New Netflix drama Senna stars Gabriel Leone as Ayrton Senna, the iconic Brazilian racing driver who was previously the subject of an acclaimed documentary film in 2010.
His life’s story is told across six episodes, charting his journey through the Formula Ford and Formula 1 circuits, up until his death in 1994.
The series also stars the likes of Kaya Scodelario and Steven Mackintosh, but for those looking to learn more about Ayrton Senna’s life, just who was he and what happened to him?
Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Senna on Netflix.
Senna true story: Who was Ayrton Senna?
Ayrton Senna, originally da Silva, was a Brazilian racing driver, who was born in 1960 in São Paulo to wealthy parents Milton da Silva and Neide.
He was sporty and athletic from a young age, and is said to have grown an interest in cars at the age of four. He went on to compete in and win Go-Karting competitions, before moving to England in 1981 to start single-seater racing.
Senna won the Formula Ford championships that year, but subsequently announced his retirement and returned to Brazil with his wife. Soon after, however, he returned to England to take up another offer with a Formula Ford team, and started using his mother’s maiden name, Senna, as his name, da Silva, was the most common Brazilian surname.
He went on join the Toleman Formula One team, and later raced for Lotus, McLaren and Williams. He won three Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles across his career, and 41 Grands Prix across 11 seasons.
At the time of his death, he held the record for most pole positions, at 65.
What happened to Ayrton Senna?
While competing in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Italy, Senna rounded a high-speed corner, but ran in a straight line off the track and hit a concrete retaining wall.
He was extracted from his car within two minutes of the crash, and was treated at the scene, before being airlifted to hospital. Later that day, it was announced that he had died.
The government of Brazil declared three days of national mourning in response, as Senna’s death was considered a national tragedy. He was given a state funeral.
Members of the Williams team were investigated for their potential culpability in Senna’s death, and were initially charged with manslaughter. The trial concluded with all defendants acquitted – a decision which was upheld by an appeals court two years later.
However, in 2007, Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that Senna’s death was caused by a steering column failure for which Patrick Head, the former Engineering Director of the Williams team, was found responsible. He was never arrested as the statute of limitation had passed.
Speaking to BBC Radi 5 live in 2013, Williams’ Chief Designer Adrian Newey, who was one of the team members fully acquitted in the investigation, said: “What happened that day, what caused the accident, still haunts me… The steering column failure, was it the cause, or did it happen in the accident?”
“There is no doubt it was cracked. Equally, all the data, all the circuit cameras, the on-board camera from Michael Schumacher’s car that was following, none of that appears to be consistent with a steering column failure.”
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