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.
