The Ayrton Senna Paradox: Was he just a ferocious winner?

In some ways, Senna was shaped by Alain Prost. Theirs was a bitter rivalry, which transcended the sport during their time as team-mates at McLaren in 1988. Both drivers were searingly fast but their speed came in different ways.

Senna drove the wheels off his car even when he didn't need to, which was not always to his benefit. The 1988 Monaco Grand Prix saw Senna make the biggest mistake of his career, as he traded fastest lap times with his great rival despite holding a 50-second lead. With just 11 laps to go, an inconceivable lapse in concentration saw Senna in the barriers at the entrance to the tunnel. It was a moment that would go on to define his career, and further fuel his desire to beat Prost.

Then, at San Marino in 1989, Senna made an alarmingly aggressive move on Prost to force his way into the lead. Prost was incredulous after the race. As far as he was concerned, Senna had broken a pre-race agreement that whoever led into the first corner would suffer no challenge from the car behind. Senna saw it differently; he'd agreed not to push from the start, but the restart? Well, that was fair game. Prost vowed he'd never leave the door open for his great rival again.

In 2014 Prost wrote: "I always said Ayrton didn't want to beat me; he wanted to destroy me. That was his motivation from the first day; on my last day in Adelaide, everything changed completely. On the podium in Japan two weeks earlier, he wouldn't even look at me, but now I was retiring, and he put his arm around me."

Prost reflected that it wasn’t so much that Senna didn't play by the rules, more that he just followed his own rules built on the strong foundations of his deep faith, family upbringing and excellent education.

In a time when drivers were supposed to 'shut up and drive', Senna bravely locked horns with officials using his status as one of the world's greatest to improve the safety standards that others were too scared to protest.

At the Driver's Briefing ahead of the 1991 German Grand Prix, Senna made an impassioned plea to inflexible race director Roland Bruynseraede and the ice-cold President of the FIA Jean-Marie Balestre, demanding that tyres that caused him to roll in Mexico be removed from the side of the track and replaced with cones that would allow the car to lose speed in the run-off. Balestre declared the rules made such a change impossible, but Senna, brandishing the regulations, pointed to the exact paragraph that contradicted him. The drivers voted, and the tyres were removed.

Senna's most memorable act of humanity came during qualifying for the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. Rounding the near-200mph Blanchimont corner, Senna came across a stricken Érik Comas, his car lying across the centre of the track. 

Unconscious, with his foot pressed firmly on the accelerator, Comas' engine bounced off its rev limiter and pumped fuel over its (now exposed) white-hot components. As other drivers carried on, Senna pulled to the side of the track, unbuckled his seatbelts and sprinted to the aid of the injured driver, switching off his engine to prevent a fire and supporting his head until the medical team arrived. Commas would later credit Senna with saving his life.

Senna's commitment to his fellow racers would continue right up until his death. 

Just before his own fateful end at San Marino, Senna had run to the aid of his young Brazilian protege, Rubens Barrichello, following a 140mph smash at the Variante Bassa chicane. Choking on his tongue, the quick actions of Professor Sid Watkins saved Barrichello's life. 

More tragedy followed as Roland Ratzenberger struck the concrete wall on the outside of the Villeneuve curve at 195mph. Senna commandeered a course car to speed to the scene of the accident, and Ratzenberger was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. 

Senna was reportedly beside himself, crashing to the floor of his motorhome in tears. His long-time friend Professor Watkins suggested he give up racing and the pair could just go fishing. 

The great Brazilian’s own accident that weekend at Tamburello stunned the world. Ayrton Senna the racer was taken from us in tragic circumstances, but it was the discovery made in the aftermath that perhaps best summed up Ayrton Senna the man. An Austrian flag was found furled up in the cockpit of his stricken Williams; he had planned to wave it at the end of the race in memory of Ratzenberger.

Away from his desire to win at all costs, Senna was gentle, there was a fragility to him, with a deep caring for others that dominated his character. He donated millions to charity, and his legacy lives on in the Instituto Ayrton Senna, headed up by his sister, Viviane. Two months before her brother's death, the two had discussed the creation of a foundation that would help those closest to Ayrton's heart – the children of his native Brazil. In 30 years it has raised more than £300 million. And the trustee of the organisation? His greatest ever rival, the man Senna had considered his most bitter adversary, Alain Prost.

Such was the paradox of Ayrton Senna. Behind his killer instinct and uncompromising race craft, there lurked a compassion that many of his competitors didn't share.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.