Why Silverstone Festival is perfect setting to celebrate Senna
Senna's home from home commemorates the life and career of the remarkable driver, 30 years since his death
Ayrton Senna always had a strong affinity with the UK. Like so many before and since, it was on Britain’s race tracks where Ayrton Senna da Silva (as he was then) cut his racing teeth when he came here as an already precocious 21-year-old in 1981 to dive into the maelstrom that was good old Formula Ford.
He didn’t take long to make the climb to Formula 1, where he spent 10 years driving solely for British teams: Toleman, Lotus, McLaren, and Williams.
I must admit it hadn’t occurred to me until it was pointed out, but such was the incessant nature of national single-seater racing in the 1980s that Senna won more races at Silverstone than at any other circuit (at least in cars, discounting his early karting career back home in Brazil).
Somehow, he won the British Grand Prix on only one occasion: a wet Silverstone in 1988, when he simply drove away from everyone. I was there that day, aged 13, drenched to the bone at Stowe corner. Even in my bedraggled state, I knew I was witnessing something special.
But combined with his record in Formula Ford 2000 and Formula 3, Senna’s overall strike rate at Silverstone was precisely 50%: 20 races, 10 wins.
That’s why in this special Senna anniversary year, Silverstone Festival is the perfect occasion and venue to celebrate the great man. Forty years after his first F1 season, and 30 since his tragic death at Imola, the circuit is promising what might well be the biggest collection of Senna-related cars ever gathered.
“Ayrton always had a very strong connection with Silverstone,” says Bianca Senna, the three-time world champion’s niece and CEO of legacy company Senna Brands. “We are excited to participate in the Festival this year, which is so special as we celebrate 30 years of Senna’s legacy. It is a tribute that will move fans worldwide.”
For the hardcore enthusiasts, Silverstone Festival is primarily one of the ‘majors’ when it comes to historic motorsport: packed grids of single-seaters, sports cars, and saloons from just about every era (including pre-WW2), competing in more than 20 races across three days on the full 3.66-mile Grand Prix circuit.
It’s a fabulous race meeting. But as is the trend these days, such an event is also so much more: a classic car gathering, a food festival, and a pop concert featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Busted, and Olly Murs.
Perhaps not aimed solely at those who know their Ralts from their Reynards, then.
Even so, just as he did in life, Senna will steal the limelight. Following a cool on-track demo at the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique in May and inevitably emotional tributes at Imola during the Emilia-Romagna GP, the Silverstone gathering will cap a summer of remembrance, focusing not on the tragedy but on what Senna brought to the world.
It was in June 1981 that he made his Silverstone debut. His reputation from karting – a period of his life that will also be represented in the Silverstone Festival collection – was already formidable. But hardened FF1600 racer Rick Morris was never going to be intimidated.
He jumped the old Woodcote chicane on the last lap after a classic Silverstone slipstreamer to defeat the upstart.
The next year, Senna raced at Silverstone three times in his bewinged Dennis Rushen-run Van Diemen FF2000 – and won each time. Then in 1983, in a Dick Bennetts-run Ralt, he tore through British Formula 3 (although plucky Martin Brundle gave him a run for his money in the second half of the year).
Back then, the F3 schedule was incessant. Senna racked up six victories at Silverstone alone.
The Van Diemens and his F3 Ralt are all promised for the Festival. Then we get to the F1 cars. In 1983, Senna was hot stuff for F1 teams. He tested for McLaren, Brabham and most famously Williams, driving an FW08C at Donington Park.
That very car will be in the Silverstone lineup. But like the other big teams, Williams passed on signing Senna for 1984 – d’oh! – which is why he ended up in a Toleman.
It was at Silverstone in the autumn of 1983 that Senna sampled the British minnow’s TG183B, immediately gelling with mercurial designer Rory Byrne, who urged his team chief, Alex Hawkridge, to snap up the young man.
After a tortuous contract negotiation – even then Senna knew his own worth – Senna made his F1 debut for Toleman in 1984. At his second race, in South Africa, he scored his first world championship point, finishing sixth despite losing his car’s nose and having to be lifted from the cockpit, such was his dehydrated state of exhaustion. Both the Silverstone test chassis and his first F1 race car are on the Silverstone Festival list.
As you would expect, a grand lineup of Dayglo and white McLarens and mid-1980s Lotus turbos will cap the display and some of them are expected to take part in on-track parades on the Saturday and Sunday.
Then there are the less obvious cars: the Metro 6R4 and Sierra RS500 that Senna sampled as part of a rally test organised by the late Russell Bulgin for a magazine feature – and one of the Honda NSXs Senna helped develop.
Significant added extras will be on display at the Silverstone Museum, situated at the circuit’s front gate, entry to which is free if you buy a Festival ticket.
The museum is a treasure trove at any time but will be a must-visit during the Festival weekend. Among assorted Senna memorabilia, Classic Team Lotus has promised the trophies, gloves, and steering wheel from Senna’s fabled first win, his wet-weather masterclass at Estoril, Portugal, in 1985.
The very car from that remarkable day, 97T chassis #2, will be among the Senna fleet at the Festival too.
As is typical with Senna, his association with Silverstone was admittedly chequered. He was far from universally popular in Britain and the crowd jeered and booed him when he retired from the 1989 British Grand Prix – and Nigel Mansell must surely have been tempted to put his foot down when Senna hitched a lift on the sidepod of his Williams at the end of the 1991 race! But the light side and dark are all part of the Senna mystique. It’s the perfect time and place to smile and remember it all.