22 replies to this topic

[D.M.N.]

15 years ago, motor racing fans were shocked and saddened by the events that occured at the Imola Circuit on the weekend of April 29th to May 1st, 1994.

The weekend was scheduled to be Round Three of the 1994 Formula One season, with the race being the San Marino Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher won the first two rounds in Brazil and Aida, with Ayrton Senna retiring in both rounds. What happened next, well.. no one could expect. On the Friday of the San Marino Grand Prix during practice, Rubens Barrichello had a high-speed accident at the chicane immediately before the start finish straight. He never participated in the remainder of the weekend. Video:

Worse was to come. In the Saturday qualifying session, Roland Ratzenberger in only his third race, had a horrendous accident on the run up to Tosa. It was immediately noticeable that he had broken his neck. He was later declared dead in hospital. Video (warning, contains upsetting images) :

The weekend had one more final, horrifying twist. On lap 5 of the actual race, Ayrton Senna's Williams, instead of turning at the Tamburello bend ploughed straight on into the tyre barrier, before coming to rest by the side of the circuit. Senna was killed instantly from the accident. Once he was took out the car, an Austrian flag was seen in the car, Senna paying respect to Roland Ratzenberger. Video:

This thread is to recognize their achievements, as 2009 marks the fifteenth anniversary since that fateful Imola weekend in 1994.

R.I.P.
We miss you both.

[mursuka80]

That race was the first i watched What a way to introduce myself to a sport i love now more than anything.Senna and Roland R.I.P

[Dolph]

At the risk of sounding inconsiderate and mean - couldn't and shouldn't this have waited four months!?

[mursuka80]

And this should be in TNF and not here.

[Ferrim]

I've read somewhere that the Austrian flag history was just urban legend, BTW.

And yes, this should've waited four months.

But something about this... people usually say: "well, we always talk about the day Senna died, but we forget that another driver died the day before him..."

Am I the only one who thinks the true reason Roland Ratzenberger is remembered is because Ayrton Senna died the following day? I mean, people have bad feelings about treating and feeling differently for people who perished doing exactly the same thing, and therefore they try to remember both of them. But had Senna not been killed the following day, Ratzenberger would be as remembered as Riccardo Paletti was and is, so a lot less than he is actually remembered. Therefore, in a certain way, Senna's death has permitted that Ratzenberger's hasn't been completely forgotten, instead of the opposite, as we use to think.

Just my two cents

[Dolph]

Although this discussion is possibly inappropriate here I believe what you say is partly true, but also, Paletti died in an age when driver deaths were more common. Roland died, however, when people began to believe driver deaths were becoming a thing of the past and was thus more shocking.

[Bernd Rosemeyer]

Originally posted by Ferrim
I've read somewhere that the Austrian flag history was just urban legend, BTW.

Anyone has a source?

[HDonaldCapps]

Originally posted by mursuka80
And this should be in TNF and not here.

Why? Ooops, sorry! I forgot that anything over 10 years in the past is relegated to the TNF dustbin....

[mursuka80]

Originally posted by HDonaldCapps


Why? Ooops, sorry! I forgot that anything over 10 years in the past is relegated to the TNF dustbin....

I have this impression that RC is for current events and TNF is for history

[LB]

I have a theory that anything that involves a race where a current driver (Barrichello) was racing should be in Readers Comments, anything that doesn't involve current drivers should be in TNF. That should get a lot of people hoping Barrichello gets a drive because otherwise I think we jump to 1997ish

[Rob]

Originally posted by LB
I have a theory that anything that involves a race where a current driver (Barrichello) was racing should be in Readers Comments, anything that doesn't involve current drivers should be in TNF. That should get a lot of people hoping Barrichello gets a drive because otherwise I think we jump to 1997ish

Fisichella raced for Minardi in 1996, so I think that's where we get to.

[tahadar]

i had the good fortune to speak to someone who was hired by Williams to investigate senna's accident. he is an expert in fractography (analysis of failure of materials), and was asked to look into the 'steering column failure' theory for a mere 3 hours while the car was held by the italian authorities. he said that 60% of the fracture surface of the weld that was suspect suffered from fatigue failure, indicating that the williams engineers had poorly designed that particular joint and it may indeed have come away in his hands. He also analyzed the sides of the cockpit to see if sennas knuckles had scraped the sides (indicating that the steering broke away), but he did not disclose the findings as he remains under a non-disclosure agreement till today. What I found very interesting was that he said that someone high up in the F1 heirarchy (presumably an FIA member) spoke to the italians, saying that the FIA threatened to never return to Italy if any Williams engineers were jailed for Senna's death!

[Andrew Hope]

Godspeed.

[rallen]

Godspeed.

Great image, I always thought that car was one of the nicest looking ones on the grid

[rallen]

i had the good fortune to speak to someone who was hired by Williams to investigate senna's accident. he is an expert in fractography (analysis of failure of materials), and was asked to look into the 'steering column failure' theory for a mere 3 hours while the car was held by the italian authorities. he said that 60% of the fracture surface of the weld that was suspect suffered from fatigue failure, indicating that the williams engineers had poorly designed that particular joint and it may indeed have come away in his hands. He also analyzed the sides of the cockpit to see if sennas knuckles had scraped the sides (indicating that the steering broke away), but he did not disclose the findings as he remains under a non-disclosure agreement till today. What I found very interesting was that he said that someone high up in the F1 heirarchy (presumably an FIA member) spoke to the italians, saying that the FIA threatened to never return to Italy if any Williams engineers were jailed for Senna's death!

Interesting, having look at all the evidence we have though and the theorys, I thought we could all rule out the steering column breakage and that was just beleived by the conspiracy theorists?

[Ross Stonefeld]

What evidence would there have been on the carbon interior of an F1 cockpit, that someone scraped their gloved knuckles? And how would it be different from normal wear and tear in the car?

[Longtimefan]

RIP Roland

[AvranaKern]

"Designed to win" - Senna, RIP good ol' man.

[bradbury west]

Just so that the date does not pass unmarked;
May 1st; RIP Senna
Roger Lund

[jj2728]

RIP

[SamoanAttorney]

Just so that the date does not pass unmarked;
May 1st; RIP Senna
Roger Lund

Seventeen years have passed since that awful weekend.

I have written a piece on my blog about 1983 and Ayrton's F3 campaign. If anyone is interested you can find HERE

Mods, if this is against forum rules please delete.

jb

[paulsenna1]

Seventeen years have passed since that awful weekend.

I have written a piece on my blog about 1983 and Ayrton's F3 campaign. If anyone is interested you can find HERE

Mods, if this is against forum rules please delete.

jb

Many thanks for this excellent blog post, brings back memories of that epic 1983 F3 season. I only managed to get to the two Oulton races and a couple of the Silverstone rounds but knew two very quick drivers were in my presence.

[eldougo]

!7 years have gone by since THAT day.