Editing Ayrton Senna (section)

====Debut season====
{{Main article|Toleman#1984: Peaking with Ayrton Senna}}
[[File:Toleman TG184.jpg|thumb|left|Senna's [[Toleman TG184]] from {{F1|1984}} on display in the [[Donington Grand Prix Collection]]]]

Senna made his debut at the [[1984 Brazilian Grand Prix|Brazilian Grand Prix]] in [[Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet|Rio de Janeiro]], where he qualified 17th but retired when the [[Hart (racing)|Hart 415T]] turbocharger failed on lap 8.{{sfnp|Rubython|2005|p=94}} He scored his first [[List of Formula One World Championship points scoring systems|World Championship point]] when he finished sixth in his second race at the [[1984 South African Grand Prix|South African Grand Prix]] at [[Kyalami]] with severe cramp in his neck and shoulders, and replicated that result two weeks later at the [[1984 Belgian Grand Prix|Belgian Grand Prix]].{{sfnp|Rubython|2005|p=94}}<ref>{{cite web |title=1984 Belgian Grand Prix |url=http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1984/313/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104031451/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1984/313/ |archive-date=4 November 2014 |access-date=4 September 2020 |website=formula1.com |publisher=[[Formula 1]] |url-status=dead}}</ref> A combination of tyre issues and a fuel-pressure problem resulted in his failure to qualify for the [[1984 San Marino Grand Prix|San Marino Grand Prix]], the only time this happened during his career. Toleman decided not to run both cars during Friday qualifying at [[Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari|Imola]] due to a dispute with tyre supplier [[Pirelli]] (Toleman were in the process of switching from Pirelli to [[Michelin]]). Senna then suffered a fuel-pressure problem in the wet Saturday session at Tosa (the furthest point on the circuit from the pits) and did not have enough time for it to be fixed to allow him to make the grid.{{sfnp|Hilton|2004|p=138}}

Senna's best result of the season came at the [[1984 Monaco Grand Prix|Monaco Grand Prix]], the first wet-weather race of the season. Qualifying 13th on the grid, he made steady progress in climbing through the field, passing [[Niki Lauda]] for second on lap 19. He quickly began to cut the gap to race leader [[Alain Prost]]. Before he could attack Prost, the race was stopped on lap 31 for safety reasons, as the rain had grown even heavier. At the time the race was stopped, Senna was catching Prost by about 4 seconds per lap (while the [[Tyrrell 012|Tyrrell]]-[[Cosworth DFV|Ford]] of [[Stefan Bellof]] was catching both at the same rate, although he was later disqualified due to weight restrictions broken by Tyrrell).{{sfnp|Hughes|Arron|2003|p=310}}

Early on his career, Senna developed a reputation for providing very specific technical details about the performance of his cars and track conditions long before the advent of telemetry. This skill led Toleman's [[Pat Symonds]], Senna's first Formula One race engineer, to regard the [[1984 Dallas Grand Prix|Dallas Grand Prix]] as the initial highlight of Senna's debut season, instead of Monaco. In an interview, Symonds recalled:<ref>{{cite news |last=Vasconcelos |first=Luis |date=1 May 2014 |title=Pat Symonds remembers Senna: Ayrton moved the goal posts! |url=https://www.grandprix.com/features/feature-pat-symonds-remembers-senna-ayrton-moved-the-goal-posts.html |access-date=2 September 2021 |archive-date=2 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902185516/https://www.grandprix.com/features/feature-pat-symonds-remembers-senna-ayrton-moved-the-goal-posts.html |url-status=live }}</ref><blockquote>The car was reasonably competitive there, so we expected to have a good race, but Ayrton spun early in the race. He then found his way back through the field in a quite effective way and we were looking for a pretty good finish, but then he hit the wall, damaged the rear wheel and the driveshaft and retired, which was a real shame. The real significance of that was that when he came back to the pits he told me what happened and said "I'm sure that the wall moved!" And even though I've heard every excuse every driver has ever made, I certainly hadn't heard of that one! But Ayrton being Ayrton, with his incredible belief in himself, the absolute conviction, he then talked me into going with him after the race to have a look at the place where he had crashed. And he was absolutely right, which was the amazing thing! Dallas being a street circuit, the track was surrounded by concrete blocks and what had happened – we could see it from the tyre marks – was that someone had hit at the far end of the concrete block and that made it swivel slightly, so that the leading edge of the block was standing out by a few millimetres. And he was driving with such precision that those few millimetres were the difference between hitting the wall and not hitting the wall. While I had been, at first, annoyed that we had retired from the race through a driver error, when I saw what had happened, when I saw how he had been driving, that increased my respect for the guy by quite a lot.</blockquote>That season, Senna took two more podium finishes—third at the [[1984 British Grand Prix|British]] and [[1984 Portuguese Grand Prix|Portuguese]] Grands Prix—and placed 9th in the Drivers' Championship with 13 points overall. He did not take part in the [[1984 Italian Grand Prix|Italian Grand Prix]] after he was suspended by Toleman for being in breach of his contract by entering talks with [[Team Lotus|Lotus]] for 1985 without informing the Toleman team first. Although Senna did have a £100,000 buyout clause in his contract, the team had to be informed before discussions with another team started.{{sfnp|Hilton|2004|pp=149–152}}{{sfnp|Rubython|2005|pp=97–99}} Senna became the first driver Lotus had signed not personally chosen by team founder [[Colin Chapman]], who had died in 1982.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} 

Senna had some health issues during the season. Concerned about his low weight, he hired Nuno Cobra to assess his physical condition.<ref name="video" /> By the end of the year, Senna had developed [[Bell's palsy]], possibly from a virus. One side of his face had become completely paralysed; [[Sid Watkins]] gave Senna steroids to preserve the possibility of recovery.{{sfnp|Rubython|2005|p=99}}