1994 San Marino Grand Prix
Remembering Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger
The 1994 F1 race at Imola saw the death of Ayrton Senna, just one day after the loss of Roland Ratzenberger. It remains Formula 1's blackest weekend.
By the time the Formula 1 circus rolled into the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix Ayrton Senna already had a significant gap to close in the championship. In the first two races the Brazilian had failed to score, whereas the young German driver Michael Schumacher had claimed maximum points.
The major news over the closed season had been Senna’s switch to the Williams team, after six seasons at McLaren, during which time he won three World Championships. Throughout the previous two seasons the Williams had been the class of the field but, with the removal of driver aids for 1994, team drivers Senna and Damon Hill were finding it a difficult car to sort.
Continuing a long line of successful Brazilian Formula 1 drivers, Rubens Barrichello was just beginning his career with the Jordan team. During Friday’s qualifying session he crashed heavily, striking a tyre barrier and inverting the car. Despite initial concern for his wellbeing it soon emerged that his injuries were minor. There hadn’t been a fatal accident during a Formula 1 weekend for 12 years and watching drivers walk away from apparently serious crashes had become the norm.
At the other end of the pit lane from the Williams garage was the small Simtek team, participating in only their third Grand Prix weekend. In the number 32 car sat Roland Ratzenberger, the perennially cheerful Austrian who had finally made it to Formula 1 at the relatively late age of 33. Despite being a new boy he had many friends in the pit-lane, made through racing in Japan and in sports cars.
Near the end of Saturday’s final qualifying session TV monitors showed the remains of Ratzenberger’s shattered Simtek coming to rest at the entrance to the Tosa corner. He had gone off the track at the preceding Villeneuve curve, the fastest point on the circuit, and struck a concrete wall. Senna, visibly shaken by the footage of the crash, commandeered an official car and made his way to the scene where he met his good friend Professor Sid Watkins, the Formula 1 doctor. Watkins led a tearful Senna away from the crash site. Despite frantic efforts by the medical team Ratzenberger was beyond help.
Watkins would later reveal that, during a discussion following the accident, he had suggested to Senna that he may want to retire from the sport. Despite being in no mood to race Senna felt that his obligations to the team and its sponsors were too great.
It was a subdued grid that lined up for the race on Sunday. Senna, as usual, was on pole. At the start he maintained his lead with Schumacher close behind. Further back on the grid JJ Lehto stalled his Benetton. Everyone managed to jink past the stranded car except Pedro Lamy, who was unsighted and accelerating hard. The impact tore the right-hand side off Lamy’s Lotus and it finally ground to a halt some distance away. Debris cleared the safety fence and injured some spectators. Meanwhile Lehto and Lamy thankfully emerged unscathed from their wrecked cars.
While the wreckage was cleared up the rest of the field circulated slowly behind the safety car, trying not to let tyre pressures drop too much and maintain some temperature in their brakes. Finally the safety car pulled in at the end of lap five. Senna led Schumacher by a few car lengths and the gap was similar as they started the seventh lap. Entering the first corner, Tamburello, which was little more than a gentle curve in a Formula 1 car, the TV producer cut to an onboard shot from Schumacher’s Benetton. Part way around the curve, easily taken flat-out, Senna’s Williams suddenly veered to the right and struck an unprotected concrete wall. The race was immediately stopped while medical assistance raced to Senna. After a long delay Senna was transferred to a helicopter to be flown to the nearby Maggiore Hospital in Bologna.
While the race was restarted, and won by Schumacher, there was no joy in the victory. Senna was gravely injured and being kept alive by a life-support machine. In early evening the news came through that the most exciting driver of his generation had died. Upon hitting the concrete wall a suspension component had pierced the familiar yellow crash helmet and inflicted the fatal blow.
In the days that followed Formula 1 was front page news around the world. After 12 years without a race meeting fatality the sport had lost two drivers in just over 24 hours. In the cockpit of Senna’s Williams an Austrian flag was found which the Brazilian had been carrying to pay tribute to the unfortunate Ratzenberger. In Brazil the President declared three days of national mourning. Senna was a hero figure in his homeland and his death came as a massive blow. Shortly before his death he had talked of starting a foundation to help Brazil’s street children. His family went on to establish the Ayrton Senna Foundation which, to date, has helped more than 1.5 million children.
Despite one being a rookie and the other being a multiple World Champion, fans of Formula 1 remember Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna with equal affection. They remain the last drivers to be killed during a Grand Prix weekend.
Sources:
“Life At The Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula 1” – Prof. Sid Watkins
F1 Racing Magazine
BBC News
