In the middle of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and an intense Formula 1 season, a story from four decades ago reminds us why Ayrton Senna remains one of the greatest symbols of Brazilian sporting passion. Forty years ago, after the Brazilian national team was eliminated on penalties by France in the quarterfinals of the Mexico World Cup, Senna made a gesture that would define his bond with his country forever: raising the Brazilian flag inside a Formula 1 car for the very first time.
On June 22, 1986, while Senna was securing pole position with Lotus in the United States, Brazil had stopped to watch the quarterfinal against France. A devoted football fan, Senna skipped the official post-qualifying press conference to catch the match. Despite fielding a brilliant generation of players — including Zico, Sócrates, and Careca — Brazil was knocked out on penalties after a 1–1 draw. The Lotus team ran Renault engines, and the garage was full of French engineers and mechanics who wasted no time celebrating and taunting Senna over Brazil’s defeat.
His response came the next day. After winning the race, Senna raised a Brazilian flag during his victory lap — a spontaneous act that would quickly become one of the defining images of his career and a tradition he would repeat throughout it.
The “pact” between Ayrton and the national team that inspired the fourth title
Senna’s connection to football did not end in Detroit. In 1993, the Brazilian national team was going through an unprecedented crisis and needed Romário’s return in a match against Uruguay just to qualify. The feeling among Brazilians was that the team needed inspiration to end a 24-year wait for a world title.
On April 20 of that year, Senna was invited to kick off a friendly between Brazil and a combined Paris Saint-Germain/Bordeaux side in Paris. Before the match, Senna and the players made a “pact”: they would win the fourth title that year — on the pitch and on the track.
“You push from there, I’ll push from here!” (“Acelera daqui, que eu acelero de lá!”) he told the players before the game.
OEleven days later, the fatal accident at Imola brought the pact on the track to an abrupt end. Shattered by the loss of Senna, the players began paying tribute to him throughout Brazil’s 1994 World Cup campaign — held in the United States, the same country where Senna had first raised the flag after a race victory.
In testimonies given years later, members of that squad described the profound impact of losing the three-time champion. “Everyone loved Ayrton,” recalled former striker Bebeto. “We were devastated. We said to each other: ‘We simply have to win this World Cup and dedicate it to Ayrton.'”
And so Brazil’s victory came marked by a tribute that entered history. After the penalty shootout, still on the pitch, the players unfurled a banner of roughly 2.5 meters — printed on dot-matrix paper with a message that read: SENNA… WE PUSHED TOGETHER. THE FOURTH TITLE IS OURS!
Signed by every player and member of the coaching staff, the banner was kept for 30 years by Américo Faria, the CBF’s superintendent in 1994, before it was finally passed on to Senna’s family. In 2024, a delegation of former players visited the headquarters of Senna Brands and Instituto Ayrton Senna to donate the original banner.
Four decades after that first gesture with the Brazilian flag, Ayrton Senna’s legacy remains vivid in the national imagination. Recent research from the Senna brand shows that the driver is a source of inspiration for six out of ten Brazilians — surpassing major names in sport who are still active today.
More than a three-time world champion, Senna helped build a way of believing — the conviction that the pursuit of victory begins before the result. It begins with those who believe. That spirit is what turned his achievements into symbols that continue to inspire Brazilians on and off the track, the pitch, and the stands.