EXCLUSIVE: Ayrton Senna “would lose it, have physical contact” with journalists

In sport, some of the truly great stories come from those involved who live life out of the limelight – the people who have been there, but aren’t the first to be called for insight. The real insiders…

Betise Assumpção-Head is just that, as the former personal press officer of the late, great Ayrton Senna – three-time Formula 1 World Champion.

Incredibly, Assumpção-Head’s journey to the pinnacle of motor sport came via her love of volleyball – which she started playing from age 14. But, as a career, the Brazilian decided instead to write about it. And got her first reporter job at 21, a maternity cover at São Paulo’s daily newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo – just a year after she received her university degree in journalism.

“By the time I graduated, volleyball had a massive boom,” Assumpção-Head says.

“We had a great generation at that time, we were like second in the world. But, because nobody had really heard of volleyball, I was sort of the right person at the right time [to write about it], because I knew all the guys. I’d travelled with some of them. I had played in the same club as them.”

It wasn’t too long, though, before she crossed paths with soon-to-be icon of F1, Senna, on his way to the top of the sport.

Q: How did you first meet Ayrton Senna?

Betise Head (BH): “I went to work for Folha de S.Paulo, and every time that Ayrton returned to Brazil, he was then racing in Formula 3 and Formula 3000, he would call the press. He had a small agency already, but he would call up the press, and who would they send – the rookie here, because nobody wanted to go as: “ah, there’s this guy who’s coming to tell you he won a race.”

“So I followed his career, pretty much unintentionally. I don’t even like motor racing. But, I kept seeing him every four or five months. In 1985, I moved from Folha to [football magazine] Placar, which they decided wasn’t selling well and switched to cover all sports.

“In 1986, Ayrton was named sportsperson of the year, for obvious reasons. Anyway, it was a huge thing and he was going to go to Lotus the following year. I was the one doing a lift-out on him, so I went over to his office, interviewed him, his family, went to see [helmet designer] Sid [Mosca] and got his helmet so I got quite acquainted [with his camp], so to speak.

“I was not really there in friendship terms, but we had a decent working relationship, and they really liked everything I wrote and did.”

Q: What happened from there?

BH: “The following year, in 1987, I decided to go to England, just as a woman doing sports [media] I was never sent to do anything good, I was always being sent to things no one else wanted to do.

“So I moved in with my sister in London, about 300 metres away from Wimbledon. Coincidentally, Ayrton’s best friend knew my sister from advertising work in Brazil. They had bumped into each other, and he told her he was coming to Wimbledon, and asked if he could leave his car at her house. She said sure! We just didn’t know he was with Ayrton.

“Anyway, I bumped into him at Wimbledon and he asked what are you doing here? I said I’m going to stay here and improve my English. At the end of the event, though, when he came to collect the car, Ayrton was again there and told me that he was going to have dinner with the Japanese [Honda], because he wanted to bring them to McLaren. He asked me if I’d go with him.”

Q: So how did you become his press officer?

BH: “A year and a bit later I got a call from him saying I need someone to go with me [to the races]. He had a Brazilian journalist, who used to write things for him, but this guy also wrote for other publications and had children, so he needed to be present and earn a living, and all that.

“I think that’s what they first tried, and then they realised there were clashes of interest. So, somebody recommended me to him. It was guys who I had worked for at a car magazine, who now had their own agency and were doing his press for him in Brazil. So he called me, which no one believes!

“He said, I wonder if you’re interested in doing this – and I’m in this massive fight with [former FIA President Jean-Marie] Balestre, I don’t even know whether I’m going to race, but if I do I want you onboard. I said sure, and started doing only the Grands Prix. Every day I’d write a press release. In those pre-internet days, most journalists didn’t have access to good information. In Brazil, only the biggest newspapers and TV stations could send people all over the world – otherwise they’d have to rely on the international agencies.

“So what we did, everyday I’d send an article – a proper news article about everything that was happening – with information and exclusive quotes – but centred on Senna, which would be the centre of any Brazilian article anyway, wouldn’t it?

“I would send that to Brazil and they would distribute it to around 350 newspapers. So he had great exposure, and then we added photos as well. So it grew from there.”

Q: What was Ayrton like to work with?

BH: “A lot of it was about saving Ayrton time. There were times when I said to him, ‘I saw when you walked out of an engineering meeting and you looked so stressed.”

“That’s why I was doing his media work. I’d create group interview sessions with publications that would never clash and I’d record everything. After we’d done a few of those, I created a dossier with everything about him – and all the questions he’d already answered.

“So I would go to the journalist and say, OK, you’re going to have 20 minutes with Ayrton. But, here is his dossier, read the whole thing. Please don’t arrive, and ask his sister’s name, because he will get up and leave you talking to yourself.

“You cannot be given 20 minutes with Ayrton Senna and ask his favourite colour. Oh yeah, believe me, people did that!

“Ayrton didn’t like interviews, but if you could really draw him in, I couldn’t get him away from you. The engineers would be there, trying to take him away, but he loved a good, interesting chat.

“He loved explaining himself, and he wanted to be understood. He liked interesting, intelligent people.

“If someone bothered him when he was out walking, because in those days F1 was much more open – pit lane you could walk in – he could tell them to just talk to me, that she’s got a list, and she always tells me everything. I told him, throw it all to me. That’s what I’m here for. Don’t worry. We’ll deal with the thing.”

Q: Were there any issues with the press?

BH: “He’d lose it, because people would abuse the system. They’d have physical contact.

“These days, everything’s controlled, with an interview area and all that – but in that time, they’d literally accost him at the back of the garage before he’d even talked to his engineer. So he’d be really annoyed.

“I stopped it by telling the journalists that I know everybody’s on a deadline but the only ones on tight deadlines are the Europeans. The South Americans can wait. I made an order for the interviews, with the Brazilians last.

“The Europeans went first as they’re the biggest bulk, so you organise everything and then you’d find people at the back of the garage and you’d say – guys, if you stay here at the back of the motorhome, he’ll never come out because he can see you here.

“And he’s probably pissed off that you are barring the door of the engineers’ office. If you played fairly with everyone, they all understood because before me most of them didn’t have any access to Ayrton. So everybody appreciated it.

“And he would stay there until the last question, across three languages, but I would manage it and send people off when they’d had their share. It’s the same questions every week, nothing new, and I had it all recorded.

“I’d also go to the pressroom and they all knew that they could come to me for information, as I knew what he’d said. We didn’t do spin. I would just tell them.

“He said that in this context, that’s what he meant, that’s his faith, etcetera. It’s so simple, and it is surprising people don’t do it more often.”

Q: It’s now 30 years since his passing at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. What was that difficult day like from your perspective?

BH: “On that day, it was very much like I was on autopilot – you just did it. His brother [Leonardo] was there, and I wanted to make sure that he had a proper room in the hospital where he couldn’t be reached by the press.

“It wasn’t my position to go and give official news. The hospital did that. And I dealt with a few people that came out.

“After he was pronounced dead, the only thing I was asked to do and didn’t do – they wanted someone to identify the body. I said I’m not doing it.

“I had already been told, because [his friend] Gerhard Berger had gone to the hospital and said he wanted to see him. I asked, are you sure? We’d been told that we shouldn’t go and see him, that his head injuries were pretty bad. But [Berger] said he wanted to see him.

“He came back white and said “I shouldn’t have gone, please don’t let anybody in there.”

“When everything was done, I went back to the [Imola] circuit, it was 10.30pm in the evening and I sat there in the motorhome and all my things had been left there.

“There was a story on Sky TV showing Ayrton all tanned, in a bright yellow top. His hair was still wet after jet skiing – and he was saying: “I love my life here, my life is beautiful here.”

“It was at that point that I started sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t breathe. It was the same the following day.

“His brother Leonardo was there, and we were still trying to get him away from the press, moved him to a different hotel and the press still found that. Anyway, again, it was tough. I just did it.

“I spent a few days at the office in Brazil, then there was Monaco where Karl Wendlinger hit the barrier at the Nouvelle chicane, and it was the same thing – he was put in an induced coma and I just said that’s too much. I’m sorry; I’m going away, I need to go away from everything.

“I just left the office for about 15 days and went to see my sister, who was pregnant and we just sat together on the beach. I literally didn’t talk to anybody. I came back and they wanted to write a book, but didn’t want to give details.

“I just went from one day coping to three months later, at the end of August, I came back here [to Europe] and wanted to just see what I was going to do. I didn’t know. I just got on with it.”