EXCLUSIVE: Ayrton Senna’s Photographer Recalls Convincing Him to Come Out of Retirement

The F1 world would have never witnessed Ayrton Senna’s talent, had it not been for his personal photographer, Keith Sutton. The Brazilian was looking to retire from racing in 1981 when he was driving in junior formulas. However, Sutton convinced him to carry on racing as he had a lot of interest from teams in Formula 3.

In an exclusive interview with The SportsRush, Sutton discussed the same, highlighting that Senna wanted to retire for his family’s sake.

“I was shocked on September 29, 1981, when Ayrton announced his retirement at Brands Hatch, citing the need to help his father on their farm in Brazil and his business in Sao Paulo and a lack of sponsorship,” he said.

Sutton revealed that the real reason behind Senna’s decision to retire could have been his ex-wife Liliane. “I suspected the real reason was Lillian’s discomfort with being away from Brazil and her nervousness about his racing career”, Sutton said.

However, as Sutton told Senna about the interest from teams in F3 and other junior categories, the Brazilian considered changing his mind. Naturally, he had to move to the UK once again to compete in the British Formula 3 and Formula Ford 2000 championships.

How Sutton contributed to Senna’s rise to F1

Senna’s competitiveness wasn’t a major issue at all, as he dominated those categories, establishing his name in the F1 circles as an upcoming prodigy. Sutton helped Senna raise his profile and get some attention from F1 teams to move up the ladder.

“I suggested we send photos and press releases to magazines and Grand Prix team owners and all the motorsport magazines worldwide”, the 64-year-old stated.

On-track, the Sao-Paulo-born driver kept showing his caliber and beat Martin Brundle in the British F3 championship in 1983 by nine points. This was a notable result that got Senna a lot of spotlight — particularly due to his nine successive race wins to start the season — and eventually landed him an F1 seat.

The Brazilian got to test with several F1 teams, including McLaren, Williams, Brabham, and Toleman. However, the aforementioned top teams did not have a cockpit available to hand Senna a race seat. So, Senna ended up at Toleman for his rookie F1 season in 1984, before moving to Lotus the following season.