How Ratzenberger earned his tragically brief F1 shot

It was a freezing cold December evening in 1980 in the Austrian ski resort of Saalbach-Hinterglemm. Local hero Sepp Haider and his neighbour Walter Rohrl were, together with multiple Austrian rally champion Franz Wittmann, the frontrunners of the Ice and Snow Rally, a national winter event.

I was waiting for the cars to come back to the service point near the Zwolferkogel cablecar station when two young lads approached me. "Are you the journalist of Salzburger Nachrichten?" they asked. "Yes," I replied. "We need your help. We are high school students, but we want to become racing drivers. How do we manage this?"

I was kind of surprised, as I had never been confronted with that direct but simple question before. "The only recommendation I can give you is to save a lot of money and try to do a course at Walter Lechner's racing school at Salzburgring," I suggested. Then the two guys introduced themselves as Gerald Lachmayr and Roland Ratzenberger, both from the city of Salzburg.

Obviously, they followed my advice. Some time later, they were racing in Austrian Formula Ford. Lachmayr stopped after one season or so, having run out of money. So was Roland, practically all the time, but he managed to survive - somehow. He did this by working as a helping hand in Lechner's school and team, and later on as an instructor. When Roland had earned some money, he could afford to pay for a ride in the next race, after which he went back to being a mechanic or instructor. And so on.

It did not change when he left his hometown, pursuing his career first in Germany, then in England. But the scheme remained the same: working hard and doing almost anything for a racing career, sleeping in trucks or tents.

By that time, his parents and his sisters were not interested very much in Roland's career. Basically, they did not care. But his father, Rudi Ratzenberger, later admitted: "We wondered about his interest in cars. We were living close to the federal road that leads to Salzburg's Lake District, and Roland could name all types of cars that passed by our window when he was a kindergarten kid. He was mad for cars."

It was not only racing basics that Roland had learned from Lechner, it was also PR work. Lechner told him (and this was in the 1980s, long before mobile phones and the internet): "You have to get in touch with the media regularly, not every now and then, and no matter what the result or outcome of your race was."

Ratzenberger obeyed Lechner's instructions. From Formula Ford, to Formula 3, Formula 3000 and sportscars, he talked to me on the phone from anywhere. And it was so easy to work out immediately how his race had gone. He always said: "Hi, it's Roland", and the tone of his voice meant you never had to guess if he had won, had a good race, a bad one or a disastrous one.

I could report on his career in my own paper, Austrian daily Salzburger Nachrichten, and in some magazines in Austria and abroad. Roland had good contacts with one other journalist in Salzburg and one in Vienna, but that was it - major interest from other media only came through his step into Formula 1.

Roland always was a kind of globetrotter. In his days in England he lived in a flat in Blakesley near Silverstone. Then he moved to Japan, where he was one of the European pioneers and earned a works contract from Toyota in sportscars. Finally he had a small flat in Monaco.

He had obtained a certain popularity in England because of his appearance on TV with Roland Rat some time earlier, and MTV was about to enter F1 with new team Simtek

In Japan he was part of a European gang that stuck together, including Johnny Herbert, Eddie Irvine, Mika Salo, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Andrew Gilbert-Scott. I once tried to get in touch with him, but there was no answer on any of his phone numbers. So I tried the family's home in Salzburg, and his sister answered. I asked her if she knew where Roland was, so I could catch up with him, but she replied with surprise: "If you don't know where to find him, how can we know? We only know where he is by reading your paper."

Whenever Roland came back for a few hours to Salzburg, we would meet for a drink and he would usually allow himself one glass of beer. (In fact, during one short stop at home, he got married - and divorced soon afterwards).

We talked a lot. In the winter of 1990-91, he told me about his first hopes of managing the big step into F1. He was trying to get a sponsorship deal together with the help of Burghard Hummel, who had taken care of Gerhard Berger at the beginning of his F1 career and who is the 'P' in Wenzel, Weirather & Partner (WWP), the renowned PR agency of downhill skiing champion Harti Weirather.

Hummel tried to set up a package that should have included an international oil company and an Austrian brewery, but the intended deal with Jordan fell through - Bertrand Gachot won the drive alongside Andrea de Cesaris. Next was a CART IndyCar test for Dick Simon Racing at Willow Springs. Roland showed some eagerness for a career there, but he had doubts.

"If I move to the US I will be out of sight for F1," he remarked. "I'd better stay in Japan and do Le Mans."

Finally, in late 1993, Roland's second chance for F1 arrived. He had obtained a certain popularity in England because of his appearance on TV with Roland Rat some time earlier, and MTV was about to enter F1 with new team Simtek.

By that time, Roland had become acquainted with Barbara Behlau, a Monaco-based German businesswoman who wanted to help him into F1. Obviously the deal - which meant he had to bring half a million dollars for the first six races - was a step, but there was no guarantee for more.

But Roland was always sure: "I know - it's an inexperienced team, it's all new for me, but I can do it. I will perform well in my first races, so that I will have a full season ahead of me." He was convinced.

But everything turned out to be more complicated than Roland had expected. Simtek was late in its preparations for its debut season - and always short of money. Roland didn't manage to get his first F1 outing until the Imola test in early March 1994. And on the first day, March 8, he could only do some reconnaissance laps as the only Simtek available was mainly used by David Brabham, the son of 20% team co-owner Sir Jack.

Although Roland knew he was to be number two at the start of the season, he was desperate to prove that he could be more. All in all, Roland's whole sum of pre-season testing for Simtek amounted to 18 laps.

For the few Austrian journalists at that test, the main objective was to get the three drivers from our country in one picture. Gerhard Berger's Ferrari pit was at one end, while Karl Wendlinger's Sauber garage was further down the pitlane, as was Roland's Simtek pit. The situation became more difficult as Berger and Wendlinger had some personal problems with each other at that time. So Gerhard said, when asked for the photo: "No problem, tell the guys to show up here."

Wendlinger said basically the same. Only Roland was happy: "Tell me where to go, and I'll follow." Finally, the picture worked out in the late afternoon, but only Roland had a smiling face...

To miss the cut for his first grand prix at Interlagos a fortnight later was a big blow for Roland. He knew the Ford engines of his team were two grades below those at Benetton, and one below Larrousse's and Minardi's. There were engine problems, a damper failure and some other mishaps, so that Roland did not qualify on Friday and missed out on Saturday when rain hit the Autodromo Carlos Pace midway through the second session.

The next race, the Pacific GP at Aida, provided special motivation for Ratzenberger, as he had been based for a long time in Japan. Finishing 11th was a big motivation for the European season ahead.

Senna asked Leberer to provide him with a small Austrian flag. Ayrton wanted to wave this flag after the race in memory of Roland

On to Imola. We met in Simtek's motorhome on Thursday afternoon. Roland explained why he thought he could beat Brabham and the two Pacific cars to qualify, despite a technical disadvantage. The following race would be Monaco, a grand prix Roland already thought of as his 'home' event. He was in an excellent mood, somehow a bit exaggerated. He wanted to prove something.

On Saturday during the lunchbreak, my colleague Gerald Pototschnig interviewed him. At 1240, Roland, who obviously felt a bit uncomfortable and certainly was under stress, stood up and said: "Let's finish this after qualifying, I've got no time left."

Cruelly, there would be another meaning to his words...

At 1322, Roland crashed at Villeneuve corner travelling at 190mph, probably because of a broken front wing - damaged the lap before. He was unconscious. Seeing his head bouncing left and right in the destroyed car meant everyone feared the worst.

Roland was taken to the track hospital. We were waiting in front of it, hoping for some relief, although we all felt there was no hope anymore. Standing beside me, photographer Michael Glockner remarked with a very sad voice: "I know how you feel. You feel the same as I did in 1986 at Le Mans."

Glockner had been a close friend of Jo Gartner, and was at the 24 Hours when the horrific accident happened.

Ayrton Senna did not know Roland very well, although they had briefly talked before. Senna was keen to get to know Roland more because he felt much sympathy for him, as did Gerhard Berger (whom Roland had succeeded as a Schnitzer BMW works touring car driver in 1987, when Berger joined Ferrari).

"Ayrton rated Roland and his perseverance in his career highly," Senna's physio Jo Leberer explained. Senna had been optimistic after two DNFs in his first races for Williams, and said on Friday, after Rubens Barrichello's big shunt, "The season starts for me only here, with two races down."

On Saturday, after Roland's accident, he seemed desperate. He drove to the site of the accident and was penalised by the FIA. But he did not allow FIA medical boss Sid Watkins to convince him to sit out the San Marino GP.

Senna asked Leberer to provide him with a small Austrian flag. Ayrton wanted to wave this flag after the race in memory of Roland.

That Saturday in Salzburg, Roland's parents Rudi and Margit returned home from holiday in Mexico. Rudi switched on the TV and tuned in to Eurosport, so he could watch the qualifying from Imola. Minutes later he screamed to Margit, "What a terrible accident!", realising only seconds later that it was his son.

The Ratzenbergers had to drive to Imola for all the formalities, and returned to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, one year later, for the memorial service. Rudi often talked to the media and appeared on TV programmes to discuss his son's career "because I want people not only to remember Ayrton but also Roland. This is the only way I can help him now".

Roland's burial in Salzburg at the end of the following week was attended by many racing colleagues and FIA president Max Mosley, who had chosen to travel to Salzburg instead of going to Sao Paulo for Senna's service.

"I also want to honour Roland," he said.

Later on, I met up a couple of times with some key people from Simtek - team boss Nick Wirth in Indycars, race engineer Humphrey Corbett in F1. We talked a bit, but never about Imola. My impression was that it was team manager Charlie Moody who missed Roland the most.

Rudi and Margit Ratzenberger still receive Christmas greetings from Roland's friends all over the world. They stayed in touch with the Brabham family for many years, with Sir Jack until his death. David visited them last summer when he participated in the Ennstal Classic. The Hill family, the Frentzens, Johnny Herbert, Mika Salo, and of course Berger and Wendlinger shared memories.

The Ratzenbergers' guest book (currently the fifth) reads like a 'Who's who?' of motorsport. Roland's grave at the Maxglan cemetery is always full of fresh flowers. There are dedications from everywhere, but "mostly from Japan", Rudi says.

The Ratzenbergers moved into the two-storey apartment in downtown Salzburg that Roland had bought only days before his accident, as their 'retirement home'.

We've sometimes discussed what Roland would be doing now had he survived that Imola weekend, and Rudi is convinced "he would be in a leading position at Toyota Motorsports, would have worked for the team in WEC and Le Mans". You'd be hard-pushed to argue against that theory.