Why
Brazil loved him
To many Brazilians, Senna communicated a vulnerability that they
appreciated all the more because they knew he had to set his fears aside
whenever he climbed into the cockpit. What sealed the love affair the country
had with Senna was his willingness, or perhaps his need, to share the glory:
after every win he would reach for a Brazilian flag and hoist it high above his
head for the victory lap. His popularity was magnified by the contrast with his
country’s sense of collective demise. As his career revvep up in the ‘80s,
Brazil was headed the other way, descending into economic and political
disarray, frustration and self-doubt. Senna, presidential adviser Augusto Marzagão
said last week, "was the luminous flip side of the negative state in which
lay the Brazilian soul." In short, his success was seen as proof that
despite a 45%-a-month inflation rate, growing poverty and never-ending
corruption scandals, Brazil could still come out a winner.
For seven frustrating years, though, Senna’s dream of a victory at home,
in the Brazilian Grand Prix, eluded him. He finally won the race in 1991, but
only after a cliff-hanger finish and typical heroics. He was leading
comfortably, with only a few kilometres to go, when the gearbox of his car
jammed. By the last lap only one gear was functioning, but Senna wrestled his
McLaren-Honda to the checkered flag. So exhausted he could barely lift his
arms, grimacing from the pain, he hoisted the trophy and the flag. Senna won in
Brazil again in 1993 in equally dramatic fashion – this time against his
archrival, the Frenchman Alain Prost. (Over the years, Senna’s flat-out duels
with Prost, including several dangerous collisions, had fostered an enmity that
Prost says did not ease until just before Senna’s death.) Prost and his
teammate Damon Hill had been much faster in practice, and the fans knew that
only a race-day downpour would give Senna, the acknowledged master of wet-track
driving, a chance. Brazil prayed for rain. The next day, with Prost in the
lead, the heavens opened. The Frenchman promptly crashed; Senna catapulted into
first place and stayed there. As the race ended, the sun came out.
[Time International, Nº 20 (May 16, 1994), p. 36.
