It has been 25 years since Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident at Imola and a recently revealed interview from racefans.net with Lucio Pascual Gascon, Senna's karting mechanic, has given an insight into Senna’s early karting days as well as the early struggles the pair faced when they started working together.
Senna tragically died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, after he left the racing line and crashed into a concrete barrier on the Tamburello corner. Highly thought of in Brazil, Gascon had also worked with Emerson Fittipaldi before Senna came to his workshop for some help on his karting. In a 2009 interview with racefans.net Gascon recalls his early run-ins with Senna and his family.
“He brought the engine in,” Gascon said.
“It was broken, and I fixed the engine. It was [done] very fast and very cheap.
“But I had an argument with Mr Milton, Ayrton’s father because it was so cheap – and usually what is too cheap is not good.”
This incident seemed to set the tone for his relationship with the Senna family and he went on to reveal how he was almost denied attending Ayrton’s funeral.
“I have four sons. Ayrton was like a son to me, I always said that I had five sons. When Ayrton started winning a lot of races we got closer and closer.
“[But that] caused many problems with the family, especially with Mr Milton.
“I he had to fight, to argue to get in, because they didn’t want me to be inside,” added Gascon.