Ferrari CALAMITY revealed after failing to sign F1 legend

Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill post in front of a Williams car in 1994 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Stories

Ferrari CALAMITY revealed after failing to sign F1 legend

Ferrari almost signed Ayrton Senna

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 24 July 2025 09:44 Updated: 11:16

A former Ferrari F1 sporting director has revealed just how close the team were to signing Ayrton Senna, and how the failed move made him quit the team altogether.

Senna is largely considered as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, winning three world championships before his untimely death following a tragic weekend at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The Brazilian's racing prowess is rivalled only by the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, and Senna secured 41 race victories and 65 pole positions across 10 full seasons in the sport.

Article continues under video

However, despite racing for legendary outfits such as Lotus, McLaren and Williams, Senna never drove with the most successful and iconic F1 team of all time, Ferrari.

It would surely have been a match made in heaven, and now former Ferrari sporting director Cesare Fiorio has revealed just how close they were to snapping up the hottest prospect in the sport in the late 80s.

"For me, he was the best, and I wanted to bring him to Maranello," Fiorio told Gazzetta. "He was too high-profile to try to get an interview on race weekends, so I organised a trip to Brazil, to his home in Sao Paulo, to meet him away from prying eyes.

Ayrton Senna was a three-time champion of the sport

"Then we met again in Monte Carlo to further finalise the contract, it wasn't a difficult negotiation because Ayrton really wanted to come to Ferrari. However, in the end, things didn't go ahead because the official they had appointed as Enzo Ferrari's replacement spread the word, and everything fell through."

Fiorio revealed the calamity that this error caused the team, admitting: "At that point, I also left Ferrari."

Were Ferrari good in the 80s?

Fiorio was sporting director of Ferrari between 1989-1991, right in the midst of the Senna-Alain Prost rivalry that gripped F1 due to McLaren's dominance.

The Italian oversaw the signing of Prost to the team, and his admission about almost signing Senna would have created a bombshell driver lineup following their often fierce rivalry at McLaren.

Ferrari spent most of the 1980s in the doldrums, not winning a single drivers' championship title, and only claiming two constructors' championships in the decade.

However, Fiorio was adamant that they had the tools to have been able to give Senna the machinery he needed by the late 1980s.

"In 30 years of motor racing, I learned that if you don't cross the finish line, it's all for nothing," he said. "You can be the strongest, but it means nothing if you don't make it to the end.

"I started from there, and the results were there to see: the first year, 1989, we won three out of 15 GPs, the second year we won six. And the car was much more reliable. Those were years I'm very proud of.

"I still have a Ferrari, the one Mansell drove to win the Brazilian GP in 1989, hanging on a wall in my farmhouse in Puglia."

F1 HEADLINES: Max Verstappen's Red Bull future takes new twist as Sebastian Vettel reveals Marko talks