10 replies to this topic

[Woking]

The girl in the right, Adriane Galistu, the one who Ayrton Senna phoned on Saturday night (April 30th, 1994) telling that he don't feel like racing.

Does anyone know her detailed profile? Where was she from, what did she do and where is she now? As I am working on an article of the legend Ayrton Senna. Many thanks

[LuckyStrike1]

His gf at the time? At least ít looks like her. Not sure at all but I think she is working in the Senna foundation or something.

BTW - that pic is huge

[Williams]

A good place to start would be to get the spelling of her name right.;)

You might also check out a book of hers "Senna : ma vie avec Ayrton / Adriane Galisteu - Nirlando Beirao / Paris : M. Lafon, 1995".

And she was in Playboy (Brazilian version) (August ?) 1995

[karlth]

F1 Magazine had a cover article on her relationship with Senna a few months ago.

[Williams]

Yes that's a good place to start. It excerpted some stuff from her book.

[mikedeering]

As already stated - her book and the recent F1 Magazine will tell you all you need to know.

Brief history:

They met at Brazil GP 1993. She was working as a model at the track for Shell, and caught Ayrton's eye. Consequently they started dating and she remained with him until his death.

With regards to the Imola phone call - I happened to be reading Richard Williams' The Death of Ayrton Senna last night and can recall that:

Senna phoned Adrienne twice on the night of Saturday April 30th, either side of dinner. The first call he was crying, very upset (about Ratzenberger's accident) and stated he didn't want to race the next day. According to Adrienne, she had never heard Senna state this. This all ties in with a conversation between Sid Watkins and Senna earlier in the afternoon - where Watkins advised Senna not to race and to actually retire on the spot. Senna mulled this one over with Watkins and concluded that although he didn't feel like racing, he could actually NOT not race, so to speak.

The second call, after further discussions with Frank Williams and Sid Watkins, Senna was apparently more upbeat and was no longer upset - at least not on the outside. He was happy to race and looking forward to it..

Anyway, back to Adrienne. After Senna's death she was kinda pushed out by the Senna family who apparently were not too fond of her (potentially because she was taking up Senna's free time and keeping him away from his family?) Anyway, I think she fell on hard times - hence posing for Playboy.

She bounced back though as a major TV star in Brazil. I think she also married a very wealthy man (a guy so rich as to make Ayrton look poor) but they divorced shortly afterwards as she was keen to pursue her TV career. Anyway, thats about it.

[padovani]

Very good summary, Mike. Only one observation.

Originally posted by mikedeering

(...)

Anyway, back to Adrienne. After Senna's death she was kinda pushed out by the Senna family who apparently were not too fond of her (potentially because she was taking up Senna's free time and keeping him away from his family?) Anyway, I think she fell on hard times - hence posing for Playboy.

(...)

Ayrton's family didn't like her because they thought she was after his money.

[glorius&victorius]

I went to Sao Paulo last year, for the first time, and I visited a Brasilian girl I knew from my university in Holland. I knew her very briefly here and when I went to Sao Paulo I asked her about Senna. We never discussed him when she was in Holland since I met her very briefly. Nelise is her name, who became a very good friend of mine.

I was there for just a few days and she brought me to Senna's resting place, Murumbi, the only peacefull place for dead rich people in the noisy Sao Paulo. I actually did lay a flower there and said a final goodbye to Senna. I was very lucky since I was just in Sao Paulo for 2 days and visiting Murumbi was never on my planning (I thought I had already closed that chapter in my life.....). Nelise's best friend has a flowershop accros the cemitery, so she was there often and that's how it was so easy for me to wind up there.

After leaving Murumbi Nelise took me on a little improvised Senna tour through Sao Paulo and while driving around she showed me where once, while alive, Senna crashed his car once in Sao paulo traffic, and how that was big news at the time. I saw the building which he built, the senna tower and where now the Audi dealership resides. Senna's family holds the Audi dealership, while Fittipaldi does Mercedes.
So then I asked her about Adriane....from a Brasilian perspective. Adriane in her view was a sort of an escort girl, who once got to the Brasilian GP and came to Senna's attention. According to Nelise she worked her way into his circles, as any Brasilian girl wanted to be at the time. Nelise's dream once, was that she'd have a traffic accident with Senna....so she could meet him . She explained to me how she'd scream if it were really him!!

So anyway: Adriane was good, knew how to hold on to Senna, but Senna's family did not like her at all, suspecting from which corner of society she might come from. Senna had always been very close to his family and rumours are that Senna did not even trust her, on his family's advice. While abroad racing, he and his family tracked all her movements. Who'd she met etc. There was even word that she was still seeing her ex boyfriend while with Senna. And so things continued till his dead.
She was barred from his funeral by his family and later she published a book with very intimate pictures of her and Senna. Brasilians didn't have much respect for her for doing this, since these were Senna's private moments. Not to be exploited by her and her management team.

I saw Adriane first time on BBC's 93 documentary series A Season with McLaren, and I was really impressed by her beauty and innocense. She looked healthy too.
Last year I saw her presenting some cheap stupid music program for uneducated people, where she looked thin, old, worn-out and somewhat like a whore (excuse my language). And my Brasilian friends seem to fully agree with me.


So this is funny, you asked about Adriane.....I never thought that Nelise's tale would one day go World Wide. Thanks for asking, and mind you, my source is this lovely Nelise from Sao Paulo.

[glorius&victorius]

by the way do you have more of those hi-res pic's of senna? Would like to see them

[POLAR]

The chick runs a tv show at Record TV in Brazil. Here is the link.Adriana Galisteu TV Show

[Woking]

Thank you all for these useful info...Atlas BB really kicks ass...
The picture above was scanned from Karin's book "Goodbye Champion, Farewell Friend". I just scanned it so that I would be able to post it here. There are several pictures I've scanned at the same time and I think you guys might be interested: One of them would be Senna meets Fangio on 1993 Brazilian GP prodium. I will try to upload that onto the internet soon..
Thanks again