The Life of Senna

by Rubython, Tom

  On 3rd September they boarded a flight to stay at his house in the Algarve and later proceeded to the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril. But first it was to Monza and Italy. They flew into Lisbon, where Captain O’Mahoney collected them in the HS125 to fly on to Faro before going to Lake Como for the Italian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the European season.

  Tennis ace Monica Seles was there to cheer her favourite driver, but Senna retired halfway through and drove straight back to the hotel with not a word to Adriane. He ordered room service, choosing for her without asking what she wanted. When crowds began cheering his name in the car park he snapped out of his bad mood. He said to her: “But I lost – these Italians are crazy.” She told him: “They’re crazy for you.” Sensing his mood, she added: “Are you finding it too hard having me around?” He said: “I promise you that when we leave Italy I will leave the frown behind.” That night she went to the hotel bathroom and wrote on the mirror in lipstick:’Good Morning! Smile’.

  The next two weeks were spent in the Algarve. Senna trained hard – the Por tuguese Grand Prix was like his home race and he wanted to do well. But this year it was even more important. Inside his briefcase was a fax copy of a signed option with Williams to drive for 1994, replacing Alain Prost, who was retiring.

  He was very moody during that period. The fax machine in the Algarve house whirred continually with draft contracts and notes from his manager, Julian Jakobi, in England. Adriane remembers one phone call with Frank Williams in England lasting a staggering five hours and 40 minutes. He couldn’t sleep until the negotiations were over: when the document with Frank Williams’ signature on it was faxed through, he signed it and faxed it straight back.

  When they left for Estoril and the race she packed up ready to fly home immediately after the race without him. She would next meet him in Tokyo on the Monday after the Japanese race. The last two Grand Prix events of the year, in Japan and Australia, were a fortnight apart and they decided to take a holiday in-between, joking it would be a honeymoon rehearsal. Senna sensed he was in for a change of luck and indeed he did win both of the last races.

  A fortnight later Adriane started the 28-hour flight from Brazil to Japan and she was picked up at Tokyo’s Narita airport by photographer Norio Koike. She found Senna in his hotel cursing an Irish driver, Eddie Irvine, then a rookie. Earlier he had had a bust-up with Irvine who, he made clear, he didn’t like. Senna had ended up hitting him.

  Adriane and Senna flew to Bora Bora in Tahiti for an idyllic week before the race in Adelaide. But then Senna fell ill after four days and spent the last two in bed. As they flew to Australia, his strength returned. At the airport he bought a dozen belts. and she knew he was well again.

  But help was at hand as Josef Leberer restored him to full fitness with some long massages and he was soon back on top form winning the race.

  After two days off in Sydney, they flew back to São Paulo for five months of hedonism. It was a glorious routine, splitting their time between the family farm in Tatui, his São Paulo apartment and the beach house in Angra. It started off with six unbroken weeks in Brazil. Adriane remembers: “Beco and I came back from Europe, and were living together at the apartment in Rua Paraguai, sharing the same friends, going out to dinner, we were a typical boyfriend and girlfriend – although there was no wedding ring, there were intimacies like sleeping together in his parents’ house. I felt he liked to show me off a bit.” At the beginning of December they flew to Europe for a go-kart race at Bercy in France. Belgian driver Bertrand Gachot, a former Grand Prix regular and a friend of Senna’s, recalls: “I saw them at Bercy a lot and he was very much in love with her. They didn’t separate for one minute and it was really nice to see.”

  Gachot had a serious soft spot for Senna. When he was jailed for an assault on a London taxi driver in mid-1991, Senna was the only driver who came forward as a character witness, writing a letter of support to the English judge who jailed him.

  From Bercy, they flew to Heathrow and on to the Williams factory in Berkshire for a seat fitting. It was his first visit there and the staff were sworn to secrecy. His move had not been declared but Williams wanted to make another splashy announcement for maximum publicity. Frank Williams greeted them personally. Adriane noted that the close relationship with Frank Williams was totally different from Senna’s relationship with McLaren team principal Ron Dennis. He had told her Ron was ‘moody’ which he found increasingly difficult to cope with. He said Frank was a ‘real team manager’, stressing ‘manager’. But he added that although the relationship between him and Dennis had cooled, he loved the McLaren team to the extent that he felt it was his real family and that he would return one day if circumstances were different. In her book Adriane notes that in 1994 she observed, while standing in the pit garage, that Dennis seemed to take a perverse pleasure every time Senna retired that year. For certain relations between them were strained, which Senna told her was a shame after so much success.

  But that was all in the past, as Senna took her hand and toured the Williams factory, introducing himself and her to the Williams people – his new home for at least the next three years. His actions were a clear sign she was a fixture in his life and would be a part of his new life at Williams.

  From Heathrow again, it was straight back to Brazil, and Christmas with the da Silva family at Tatui. But Adriane decided at the last minute that she must return to her mother and 80-year-old grandmother, who was very ill, and she left on Christmas Eve. She borrowed Senna’s mother’s Volkswagen car to drive back to São Paulo.

  The official Christmas celebrations with Senna’s parents lasted until 17th January and, in-between, Senna took a quick trip to Europe, testing the new car and tying up business deals in Germany. He already had one eye on life after Formula One and wanted to create a business to challenge him when he anticipated retiring, at the turn of the century. He wanted to import the best European goods to Brazil. After he returned to Brazil on 24th January, they went straight to Angra. Their happiness was interrupted when Adriane’s grandmother died on 26th January 1994. Otherwise it was an uninterrupted six weeks before his home race opened the season. There would be one more testing trip to Europe before that, but without Adriane.

  During the holiday and that period before the first race, they talked deeply. He discussed his past girlfriends with her. She says: “It was done in an atmosphere of passion and confidences. He talked to me about his past love relationships as if to put them behind him.”

  She says of that time they had together: “I felt I had been given a present by the gods.” Senna also asked her about her ex’s. And he spoke of claims that were currently being made in the Brazilian press about an illegitimate daughter called Vitoria, who he was supposed to have fathered by a girl called Marcella Praddo. Senna admitted he had spent the previous New Year’s Eve with Marcella but that the baby could not possibly be his. (Later proved by DNA tests after he died). They spoke as the waves lapped their bedroom windows. The idyll was only disturbed when Senna had an accident on his jet-ski, and almost stopped breathing after he hit the water very badly. But it was only a momentary panic. Resuscitated, he recovered by laying perfectly still for a week.

  Senna went to Europe again, for a pre-arranged testing and visit to Germany, at the beginning of March and returned to Brazil on the 11th. They then went back to Angra. The sojourn was only interrupted by the return to São Paulo for the Brazilian Grand Prix, the biggest sporting event of the year in Brazil.

  But shortly after the dreamy days at Angra, a problem arose that threatened the very existence of the relationship. Adriane was becoming famous as Senna’s girlfriend and he warned her about being exploited by the media for that fame. From being a mystery blonde, in Brazil she was already a celebrity in her own right. She didn’t see trouble coming and his words of warning fell on deaf, 20-year-old ears.

  She received the chance of a big photo-shoot with a Brazilian weekly magazine called Caras, the Brazilian equ
ivalent of Hello! magazine. It was a swimwear shoot on Camburi beach. Adriane asked Senna’s permission and, when he realised the photographer would be Fabio Cabral, he agreed she should do it.

  Senna initially approved of the individual photos he was shown on 21st March, as he and Adriane celebrated his 34th birthday, before the magazine was published. She also showed them to his mother, who thought they were beautiful. But when the magazine was published, two days later, the photos had been arranged in a provocative fashion over a 12-page feature and on the cover. Senna thought it was cheap, and exploited their relationship. It didn’t help that the magazine was published in the same week as the Brazilian Grand Prix. The magazine’s editor believed he was introducing properly the beautiful girlfriend of the national hero. Senna thought differently and was incensed. As Adriane looked at the magazine, she remembers her inner thoughts: “I felt a shiver down my spine. The article was beautiful. The text was perfect. But I kept asking myself, should I have done it?”

  That night in the Rua Paraguai apartment, Senna exploded: “You look like this, I think a commoner. How could you let them do this?” He threw the magazine against the wall of the apartment he shared with his brother.

  Adriane remembers: “I didn’t move. Any argument would have been in vain. Dozens of times I had seen him like that, but never as a victim. I never thought it would be me.”

  She told him she was a model. That was what she did and she needed the work and the money. He shot back: “You must understand that you are not the same person any more, Adriane. Now you are my girlfriend. You don’t have to show the world you have a beautiful body, this other side of Adriane Galisteu.” She knew she was in real trouble as he had never called her Adriane before. He had always known her as ‘Dri’. She said: “I am not forcing you to understand, I am very happy about my choices.”

  She remembers it as if it was yesterday: “I wanted to cry, but I tried not to. I proposed the end of our relationship, but my heart was the size of a pea and cried ‘no, no’. Suddenly, I noticed tears were rolling down his face. I understood that he was telling me ‘Yes, it’s over, goodbye…’ I told him: ‘We have had a wonderful time. We’ve never had a fight like this. I’m really shocked with what happened here today. You showed me an Ayrton that I couldn’t recognise’.”

  When she asked him what he specifically didn’t like, he said: “All this shit, especially the photos.” She admitted to him she had been wrong, and apologised. All that night the argument continued. In the morning, he said to her: “I never doubted your character, I only said I didn’t like what happened.” As they parted, he admitted he was also jealous, a trait not usually part of his character, as he said: “You should show your beautiful body only to me.” She shot back: “I am jealous myself.” He asked her to buy the copyright of the photos from the magazine so he could keep them himself.

  He later admitted he had been irritated by the photographer’s ‘boldness’. He said: “I am experienced by the banana skins people place in the way of famous and respected people. But you are just a girl and you must be careful not to hurt yourself.”

  The Brazilian Grand Prix came and went. Senna got pole position, but retired after a spin, and his new great rival, Michael Schumacher, won. The following Tuesday he had hired an aircraft hangar in which he would announce to the Brazilian motor trade that he was introducing the German Audi range of cars into Brazil. It was the culmination of his winter trips to Germany.

  For the evening reception, Adriane accompanied him dressed to the nines. Senna announced he would also have deals with Ducati motorcycles and Mont Blanc pens for Brazil. These would be the first of many products he would import to Brazil for his new business life, when he planned to effect a seamless change from top racing driver to top businessman. He had seen the demoralising effect of retirement on drivers and he did not intend that to happen to him.

  Afterwards Adriane had the uncomfortable job of apologising to Milton and Neyde da Silva for the Caras photos. They were also upset. But after a heart-to-heart discussion, she thought they had put it behind them.

  However, there were other matters rankling the family, matters that were not discussed. Over the winter weeks at Angra, Senna and Adriane had hatched a plan whereby she would join him in Portugal at his Algarve house for the whole of the European Grand Prix season and they would stay there permanently for five months, and not return to Brazil. His usual style had been to return home after every other race for a week. It bothered the family immensely, but they could say nothing, and do nothing. It created an unseen rift between them and Adriane and that would erupt in the week before the San Marino Grand Prix culminating in Leonardo being sent to Europe to persuade him to give Adriane up.

  Senna’s decision not to come home for five months was received very badly by the family and was squarely blamed on Adriane’s influence and it particularly upset his sister, Viviane, and brother, Leonardo. In truth, it had been Senna’s decision and Adriane had gone along with it as his wish. He wanted an uninterrupted summer with her in the Algarve. The family were having to learn the lesson that their famous son was at last ready to flee the nest and settle down with the love of his life. They didn’t take it well. But Adriane knew none of this at the time.

  On 3rd April 1994, Adriane saw Senna for the last time. He was going to Japan and she was staying on for a month in São Paulo to take an intensive English language course. If she was to settle in Europe for half the year, she would have to be able to speak English.

  She drove Senna to the airport in her silver Fiat Uno for his flight. He would not return to Brazil until the end of September. She would leave Brazil four weeks later and move into his house in Portugal and they would live together. It was clearly the prelude for something big. She felt he had nearly proposed several times and she expected to come back to Brazil as his fiancée.

  Adriane says now of 3rd April: “It was a very special day and I didn’t know why at the time. Before he went we had a long afternoon of love. We got to the airport early and we stayed in the car and talked, hugged and kissed. He said to me ‘I’ll keep an eye on you little girl’. He said goodbye, and gave me a long kiss in the car.” She recalls his words the last time they were at Angra together: “One day I will marry you and one day I will work for Ferrari. I will end my career there and end my life with you.”

  He told her he planned to leave Williams two years hence, when he believed the team would peak, and move to Ferrari, which he believed would then have its act together after the return of Luca di Montezemolo as boss. He told her: “Even if the Ferrari is as slow as a Volkswagen Beetle, I still want to be driving it on my last start, my last lap, my last race. Ferrari is the myth of Formula One. The tradition, the soul, the passion.”

  And that was it. She would never see him again. She threw herself full-time into the English course, which occupied all her time – as well as packing for five months away. Senna went to Japan but retired from the Pacific Grand Prix as his rival for the championship, Michael Schumacher, won again. He later told Adriane, as he told everyone close to him, that he thought Schumacher’s Benetton was running banned electronic aids from time to time. Time differences and a heavy sponsor commitment meant he missed speaking to her on her birthday and did not get through until 6am the following day, desperately apologising for waking her so early. She understood the pressures on him in Brazil, as she had witnessed them herself the previous year. By 21st April, Senna was back at the Algarve house. She was cramming English lessons into the evenings as well. Later that day, she faxed him her first love-letter in English. She carried on with the lessons right up to her Varig flight to Lisbon on Friday 29th April.

  CHAPTER 27

  The Invincible Philosopher

  The bodywork was his second skin

  Ayrton Senna always realised he had an odd personality but thought it a consequence of being the best driver in the world. As he said: “I have applied my personality in motor racing so many times – it’s one of my
qualities. Sometimes it has cost me a race or a good result but it is my personality and that’s what I am.”

  Senna said that before the start of a race, he would concentrate so hard that he felt as though the bodywork of the car became a second skin. “This carbon-fibre incarnation could sometimes prompt acts of folly,” he said. “In 1988, at Monte Carlo, I was in pole position. But I was on a cloud. Pointlessly, I stepped up the chase again, only to wake up and realise that the others weren’t going too slowly – I was going too fast. I’d let the intensity of the emotion get the better of me, and I’d overstepped my limits.”

  Years later Senna revealed that in 1989 at the Spanish Grand Prix, he was weighed down by too much pressure. He says he won without really savouring the victory. So the next morning he got hold of a Fiat Panda and went back to the circuit. He explained: “During the Grand Prix I felt no joy. I said to myself ‘You can’t leave here without enjoying yourself’. So I went back on the track. There was no one there. It felt good. I savoured it.”

  That his whole life was focused around motor racing was never a doubt in Senna’s mind. He admitted it controlled him rather than him controlling it: “Everything in my life is aimed at the point when I sit in my car on the grid. It’s a focused situation, where you want to search deeper and deeper inside in order to find the next step. This situation takes you to a different world. You have this desire to go into places where you have never been before. It is something that is very lonely in a way, because once you get in a car, on a circuit, it is you and the car, nothing else. That situation is extremely absorbing. Perhaps it’s because I have experienced, on many occasions, the feeling of finding new things. Even if I thought ‘OK, that is my maximum’, suddenly I found something extra. That process is almost non-stop in terms of excitement and motivation.”