Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the ceremony in memory of the thirty years of the passing of Ayrton Senna

Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to express, on behalf of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and myself, the gratitude of the Brazilian Government for the kind invitation by Minister Antonio Tajani to celebrate the memory and legacy of Ayrton Senna da Silva.

It is with regret that we also gather today to pay tribute to a colleague of Senna, Roland Ratzenberger, who died on this same circuit, during a qualifying training for the San Marino Grand Prix, on that fateful weekend.

Alongside Minister Schallenberg, I have the honor of celebrating the life of that promising racing driver who, like Senna, left us too soon.

Minister Tajani,

Every Brazilian of a certain age knows exactly where they were and what they were doing on that morning of May 1st, 1994.

As we watched appalled on television the death of Ayrton in this Tamburello Curve, we knew instinctively that a national mourning would hit the country. We also knew that an individual pain would take over each one of us in that day and for many following days. These are things that are difficult to explain and easy to feel.

That same afternoon, São Paulo and Palmeiras – two of the biggest football teams in Brazil – faced each other in a decisive match. Arch rivals, fans of both clubs united before the match started in a single chorus: “Senna”. Everyone was moved.

Ayrton Senna was much more than a Formula 1 idol. A hero for generations of Brazilians, he was a model of excellence, perseverance and integrity. Qualities that were reflected in the success he achieved in his brilliant career.

Throughout his career, crowned by three Formula 1 world titles, he won admirers across the world, helping to popularize motor racing on a global scale.

The third world championship, his 41 victories and 65 pole positions are impressive numbers, but they are not enough to explain the universal admiration and reverence that Ayrton achieved during his lifetime.

Senna also won – and still wins – the virtually unanimous admiration of his peers. In a 2009 survey conducted by English magazine Autosport, he was voted the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time by a poll of 217 of his fellow drivers.

Last year, Ayrton Senna was declared by law Patron of Brazilian Sports. Such a title, in a country that has in its pantheon athletes such as Pelé, Ronaldo, Martha, Oscar Schmidt, Maria Esther Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten, demonstrates the extent of Senna's impact on the life of the nation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

History is full of enigmas.

The disappearance of a great idol – a man who raised the Brazilian flag so many times literally on the highest place on the podium – coincided almost perfectly with the beginning of a glorious phase in our national history.

In that same year of 1994, we managed to defeat hyperinflation.

We elected, in free, fair, competitive and orderly elections, three convinced democrats for no less than six consecutive presidential terms – a sociologist of international reputation, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; the greatest popular leader in our history, President Lula; and a guerrilla fighter who fought the military dictatorship in her youth, President Dilma Rousseff, whose government I had the honor to serve as Foreign Minister.

We won two of our five world football titles.

For twenty uninterrupted years, we experienced a rare combination of economic growth, maintenance of the value of the national currency, distribution of opportunities, reduction of the profound social and economic injustices that historically haunt the Brazilian people, the construction of a diplomacy as great as our national dimensions and aspirations – all of this in a deeply democratic environment assuring broad individual freedoms.

Dear friends,

As we remember the thirty years since his premature death, we say goodbye again, still mourning, to Ayrton Senna, in the place where fate wanted him to leave us.

Were he alive today, Senna would be 64 years old, still very young. During this period, how many pole positions, how many podiums, how many victories, how many titles, how many joys, how many examples of character, determination and love for Brazil would Ayrton have given to the Brazilian people and to all those who admired him?

Brazil has found its path again, following a sad period marked by attacks against reason, science, democracy and the national essence itself. In this context, honoring the memory of this great Brazilian is also an act of faith at the beginning of a new and promising phase of our national destinies, guided by the values that our idol represented and that the world applauded.

Thank you.