracciu, who lived with him at his homes in Monaco and Portugal, on and off between 1990 and 1991. By the time of his death, Senna had dated Brazilian model Adriane Galisteu who was his girlfriend at the time of accident. Ayrton was the uncle of Formula One driver Bruno Senna (Viviane's son), of whom he said in 1993: "If you think I'm fast, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno."