Ayrton Senna: The most valuable deceased athlete in sport

Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli is paying tribute to former F1 World Champion Ayrton Senna (background) during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is beloved in motorsport, and this year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix marks 35 years since his first home win. Tributes to Senna regularly take place around the anniversary of his death or during the São Paulo Grand Prix. This year’s most notable ones include newly crowned World Champion Kimi Antonelli’s special helmet, as well as his visit to the grave and a meeting with the family.

Despite thirty-two years having passed since his death, Senna continues to receive more tributes than any other driver and has sold more merchandise than any inactive driver. Part of the reason is that both the sport and the company keep finding new ways to keep the memory alive.

Senna won 41 Grands Prix in a career spanning 10 years, with 80 podiums from 161 starts. His 65 poles were the highest number any driver had until Michael Schumacher broke the record in 2006. His proper self-introduction to the F1 world came at Monaco in 1984, in his rookie year, where he showcased his wet-weather skills to finish second in a generally uncompetitive Toleman-Hart. Just a month before the masterclass in Monaco, Senna had won the 1984 Nürburgring Race of Champions in equal machinery against nine Formula One world champions, as well as his future rival Alain Prost, once again in light rain. The Senna-Prost rivalry is one of the classic rivalries in motorsport history, and it turned into a friendship after Prost’s retirement in 1993, along with plans to start a racing team together, before Senna’s untimely death in 1994.

The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix was one of the darkest weekends in F1 history. Rubens Barrichello survived a 95G crash in practice, Roland Ratzenberger fatally crashed on Saturday at the Villeneuve curve, and Senna lost his life in a fatal crash on lap 7 of the race at the Tamburello curve, which had no shock-absorbing installations. Senna’s death remains Formula One’s last death on a race weekend, and it prompted major reforms in driver safety.

A fan places a replica of Ayrton Senna's helmet on the monument dedicated to him during an event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death in Imola in 2024. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Senna’s funeral took place back in Sao Paulo, with the largest funeral procession in the country’s history and three days of national mourning. Senna was a national hero to Brazil because he was openly patriotic and proud, waving the Brazilian flag almost ritualistically during his victory laps at a time when Brazil was dealing with a turbulent economy and its self-esteem was at an all-time low. Senna was also a philanthropist, secretly donating millions of US dollars to poor children, and he had created the core framework for a charity aimed at Brazilian children, which became the Instituto Ayrton Senna after his death.

Senna’s name is managed by two bodies, both run by his family: Senna Brands, which handles licensing, and the Instituto Ayrton Senna, an education charity founded by his sister Viviane in November 1994. According to Máquina do Esporte, a Brazilian sports-business outlet, licensed Senna merchandise has sold more than USD 2 billion at retail over the past thirty years, and the royalties and image rights paid to the Instituto add up to more than USD 500 million. In 2024 alone, the Instituto reported USD 4.8 million in royalty income, of which USD 1.5 million came from Senna’s image (the rest came from the Instituto’s own logo). Senna Brands, meanwhile, says its revenue has grown eightfold since 2020, and it now has more than 65 partners in over 70 countries. Even Netflix’s Senna series, made with the family’s cooperation on a reported budget of USD 170 million, drew a record number of brand tie-ins for Netflix Brazil.

Kimi's paying tribute to Ayrton Senna with a bespoke helmet this weekend 💚💛 #F1 #BrazilGP https://t.co/ICl1ZN1aRJ

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 6, 2026

This posthumous income is fundamentally different from that of others like Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley, because the person under discussion did not leave behind a music catalogue or acting credits that would promise a steady income in the form of residual cheques. For this comparison, I do not count income from investments that may have been made by each estate, only the money earned posthumously solely from the person’s name, image, likeness and associated marks (number, helmet, signature, branded products, et cetera). I also used Forbes’ annual list of highest-paid deceased celebrities since 2001, adjusted to 2025 dollars. And this comparison list is surprisingly small.

The only comparable option is the American pro golfer Arnold Palmer, whose estate has earned between $235 million and $250 million since his death in 2016 from licensing his iced-tea-and-lemonade drink to AriZona. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, has posthumously earned $35-80 million from his Nike line and licensing deals. Marilyn Monroe’s brand management company has earned $268-368 million since 2001, and the combined income of Monroe, Palmer and, surprisingly, Albert Einstein comes close to Senna’s posthumous income. I estimate Senna’s figure to be higher, because it has never been publicly audited and if we factor in the years when Senninha (“Little Senna”) toy and comic sales were at their peak.

Having grown up in India idolising cricketers and film stars, I expected to find an Indian equivalent of Senna’s legacy, but surprisingly the list comes up short among both Indian and international athletes and stars. Pelé’s brand was held by Sport 10, a US company; after his family failed to buy it back, it was sold to NR Sports, the company of Neymar’s father, for an unconfirmed $18M in 2025. Maradona’s death in 2020 led to six people claiming exclusive rights to his name, and unlicensed products never approved by his family showed up everywhere, including wine and cigars.

In India, within a year of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, films based on his death had been announced. When his father approached the Delhi High Court to stop such films, the court refused, saying that a posthumous right to privacy is not permissible. Sidhu Moose Wala’s parents, on the other hand, have released about a dozen songs since he died in 2022, and very recently a hologram world tour opened in Toronto. Puneeth Rajkumar’s posthumous film James crossed 150 crore rupees at the box office. None of these come close to the figures Senna is earning, especially given the culture of tribute and the merchandise that follows.

Senna earns more than everyone else because his legacy has stayed with his family from the start, unlike Pelé’s or Maradona’s, and its foundations were laid before his death. The Senna “S” logo has existed since the early 1990s as part of his personal branding, and the Senninha comics, launched in January 1994, drew in children throughout the nineties and have since expanded into more than 370 licensed products, video games and a cartoon series. Later generations of adults were drawn in by documentaries and, more recently, by Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the Senna series, which introduced him to fans born long after his death, myself included. Special editions such as the McLaren Senna hypercar keep his name in places where a racing driver’s name rarely appears. The sport itself keeps him alive through tributes every year at Interlagos and, until this year, at Imola.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain kisses an Ayrton Senna helmet that was presented to him after he won the pole position to tie the late Senna at second for most career poles, at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2017. | Photo Credit: AP

The money does have a purpose, as royalties from Senna and Senninha fund an education charity that claims it has reached more than 36 million Brazilian children. Senna Brands became a separate company in 2020, and its CEO, Senna’s niece Bianca, admitted that chasing revenue and running education programmes under one roof had started to clash, indicating that maybe a lot of these tributes are revenue generators. None of the posthumous F1 champions’ estates is run like businesses, except those of Senna and James Hunt. Michael Schumacher is the only one among Senna’s contemporaries with an organised programme, the Keep Fighting Foundation, and it is charity-led, while other contemporaries mostly sell signed memorabilia.

Senna stands unique in this regard: he is the only non-active driver to have a marketing portfolio that outdoes those of most current drivers. Interpolating from Forbes estimates and adjusting for inflation, it is also reasonable to assume that Senna earns more posthumously from his image and likeness alone than he did from his actual racing career. This does raise an ethical concern for me. Heartfelt tributes are one thing; every fan does them, every driver does them. But is a tribute that has become a whole industry built on a death watched live, pulling in at least half a billion dollars so far, really a tribute? The answer, in my opinion, sits in a very morally grey area. The main message, amid the hero worship and the tributes leading up to the Brazilian Grand Prix, is from Senna himself: “I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.”

[Mithun Meenakshi Subramanian is a PhD student in computer science and an avid fan of motorsports]