by In sports, some of the truly great stories come from those involved who live lives away from the spotlight – the people who were there but aren’t the first to be asked for insight. The real insiders…
Betise Assumpção-Head is exactly that, as the former personal press secretary of the late, great Ayrton Senna – three-time Formula 1 world champion.
Incredibly, Assumpção-Head’s path to the top of motorsports came through her love of volleyball – which she started playing at the age of 14. But for professional reasons, the Brazilian decided to write about it instead. At 21, she got her first job as a reporter, a maternity cover at the daily Folha de S.Paulo in São Paulo – just a year after graduating from university with a degree in journalism.
“When I graduated, volleyball was booming,” says Assumpção-Head.
“We had a great generation back then, we were the second in the world, so to speak. But because no one had really heard of volleyball, I was the right person at the right time, so to speak [to write about it]because I knew all the boys. I had traveled with some of them. I had played at the same club as them.”
However, it wasn’t long before she met future Formula 1 icon Senna on her way to the top of the sport.
Q: How did you first meet Ayrton Senna?
Betise Head (bra): “I worked for Folha de S.Paulo and every time Ayrton returned to Brazil, where he was then racing in Formula 3 and Formula 3000, he called the press. He already had a small agency, but he called the press and who did they send – the newbie here, because no one wanted to say, “Ah, there’s this guy who comes to tell you he won a race.” “
“So I kind of unintentionally followed his career. I don’t even like motorsports. But I continued to see him every four or five months. In 1985 I moved from Folha [football magazine] They decided Placar wasn’t selling well and switched to covering all sports.
“In 1986 Ayrton was named Sportsman of the Year for obvious reasons. Anyway, it was a big deal and he would go to Lotus the following year. I was the one who got him out, so I went to his office, interviewed him and his family and stopped by [helmet designer] Sid [Mosca] and got his helmet, so I got to know each other pretty well [with his camp]so to speak.
“I wasn’t really friendly, but we had a good working relationship and they really liked everything I wrote and did.”
Q: What happened from there?
BRA: “The following year, 1987, I decided to go to England as a woman who played sports [media] I was never sent to do anything good, I was always sent to do things that no one else wanted to do.
“So I moved to London to live with my sister, about 300 meters from Wimbledon. Coincidentally, Ayrton’s best friend knew my sister from advertising work in Brazil. They had met and he told her he was coming to Wimbledon and asked if he could leave his car at her place. She said sure! We just didn’t know he was with Ayrton.
“Anyway, I met him at Wimbledon and he said, what are you doing here? I said I’ll stay here and improve my English. However, at the end of the event, when he picked up the car, Ayrton was there again and told me that he was having dinner with the Japanese [Honda]because he wanted to take her to McLaren. He asked me if I would go with him.”
Q: So how did you become his press secretary?
BRA: “A year and a bit later, I got a call from him telling me I needed someone to accompany me [to the races]. He had a Brazilian journalist who wrote things for him, but this guy also wrote for other publications and had kids, so he had to be present and make a living and so on.
“I think they tried that first and then they realized there were conflicts of interest. So someone recommended me to him. They were people I had worked for at a car magazine who now had their own agency and were doing press work for him in Brazil. So he called me, which no one believes!
“He said, ‘I wonder if you’re interested – and I’m in this huge fight.’ [former FIA President Jean-Marie] Balestre, I don’t even know if I’ll race yet, but if I do, I want you on board. I said sure and started only taking part in the Grands Prix. I wrote a press release every day. In those pre-internet days, most journalists didn’t have access to good information. In Brazil, only the largest newspapers and television channels could send people all over the world – otherwise they would have to rely on international agencies.
“So what we did was I sent out an article every day – a proper news article about everything that was happening – with information and exclusive quotes – but focused on Senna, which would be the focus of any Brazilian article anyway, not true? ?
“I would send this to Brazil and they would distribute it to around 350 newspapers. So he had a great exposure, and then we added photos as well. It grew from there.”
Q: What was it like working with Ayrton?
BRA: “A lot of it was about saving Ayrton time. There were times when I said to him, “I saw you coming out of an engineering meeting looking so stressed.”
“That’s why I did his media work. I would create group interview sessions with publications that would never conflict and I would record everything. After we did some of that, I created a dossier with everything about him – and all the questions he had already answered.
“So I went to the journalist and said: OK, you’re going to spend 20 minutes with Ayrton. But here is his dossier, read the whole thing. Please don’t come and ask his sister’s name or he’ll stand up and leave you to talk to yourself.
“You can’t spend 20 minutes with Ayrton Senna and ask him what his favorite color is. Oh yes, believe me, people did!
“Ayrton didn’t like interviews, but if you could really dress him, I couldn’t take him away from you. The engineers were always there trying to give him a ride, but he loved a good, interesting conversation.
“He loved to explain himself and he wanted to be understood. He liked interesting, intelligent people.
“If someone bothered him when he was out, because Formula 1 was a lot more open back then – the pit lane you could go into – he could tell them to just talk to me, that she has a list and me always told everything.” . I told him, throw everything to me. That’s what I’m here for. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of the matter.”
Q: Have you had any problems with the press?
BRA: “He would lose it because people would abuse the system. They would have physical contact.
“Nowadays everything is controlled, with an interview area and all that – but back then he was literally attacked in the back of the garage before he had even spoken to his engineer. So he would be really upset.
“I stopped it by telling the journalists that I know everyone is meeting a deadline, but the only ones who are meeting the deadlines are the Europeans. The South Americans can wait. I commissioned the interviews, most recently with the Brazilians.
“The Europeans went first as they represented the largest mass. So you organize everything and then you find people in the back of the garage and say: Guys, if you stay back here in the RV, he’ll never come out because he can see you here.
“And he’s probably mad because you’re blocking the door to the engineers’ office. If you played fair with everyone, they all got it, because before me most of them didn’t have access to Ayrton. So everyone liked it.
“And he stayed there until the last question, in three languages, but I managed it and sent people away when they had their part. It’s the same questions every week, nothing new, and I have everything recorded.
“I also went into the press room and everyone knew they could turn to me for information as I knew what he had said. We didn’t spin. I would just tell them.
“He said that in this context, this is what he meant, this is his belief, etc. It’s so simple and it’s surprising that people don’t do it more.”
Q: It has now been 30 years since his death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. How was this difficult day from your perspective?
BRA: “That day it was like I was on autopilot – you just did it. His brother [Leonardo] was there, and I wanted to make sure he had a proper room in the hospital where he couldn’t be reached by the press.
“It was not my job to spread official news. The hospital did that. And I dealt with a few people who came out.
“After he was declared dead, the only thing that was asked of me and not done was that they wanted someone to identify the body. I said I wouldn’t do it.
“I’ve already been told because [his friend] Gerhard Berger went to the hospital and said he wanted to see him. I asked: Are you sure? We were told not to visit him as 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 anyone in there.’
“When everything was done, I went back to the [Imola] Tour, it was 10:30 in the evening and I was sitting there in the RV and all my stuff had been left there.
“There was a report on Sky TV where Ayrton was all tanned and wearing a bright yellow top. His hair was still wet after jet skiing – and he said: “I love my life here, my life is beautiful here.”
“At this point I started sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t breathe. The next day it was the same.
“His brother Leonardo was there and we were still trying to get him away from the press, moved him to another hotel and the press found it anyway. Anyway, it was tough again. I just did it.
“I spent a few days in the office in Brazil, then there was Monaco where Karl Wendlinger crashed into the guardrail at the Nouvelle chicane and it was the same thing – he was put into an induced coma and I just said that was it too much. I’m sorry; I’m walking away, I have to walk away from everything.
“I just left the office for about 15 days and went to see my sister who was pregnant and we were just sitting on the beach together. I literally didn’t speak to anyone. I came back and they wanted to write a book but didn’t want to give any details.
“After a day of coping, I came back here three months later, at the end of August [to Europe] and just wanted to see what I would do. I didn’t know. I just kept going.”
