Senna at the 1979 Pan-American Karting Championship in La Paz
Christie's Images Ltd. 2025
Ayrton Senna’s natural talent, allied to an obsessive attention to detail and ruthless racecraft made him a three-time Formula 1 champion.
Now, a set of recently uncovered letters and photographs reveal how a 19-year-old Senna applied those traits in his bid to become a karting world champion.
Due to be auctioned this week in London by Christie’s, the two letters — amounting to 25 pages — from 1979 were written by Senna to a friend in Brazil, detailing his karting exploits in Europe.
They are expected to fetch between £200,000 and £300,000, and include technical drawings, meticulous descriptions of tests and accounts of races, as Senna developed the techniques that would make him one of the all-time greats.
“I started studying the 1st place driver, Busslinger, while also threatening to overtake him in areas where I had no intention of doing so,” wrote Senna in a recap of a June 1979 karting race at the Wohlen circuit in Switzerland.
“This was purely to pressure him into driving faster and possibly making a mistake. And that’s what happened on the sixth lap. Fearing I would overtake, Busslinger pushed too hard in a high-speed section, opening a wide gap at the corner exit … On the next lap, Busslinger made the same mistake, and this time I overtook him”.
The lot includes 25 pages of letters and 23 photographs
Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025
The letters were sent to Antonio Carlos Cechinatto, a friend who wrote for the Brazilian automotive magazine Autoesporte, so that he could write reports of Senna’s exploits in Europe.
The trove also includes 23 pictures of Senna at the 1979 Pan-American Karting Championship in La Paz, Bolivia, taken by Cechinatto.
Letters written by Senna are rare; most are part of his family’s collection, so these two, written in Portuguese, shed new light on the mindset of the teenage Senna, and his determination to become karting world champion.
In 1979, Senna raced a DAP kart chassis and engine alongside team-mate Terry Fullerton who, in a 1993 interview, was described by Senna as his biggest career rival.
From the undulating hills of Oulton Park to the high-speed curves of Suzuka: Ayrton Senna’s career can be defined by the rivals he fought throughout his racing career. His outstanding…
In the first letter, written in May, he talks of the pair testing new water-cooled engines, with Senna clearly across all of the minute detail.
“Two water-cooled engines were tested,” he wrote. “They proved to be fantastic, running half a second faster than the same model with conventional cooling. These engines have a major advantage: they operate at an average temperature of 70Cs, while standard ones run at around 150C.
“The Englishman Fullerton did about ten laps (the first ten laps of the test), and then I began the real testing, comparing them with other standard engine models and, later on, with different tyre compounds.”
Senna illustrated this with a diagram showing the radiator, water pump, rubber tubing and drive belt, as well as a diagram of a piston, illustrating engine adjustments.
Senna included technical drawings alongside detailed descriptions
Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025
All doesn’t go smoothly, however, as described in the second letter from June, covering the Swiss race meeting and, before that, one in Jesolo, Italy, which Senna describes as “one of the worst races I have ever taken part in”.
The meeting brought tyre issues and a “major defect” with the carburettor, as well as regulatory issues with the water-cooled engines.
Even so, Senna can’t help but shine. In the first race, he collided with another kart while battling for fifth, dropped to the back of the field (of around 32 karts) but still finished 14th.
In the next race, he describes finishing behind race-winner Fullerton before more problems, this time with the chassis, hampers the final two races.
Despite competing in the World Karting Championship for five years between 1978 and 1982, Senna never did win the title, losing out to Fullerton in 1980 after the latter passed him on the final lap, which enraged the young Brazilian.
It was, Senna said, one of his greatest regrets.
The Senna letters and photographs are due to be auctioned on December 11 at the Christie’s Groundbreakers: icons of our time sale.
