Imola at 20: What lessons have been learned?

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were a huge shock to Formula One and to global sport. The first fatal accidents to drivers in Grand Prix for eight years, and 12 on race weekends meant some serious questions were posed and needed to be answered decisively.

To conclude the IMOLA AT 20 series, I ask the questions and try to answer them too and find what has motorsport as a whole learnt from the tragic events of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Aftermath

Before that though, the aftermath was one of devastating shock and sadness for the world, especially with what happened to Senna. On a weekend where Nelson Mandela was heading for power as South Africa’s first black president, Manchester United were winning a second straight FA Carling Premiership title and Anne Kirkbride returned to work on Coronation Street following a battle with cancer, the newspaper front pages, radio broadcasts and TV news bulletins were all about the Imola deaths.

In Brazil, the country was left deflated. Not always the happiest place with terrible amounts of poverty and an unpopular government in control, people looked to Senna for inspiration and happiness. Now he was gone and it left his fans on the brink of despair. Senna’s girlfriend of 14 months, Adriane Galisteu was crestfallen. Despite the disapproval of Senna’s family, the pair were madly in love and it is widely believed Ayrton was ready to settle down with Adriane – he saw a future with her that he hadn’t with any of his other relationships.

The funeral of Senna brought Sao Paulo to an absolute standstill. Many of the great of F1, past and present were at the service including Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, Emerson Fittipaldi, Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger. The service on Thursday, 5 May was held after three days of national state mourning. The Brazil football team would go on to win the World Cup final in the USA two months later and dedicated their win to Senna. Meanwhile, a quieter gathering visited Salzburg as Roland Ratzenberger was buried. His parents had only just returned from a holiday in Mexico to their native country on the day their son lost his life.

The FIA quickly dismissed speculation about the cause of Senna’s accident – a case that would eventually go to a messy trial that lasted years. Programmes such as the Channel 4 ‘Going Critical’ series of 2001 were totally inaccurate and didn’t bring the facts a documentary need. Max Mosley did add though that he was certain that a front wing failure was the cause of Ratzenberger’s fatal accident, something that is widely believed to be true.

Monaco misery

The fraternity gathered sombrely at Monaco with Williams and Simtek just fielding one car each. Then in the closing stages of Thursday morning free practice, Karl Wendlinger had a massive crash exiting the tunnel into the Nouvelle Chicane. Wendlinger was knocked unconscious on impact and taken to hospital where he was placed in a deep coma. Deeply distressed, Sauber and their other driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen went home emotionally drained by recent events. Thankfully, Wendlinger would make a full recovery, although he was never the same as a racing competitor.

More accidents continued to blight the season. Lotus driver Pedro Lamy has a dreadful testing accident at Silverstone, breaking both of his legs when a failure on his car saw him ejected from the seat. Andrea Montermini broke his foot and cracked a heel when he lost control of another Simtek during practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. In Germany, a kamikaze move from Mika Hakkinen to try and take the lead from row four eliminated himself and five other drivers, luckily without injury. Hakkinen was subsequently banned for the next race. In Estoril, Damon Hill narrowly escaped injury when his car flipped over Eddie Irvine’s spun Jordan during qualifying and at Suzuka; a marshal’s leg was badly broken when he was hit by Martin Brundle’s McLaren whilst attending to another car that had crashed at the same spot a lap earlier.

The FIA though were already in the process of pushing new regulations through to ensure a repeat of Imola was unlikely.

The GPDA and FIA act

Following the Imola tragedies, the drivers were rocked. Many questioned their desire on whether to compete again – even championship leader Schumacher wondered whether he should carry on. The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association was reformed on the Monaco Grand Prix weekend. Berger, Schumacher and Christian Fittipaldi would meet with Niki Lauda and the FIA on a regular basis to make immediate changes to circuits. There were some desperate measures in immediate weeks, with temporary tyre chicanes looking clumsy at best on the Barcelona circuit. There were changes to the tracks at Silverstone, Estoril in Portugal and Spa as the commitment Eau Rouge ride was tempered for 1994 by a temporary chicane.

The FIA also acted quickly. Mosley hosted a highly charged press conference in Monaco to push through new regulations which included changes to the airbox, the banning of pump fuel and more protection around the cockpit for the driver. Further improvements after 1994 have made the sport a much safer environment to compete in. Tethers have been added to each corner of the suspension to stop wheels flying off in accidents and striking the driver’s head. Helmets were made stronger and more robust which saved Felipe Massa’s life when a spring hit him at full speed during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Crash structures were also brought into place, with all cars designed and built needing to pass demanding crash tests on the side, front and rear of the chassis. Failure to pass these requirements would mean expulsion from the racing circuit. The HANS (Head & Neck Safety) device was made compulsory from 2003 onwards after vigorous testing in America, protecting the driver’s neck in a shunt. Other changes in recent years have included the banning of pointed noses on the front wing, and higher cockpit protection for the driver.

Close calls

Senna’s friend and long-time F1 medic Professor Sid Watkins was put in charge as the Head of Safety, a role he held until his death from a short illness in September 2012. The work that Sid, the FIA and the GPDA did in the weeks and months after Imola has to be credited. It managed to put motorsport back into a safer environment.

Since 1994, there has not been a single fatality at a Formula One Grand Prix meeting involving drivers. That doesn’t mean to say that there haven’t been close calls. They include Robert Kubica’s aeroplane shunt at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, the terrifying pile-up at the start of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix and Mark Webber’s acrobatic flip over Heikki Kovalainen during the 2010 European Grand Prix at Valencia.

Three marshals have sadly been killed since 1994. Italian fire marshal Paolo Ghislimberti was struck by a loose wheel from Frentzen’s Jordan after a five-car crash at the second chicane on the first lap at Monza in 2000. Less than six months later, 52-year-old marshal Graham Beveridge was killed, also hit by an errant wheel from Jacques Villeneuve’s BAR Honda when he crashed in the 2001 season opener in Australia and more recently, Mark Robinson died when he was run over by a recovery vehicle whilst clearing up Esteban Gutierrez’s damaged Sauber after the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix.

Senna’s foundation

In the weeks leading up to his death, Ayrton Senna had been working on creating a foundation to help children in Brazil. In a time of desperate poverty, the aim was to give youngsters in the country a chance with decent health and a good education. Senna cared deeply for those in Brazil. He was their ray of light and he wanted to help out when possible. Three months before his passing, he launched the Senninha cartoon character.

His sister Viviane has carried on the work since his death and it has really made a difference. It started in late 1994 and by the end of 2008; 10 million children and young people in Brazil had received assistance from the programme which has produced educational programmes and the launching of The Connect Yourself Program and The Gran Prix of Journalism. The work that Viviane has put in to achieve the results has been outstanding and her brother would be extremely proud of what she has done to make Brazil a better country.

Closing chapter

This article brings an end to my week long stretch of pieces on Viewing Perspectives. IMOLA AT 20 has been very informative to me and while tough to write, I have found this to be an intriguing project to write and share with my readership circle.

It is great to see the strong safety record since Imola. Sadly, it had to take a tragic weekend and the death of a champion and a rookie to knock the sport out of its complacency it had slipped into. Ayrton Senna was charismatic, ruthless and passionate. Some of his driving actions have been called into question and rightly so. However, he was still a brilliant champion and one of the ultimate best. Roland Ratzenberger was hard-working, determined and a charming presence on the motorsport circuit wherever he was. He had managed to achieve his goal. It was such a shame it was cruelly taken away from him shortly after he had got onto the grid.

Tributes paid to where Ayrton Senna died earlier this week on the 20th anniversary

The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix will always go down as one of the blackest weekends in the history of sport. Lessons have been learnt from what happened and motorsport is now in a much safer place than it ever has been before. I do hope that what was witnessed at Imola 20 years ago will never be seen in the future.

Categories: 1994, Adriane Galisteu, Ayrton Senna, Brazil, FIA, GPDA, Imola, Lessons, Professor Sid Watkins, Roland Ratzenberger, Safety

Imola at 20: Ayrton's Awesome Top 5

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Sunday, 1 May 1994 – what were you doing at around 1.17pm on that beautiful summer’s afternoon? That was the exact moment of time when three-time Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna crashed head-on into a concrete wall at the Tamburello bend on the seventh lap of the San Marino Grand Prix. He had been leading the race and was building up speed not much below 200mph.

Senna died in hospital, although many believe he was killed on impact when suspension debris pierced his helmet, causing his fatal injuries. He was just 34 years old.

20 years on and whilst Williams have found replacement drivers since to fill the void left by the great Brazilian, Formula One hasn’t. To mark this anniversary; IMOLA AT 20 looks back at the top five races I believe Ayrton Senna had in his 161-race career.

There are my own personal choices, so I apologise if your preferred selection didn’t make the cut. It was very hard to omit races such as Jerez 1986, USA 1990, Monaco 1992 and his final win at the Australian Grand Prix in 1993. However, this is AYRTON’S AWESOME TOP FIVE.

5. 1988 Japanese Grand Prix

The setting for many of Senna’s most dramatic moments at the wheel of a racing car was to be at Suzuka in Japan. His bitter rivalry with the Frenchman Alain Prost led to contentious collisions in the following two years. Before these though came a titanic scrap for the 1988 championship as McLaren teammates. Their car was by far and away the best – winning 15 of the season’s 16 races. Due to countback and an unpopular dropped scores rule in those days in which only the best 11 races counted to the final championship positions, victory in Japan would seal Senna’s first title.

He started from pole position but stalled on the line and only Suzuka’s sloping downhill gradient kept him going. By the time he had full speed though, he was down to 14^th and Prost stormed into the lead with an enormous advantage.

Senna though was a man possessed and cut through the field very rapidly. He was back to eighth by the end of lap two and by lap six, had forced his way past Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari into fourth spot. Just Prost, Ivan Capelli’s Leyton House and Gerhard Berger were infront.

Senna caught and passed Berger, Capelli’s car broke down and then Prost was hampered by his turbo boost causing concern, plus a small sprinkling of rain – something the Professor never enjoyed. Midway through the race, Senna closed his teammate down and edged past entering the first corner to lead. He then pulled away enough distance to secure his seventh win of his debut season with McLaren and with it, his maiden world championship title (pictured below).

Thierry Boutsen soaks Ayrton Senna after he clinches his first title

It was some way to clinch the title for the first time and few could begrudge Senna his moment.

4. 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix

Senna’s first victory arrived in the driving rain in Portugal, 1985. After a strong debut year in which he learned a lot about the sport, Ayrton took his driving talents to Lotus. Lotus was the perfect team for him at the time. It was a team that could build around the Brazilian, and one where he could showcase his driving skills in a car that could occasionally win races but wasn’t a championship beater.

He claimed pole position in Estoril in what was only his second race with the British squad and pulled away serenely whilst his rivals were caught out by the wet conditions, notably Prost who spun into the wall on the start-finish straight whilst running third. Senna lapped everyone apart from Alboreto’s Ferrari and he was a minute behind in arrears. It was a copybook performance and continued his reputation as the ultimate F1 rainmaster in the 1980s.

3. 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix

This is one of my favourite drives from Senna. The Brazilian Grand Prix was a race he was desperate to win but by 1991, this had eluded him through a combination of unreliability and clumsy driving errors (running into backmarker Satoru Nakajima whilst leading in 1990 as an example).

Starting from his customary pole position, Senna led from lap one but was hunted down all day by the much-improved Williams Renault package of Nigel Mansell. However, when the Williams weak spot of its misbehaving gearbox span Mansell out of the race at three-quarters race distance, all was set for a comfortable run to the chequered flag for the local hero.

Not so though, as his gearbox also began to develop a mind of its own. Then, Sao Paulo was hit by a typical cloudburst. Stuck in one gear, his lead was being slashed into by Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams. Senna was frantically waving his hand for the race to be stopped in the closing laps but he completed the required distance of 71 laps, and held off Patrese by just over three seconds. Another one or two laps and it would have been another tale of home heartbreak.

In the pits, Ron Dennis was ecstatic and in the car, Senna was overcome with emotion. The effort of finishing the race meaning he needed medical assistance to extricate himself from his chassis. He was physically shattered and mentally exhausted but also emotionally delighted. This was a memorable and popular victory for the whole of the country.

2. 1984 Monaco Grand Prix

Despite testing for the likes of McLaren, Williams and Brabham during and after his British Formula 3 championship success in 1983, Senna opted to drive for the unheralded Toleman team for his first break into Formula One. In the dry, the car had no hope of winning and he even failed to qualify once, but it was a totally different story in the wet.

Having got the maximum out of the equipment he had available to him to start 12^th on the grid around the streets of Monte Carlo, Senna moved forward to eighth in the early laps on Sunday, as the track surface turned into a skating rink in the principality. With devilish overtaking and sheer speed, Senna moved past Keke Rosberg, Rene Arnoux and then drove clean around Niki Lauda approaching the first corner to claim second place.

He then relentlessly closed down race leader Prost before politics got in the way. Jacky Ickx, a former Grand Prix driver himself, brought the red flag out to stop the race before half-distance after Prost had wanted the event to be stopped. Senna just failed to catch the Frenchman for what would have been a sensational victory.

It was a terrific performance and the start of something special on his journey. It cost Prost too though. With only half points awarded for this race, he lost the 1984 world championship crown to teammate Lauda by just…half a point!

1. 1993 European Grand Prix

Number one for me without a doubt is Ayrton’s performance in the 1993 European Grand Prix. With McLaren having lost their works Honda contract at the end of the previous season after the Japanese manufacturer pulled out of the sport, Ron Dennis’ team had to soldier on with a customer Ford V8 engine.

Senna had only agreed to drive on a race-by-race deal days before the season opener in Kyalami but arguably put in some of the greatest drives of his career. He won his home race for a second time, claimed top spot in Monaco for the sixth time in seven years and ended the year with superb back-to-back triumphs in Japan and Australia. However, it was this performance at a damp and murky Donington Park in Leicestershire during Easter weekend that clearly stands out.

It was the third round of the championship and Senna qualified fourth in the dry, but a considerable distance in time behind the dominant Williams cars of the returning Prost and rookie Damon Hill. On raceday, the weather turned in his favour. What happened next is quite probably the greatest lap ever seen on the racetrack.

A slow start dropped Senna to fifth, but he fought his way back from being squeezed out into turn one to outdrag Michael Schumacher exiting Redgate. Next, Senna powered around the outside of the Sauber Ilmor of Karl Wendlinger to claim third in the Craner Curves. Within two corners, he was right on the back of Hill and found a gap on the inside of McInnes to snatch second spot with just Prost infront.

Alain’s one second advantage was obliterated in one right-hander and a tight chicane. Going into the Esses, Ayrton outbraked his chief adversary and claimed the lead in breathtaking fashion. He went on to set fastest lap in the pits and won by over a minute with only Hill finishing on the same lap. It was simply stunning and ranks as the top race of Ayrton’s Awesome Top 5.

Ayrton Senna da Silva didn’t endear himself to everyone but he has left a legacy that can never be damaged. Legend is an overused word in sport, but that is what Ayrton Senna was. He was the greatest of his generation – possibly the greatest ever to have raced in Formula One. 20 years on from that dark day at Imola, his is a life that was lived to the absolute maximum.

Categories: 1984, 1993, Ayrton Senna, Brazil, Donington, Formula One, Japan, Overtaking, Portugal, Rain

Imola at 20: Did the rule changes play a part in F1's horror weekend

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The fourth instalment of this special week of articles to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of Formula One’s darkest weekend involves a look into the rules and regulations that were enforced on the teams at the start of that fateful 1994 season.

It is unfair to say what caused the accident that killed Ayrton Senna. However, Senna for one did warn of concern at the changes made by the sport’s governing body that eliminated the electronic war and ensured driver skill returned to the cars. So, Imola at 20 continues with a look into the rule changes and how much of a part they played in the horror show that was the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

How complacent were the FIA?

The pinnacle of motorsport is Formula One. Teams come and go, drivers arrive and depart and circuits change and evolve over time. The same can be said for the cars designed to blast around some of the fastest tracks in the world.

The FIA had lost control of the costs that were engulfing teams. Five years before Imola 94, more than 40 cars were turning up at Grand Prix weekends, with only 26 of them to start the main event on a Sunday in 1989. Eight cars were already on their way home by the time pre-qualifying ended at 10am on a Friday morning! By 1994, that number had dwindled to just 28.

Two new teams arrived at the start of that particular season but in the previous four years, Brabham, March/Leyton House, Dallara, Fondmetal, AGS, Osella, EuroBrun, Coloni and Zakspeed had all collapsed as racing teams due to financial implications – whilst the historic Lotus team were in crippling debt and France’s number one team, Ligier needed Flavio Briatore’s help to save them from a similar fate.

Having let standards slip greatly when it came to budgets, sweeping rule changes were introduced for 1994. Electronic driver aids were all outlawed, including ABS braking, traction control and active suspension. Whilst the technological affect was making the sport less than appealing in the early 90s, was too much change at the same time too much?

Narrow escapes

Before Imola 94, Formula One had escaped the turbo era with a belief that it was almost impossible to die behind the wheel of a racing car. After the appalling 1982 championship, where two drivers died and Didier Pironi suffered career-ending injuries at Hockenheim, there had just been one fatality since and that was Elio de Angelis during a private test session in France four years later.

However, that didn’t mean to say there weren’t narrow escapes. Both Nelson Piquet and Gerhard Berger had humongous accidents at Imola on the Tamburello corner in the late 1980s that would claim Senna’s life. Erik Comas, Martin Donnelly and Alessandro Zanardi all cheated death in the early 90s and Riccardo Patrese walked away from this massive crash on the pitlane straight at Portugal’s Estoril circuit (video below) during the 1992 race.

There were a feeling though that the cars could be strong enough to anything thrown at them. This was probably part to luck, part to the hard safety work already in place by Professor Sid Watkins and also because of the electronics in the cars.

The active suspension system in particular when it worked did the job, made you fast and seemed to protect the driver from almost invincibility.

Electronic criticism

The competition became distorted when the clever designers at Williams pioneered the active suspension concept. In 1992, they produced a system that left the rest of the field standing. What it basically did was control each side of the car from four different angles and all the driver had to do was put his feet on the accelerator and brake pedal.

Nigel Mansell won the championship with a record (at the time) nine wins in the season but frankly, you could have put any average racing driver in that car and they would have also won the title by a country mile. By the start of 1993, it became clear that if you didn’t have the active suspension technology, you were basically beaten before the year had even begun.

Concerned about increasing corner speeds and pressure from teams who couldn’t develop such clever technology (McLaren being a prime example), active suspension was banned by the FIA at the end of the 1993 championship. When the car worked, it was fine but an active suspension failure for Zanardi during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix nearly killed him. FIA president Max Mosley’s concerns about the technology’s safety seemed to have been vindicated.

Senna was one of those who voiced his displeasure at this electronic war during his late McLaren days. He was fed up of driving his heart out and getting little reward for it. By the time he was off to Williams, his mind seemed to have changed.

Did traction control have to go?

Whilst the banning of active suspension was the only way forward for the sport at the time, traction control was another matter. Sure, it made an ugly noise when cars were braking into bends and accelerating away from them but making too much change sometimes doesn’t work and is extremely risky. The sense was that it was going to be difficult for the FIA to police this.

After early testing signs, despite being the pacesetter, Senna wasn’t happy and warned observers that this would be a season with a “a lot of accidents.” This was a man who wanted traction aids banned a year earlier but now with the team, who had pioneered such software, seemed to have had his head turned by his new employers.

The FIA did struggle to control the traction control effect. Accusations of cheating began from an early stage with Senna himself privately concerned that not all of the banned aids had been taken off the Benetton of Michael Schumacher, who had comfortably won the first two races of 1994. He asked his team principal Frank Williams to protest the results, which Frank decided not to do. Nevertheless, Benetton had now become public enemy number one and with Senna voicing his concerns in the build-up to the Imola race to the public, he had got the media on his side.

Michael Schumacher was the early 1994 pacesetter, but were Benetton bending the rules?

Whilst not fully proven, the allegation is Schumacher’s car (pictured above) had a traction control function within its system, behind a blank menu labelled ‘option 13.’ Anyone who saw his unbelievable getaway at the start of the French Grand Prix later in the year had every right to be further suspicious. Ferrari were also accused of cheating when test driver Nicola Larini made a remark a fortnight before Imola about switching off the car’s traction control system in Japan.

Therefore, whilst the FIA had been keen to get rid of all electronics with immediate effect, they only managed to open up a web of allegations, suspicion and criticism by getting rid of traction and launch control.

Did the rules play their part then?

1994 had already begun with a chain of crashes. JJ Lehto injured his neck heavily during a pre-season testing shunt at Silverstone, whilst Jean Alesi missed two races after damaging his back in a similar kind of crash at the Mugello circuit in Italy. Jos Verstappen, subbing for Lehto had been involved in a colossal multiple pile-up in the first race, with one of his Benetton wheels striking Martin Brundle’s helmet and an ambitious lunge on Karl Wendlinger during the race in Aida had seen Michele Alboreto ride over the Sauber’s front suspension.

The danger signs were there before Imola, so did the rules play their part in the weekend that claimed the life of a rookie and one of the greatest drivers of his generation?

Well many believe it played a role, but how much of a factor was it all? It is dangerous to say it was significant but the changes did make the cars far harder to drive which was fine but had made it much more difficult to control when it came to spins and accidents.

Changes were needed to bring driver skill back to the heart of the sport but perhaps too much alteration and the bickering from the teams, both mid-1993 and early 1994 had not helped in the lead-up to the Imola weekend.

The 1994 regulations were among the biggest and most complex of changes in the sport’s history. It is fair to say they weren’t very popular but to ensure the integrity of racing in later years, it was needed. It is a shame that the longer term benefits couldn’t be seen by all.

Categories: 1994, Accidents, Active Suspension, Ayrton Senna, Benetton, FIA, Imola, Rules, Traction Control, Weekend

Imola at 20: How lucky was Rubens Barrichello?

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

This week marks the 20^th anniversary of the nightmare at Imola in 1994 for Formula One. It was a weekend of catastrophic events that changed motorsport irreversibly. On Viewing Perspectives this week, I am looking back at some of the events that made the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix such a hellish weekend for all concerned in the sport.

Imola at 20 continues tonight with a look into the accident that started the weekend’s chain of terrifying accidents. Grand Prix’s luck ran out in the days afterwards with the fatal accidents of Roland Ratzenberger and of course Ayrton Senna but it remained intact just about on Friday, 29 April 1994. Rubens Barrichello had a huge shunt at the Variante Bassa but escaped with only minor injuries. However, how lucky was Barrichello to survive his crash at Imola?

The prodigal Brazilian

A young Rubens Barrichello was considered by many to be the country’s next bright spark in Formula One. At just 21, he had made his debut in the sport in the previous year and despite not having decent equipment at his disposal, Barrichello put in some starring performances in the Jordan Hart car of 1993. Only a fuel pressure problem robbed him of a famous podium in just his third race at Donington Park and he finished a fine fifth on his first visit to the testing Suzuka track, home of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Barrichello was loved within the Jordan team and was retained for 1994. Together with fellow youngster and countryman Christian Fittipaldi, who had moved to the solid Footwork squad, both were considered as potential heirs to Ayrton Senna who took great time in mentoring the young prodigals of Brazilian motorsport.

Rubens started 1994 on a crest of a wave. A fine fourth place finish at his home event was followed by a maiden visit to the podium with third spot at the Pacific Grand Prix at the tight and dusty TI Aida circuit. He arrived at Imola in second place in the championship with seven points. Only the dominant Michael Schumacher had also scored in both world championship events.

Desperate action

Barrichello was 10^th fastest in the Friday morning practice session before afternoon qualifying and looked like he would be in the mix with the Sauber cars, the Tyrrell’s and Martin Brundle’s McLaren for qualifying positions inside the first five rows. That all changed on his first flying lap.

Approaching the end of his first quick run, Rubens lost sudden control of his car in the second part of the fast Variante Bassa chicane just before the pits at Imola. He then caught an outside kerb at some 140 mph, which immediately launched him into the air. By sheer luck and nothing more, Barrichello hit the final row of tyres at the top of the barrier, the momentum and speed enough to roll his Jordan car twice, before remaining upside down when it came to a halt.

He was knocked unconscious and the session was immediately stopped with Senna having just gone fastest. Less than 20 seconds after impact, an over-exuberant marshal turned Barrichello’s car over and gave the unconscious driver a sudden jolt. While this individual was only trying to do his job, this could easily have given Barrichello serious spinal injuries from the landing. Luckily it didn’t and only around 60 seconds later, Professor Sid Watkins and his medical team arrived at the crash site to treat the driver (pictured below).

The medical team arrive only moments after Rubens Barrichello's huge accident

Precautions were taken to stabilise the 22-year-old. Watkins managed to prevent Barrichello from swallowing his tongue which was blocking his airway. If the Doc hadn’t managed to do this, it is almost certain he would have died. It would have been a similar outcome if it was catch fencing and not tyre barrier that Rubens had hit. Sheer luck plays a part in this story.

He was taken to the circuit’s medical centre. Senna was one of the first to go and visit him, before telling reporters; “He’s alright, he’s shocked of course but he’s alright.” After being transferred for further observation to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna, Barrichello was released the next day and returned to the circuit briefly to say his farewells to his pitcrew. Only a broken nose prevented him from taking part in the remainder of the weekend’s activities. Along with an evident cut to his lip and bruising, he was so lucky to not be the first victim of this weekend.

Confidence

Qualifying resumed as normal once the track was cleared. The majority believing the worst of the weekend’s moments was behind them. Damon Hill described the feeling back in 2004, saying: “We all brushed ourselves off and carried on qualifying, reassured that our cars were tough as tanks and we could be shaken but not hurt.” Everyone would have agreed with this sentiment until Ratzenberger’s fatal crash a day later.

The late F1 medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins, who died in September 2012 after a short illness wrote in his 1996 book ‘Life at the Limit’: “By the time the helicopter took off to take Rubens to hospital, we were all fairly confident that he was going to be alright. Spirits were high; congratulations to the medical team were welcomed. The system had worked and the result was joyful.”

Barrichello put aside his own personal grief after Senna’s death and claimed Jordan’s first pole position in a wet qualifying session at Spa later that year. He finished sixth in the drivers’ championship in 1994 and went on to drive in over 300 races for Stewart, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn GP and Williams, winning nine races and coming in as runner-up in the championship standings to teammate Schumacher in 2002 and 2004. After a year in IndyCars in 2012, Rubens is now racing stock cars in his homeland and also entering into a media career with TV Globo in Brazil.

Sometimes, you are lucky in life and there is no doubt that Rubens Barrichello falls into that category. Fate and fortune were on his side that day at Imola and we are all thankful that he went on to have such a strong and likeable career that spanned another 17 seasons after Imola in 1994.

Categories: 1994, Ayrton Senna, Imola, Jordan, Motorsport, Professor Sid Watkins, Rubens Barrichello, Tyres, Variante Bassa

Imola at 20: Why did Erik Comas stop at Tamburello?

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Motorsport is dangerous, it always has been and always will be but no-one could predict the horrific chain reaction of accidents that marred the weekend at the Imola circuit in April/May 1994. By the end of the weekend, mechanics and spectators had been hurt, and two drivers had been killed on consecutive days – one of them perhaps the greatest human being ever to have sat behind a steering wheel – Ayrton Senna.

20 years on and in a series of daily posts on Viewing Perspectives – I reflect on San Marino 1994 as we approach this sad and painful anniversary. Whilst my Formula One passion has dwindled in the last year, the past can’t be ignored. Coming up this week, there will be pieces on the rule changes, the pain the Simtek team had to deal with following Roland Ratzenberger’s death and pay tribute to Ayrton Senna by choosing his top five races of his career.

This piece though focuses on one of the stranger incidents of that horror weekend. Why did Frenchman Erik Comas stop at Tamburello to try and save Ayrton Senna?

Spa history

Erik Comas was among a crop of promising French drivers emerging in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Along with Jean Alesi and Eric Bernard, he was producing some great results in the junior categories. After losing out on the 1989 F3000 title to Alesi on count-back of positions, Comas went one better and achieved the crown in 1990.

That won him a Formula One contract with Ligier for 1991 but the French team was already in rapid decline. Only minor points finishes were achieved with fifth place his best result in the 1992 French Grand Prix. It was four races later though where he cheated death.

On a sunny Friday morning during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, Comas had a monumental accident at the fast Blanchimont corner and was knocked out in the impact. Senna was the first driver to approach the scene. He drove past slowly and seeing the stillness of the Ligier driver, he switched his engine off and got out of his car, rushing to the aide of his stricken colleague. Senna managed to switch Comas’ engine off to stop a potential leaking of petrol that could be catastrophic and held his head in a stable position until medical assistance arrived on the scene.

Senna was the only driver to stop to help him. Even Erik’s Ligier teammate at the time drove past. In an interview recorded in French years later, Comas revealed what he was told of Senna’s heroism. He said: “I don’t remember anything but I have seen the videos. The front right wheel hit me on the helmet which knocked me out. The car then slid back onto the track but I was accelerating full throttle. Ayrton arrived and immediately heard the sounds, the revving of the engine. He stopped, took off his seatbelt and came running towards me while there were still cars running. He then looked for the short circuit and shutdown my car because at that time, there was a real risk of an explosion or fire. It’s likely Ayrton saved my life at that moment.”

Attempting to return the favour

When Senna crashed on Sunday, 1 May 1994 – the rest of the field carried on racing as they would during a Grand Prix. The race was halted pretty quickly and the medics started working on the stricken Brazilian. Comas was desperate to find out what state his friend was in.

He revealed: “For the first time in my career, I find myself sitting next to him at the driver’s briefing. Ayrton was very touched by the accidents of the weekend; he remarked that something had to be done to prevent this from happening. However I do not believe at all there was emotional weakness behind Ayrton’s accident.”

Erik Comas driving in the prettier of the two Larrousse liveries of 1994

Comas was now driving for the financially crippled Larrousse team who had split liveries for the season (green livery pictured above). At Imola, he and teammate Olivier Beretta were driving in the hideous and ugly looking red and white striped Larrousse car with heavy sponsorship from French beer Kronenbourg. Whether it was Larrousse or the track officials who made the mistake to wave him out of the pits during the red flag, it could have had even further tragic consequences.

Eurosport commentators Allard Kalff and John Watson are stunned (video below) when they hear the noise of Comas’ Ford engine scream out of the pits and drive virtually flat-out to the scene of the crash. Only at the last moment did marshals managed to flag Comas down, narrowly missing corner workers and the helicopter that had landed on the track to airlift Senna to hospital in Bologna.

Comas added: “When I came up to Tamburello, the medical helicopter, the ambulances, Ayrton’s car…were already there. I saw Ayrton was already put on a stretcher so I stopped my car. I was in the middle of the track a few feet away from the drama.

“As I arrived, I understood that…there was a message…that Ayrton was a man who sort of radiated and there it felt like an atomic bomb just exploded at Tamburello. There truly was a very heavy atmosphere hanging over the area and without knowing any details, I knew it was very bad. A sort of paralysis came over me because there I was standing next to a man who two years earlier had saved my life and I couldn’t do anything to help him. That felt horrible.”

Distressed by what he had seen as medical staff attempted to revive Senna, Comas retired from the race and it was a pain that he only revealed 10 years later to French television. He went on to say in the interview that Williams should never had allowed Senna’s teammate Damon Hill to take the second start and the podium celebrations that happened afterwards were scandalous as everyone knew at least the severity of Senna’s condition by the end of the race.

For Comas, he was done with Formula One. His motivation and passion for the sport was gone and he quietly went away at the end of the 1994 season, continuing his racing career in Japan. Today, he runs Comas Historic Racing which provides paying customers the chance to enter historic rallies driving cars from his fleet of automobiles.

Some will feel that the actions of Erik Comas on that Imola weekend were idiotic and unforgivable. Whilst driving out of the pits at full speed was brainless, he was only concerned for a man who had saved him from a similar fate less than 18 months earlier at Spa in 1992. He had his reasons for stopping at Tamburello and it is a sight that always will remain with him, even 20 years on from these distressing moments of anguish for everyone connected with Grand Prix motor racing.

Categories: 1994, 20, Ayrton Senna, Erik Comas, Imola, Larrousse, Medical, Motorsport, Spa, Tamburello

Imola at 20: A dreadful weekend relived

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

There are some moments where if you were old enough, you will remember where you were when a historic moment occurred. Events such as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, 9/11, 7/7 and Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 probably spring to immediate thoughts.

Those connected with the world of sport will have the same when relieving the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, England’s 5-1 football win over Germany two years earlier and Super Saturday at the Olympics in London. If you can remember, the same sadly applies to the events of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Motorsport is dangerous, it always has been and always will be but no-one could predict the horrific chain reaction of accidents that marred the weekend at the Imola circuit in April/May 1994. By the end of the weekend, mechanics and spectators had been hurt, and two drivers had been killed on consecutive days – one of them perhaps the greatest human being ever to have sat behind a steering wheel – Ayrton Senna.

20 years on and in a series of daily posts on Viewing Perspectives – I reflect on San Marino 1994 as we approach this sad and painful anniversary. Whilst my Formula One passion has dwindled in the last year, the past can’t be ignored. Coming up this week, there will be pieces on the rule changes, the pain the Simtek team had to deal with following Roland Ratzenberger’s death and pay tribute to Ayrton Senna by choosing his top five races of his career.

However, it is only appropriate to start this series, Imola at 20 with a lookback at just what occurred on Friday 29 April, Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May 1994.

Early warnings

The paddock arrived at the popular Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for the third round of the 1994 championship. German wunderkind Michael Schumacher had comfortably won the first two events in Brazil and at the TI Aida track under the Pacific Grand Prix banner. 

Championship favourite Ayrton Senna had scored absolutely nothing in points and was under pressure to deliver. Autosport magazine ran on their front cover SCHUMACHER 20, SENNA 0 in their preview to the weekend.

Senna was a previous three-time winner at the track and was desperate to perform, despite still big concerns about the handling of the evil Williams Renault FW16. He set the pace in Friday qualifying by some distance but reported to his race engineer David Brown that the balance was worse than it had been a fortnight earlier at the tight and twisty Aida track.

Friday brought a chilling omen though to the weekend’s forthcoming events. Early on in Friday qualifying, Rubens Barrichello had a massive accident at the Variante Bassa. The Jordan driver overshot the chicane and somersaulted into the barriers, narrowly avoiding catch fencing that probably would have killed him. Despite the ferocity of the accident, Barrichello suffered only minor cuts, bruises and a broken nose but his weekend was over.

Everyone hoped that would be the only lucky escape of the weekend but F1’s luck was about to run out.

Luck runs out on the sport

Around 18 minutes into Saturday’s second qualifying session, 31-year-old Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger left the circuit at the flat-out Villeneuve kink on the approach to the Tosa hairpin. Ratzenberger was travelling at close to 200mph, unaware that an excursion on a previous lap had damaged the front wing of his Simtek Ford. As he went to start his next flying lap, the wing weakened and fell off exiting Tamburello. With no control on his steering or braking, he stood little chance.

The impact was destructive as the wrecked chassis finally reached a stop point at Tosa, with Ratzenberger slumped in the cockpit and clearly in big trouble. Marshals quickly gathered around him to prevent any further distressing images to television viewers around the globe. The fraternity was stunned – Senna close to tears in the Williams garage when he realised how big the shunt had been. He went down to the scene of the crash to see the damage for himself. 

When he got back, he told Brown and teammate Damon Hill that he had no chance of surviving.

Sure enough, FIA press officer Martin Whittaker had the tough task of confirming the death of Roland Ratzenberger on arrival at the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna. His fatality was the first in a Formula One racing car in eight years – the last being Elio de Angelis perishing at the wheel of a Brabham during a test session at Paul Ricard, France in 1986. The last driver to die on a racing weekend was Riccardo Paletti at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix.

Qualifying did resume but Benetton, Williams and Sauber immediately withdrew from carrying on that day. Everyone looked lost and wondered what they were doing racing in these circumstances. Senna claimed a joyless 65^th pole position from Schumacher, Ferrari favourite Gerhard Berger and Hill. If Saturday had been a hellish day, Sunday would be even worse.

The king of racing is dead

Sunday morning began with a minute’s silence and the confirmation of the reformation of the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association). Three-time world champion Niki Lauda would chair the new committee with a meeting scheduled to improve safety from the next event in Monaco two weeks after Imola. Senna, Berger and Schumacher were among the prime movers.

With Ratzenberger’s fatal crash still on everyone’s mind, the show must go on and the 25 cars lined up for the start of the race. Senna looked pensive and very thoughtful on the starting grid as he sat in his FW16 chassis. This wasn’t a weekend for happy faces.

At the green light, there was more trouble. The unsighted Lotus of Pedro Lamy careered into the stalled Benetton of JJ Lehto on the grid. Lamy’s car was shattered but the Portuguese driver walked away without injury. Lehto likewise but an errant tyre from the Lotus vaulted a fence and entered an area where spectators were located. A policeman and seven fans were injured by the flying debris, although lightly in comparison to the weekend’s earlier events.

Rather than choose to halt proceedings, the safety car was deployed whilst marshals cleared up the wrecked cars and the various pieces of carbon fibre. Senna still led Schumacher, Berger, Hill and the fast-starting Sauber Mercedes of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. After five laps at reduced speed, the race restarted again with the top two breaking away considerably from the chasing pack.

The wrecked Williams of Ayrton Senna is returned to the pits

Senna had been faster than Schumacher all weekend but the Benetton’s aggressive three-stop strategy plan meant he was keeping up with the Brazilian. Entering Tamburello on lap seven, Senna’s car went straight on rather than turning to the left kink of the bend. He was powerless to correct the car and headed straight for the concrete wall. The Williams rebounded towards the racing track, stopping just short of the tarmac in a crumpled wreck (pictured being taken back to the pits) with the Brazilian motionless. The race was stopped.

From an early stage, it became clear that Senna was at best gravely injured. The accident had been heavy but he would have walked away unharmed had it not been for a piece of suspension assembly from the car that broke away and pierced the great man’s helmet. Professor Sid Watkins and the rest of the medical team got to work and a helicopter quickly arrived on the circuit. Watkins later revealed that when he got to the scene, he could see that from Senna’s neurological signs, it would be a fatal accident.

After 45 minutes of work, Senna was airlifted to hospital in Bologna and the race was unbelievably restarted. For the record, Schumacher was beaten off the line by Berger but quickly passed the Ferrari and went on to win by over a minute from the second Ferrari of Nicola Larini and Mika Hakkinen’s McLaren Peugeot. Berger retired due to a handling imbalance with his car, whilst Hill finished a lapped sixth after contact with Schumacher on the first lap of the restart. There was also another accident in the pitlane that injured mechanics from Ferrari and Lotus when an errant wheel came off Michele Alboreto’s Minardi after his second pitstop.

The most important thing now was to find out Senna’s condition. The news came through before 6pm UK time that he was clinically dead at the age of just 34, as confirmed by Sky News (video below).

It had been a truly terrible weekend and 20 years on – the pain for those closely associated to both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna will never go away. Both left memories and they will never be forgotten by anyone who is involved in the Grand Prix fraternity today.

Categories: 1994, Ayrton Senna, Death, Imola, Motorsport, Roland Ratzenberger, Rubens Barrichello, San Marino, Simtek, Williams

Ayrton Senna - Was the Brazilian the greatest of all-time?

By Simon Wright

Today marks the 19^th anniversary of the passing of one of Formula One’s greatest ever drivers, Ayrton Senna (pictured).

The three-time world champion was a national hero in Brazil, at a time where the country wasn’t experiencing the best of periods.  For many locals, he brought the nation together, and his 41 Grand Prix victories all had their own special moments.

Not everyone endeared themselves to Senna’s ability.  His ruthlessness and determination to win led to some high-profile controversial moments.

The feud with Alain Prost pushed Grand Prix racing into the sporting limelight in the late 80s and early 90s.  There were the regular run-ins with the flamboyant FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre, and raging battles with the likes of Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and in his final days, Michael Schumacher.

One of F1’s unanswered questions we will never know will be whether Senna at his peak, aged 34 could have defeated the young wonder in Schumacher.  Certainly, the Benetton Ford package at the start of 1994 had the upper hand on the evil-handling Williams Renault FW16.  It was Schumacher 20, Senna 0 in points heading to Imola.

However, the Brazilian persisted with a car that was certainly not to his liking, and was dominant all weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix meeting.  He was leading going into lap seven and then, he perished at one of F1’s most feared corners at the time, Tamburello.

What made him so great?

There were two great qualities for me that made Senna stand out from the normal driver.  They were the wet weather ability and the amount of pole positions he collected in his career.

When the rain comes down, some drivers have the ability to make the genuine difference.  Jean Alesi, Wolfgang von Trips, Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have shown their quality in tricky conditions throughout their careers, but there was something uniquely different about Senna.

The first signs came in his debut season in 1984, when he charged around the streets of Monte Carlo in filthy weather.  From 12^th on the grid, he took the underpowered Toleman unit into second place, with some brave and devilish overtaking.  Had it not been for a slightly convenient red flag, he probably would have caught Prost in the McLaren and won the race.

A year later, the Brazilian transferred to the Lotus stable and in Portugal, just his second race for them, he destroyed the competition in wet weather lapping all but one car.

It was the first of his victories, and he repeated his skill when the skies opened on several more occasions.

His first lap at Donington on a damp, dull Easter weekend in 1993 is in my mind, the greatest first lap I’ve ever seen in Grand Prix racing.  The skill, the commitment and the delicate approach he would take in the wet was masterful.

From the start of the Lotus days, Senna’s ability to be the fastest over a single flying lap became legendary.  There were times where he would still set laps much faster than other competitors, even when he had to deal with slow moving EuroBrun or Coloni cars infront (two of the hard-trying backmarker teams in the late 1980s).

He achieved 65 pole positions, the last one coming on Saturday, 30 April 1994 – a day before he paid the ultimate price.  Schumacher has beaten this figure, but it took him 15 years to do it, and Sebastian Vettel has every chance nowadays to top this list.

However, neither can compare to what Senna could do on a quick lap.  Don’t forget, these were the days of qualifying cars, monstrous V12 engines, and having to make manual gear changes on a regular basis.

And one record that still remains is his six victories around Monaco.  At Monte Carlo, he was almost virtually unbeatable.

The detractors

His ruthless approach to winning sometimes cost Senna, and it didn’t win him many friends.

The feud with Prost which started when they became McLaren team-mates in 1988 was gold dust for the race promoters and the neutral spectators.  At a time where if you weren’t in a McLaren, you could forget winning – they produced some classic battles.

Senna frightened Prost when he drove him towards the pitwall in Portugal in 1988, but that was only the start of things to come.

He didn’t make any friends for breaking an agreement made at his behest with Prost at Imola in 1989.

Senna wanted the pair to agree on whoever led off the startline to win the race.  On the restart after Gerhard Berger’s fiery accident, The Professor got the better getaway, but Senna broke the agreement into Tosa on the first circuit, broke away and won the race by miles.

Prost refused to attend the press conference and the cordial relationship was over – similar to what is happening at Red Bull in today’s paddock.

No-one will forget the clashes at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990.  Some feel Senna was harshly treated in 1989 when he was disqualified for receiving outside assistance.  In 1990, he had enough of the bickering, and pulled off a dangerous move that could have had worse consequences.

So annoyed the pole position had been moved onto the dirtier side of the track, he vowed to punish Prost if he turned into the first corner first.  That’s exactly what happened, and the result was catastrophic.

The pair ended in the gravel, and into the tyres.  They strapped themselves out of their cars, neither talking to the other and Senna was hiding a massive secret.

He had deliberately crashed into Prost, but that was something he only admitted after wrapping up his third title in 1991.

There will be those detractors, who will never forgive him for this act of frankly disgusting driving, but everyone has made mistakes, and most have some kind of darker side or done something we are not proud of, but at the time thought it was okay.

Was he the best?

It is almost impossible to declare who is the greatest Grand Prix driver of all-time?  

Schumacher might have most of the records, but then Prost was the most measured, Juan Manuel Fangio the best in an era where you had a 50 per cent of dying, Jim Clark was the best when it came to protecting an inter-team relationship, Fernando Alonso the best when it comes to consistently getting the job done, no matter the equipment at his disposal.

So I don’t want to make comparisons, considering these were different eras, different cars, different circuits and different safety regulations.  However, in his prime – Ayrton Senna was the best of his generation.

When he died at the wheel of the Williams on Sunday, 1 May 1994 – he became a legend that will never ever be forgotten, no matter of the legacy he left.

19 years on – F1 has moved on, but devoted fans will always remember Senna’s personality and genius behind the wheel of a racing car.

Categories: Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Brazil, FISA, Formula One, Imola, Jean-Marie Balestre, Lotus, San Marino, Williams