I heard somebody talking in an interview on television recently about the Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, arguably one of the best racing drivers of all time. He had a formula one career spanning ten years and until 2006 he held the record for the most pole position starts, he raced in 162 world class competitions with podium finishes at eighty of them and he won forty-one and holds a record six wins at the Monaco Grand Prix.
I can’t remember who it was that I heard talking about the great man, but he commented that Senna’s main rival, fellow McLaren driver Alain Prost used to get very frustrated with Senna “he has God in the car with him” apparently Prost had said. Ayrton Senna was a devout Catholic and would often read the Bible on long haul flights, he claimed that he felt closest to God when speeding around a racing track, he was never alone in the car, but always had God with him. Prost appeared to believe that Senna’s faith made him dangerous, taking risks that others would never have done.
Senna is quoted as once saying in 1989 “Just because I believe in God, just because I have faith in God, it doesn’t mean that I am immune, it doesn’t mean that I’m immortal” and that would appear to be true. Senna flew to Imola in northern Italy to compete in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the race was doomed from the outset with Rubens Barrichello being injured in an accident during qualifying, then Roland Ratzenberger died also during qualifying. A medic is reputed to have told Senna to retire and take up fishing.
The race was halted during lap 7 when Senna hit a concrete retaining wall at around 145mph, he died later that day. Barrichello told the media that the first person he saw when he had come round in hospital the previous day was Ayrton Senna, medics reported that the first visitor to the medical centre after Ratzenburgers death, was Senna and it was discovered following his death that he had told his sister on the morning of the fatal crash that on waking, he had randomly opened his Bible and read a text ensuring him that he would receive the greatest gift of all, which was god himself.
The greatest legacy of Ayrton Senna is not merely his contribution to Formula one, but it was revealed after his death that he had secretly donated $400 million of his personal fortune to help children living in poverty and also, shortly before his death he had created a framework for caring for the poorest children in Brazil, his sister Viviane is the president of the charity today.
The question isn’t always about how much faith we have, but what we do with it.. or how much wealth we amass, but how we use it.