Ayrton Senna sits calmly at the centre of the
studio as a male interviewer fires questions at him. A second man
silently draws a caricature of the sitting subject. Dozens of
elevated spectators gaze intently down on the gabbling racing
driver. Senna himself is perched confidently upon his chair, legs
crossed and hands constantly gesticulating as he gives considered
answers to his challenger. With tears welling in his eyes, he tries
to explain the intense relationship he shares with the fans. He
recounts his very first win, eighteen months previously, and then
he offers a crowd pleasing critique of the attitude of Nigel
Mansell. It is 1986, and the the twenty six year old is a veteran
of just three seasons in Formula One. A superstar in the making, Ayrton is delivering a hit performance on long
running talk show Roda Viva.
Although Senna is the primary draw for viewers
this evening, he is not the only guest. On the banks of television
monitors interspersing the crowd, the nervous face of Rubens
Barrichello appears. The fourteen year old Brazilian sits alone
amidst dozens of trophies, tributes to his own glittering career to
date. But this is not the first time Rubinho (meaning "little
Rubens", the affectionate term by which he would come to be known)
has been in contact with Senna. The older driver is a keen
benefactor of his country's struggling youth, and despite being in
the infancy of his own career, Ayrton considers Rubens his protégé.
The teenager meekly thanks Ayrton "for all the support you are
giving me". He congratulates Senna on his maiden success in the top
flight, and closes with his dearest wish: "I wish you all the good
luck, and that one day we can be in F1 colleagues, in pole
position." Senna laughs.
A little over six years later, they were just
that. As unlikely as it seems, the pudgy faced youngster shown
shyly addressing his hero on television is the Jordan team's star
signing for 1993, in no small part thanks to the quiet generosity
and sage advice of the triple world champion. At twenty years old,
it falls to Rubens to lead the Irish team, and he sees five
different team-mates come and go over the course of the season. For
Senna's part, he has completed the transformation from the next big
thing to controversial triple world champion, a talent of near
mythic proportions and a hero to tens of millions worldwide.
Barrichello ends a difficult debut year with two points, whilst
Senna wins on five occasions and proves the nearest challenger to
old foe Alain Prost, now at the dominant Williams team. Despite
their differing fortunes on track, the two Brazilians become closer
than ever. They are often spotted in deep conversation. Quietly,
Rubens is being groomed to take the throne.
The succession would happen sooner than any of us
could have imagined. For 1994, with his ambitions of a fourth title
frustrated by the decline of McLaren, Senna completes a long
awaited move to Williams. It should be a dream combination, but
from the off it is clear that all is not well. Ayrton complains of
the odd configuration of the cockpit, and the car's unstable
nature, problems which remain despite extensive alterations.
Although the machines at their disposal are worlds apart, the
status quo is turned on its head in the opening two races of the
new season. Senna takes pole for the first race of the year, in
front of his adoring home fans. Barrichello qualifies an
anonymous fourteenth. Come race day, Senna initially falls behind
and is later unable to recover the lead from Michael Schumacher's
Benetton. Pushing hard, he loses the car and spins to a halt. Out.
Barrichello, in a mightily impressive performance, comes home in a
highly credible fourth place. A similar story transpires at the
second event in Japan, where the older Brazilian enjoys fanatical
support. Senna sweeps to a sixty-fourth career pole, whilst
Barrichello emerges a notable eighth. At the first corner,
Schumacher holds the advantage once more, whilst his rival's
Williams becomes embroiled in a race ending collision with
Ferrari's Nicola Larni. Two retirements from two attempts
shifts the balance of power towards Benetton. Whilst a
disillusioned Senna founders, Barrichello stands on the podium for
the first time, and assumes an unlikely second in the title
standings. It's already happening.
Imola. Even the informal moniker of the Autodromo
Enzo e Dino Ferrari carries the weight of what commentator Murray
Walker referred to as "the blackest day for Grand Prix racing that
I can remember". What tends to be overlooked in hindsight is the
very real possibility of a third driver losing their life at the
wheel over the course of that fateful weekend. During Friday
practice, Barrichello is lapping hard and fast as he attempts to
maintain the momentum of his surprise podium in the previous race.
Inevitably, disaster strikes. The Brazilian loses control on the
kerbs of Variante Bassa, and is launched into the air and then
violently into the wall at 140mph. Subsequent quick thinking by
Formula One's resident doctor Sid Watkins prevents the unconscious
Barrichello from suffocating on his own tongue. He is taken to a
nearby medical facility, where a concerned and distressed Senna
visits him as it is announced that he will play no further part in
the weekend. From here on in, things only get worse. The violent
death of Simtek's Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying shakes the
paddock, and even provokes Senna to momentarily reconsider his
participation in the event. He shakes such doubts off, declaring it
his "destiny". For the race, he starts on pole once more for
the sixty fifth and final time. He still leads the field when an
early safety car pulls aside to let the racing commence. As Senna
streams past the pits with Schumacher in hot pursuit, Watkins turns
to his co-driver and tells him "I've got a feeling there's going to
be a f***ing awful accident..."
Minutes later the legend was gone.
Fourteen years and six months later, Rubens faces
stiff competition for his Honda seat. Now the most experienced man
in then sport's history, he has earned many accolades along the
way, including nine victories and five constructors titles with
Ferrari - but the biggest prize still eludes him. He's still
hungry. Who is this challenger to Rubens' well established place on
the grid? The answer is standard, but at the same time remarkable:
a much younger man, an up and coming driver with a well stocked
trophy cabinet and runner-up status in the GP2 feeder series. Like
Barrichello, he's Brazilian. But the new threat to Rubens' position
carries an even more legendary name. Senna.
Bruno Senna has been on the F1 radar for sometime.
Admittedly, the surname helps rather than hinders - but he has
shown considerable ability to stand on his own two feet. Prior to
his uncle's death, Bruno was carving his own fledgling career
in motorsport. His apparently natural speed prompted Ayrton to make
the quote that has become the stuff of contemporary legend: "If you
think I'm fast, you should see my nephew Bruno." He was traveling
that familiar path when Senna's death rocked the family to its
core. His fearful mother, Viviane (Ayrton's older sister), forbade
her young son to race on. It would be a decade before he sat in a
single seater once more.
Now though, Bruno has proven himself sporadically
at lower levels. In just four seasons of professional racing, he is
a GP2 winner and runner-up in the 2008 championship. As a result,
he would be a natural candidate for promotion to the top flight
regardless of his evocative name. Meanwhile in Formula One, Honda
are struggling. Their machinery has failed to achieve anything
remotely impressive over the past two seasons. They are desperate
to shake things up, and the nostalgia surrounding their
relationship with Ayrton (of whom the Japanese engine manufacturer
was legendarily fond, having powered him to three world titles)
sees Bruno granted the opportunity to test a Formula One car for
the first time. The twenty four year old seizes his chance, and
ends his stint just 0.3 seconds slower than the well regarded team
leader Jenson Button. Suddenly, Barrichello looks vulnerable.
Negotiations go on for weeks, but they are halted
by an extraordinary occurrence: in a shock move, Honda's frustrated
management finally tires of the lack of results. One day, in
mid-December, they announce that they're done. A brief statement
blaming economic conditions later and the team ceases to officially
function. At the squad's base in Brackley, hundreds of former team
members head into Christmas working on a Formula One car which has
no team to run it and no engine to power it. But they keep working.
The prospect of a buyer for the operation sustains them throughout
the winter months, and spurred on by Button (who makes a point of
upping his training regime), they produce a car which technical
director Ross Brawn believes is capable of incredible feats. So
sure is he, that the man who has spent just twelve months at the
helm of the struggling squad decides to buy the outfit for a
nominal fee. Quickly rebadged Brawn GP and supplied with
powerplants at a cut price rate by Mercedes, the abandoned team is
back in action. The squad's return from the dead is good news for
everyone - except Bruno Senna. Daunted by the prospect of a
fundamental change in regulations and handing his own car over to a
rookie, Brawn grants former Ferrari colleague Barrichello a
reprieve.
As we now know, Brawn's faith paid off in the
biggest possible way. His team contested just one season, and won
both titles at a relative canter, having stunned their rivals into
submission in the first half of the season. It is Button who takes
the vast share of the spoils, but Barrichello mounts a late charge
- wins in Europe and Italy, and an emotional return to pole
position in Brazil, mark the most remarkable transformation in
fortunes. Ultimately, he misses out on the title once more. But his
perseverance pays off, and as Mercedes and old enemy Schumacher set
up camp in Northampton, Barrichello is awarded a Williams
contract.
Strange how these things happen. Fifteen years
after his mentor joined the famous team, Barrichello takes up the
reigns. The circumstances are different this time around. Williams
have fallen from grace, and are on the fringes of the top ten.
Nevertheless, Barrichello is in the form of his life: he drags the
car higher up the order than it has any right to be, taking a
stunning fourth place in Valencia. At the end of the year,
Williams, in desperate need of money, employ state sponsored
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado to drive one of their cars in return
for a considerable contribution to the team's bank balance.
Barrichello has done more than enough: highly rated rookie Nico
Hulkenberg, responsible for Williams' first pole in five years, is
given the boot. But Rubens' second year is to be an unhappy one: a
daring design proves to be disastrous, and the team rarely troubles
the points. Two ninth places are the highlights of the Brazilian's
season. Prize money drops like a stone and sponsors desert the
stumbling former world champions. The need for money becomes more
urgent.
In to the picture steps Bruno Senna. In the three
years since their last tussle, Ayrton's nephew has found his way
into Formula One. In 2010, he makes his debut with the newly
founded Hispania team. They are utterly shambolic, and make Sir
Frank's finances look more than adequate. At the end of the year
Senna is ushered from the team, instead taking up a position as one
of Renault's many test drivers. He expects to spend the year on the
sidelines, but Robert Kubica's injury in a rally prior to the
season leaves the team a driver short. Incredibly, they ignore
their selection of eager substitutes and employ journeyman Nick
Heidfeld. The German does a solid job, but as the season goes on he
is increasingly anonymous - relations become strained, the car
becomes worse. Quickly the partnership ends. Senna is drafted in
for the final eight races, qualifying a staggering seventh upon his
return in Spa-Francorchamps and later returning the Senna name to
the points table for the first time since 1993.
As Williams' situation becomes increasingly clear,
whispers about Barrichello's position become louder - particularly
as former world champion Kimi Raikkonen tours the factory. What at
first seem to be unfounded rumours quickly become fact, and by the
season finale in Brazil it seems that Rubens' time is up. He
proclaims his strong desire to be return for a record breaking
twentieth season.
The wheeling and dealing drag on well into January
of the new year. Williams first fail to sign Raikkonen. Then their
preferred candidate, Adrian Sutil, drops out of the race, plagued
by an imminent criminal investigation. The money problem isn't
going away, and the team is faced with a straight choice between
Barrichello and Senna. Experience and money. Their hand is forced:
they go for the money.
Upon the official announcement that Senna is to
race for Williams, the team insists that they have carried out
significant evaluation of their new drivers and that money plays
little part. Their protests are largely overlooked by the headline:
following the death of Ayrton Senna in a Williams-Renault FW16 in
1994, Bruno Senna will race a Williams-Renault FW34 in 2012. In a
bizarre twist of events, three legendary names will come together
to write a sequel to the tragic events of eighteen years ago. The
storyline is different this time: Williams have gone from the very
top to the brink of extinction, Renault supply many others and
Bruno Senna is not a triple world champion, nor even a race winner.
But for better or for worse, these three parties cling to each
other in the hope that, by eerily recreating the past, they can
mould a successful future. The man who must suffer for the cause is
Barrichello. Some nineteen years after his debut at the
recommendation of Ayrton, he is finally toppled (at the second
attempt) by Bruno. His career has been nothing short of remarkable,
and after 325 races, 140 points finishes, 68 podiums and 6
constructor's titles, he can leave the sport with his head held
high.
Rubens never proved quite the replacement for
Senna that Brazil longed for, but they loved him nonetheless. How
apt that his own career should come to a close in Sao Paulo, just a
few miles from his family home, on the very circuit where he first
drove karts competitively - and within walking distance of the
grave of his fallen mentor, Ayrton Senna. And then, how appropriate
it seems that in calling time on his own proud career, he makes way
for Ayrton's nephew to seize his own chance at the wheel of a
Williams. Twenty six years after that interview, this extraordinary
story has finally come full circle.