Gary Anderson: How 1994 united F1

The 1994 Formula 1 season was a strange one to be involved with for so many reasons. As technical director at Jordan, I was in the middle of what proved to be an extraordinary year.

Jordan had more or less recovered financially from underestimating the challenge of setting up a grand prix team in 1991. We had a good little engine in Brian Hart's V10 and I was determined to put everything into the car.

Tracks (including Spa) and cars were slowed as the season went on © LAT

Winter testing went well and Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello, our two drivers, were both very capable and progressing well.

Around Estoril, Rubens had managed the same laptime as Ayrton Senna in the Williams (Senna probably had more fuel than we did, but it made us happy!).

So we were anticipating a fun season. Rubens finished fourth in the first race of the year at Interlagos, then in the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida he got our first podium finish with a fine third place.

But it wasn't all good. In Brazil, Eddie Irvine was deemed to have caused an accident involving Jos Verstappen, Martin Brundle and Eric Bernard, with his initial one-race ban upped to three on appeal.

So after Aguri Suzuki filled in at Aida, Andrea de Cesaris - our hero from the 1991 season - stepped in and we went to the third race at Imola full of confidence.

All was going well and the car was quick, until Friday afternoon qualifying when Rubens had the mother and father of all accidents at the last chicane. He hit a kerb and then hit the outside barrier and flipped end-over-end.

I was engineering Rubens' car and he was a very good friend, so my heart was in my mouth. I really did fear for his life. Thankfully, other than a few bumps and bruises he was OK, but he wasn't allowed to compete for the rest of the weekend.

Eddie Irvine was actually sitting in the grandstand where the accident happened, so he saw it all. If Rubens had been just a few inches higher, he would not have hit the tyre barrier first, it would just have been the fence. At probably 100mph, who knows what would have happened then...

I had to think very carefully about whether I wanted to continue designing high-speed projectiles for these young guys to hurt themselves, or even kill themselves, in. But I decided I must put as much effort into the safety side of things as I did on performance. If I didn't build the cars, they would only drive for someone else.

All that action on Friday was forgotten very quickly when Roland Ratzenberger was killed on Saturday. And then we lost Ayrton Senna on Sunday.

Team co-operation lasted a couple more years after 1994 © LAT

Over the years, a lot has been said about that weekend. Everyone involved felt the pain, but it was time to take action.

It's the only time in my 42 years of being involved in motorsport that I have ever seen everyone in Formula 1 standing together for a common cause.

To be honest, the momentum kept going for a couple of years, but after that it fizzled out. Self-interest became the dominant force as it still is today.

The first meeting to discuss the immediate safety changes was held at the Monaco GP two weeks after Imola. That was really when the technical working group was created.

The technical director, or a nominated representative from each team, attended along with FIA president Max Mosley, Charlie Whiting and the big boss Bernie Ecclestone. It was a very tough meeting.

Max said solutions had to be found and F1 had to move forward. We were all committed to improving the safety and from that day on, we would have meetings more or less every two weeks. Initially, we discussed temporary modifications to slow the cars, along with longer-term regulation changes.

From my point of view, these were interesting times because instead of signing up to F1 as a team, we were all creating the future. We were working on a set of regulations that would, in the long term, save drivers from hurting themselves and even save the lives of some of them. I believe the people involved should be very proud of what they created.

Things had changed dramatically since we set out to design the Jordan 191 for our first season in F1. That was in 1990, and I was working on detailing the chassis when Martin Donnelly had his accident at Jerez.

We were looking at every aspect of the car very carefully. The basic chassis geometry and the materials you could use meant that everything was focused on stiffness and lightness, with strength becoming secondary.

When Martin had his crash, I wrote a letter to the FIA to say that I believed something should be done about this or we would see more accidents like his.

I put together a geometry for the chassis and minimum strength requirement for the materials that could be used and felt very proud of it. I got a letter back to say, 'Thanks but we know what we are doing...'

Anderson enjoyed a competitive season with Jordan in 1994 © LAT

These accidents in 1994 dented F1. We needed to prove that the sport could react and not just put its head in the sand, which is what I believe it does most of the time.

I enjoyed the weekly technical regulation changes that were subsequently instigated as we had a good group of people at Jordan and we could react. We were not the oil tanker that some of the big teams were, so the more changes the better for us, and out of it all we had a good year.

We finished fifth in the championship, had that podium at Aida and also pole position for Rubens at Spa, with a lot of fourth-place finishes on top of that.

But the strongest memory from that year is what we did for safety after Imola. That's why Roland and Ayrton should be remembered not only as great racing drivers but for what they did posthumously for F1.

No one has given as much as these two and there are many drivers out there who should thank them for it.

For more stories from the remarkable 1994 season, take a look at the special August 7 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, guest edited by Damon Hill.

The rise of Schumacher and Benetton
How the controversial Enstone squad took on and defeated the might of Williams

Hill lifts Williams in tragic season
The story of Damon Hill's rise to title contender after the death of Ayrton Senna

Tech Focus: Williams FW16
The difficult and unloved machine that turned into a championship winner

Why were there so many crashes in 1994?
The challenge of the non-gizmo cars and their part in the run of crashes

Mansell on his last F1 hurrah
The 1992 world champion talks of his final return to Williams

Brundle and McLaren: missed opportunity
Martin Brundle on the trials and tribulations of his season with the F1 superteam

Too injured to race
Why 1994 ended the F1 careers of JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger

Separated at birth: Benetton B194 and Pacific PR01
The best and worst cars of 1994 were more closely related than you might think

The final days of Team Lotus
Johnny Herbert remembers the day he could have saved a famous name

Safety legacy
Max Mosley on how the FIA turned tragedy into life-saving triumph