Ayrton Senna, The Man Who Believed He Had Seen God While Driving - He Had Donated 400 Million Dollars And Had 3 Million Fans In His Funeral

In May 1988 Ayrton Senna was driving a McClaren car as fast as he could. His opponent was Alain Prost. Senna managed to finalize faster than Prost with a difference of 1,4 seconds. He was in the first position during the entire race. At some point, he was informed that he could lower speed for his own safety. A little later, he crashed and had to leave the race.

Trying to boost his lost confidence, the young driver turned to his faith. Having grown up in a Catholic family, he was religious from the beginning of his career. Before he finalized first in the race that would make him a world champion, Senna had claimed to have seen God's figure appearing through the rain.

In 1991, Senna was racing in his country Brazil and felt it was his duty to win. He started the race with a consistent lead, but he later faced issues with the gearbox. Though he was not the only driver to face such problems, he was the only one who did not leave the race. He managed to last until the end, but the screams that were heard when he finalized were not out of triumph. He was trembling because of exhaustion, his hands had almost bled and his pain was horrendous. He instantaneously lost his senses. He struggled to hold the cup. In 1991, Senna was crowned world champion for the third and last time.

In 1990, driver Martin Donnelly almost died when he crashed with his car. It was the first time that fearless Senna felt the danger of death. Races were his life, and he did not want to abandon them, but he realized the importance of safety when driving. On April 30, 1994, 24-year-old Roland Ratzenberger from Austria was killed on a race.

On May 1 of the same year, Senna spent his final morning talking to former teammate and rival Alain Prost about the re-establishment of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, aiming to improve safety in Formula One. During the drivers' briefing, concerns had been raised about the primarily promotional use of a Porsche 911 lead car for the warm-up lap, with organizers agreeing to abandon the practice.

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At the beginning of the Grand Prix, Senna retained the lead from Schumacher, but proceedings were soon interrupted by an accident. JJ Lehto's Benetton-Ford had stalled and was hit by the Lotus-Mugen Honda of Pedro Lamy. A wheel and debris landed in the main grandstand and injured eight fans and a police officer. The safety car was deployed for some laps. The Vectra's slow pace was later questioned due to the consequential drop in tire pressures on the Formula One cars. Senna had pulled alongside the Vectra and gestured to the driver, Max Angelelli, to increase his speed. On lap 6, the race continued, and Senna immediately set a quick pace with the third-quickest lap of the race, followed by Schumacher.

As Senna rounded the high-speed Tamburello corner on lap 7, his car left the racing line at around 307 km/h, ran in a straight line off the track, and hit the concrete retaining wall at around 233 km/h, after what telemetry showed to be an application of the brakes for about two seconds.

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Senna was extracted from his race car. He had a weak heartbeat and severe blood loss (around 4.5 liters). Due to Senna's poor neurological condition, Watkins performed an on-site tracheotomy and requested the immediate airlifting of the champion to Bologna's Maggiore Hospital under the supervision of Gordini.

Maria Teresa Fiandri, the head of the hospital's emergency department, announced that Senna had died. Watkins later stated that as soon as he saw Senna's fully dilated pupils, he kne his brainstem was inactive and that he wouldn't survive.

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Senna had donated more than 400 million dollars to charity. He was a national hero for Brazil. After his death, the government declared a three-day mourning, while approximately 3 million people were present in his funeral.

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Reference: Mixanitouxronou.gr