The lovable, real Senna
Shigenori Ogura / Motorsports journalist
A down to earth, ordinary person
The first time I met Ayrton Senna was in the paddock of the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix, the season’s opening race. At the time, I was in my third month at a company that did PR work for the Honda F1 team. It was my first F1 on-site job. I was also in charge of handling local F1 public relations and managing the operation of the Honda Motor Home, a local hospitality facility.
1987 was also the year that Honda began supplying engines to Lotus, in addition to Williams. Honda aimed to win the Drivers’ Championship with these four drivers, as it failed to do so the previous year.
In particular, Ayrton’s popularity in Brazil was huge, and he was undoubtedly a star driver. However, when I met him in person, he did not have the typical arrogance of a star.
When we took portrait shots for Honda’s 1987 campaign, we had all the drivers wear Honda caps, but Ayrton was the only one who tucked the cap under his arm after the photo shoot. He made a cute gesture and expression like a small child holding something he wants to keep that said, “This is mine, I won’t give it to you.”
Of course I gave him the cap.
In the U.S., I was in a hotel lobby when Ayrton got out of a cab from the airport. It was full of luggage. I offered to help, but he replied, “Thank you, but it’s too much trouble for you.” He seemed like a very ordinary, genuine person.
On Day 1 at the British Grand Prix, Ayrton arrived at the Honda Motor Home.
“I saw the light, so I thought you might be open,” he said. There was a woman with him.
“This is my [new] girlfriend,” he explained. “I just introduced her to the team,” a very happy Ayrton continued, and arm around her shoulder, they walked out of the paddock to the parking lot in the fading dusk light. Neither Ayrton nor his girlfriend were flashy. They were a very ordinary couple. It was like a scene from a teenager movie.
The awkwardness of a true champion
In contrast, Ayrton had an insatiable appetite for driving and winning, as if he were a completely different person. As soon as he had a Honda engine, he would listen to the engineers’ discussions, and learned terms such as “boost pressure” in Japanese. Even if he attended sponsors’ events outside the circuit after Saturday qualifying, he would often come back to the track afterwards. At that time, the Honda team would switch engines for the race, and the race teams would test start the mounted engines before returning to the hotel. But when Ayrton came, he would ask questions and discuss with the Honda engineers about issues toward the race. Honda staff would have to stay late, but they welcomed Ayrton’s visit with the common desire to win.
There were times when Ayrton’s expression changed dramatically. On the Thursday of the 1987 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, it was announced that Piquet would be joining Lotus the following year. This was a huge blow to Ayrton, who had been planning a move to McLaren. Ayrton had been negotiating with McLaren to get a better deal, with a view to staying with Lotus.
“Is Sakurai around?” Ayrton came to the Honda Motor Home that evening. He had the most anxious and frightened look on his face that I had ever seen.
Yoshitoshi Sakurai was the general manager of the Honda F1 team at the time. When Ayrton arrived, Sakurai had already returned to his hotel. Upon learning this, Ayrton was extremely disappointed. I knew where the team was staying, so I made a note and handed it to Ayrton, who smiled, thanked me, and hurriedly left the paddock. This was in the days when there were no cell phones.
In 1988, Ayrton joined McLaren Honda, teaming up with world champion Alain Prost. The joint number one team order between Ayrton and Alain resulted in a brilliant record of 15 wins in 16 races that year, but the tension in the team garage was always high.
In the Mexican GP, Alain came to the Honda team office the night after the race to thank them for his victory. Everyone congratulated him. I also congratulated Alain in French after the race. But the next moment, I saw Ayrton outside the office, who was listening to our conversation. He turned around, disgruntled, and left. Then he stopped talking to us for a while. This had happened the year before. Ayrton was a jealous person, and always wanted people to be on his side. As a public relations person, I had to treat all Honda drivers equally. Our ages were close, so we were relatively friendly. Perhaps that is why he could not tolerate me talking to his rival in a friendly manner. We continued to have a somewhat distant relationship, but signs of resolution came at the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix and the Pacific GP the following year. At the Japanese GP in the fall, I thought the two of us would be able to talk again, as we had done before. However, Ayrton passed away at the San Marino GP shortly after.
Ayrton had won three world championships with Honda and had become a star in the history of F1. He was so busy with the media that he became a bit blunt, but the real Ayrton was an innocent young man with a simple personality, who put all of his energy into driving fast and winning races.
Shigenori Ogura
Motorsports journalist
Born in Tokyo in 1962. After graduating university, Ogura began working at a company for one year in 1986, before moving to a motorsports company the following year. As a part of his job, he worked in local public relations and managed the local hospitality unit for the Honda F1 team. He was involved in Honda F1 public relations until 1992. In 1996 Ogura became a freelance journalist and TV commentator. He has also organized STEM educational events based on racing cars for children.