Ayrton Senna Still Inspires Today's F1 Drivers 20 Years After His Death

05/01/2014 - 10h52

Even though no drivers in today's F1 grid raced in Ayrton Senna's time, killed 20 years ago, at least five of them have somehow matched the Brazilian and have been crowned champions at least once.

For all of them Senna played an important role in their personal journeys, be it at the beginning of their careers or with the legacy he left behind.

To Sebastian Vettel, who has earned more titles than Senna - four against the Brazilian's three - the late driver caused an impact long before Vettel dreamed of becoming a driver.

"Senna has always been a great inspiration and was the reason that my father started watching F1. I was very young when he died and, only later, maybe in the last two years have I understood what losing him meant to the sport because today I work with people who knew him and worked with him", the Red Bull driver said who works with the chief technical officer Adrian Newey, the same engineer who designed Senna's cars at Williams.

According to Jenson Button, who was 14 when the Brazilian driver suffered his fatal accident at Imola, said that the most important legacy was the changes to F1 security protocol in the years that followed Senna's death.

"It was a dreadful day for everyone, but as they say sometimes a great tragedy like that is necessary to happen in order for the sport to change for the better. In terms of security for us drivers what happened had a huge impact", the McLaren driver said.

Among the five F1 world champions still in action, Senna's biggest fan is Lewis Hamilton, who from a young age collected films, books and any objects that referenced the former McLaren driver.

"Senna was a sporting legend and even today I think we can learn by observing the way he approached races and how he raced", the 2008 world champion said.

"My dream is to think that one day people may look at me and see me as someone who was able to drive in a similar way to the way he did."

Fernando Alonso, Hamilton's McLaren partner in the 2007 season also shares the dream of being compared to Senna.

"He has always been an inspiration to me and to win three championships would be a dream come true. It would be important for me to have the same number of titles as Senna, who has always been my idol and my role model back when I was a kart driver", the Spanish driver said, who has two F1 titles to his name.

Even to Kimi Raikkonen, known for not showing his feelings, the Brazilian's death came as a shock.

"That was a very sad moment for the F1 world. I was still at school at that time and even if I don't remember much about him, that day left a mark in my memory. Senna was a great driver and a role model for many that came after him", the Ferrari driver said.

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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