1994: Senna killed in F1's blackest weekend

A weekend in hell, nothing less. Michael Schumacher won the San Marino Grand Prix, but down the years no one will remember that. Throughout Sunday afternoon the race was merely a noise in the background while everyone waited for news. By the evening, we knew that Ayrton Senna's life was over; a day earlier, Roland Ratzenberger had died in final qualifying. The only solace of the weekend was a miraculous deliverance for Rubens Barrichello in the first session. After a dozen years without a fatality at a Grand Prix, the Formula 1 community is shocked, fragile, uncertain of itself just now.

Senna began the last race of his life from pole position, and at the green light he led Schumacher, Berger and the rest away on the first of the scheduled 61 laps. Behind them, though, there was chaos. JJ Lehto's car had stalled and, while most of those behind somehow missed the Benetton, Pedro Lamy's Lotus squarely hit it. Although neither driver was hurt, a wheel cleared the debris fence, injuring several spectators. Bits of wreckage were scattered over a wide area.

This being the case, it seemed extraordinary that the race wasn't stopped; many a more minor incident than this has previously brought out the red flag. As it was, however, the safety car set out from the pits, and waited for the pack to catch up and move into line behind it. Before this happened, though, the cars had to pass through the accident scene at the end of their first lap. With accident vehicles by the side of the track and debris strewn all over it, this was done at close to normal racing speed.

At the end of the second lap, Senna, Schumacher, Gerhard Berger, Damon Hill et al cruised past behind the safety car. This continued until the end of lap five, when the field was given the signal once more to race, Senna and Schumacher getting quite a jump on the rest.

As they crossed the line after one racing lap, the two of them were well clear of Berger. It was now, through the second half of the flat out Tamburello that Senna's Williams-Renault suddenly darted offline, sped unchecked across the run-off area and hit a concrete barrier with dreadful force.

When the car came to rest, the right front corner was gone, but it could be seen that the monocoque was intact. Some small movement of Ayrton's helmet gave momentary cause for hope, but soon the true gravity of the situation became clear. The race was at once red-flagged, and a bunch of shocked men brought their cars to a halt. Only three hours earlier, at the drivers' meeting, they had stood in silence for a minute in memory of Ratzenberger.

While the doctors worked away at the accident scene, and the rescue helicopter landed on the track nearby, the drivers took refuge in their team's motorhomes, many of them changing out of their overalls.

It was Schumacher, of course, who had been behind Senna at the moment of disaster. Much later, when the race was finally done, he spoke of what he had seen.

"Ayrton's car had seemed very nervous through that corner," he said. "I could see that it was bottoming quite a lot, and he nearly lost it. On the next lap, at the same place, he did lose it. The car's rear skid-plates touched the ground, he got a bit sideways, and... he just lost it.

"It looked a very dangerous impact," Schumacher went on, "but I didn't have the feeling it was anywhere near what happened yesterday, when Roland crashed."

As in the aftermath of Ratzenberger's accident, the TV cameras lingered pitilessly on the scene. There seemed far less damage to the Williams than there had been to the Simtek, but nevertheless it was all too obvious that Senna's plight was desperate. Eventually the helicopter took him away to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna, and the wait for news began.

The first bulletin announced only that Ayrton had suffered a head injury, but through the afternoon rumour upon rumour circulated, and their gist was that his condition was very grave. After the race, as the mechanics began packing up their equipment, loading away the cars, it was becoming clear there was no hope for Ayrton, and at 6.40pm came the confirmation of his death. An air of complete unreality hung over Imola.

As I write, on this same Sunday evening, there is, of course, no official explanation of the cause of the accident. As Schumacher pointed out, and his on-car camera confirmed, Senna's Williams did indeed bottom out immediately before it left the road. It is a matter of fact that today's Grand Prix cars run extraordinarily close to the ground, and some suggested that perhaps, during the three slow laps behind the safety car, the tyre pressures on Ayrton's car had lowered, further reducing his car's ground clearance by a critical, if tiny, amount.

Another possibility is that the Williams suffered a puncture, perhaps as a consequence of debris on the track following the start-line accident. Many found it astonishing that the race had not been stopped at that point, so as to ensure an absolutely clean racing surface afterwards, and also to allow the cars - and their tyres - to be checked over.

There remains, too, the chance that Senna simply made a mistake that not even he was able to correct. A good deal of the Imola circuit had been resurfaced since last year's race, primarily in the hope of flattening out some of its bumps.

In fact, said Schumacher and others, the resurfacing had merely exacerbated the problem, the German claiming that the bumps were especially bad through Tamburello.

It was on one of them that Senna nearly lost it the lap before he crashed, and on the same one that he actually lost it. The possibility exists that when his car skipped over the bump, Senna lifted momentarily, and that the consequent loss of downforce put the Williams finally beyond his control. This explanation tallies with Schumacher's observations.

Ultimately, though, all that truly mattered was that the world's greatest racing driver was gone, and that millions of folk over the world will feel bereft just now, their lives immeasurably saddened. In future May 1 will always mean Ayrton Senna, as May 8 means Gilles Villeneuve, and April 7 Jim Clark.

The sense of tragedy at Imola was by now quite overwhelming, and some thought maybe the meeting would - or should - be abandoned. In the end, though, the show went on, as it always has, as it always will. Forty-five minutes after the race was stopped, the cars went away on a new parade lap.

Senna's accident had occurred at the start of lap seven, but the first part of the race was declared stopped after five laps. The second part, announced the organiser, would be run over 53 laps, giving a total of 58, three fewer than originally scheduled. The times for the two parts would be added together, so that the order on the road was not necessarily the true one. It made for confusion at a moment when not too many minds were clear.

Perhaps those in the grandstands didn't have a true idea of the gravity of Senna's accident. At all events, when Berger's Ferrari screamed by in the lead - on the road - at the end of the opening lap, they rose to their feet in rapture, as if this were a normal day. It seemed inappropriate that anything should be celebrated.

Schumacher was right behind the Ferrari, however, which made him the true leader on the road. "Gerhard wasn't easy to pass," Schumacher said afterwards. '"I was quicker than him at the end of the straight, and he made it very difficult for me. There was nothing unfair about it, though, and I knew I had an advantage of 3.6s over him from the first part.

"I also knew I'd be making an early pitstop, so I wasn't going to risk anything in trying to pass him. I waited for him to make a mistake, and when he did that, I overtook."

At the end of the opening lap Hill had been in for a new nosecone, having lost a wing endplate after contact with Schumacher at Tosa. The Williams mechanics, whose thoughts must have been all over the place, duly did their work, but Hill rejoined at the tail of the field.

Even to take the restart at all had been an act of fortitude. Just as his father had to keep the Lotus team together in the wake of Jim Clark's death 26 years ago, so a similarly heavy burden awaits Damon in the coming weeks. But he will cope, just as Graham did. By the end of the race he had worked his way back to sixth, and never can a single point have been better deserved.

Schumacher came in for tyres and fuel after only eight laps, his stop requiring a fraction more than 10s. Berger's stop on lap 10 - lap 15 in total - took just 7.7s, and the Ferrari was briefly in front again, on the road at least. Once more the tifosi erupted, but soon the Benetton was ahead, and soon after that, Berger was into the pits.

The reason for the stop given by the team was that Berger had indicated a problem with the left rear of the car, which was not solved by his tyre stop. There was nothing obviously wrong, but later a hole was discovered in the flat bottom of the car, probably caused by debris from the Lehto/Lamy accident. At all events, Berger, having briefly wrung the Ferrari's neck, had little further taste for driving and admitted he had found it difficult to concentrate. He had lost two close friends in two days.

Nicola Larini, meanwhile, continued strongly. Ferrari's plan had been for him to make a single tyre/fuel stop, which he duly did on lap 24. With Berger gone, he was well able to maintain second place, ahead of Hakkinen's McLaren-Peugeot, which despite running worrying temperatures, looked likely to score the team's first points of the season.

He did not have it easy, however. The Saubers of Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen also had designs on third place, and so did Ukyo Katayama, whose driving for Tyrrell this season has improved in step with the car available to him.

Mark Blundell might well have figured in the scrap, too, but his engine lost power before half-distance. Later Frentzen rammed him, which meant a slow crawl to the pits with a flat tyre.

None of this was of the slightest interest to Schumacher, who continued on his way in the lead, simply wanting this thing over, like everyone else. On this occasion, Benetton opted for three stops for its World Championship leader, but somehow it seemed academic. "On this day," Schumacher said, "I won, but I had no satisfaction at all."

It was a understandably a little different for Larini, who was merely standing in for the recovering Jean Alesi and may never race a Ferrari again. This result meant a great deal to Larini, and on the strength of his superb drive, his talents look a little wasted in the German Touring Car Championship.

Behind Schumacher, Larini and Hakkinen, the remaining points on this joyless day went to Wendlinger, Katayama and Hill.

In light of what had befallen his team-mate in the final qualifying session, David Brabham deserved some kind of special award for gallantry, simply for taking the start. There was great sympathy for the new Simtek team, and it was a shame that front-end problems spun Brabham out of the race.

The final act of horror in this San Marino Grand Prix was set in the pit lane. As Michele Alboreto departed from his final stop, his Minardi's right rear wheel flew off, and several mechanics - three from Ferrari, one from Lotus - were injured, although mercifully not seriously so.

Many of the drivers appeared dazed afterwards, which was hardly a surprise.

"God has had his hand over Fl for a long time," said three-time world champion Niki Lauda. "This weekend he took it away."


QUALIFYING

Barrichello escapes high-speed smash

Rubens Barichello escaped from a spectacular accident with little more than a bloodied nose. The Brazilian was on his first flying lap of Friday's qualifying session when his Jordan-Hart failed to negotiate the left-hander at the Variante Bassa chicane, which is usually taken flat in fourth gear.

The kerbing acted as a ramp, launching Barrichello's Jordan into the debris fencing above the tyre barrier. The car was then thrown back on to the verge of the circuit, landing on its side.

Marshals quickly righted the car, but there was criticism over the rough manner of the operation. The remaining emergency work was flawless, however.

The Brazilian was briefly unconscious, but his condition was stabilised at the trackside before being stretchered to the medical centre.

Formula 1 doctor Professor Sid Watkins diagnosed a badly swollen nose and lacerations to the mouth. Barrichello underwent a CAT brain scan and x-rays at the circuit before being transferred to hospital. He was visited in the medical centre by Ayrton Senna, and Barrichello was able to talk to his parents on the telephone.

Jordan chief engineer Gary Anderson said: "When he came round, Rubens was in good spirits. 'I don't know what happened,' he said, 'but I was quick.'"

Anderson confirmed that this was the case: "On the previous lap, he went through at 208kph (130mph); at the point he lost it he was doing 223kph. We suggested he might like to try 215kph first." Barrichello was back at the circuit on Saturday, his right arm bandaged, but the team was hopeful that he will drive at Monaco on May 15.


Simtek defends Brabham's decision to race

Simtek's decision to race after Roland Ratzenberger's fatal crash on Saturday stunned many people at Imola - it has become traditional for a team to withdraw its remaining car if one of its drivers has been killed.

Last weekend, however, David Brabham took an extraordinarily brave decision to take the start of the race. Its significance was all the greater because the Simtek team was not sure why Ratzenberger had crashed at the fastest part of the Imola circuit.

But 28-year-old Simtek boss Nick Wirth said: "Above all else, we want our actions to reflect the enormous respect we had for Roland and it is for this reason that we continued."

Brabham reiterated this: "I can't bring Roland back, and I know he wouldn't have wanted us to stop. It was my decision, I was confident about the situation, and I thought it was important for us to continue, for me to get back into the car.

"When I came in after the warm-up, we'd done 18th quickest time and I felt good. Everyone perked up, and I could feel that. I thought it was important, and when I made that decision, everybody agreed that it was the right one."

Patently, though, it hadn't been easy: "In the race I didn't think about it at all, but in the warm-up, on half of my laps, I was going down the straight just thinking about it. It was so difficult to block out.

"Roland's crash was terrible. When it was on the monitors I wasn't looking because I'd seen enough when I was out on the track. Sometimes you can just feel it and sometimes you can't. I felt it then. I turned off the TV last night."

Brabham vindicated his decision by racing with the Renault-powered Ligiers. "Doing that on a power circuit shows how much progress we've made," he said.

However, Brabham's race ended with an off at the Variante Bassa. "We think something happened to the steering column coming into the corner," reported Brabham. "I went straight on. I was very lucky"




The greatest of them all: Ayrton Senna, devout Christian and dedicated champion, is gone - but he will not be forgotten.

From the moment he stepped into a racing car, the world knew that Ayrton Senna da Silva was destined for the very top. The young Brazilian had all the hallmarks of greatness, winning races both effortlessly and regularly.

These winning ways continued from his Formula Ford days in quick succession through to his graduation to Formula 1. Three Fl world championship titles, 41 Grand Prix victories and a record number of pole positions (65) followed, to say nothing of wealth beyond the comprehension of all but the world's richest tycoons. Yet mere figures alone don't even come close to doing Ayrton justice, for he was a very special and intelligent man.

Bologna airport was a sad and sorry place last Sunday night. Every face was grim. Nobody knew where to look or what to say. Words were useless: Ayrton was gone and the effect on the Fl community was numbing.

"You know," said a mechanic from a rival team, "my uncle used to work with Jimmy Clark. He absolutely worshipped Jimmy, but he thinks Ayrton was better."

Mechanics get to know a driver and his abilities better than anyone. Their faces were a barometer of Ayrton's standing. The Williams team was distraught, obviously, but its grief was shared by the others.

Senna was, quite simply, the best. And everybody knew it.

Ayrton was not so much a driver as a driven man. Never has a racing driver had such intensity of purpose. Although thrice world champion and a multi-millionaire, his desire to win at the start of this year was as strong as ever.

Ayrton had awesome speed and a special talent. Immediately he could find the limit in any given conditions. We saw it time without number on cold tyres in the junior formulae and again when he won in Japan last year.

Some thought him arrogant, but it was fairer to say that he knew precisely how good he was and he did not tolerate fools gladly.

Ayrton also possessed an unusual conviction about his racing, one that made him stand out from the crowd: he was a most religious man, drawing an inner strength and a seeming air of invincibility from his Christian belief. This made him unshakable, even in times of controversy such as the Japanese Grands Prix of 1989 and 1990 in which he was involved in confrontation with chief rival Alain Prost. Whether right or wrong on either of these occasions, his belief in his actions was total.

Yet Ayrton was a paradox. He could be the toughest negotiator, he could be disdainful and he would always be serious. Yet he had deep feelings. He gave liberally to charity and, professionally, if he told you he would do something, he always did.

Emotion ran strongly through him. He was deeply concerned about the well-being of injured fellow drivers. Just last weekend he visited Rubens Barrichello in the circuit medical centre immediately after the Jordan had crashed. He also went to the scene of Roland Ratzenberger's accident. Later, reflecting on that, he was moved to tears.

It is ironic that the safety aspect was starting to gnaw at him. Possibly the passing of years and an appreciation of life heightened the awareness. Increasingly it seemed, he was planning for a life after racing. Tragically he will never enjoy it.

The words of Goodyear's Barry Griffin stick in the mind. Fighting emotion, he said at Imola: "I consider it a privilege and a life enriching experience to have known him. Listening to him could raise hairs on the neck. He had an aura and he was a special man."

That much was obvious at the Autosport Awards ceremony three years ago. When he spoke, you would have heard a pin drop. There won't be another like Ayrton Senna.
CAREER HISTORY
TRIBUTES
TRIBUTES
Nigel Mansell: Ayrton and I shared some of the most exciting races ever staged and it is impossible to put into words what a sad loss this is to motor racing. I was stunned after Roland Ratzenberger was killed and for Ayrton to lose his life the next day makes it a very black weekend. There will not be a driver in the world who will not be deeply affected by this terrible news.

Stirling Moss: Ayrton was in a class of his own. I put him among the greatest: Nuvolari, Fangio, Jimmy Clark and him. The irony of the whole thing is that, apart from Jimmy, he is the only really great driver to have been killed in a race. So many people have been affected, the sport is so big now because of television - they talk about 100 million watching events - and he was demonstrably so much better than the others. What are the drivers going to do? It is 12 years since a person died in an F1 race and eight since one died in practice. It's a long time. In the fifties and sixties, it was two or three a year and it seemed that if they played that hard then that's what was going to happen. It doesn't seem the way in racing now.

Nelson Piquet: This is a bad loss not only to the sport, but also to our country. There is nobody at his level in Formula 1. He was the best driver, very determined and this is a sad loss.

Michael Schumacher: What has happened is so dramatic and so bad that I feel no satisfaction in victory.

Rubens Barrichello: When I came round in the medical centre after my accident, the first face I saw was Ayrton's with tears in his eyes. I had never seen that with Ayrton before. I just had the impression that he felt as if my accident was like one of his own. He helped me a lot with my career and I can't find the words to describe his loss.

Peter Warr (former Lotus F1 boss): Ayrton was the best racing driver of his era and arguably the greatest of all time. His refusal to accept anything less than perfection in his quest to seek out the limits of his awesome ability motivated and captivated everyone in the team. But unusually for a racing driver, he was a complex human being with interests and knowledge in many areas of life, to all of which he brought his intelligence, skills and enthusiasm with a warmth and friendliness that only those close around him really appreciated. He is irreplaceable.

John Watson: Never have I seen anyone on a racetrack with such ability and speed. I experienced it at Brands Hatch in the European GP in 1985. He had an extraordinary ability to cope with pressures and doing many functions at the same time. It was unreal, in my mind, he was the very best.