Ayrton Senna: letter that caused tears, bet with team leader and more; see curiosities revealed in documentary | Pop

Galvão Bueno tells of Senna’s emotion when reading a letter from an automobile engineer

“They were two people in one body, one mind. There was our hero, the greatest driver I’ve ever seen and there was Becão, who was the man. He was a champion on the track and a champion as a citizen.” That’s how Galvão Bueno began to tell a little about who he was Ayrton Sennawho passed away exactly 30 years ago.

This Wednesday (1), GNT released a documentary that features interviews and interesting facts about the career of “our Sunday morning hero”as the sports narrator well described: “You might not even understand Formula 1, but you watched it just because of it.”

In the interview, Galvão told a story that impressed him and which happened in 1987shortly after Senna left Lotus:

“We were on the plane, he picked up a letter, started reading it and got emotional. It was an apology from Gérard Ducarouge (automotive engineer at Lotus) who said ‘forgive me, I couldn’t give you a car to your height so you could be champion'”.

The competitiveness with Alain Prost It is also extensively commented on by Galvão in the documentary. The narrator talks about the rivalry between the pilots and highlights two curious moments. The first was in 1989, at the Suzuka GP, in which Senna had to win anyway and Prost ended up crashing into the Brazilian’s car:

“If he hadn’t had Senna’s car, he would have hit the wall. So he hit it on purpose, he knows he hit it on purpose. The car was pushed, he lost the nose, but he won the race. However, the title went to hand from French, by a disqualification”.

Galvão Bueno gives his opinion on Alain Prost’s crash on Senna

The second was in 1990, at the same GP. But this time it was Senna who hit Prost’s car: “He pushed hard and Ayrton hit him on purpose, right in the middle of it. I said he was crazy, more than 200km away. And he told me: ‘I made a mistake, I changed the pedals, I went to step on the brake and stepped on the accelerator again. . And he gave that little smile.”

Someone who also recalled remarkable stories in the documentary was Senna’s sister, Viviane. In the same year, the Monza GP took place and Ayrton led from one end to the other, pole position, ran a perfect race and even won a bet:

“Ron Dennis, who was the team manager, thought the team wasn’t going to win and Ayrton said he was going to win and told him: ‘ok, if I win the race, you’ll give me a car’. He bet, believing that that he wouldn’t make it. But he’s typically Brazilian, he doesn’t give up. He’s the typical expression of a hero.”

Ayrton Senna’s sister tells of the bet that the driver made with the team leader

Thrilled, Viviane recounted one of the last conversations she had with her brother before he passed away, talking about the creation of the Ayrton Senna Institute: “Shortly before the accident, 3 months before, he called me and said that he really wanted to think about what to do to help children in Brazil, but he didn’t even know where to start. He asked me to think and talk later. Unfortunately, the We didn’t have time to have this second conversation.”

“As a family, we decided to take this forward. We created some ways to do this, through education. We founded the institute in the same year. They are two celebrations, of Ayrton’s legacy and the birth of the institute.”

Much is said about the image of Ayrton Senna pensive, minutes before the start. Galvão Bueno made a point of explaining and answering this question: “Whoever said that Senna didn’t want to race doesn’t know what they’re talking about. These are theories that people come up with, I don’t know where. The moment was one of concentration. An hour before the race I had to go to my cabin, I I said goodbye to him.”

On 5/1/1994, Galvão remembered the details of when he discovered that Senna was dead: “The hope of survival existed. And I said: ‘go my friend, be strong. The whole world is rooting and praying for you. When we were taken to the hospital, the doctor said that unfortunately he died, that he was brain dead . He had given me the nickname Parrot, because I talk a lot. And at that moment, the parrot lost his voice.”