Ayrton Senna: The Legend Endures
“Such personal power, such belief, such innocence: it was a very potent mixture. You can see that such a man would attract others. You could see that there was a way people’s liking for him would go well beyond admiration.” - Simon Barnes, The Times magazine’s multi-award-winning chief sportswriter, on Ayrton Senna.
Nearly two decades after his untimely death, phenomenally talented Formula One megastar Ayrton Senna’s legacy still remains one of world sport’s most coveted assets; a vintage for collectors and a highly profitable enterprise. An astute businessman and a man of coruscating charisma, the Brazilian superstar was making extraordinary sums well above $20 million annually (a huge sum for that era) when alive and his death has made him all the more expensive. His representative Julian Jakobi has remarked: “I have been in the sport business for 27 years and he [Senna] was one of the two most intelligent athletes I have ever met”.
The present day Ayrton Senna business is a tenaciously well-managed and burgeoning trade. J.P. Boutros, boss of Auto.sport.net and a broker in Formula One race-used mementos said: “Anything to do with Senna, of some class, sells.” The accessories include T-shirts, replica cars, Montegrappa pens, TAG Heuer wrist watches, Cavaro bicycles, and Bell Helmets and Ducati motorcycles. The Senna label, namely Driven to Perfection, remains a highly desired brand. Sid Mosca, the man who designed the racer’s famously distinctive yellow and green helmet, today makes huge sums annually by selling countless duplicates to eager fans from across the world.
There exists a huge dissimilarity between Ayrton Senna and other sporting heroes whose legacy generates great sums even decades after they have departed from the world. Firstly, the Senna label has been subjected to such tenacious controls that instances of illegal trading, if any at all, are almost negligible. This is in part because Senna’s admirers have been wise with their hero’s legacy and also because Formula One patron, Bernie Ecclestone, severely penalizes any unauthorized trading at Grand Prix’s.
Another significant reason is that a major slice of the money raised by the Senna label makes its way to the Ayrton Senna Institute, a not-for-profit philanthropist project. The organization is also a beneficiary of big-business patronage from firms like Audi, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia and Banco do Brasil, which together contribute around 11 million Brazilian Reals (nearly 2.1 million UK pounds) annually.
In a manner not unlike his invincibility on track, Ayrton Senna also remains virtually unbeatable in the Formula One memento business. Compared to Michael Schumacher’s helmets which fetch around $ 25,000 each, the genuine Ayrton Senna helmet sells for anywhere between $40,000 to $50,000. The explanation for this lies in the fact that Senna’s helmets are shorter in supply; Schumacher uses a greater number of helmets compared to the Brazilian ace.
And of course, more significantly, Senna was also elevated to the status of sainthood in Formula One by his inopportune death. “There is a James Dean phenomenon here,” Boutros explains. “Senna had a lot of charisma to begin with, but dying in a blaze of glory didn’t hurt”.
Only a short while before his death, Senna had discussed plans to improve the condition of millions of underprivileged children in Brazil who had been condemned to a life of hardship. Yet it was only after his death that the extent of Senna’s charitable commitment became visible to the world, a dedication he had striven hard to keep secret. His agent remarked: “He would ring me late at night and say he had seen some tragedy on TV and he wanted to send some money, but he did not want anyone to know who it was from. So we sent a banker’s draft”. After Senna’s death, his sister Viviane took it upon herself to help realize her brother’s dream by inaugurating the Ayrton Senna Institute which continues to transform thousands of lives across Senna’s beloved homeland.
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