It was a marvellous day

Yesterday would have been Ayrton Senna‘s 50th birthday. A fact that came to my attention via autosport.com who honoured the day with an image gallery of Senna’s career. To complement those images there is a YouTube clip after the break featuring Senna talking about his maiden F1 victory, the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix. Senna marked his arrival as a Grand Prix winner in true domineering style, by also claiming pole position and the fastest lap of the race.

Life in F1 was so much simpler then, as the footage shows. And a few years later you were either in the Alain Prost corner, or the Ayrton Senna corner. I was, and am, still very much in the Prost corner, ‘The Professor’ remains my favourite driver of all time. That said, I still recall the sadness I felt as I watched Senna’s accident on 1 May 1994—a date forever etched in my mind—and later learned of his untimely death.

Approaching sixteen years since his passing it is clear Senna still holds the respect of his peers, a fact highlighted by being voted the best driver of all time in a poll of over 200 former and current F1 drivers. May he rest in peace.