The Senna legacy aiding those who need it the most

Ayrton Senna meant a lot of things to a lot of people around the world. In his home country, Brazil, he stood as a symbol of potential. However great the challenges, he showed that it is possible to overcome them and to succeed.

Shortly before he died in 1994, Senna and his sister Viviane sketched out the idea of creating a foundation to give something back to Brazil through education. He had launched his iconic Senna ‘S’-branded merchandise, and often wore one of his T-shirts at the racetrack. The cartoon character ‘Senninha’ (‘little Senna’), based on a child who overcomes challenges, was already popular in Brazil before his death. The revenues from these, plus public donations, would fund the charitable activities.

Later that year, as the family wrestled with their grief after his death, they resolved to see through his wishes and established the Instituto Ayrton Senna, overseen by Viviane. The Institute’s mission is to provide opportunities for children in Brazil through education, using research, technology, training and advocacy. In 30 years, it has supported over 36 million children and trained more than 300,000 teachers. Their research quickly found the scale of the challenge; for every 100 five-year-olds who start the 12-year school programme in Brazil’s state system, only 10 finish it. Worse still was that only five would have proficiency in Brazilian Portuguese and only one would be proficient in maths.

“This is something that we have been working towards since day one, and we use different tools to help on the development,” says Bianca Senna, Viviane’s daughter and CEO of Senna Brands, which generates the income for the Institute. “We use technology, we use arts, we use sports as part of the programme. The children are able to not only work on their cognitive skills, but also on their social-emotional skills, which are today one of the biggest challenges that we face in terms of hiring people and having a good workplace to achieve our goals.”

Bianca was 14 years old when her uncle died. Old enough to have known him and played with him a lot, since Senna himself was childless, she understood some of what he stood for as a man and as a symbol in Brazil: “To me, he was my uncle and a great role model as someone that was always pushing, whatever he was doing. Even if it was a jet-ski ride, he was always trying to make it perfect. He would look at the details of the engine and make different changes on it to make sure that it was perfect. And he was the one teaching me how important it is to do everything with passion, with heart and especially to be the best that you can. So, for me, that’s my biggest memory of him; someone that is always really truthful to his values and someone that is always pushing to make sure that he’s doing the best that he could in every situation.”

Bianca Senna sees The Senna Institute as a way to help develop children's potential in Brazil

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Although 30 years have passed since Senna’s death, he continues to be a powerful force in Brazilian public life with the power to inspire people. A poll carried out five years ago showed that over 90% of Brazilians had heard of Ayrton Senna. “Ayrton continues to be a symbol because he showed the Brazilian people that even though you were in a very difficult situation, you are able to overcome those challenges and become a winner,” says Bianca. “And I think that’s what he represents for the country.

“Everyone is born with potential. And this potential is something that you have within you that makes you so special. To be true to this potential and make sure that you use all the tools and the ways that you can to develop that potential – that’s what Ayrton showed everyone is the important thing in life; no matter the challenges that you have. And I think this is the DNA that we carry through the Institute and that we carry through the Senna brand and Senninha cartoon. We believe that everyone has their own potential and we want to make sure that we help each one develop that potential through their lives.”

Three decades since Senna last raced an F1 car, his brand is still highly visible at grand prix events today, with merchandise stands in the public areas and Fan Zones. Many of the new fans of the sport in the last five years, who have come in through the gateway of Drive to Survive, quickly discover the legend of Senna, through the popular documentary that came out in 2010 and clips on YouTube. In one sequence during the latest series of Drive to Survive, Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly talks about Senna as his hero, while viewers see shots of the great man on stage, collecting an Autosport Award from Sir Stirling Moss in 1991.

"We made this tragedy become something that can change the lives of millions. It is almost like he is in each of those lives that we are helping" Bianca Senna

Bianca and her licensing team have expanded the range of Senna-branded lines beyond clothing into partnerships with TAG Heuer, McLaren, Ducati motorbikes and Embraer jets. They are gearing up for the launch of a new entertainment product on Netflix this summer; a six-part scripted series that will begin the narrative with his move from Sao Paolo to the UK in 1981 to race in Formula Ford. It will chart his professional and personal journey up to his death at Imola in 1994.

“We have activations in different ways through the world,” explains Bianca. “We have a partnership with Formula One exhibition, the big travelling exhibition [now in Vienna and Toronto]. We also have things in licensing, as you see in the tracks. We have TAG Heuer watches, some new models that we are going to launch this year. And now we are entering into NFTs and Web3, which is a new area. We are starting with Roblox so the children can learn about Ayrton and Senninha’s cartoon. This is launching in a month’s time, and we also have real estate – we’re going to launch our first building in Brazil at the end of this year. The flexibility of the brand is really big because at the end of the day what we are selling is inspiration, everything is packaged under this mission.”

Ayrton Senna wearing a T-shirt of his cartoon character Senninha

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Having helped millions of children since its foundation, the Institute has had some notable alumni stories, people who have gone on to contribute meaningfully to Brazilian public life. “That’s one of the most emotional parts of our job,” says Bianca, “when you see the difference that the foundation made in so many lives. I will give you one example: one of our first projects was together with USP, which is a university in Brazil. Children will go to school in a poor community in Brazil that doesn’t have sports in the schools usually. So one of the children that was there actually became an Olympic champion in Australia. Basically he became the coach of the Australian rowing team and he earned two medals with them. So imagine the change of his life that happened; in Brazil in a very poor community and he was able to achieve everything that he did, on the other side of the planet, just because he was able to get the proper education and proper preparation in terms of social-emotional skills.”

PLUS: How Senna continues to improve lives in Brazil 30 years after his death

This month is going to be busy with commemorations of the 30th anniversary of Senna’s death. Sebastian Vettel will demonstrate his 1993 Senna McLaren, there are exhibitions and activities in Brazil, and at the Emilia Romagna and Monaco Grands Prix. It is clear what this means to the family.

“His passing is still really hard,” says Bianca. “He had so much life ahead of him. It was a tragedy. But we made this tragedy become something that can change the lives of millions. It is almost like he is in each of those lives that we are helping. And that’s what moves us.”

Find more information on the Instituto Ayrton Senna here