RACING LINES
Damien Smith
Senna first showed the world how magical he could be in April 1985
Ayrton Senna could be hard to like when I was growing up as a motor racing fan in the 1980s. He was clearly special. That much was obvious from the moment British fans had their first glimpse of the Brazilian, when he conquered Formula Ford 1600 in 1981. We admired him, of course, but the intensity so easily translated as sullenness and that air of self-entitlement didn’t sit well. There was something uncomfortable about him, especially his win-at-all-costs mentality, which wasn’t common in sport back then as it is today. We had never seen anyone like him.
Then Senna would pull off something magical, a performance that marked him out as different – in the best way. On such days, it was as if he existed in another realm. One such occurred 40 years ago this week, on 21 April 1985, when he became a grand prix winner for the first time. He would go on to win 40 more and three world championships before he was ripped away so horribly at Imola in 1994. The landmark wins and almost supernatural moments racked up. But for many, and perhaps for the man himself, that first one at a sopping Estoril for the Portuguese Grand Prix was the greatest of them all.