Music: {allcanada} Senna left his mark on Montreal

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Ayrton Senna shouldn’t have been driving on May 1, 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.

The event was a disaster before the race even started. During the Friday qualifying session, friend and fellow Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello clipped a curb and went airborne, crashing into a barrier and landing upside-down. Barrichello was hospitalized with a concussion but rookie Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger wasn’t as lucky. Ratzenberger was killed when his car smashed into a wall during the following day’s qualifying.

Despite both incidents, the Formula One race went ahead as scheduled. The late Sid Watkins, then head of F1’s medical team, spoke with Senna prior to the race and recalled in the 2010 documentary Senna that he begged his close friend to call it a career. Senna replied, “Sid, I can’t quit.”

Senna died at age 34 following a crash at the San Marino GP and left a lasting legacy on the sport. He earned pole position 65 times, a record at the time, and proved he was the fastest in a one-lap sprint around any track. He won 41 races, ranked third all-time, and captured three world championships, in 1988, 1990 and ’91.

He left his mark in Montreal too, winning twice from pole position — in 1988 and 1990 — and grabbing pole a third time in 1992.

The 1988 season was Senna’s banner year in F1. After four years languishing with underperforming teams and falling short of capturing the title, Senna finally had the dream machine — the McLaren-Honda MP4/4, one of the greatest F1 cars ever assembled — and that meant one thing: no more excuses. Anything less than a championship was now on him, not the team. Like Michael Schumacher and Ferrari or Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull-Renault, it was the perfect combination of the best driver with the best car at the best possible time.

F1 returned to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal that season after a one-year hiatus and during the layoff, the track underwent renovations and the upgrades that proved to make the course a feeding ground for the hungry Senna.

He crushed the track-record pole time by 2.4 seconds, breezing around Il Notre-Dame in one minute, 21.681 seconds. McLaren teammate Alain Prost was just 0.182 seconds behind but from there, the gap widened as it was clear which team was in charge. The two Ferraris filled the second row but both were more than a second slower than Senna while the cars in row three were well over two seconds off his pace.

Montreal was also the scene where the Senna-Prost rivalry bubbled. Prost, already a two-time world champion himself, grabbed the lead early in the race and held off his teammate but it was clear he couldn’t stay in front forever. Senna punched into the lead on lap 19 and cruised to the checkered flag of the 69-lap race. Just looking at the box score shows Senna deserved the victory. Prost trailed in second by nearly six seconds while third-place Thierry Boutsen was more than 50 seconds behind Senna and was the only other driver to finish the race on the lead lap. Everyone else had either dropped out or had been lapped. The track changes also allowed Senna to set a new single-lap course record of 1:24.973, half a second quicker than the previous record.

Senna summed it up best when he said after the race, “I did it all.”

That season saw Senna grab pole position an incredible 13 times (out of 16 races) and win eight races, none more impressive than the rainy Japanese Grand Prix where he slipped down to 16th place after stalling on the grid but clawed his way back into the lead to win the race and clinch his first career world championship.

Senna came close to repeating at Montreal the following year but with three laps to go his engine blew out and handed the victory to Boutsen. The championship came down to the penultimate race in Japan again but a collision between Senna and Prost disqualified Senna and gave Prost his third title.

Rain plagued the 1990 Canadian Grand Prix but it was under those grey, cloudy skies Senna thrived again like no other. Senna was awarded the victory with an almost 10 1/2-second lead over Nelson Piquet. It was still a challenge with not only an incredibly tricky track, but the wet conditions saw several cars spin out and crash forcing Senna to maneuver around and avoid getting caught up in a collision.

Senna won a second world championship in 1990 (again colliding with Prost in the deciding race) and defended the title in 1991 but the competition finally caught up and he struggled to stay ahead of the faster Williams and Benetton teams.

Senna never gave up in his McLaren though. Despite qualifying eighth at the 1993 Canadian GP, Senna surged into third on the second lap thanks to a remarkable performance. He wasn’t able to capitalize in the points, however, as electrical problems later forced him out of the race for the second year in a row. Senna won the season finale from pole in Australia and finished second overall but the frustrated driver departed for the Williams team the following year. He wouldn’t get the chance to race in Canada ever again though.

Senna held pole position for the tragic San Marino GP but quickly had the next young racing phenom in his rearview mirror: Benetton driver Michael Schumacher, then 25 years old and in the midst of capturing his first of a record seven world championships.

Early in the race, Senna was pushing over 300 km/h when he entered the Tamburello corner and lost control. He crashed hard into the concrete barrier and was rushed to hospital where he died. It was later revealed Senna had an Austrian flag in his car in honour of Ratzenberger and planned to wave it after winning the race in tribute to his fallen friend.

If there’s a silver lining, the sport underwent an extensive regulation overhaul following Ratzenberger and Senna’s deaths improving both car and track safety. It’s a testament to the work of Watkins and others that there hasn’t been a single fatality at a Formula One race since that unfortunate weekend.

Canadian fans never forgot Senna’s legacy either. In 2004, to honour the 10th anniversary of his passing, a group of Canadian and Italian fans helped organize a charity soccer game between members of the 1994 Brazilian team (who dedicated their World Cup win that year to Senna) and an all-star squad of Formula drivers including Schumacher, Barrichello, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa with proceeds donated to Senna’s charity.

The aforementioned documentary about Senna was met with critical acclaim and introduced a new generation of fans to the man who was humble, soft-spoken and charming off the track but fast and fierce once he was behind the wheel.

Now on the 20th anniversary of Senna’s death, fans continue to flock to the Imola track (F1 stopped racing there after 2006) to pay their respects. Schumacher may hold the all-time records for pole positions, race wins and world championships but for many fans Senna represents the most pure driver to ever compete in Formula One.

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