Cartes de visite

The Tilehurst business card:

Ayrton Senna settled in England in the early 1980s to more easily pursue his career as a racing driver: he first joined the English team Lotus in 1985, where he scored his first victory, on 21 April, at Estoril, Portugal, in torrential rain. He then moved to McLaren from 1988, and finally to Williams from 1993.

Before his first major contract with Lotus, Senna had lived with friends in a rented house at Chelsea Close, “Potteries Estate,” in Tilehurst, near Reading. As a young driver, he competed first in Formula Ford 1600, then Formula Ford 2000 and then British Formula 3, which opened the way to Formula 1 and his Lotus contract. Senna left this house in 1984, when he joined the English team, which gave him the financial means to settle more comfortably.

After his death, a street in Tilehurst was named in his honor — Ayrton Senna Road. The town is also home to a recreational area that bears his name.

The São Paulo business card:

Senna was born in São Paulo in 1960 and always kept a strong connection to his native city. He came from an upper-middle-class family in the Jardim São Paulo neighborhood, in the north of the city. Even after achieving international fame, Senna remained committed to his roots there, often returning to São Paulo between races, where he owned a residence. His funeral was held there, and an estimated three million people attended or lined the funeral procession, testifying to the immense impact and admiration Senna commanded in Brazil and around the world.

The company “Senna Promoções e Empreendimentos Ltda.” was founded in 1986 by Senna to manage his advertising contracts, image rights and other commercial activities linked to his career and name, following his first Grand Prix successes the previous year.

Business cards given by Ayrton Senna to his acquaintances are rare, and these two examples are all the more interesting in that they document two distinct and important periods of his life and career: before he achieved fame, when he was preparing for Formula 1; and afterward, when he was already known and admired worldwide. The most striking detail is of course the embossed helmet on the paper, like a logo, worn from his earliest laps on the track and even before his meteoric career began.