The
Day When A Helicopter Landed on a F1 Circuit
Date:
May 1, 1994
Place:
San Marino Circuit, Imalo, Italy
Ayrton
Senna was regarded as one of the greatest drivers of the modern age
of Formula One. He
drove racing cars.
And
some people say he drove them better than anyone who ever lived.
On
May 1st 1994
during the San Marino Grand Prix, the unthinkable happened and 34
year old Ayrton Senna would never race again. It was a black ending
to a horror weekend, Senna's death following a lucky escape for
Rubens Barichello and the death of Roland Ratzenberger.
The
weekend at Imola had not been pleasant for anybody, Senna included.
On the first day of practice, Rubens Barichello, driving for the
Jordan team, hit a kerb in a chicane, and launched his vehicle over a
tyre barrier and straight into a debris fence. While the crash looked
horrific, he escaped with a broken nose and some other minor
injuries. On the first day of qualifying, little known rookie, Roland
Ratzenberger was killed when his Simtek car left the track and hit a
concrete barrier at around 200mph.
There
were also two other crashes during the race meeting as well as
Senna's, that cast a question mark over the safety of the course. The
race had to run its first few laps behind a safety pace car due to an
incident on the starting grid. The Lotus driven by Pedro Lamy had
slammed into the rear of JJ Lehto's Benetton, which had stalled on
the grid. Debris flew onto the crowd, over the debris fence and
injured nine spectators
As the race restarted from behind the pace car, Senna and Schumacher drove away from the rest of the field. As the pair drove into the Tamburello curve, a flat out long left hand turn, for the first time after the start, Schumacher saw the bottom of Senna's car hit the road due to bumps on the track. He also stated later in court that Senna's car had seemed very unstable in that corner. The very next lap, Senna lost control of the car at 190mph, jumping the kerb and slamming into an unprotected concrete wall at an acute angle.
Senna had managed to slow the car to 130mph just before the impact, but even with the strength of the cars, this was not enough, although the safety cell in the car remained largely intact, see figure on right.
The
front suspension collapsed and the front wheel and part of the
suspension came around the side of the cockpit striking Senna in the
head, the massive head injuries killing him, See figure on right.
Medical emergency crews were on the scene within a minute and did
everything possible to give the driver the best chance of survival.
Even with this attention, Senna was pronounced brain dead before the
end of the race.
When
going through the wreckage, the examiners discovered a furled
Austrian flag. Senna, who fully intended to win the race, had
planned to wave it on his victory lap to honor Roland Ratzenberger
who was killed in the qualifying round of the previous day when his
car struck the outside wall at 196 miles an hour.
Those
who knew Senna well said how he had been deeply affected by the death
of Ratzenberger, and how he was not himself before the race. In a
phone call to his girlfriend the night before, he indicated that he
did not want to race the next day, but had to because it was his job.
The
Austrian Roland Ratzenberger was the penultimate driver killed in a
Formula One race.
Senna
was the last.
A
million people turned out for his funeral.
18
years after his death, his nephew Bruno Senna rides for the same
Formula1 William's team wearing a sightly modified version of Aryton Senna's Helmet.
For
a person who was real champiod and concerned largely on about the
safety of the drivers, his death was all that needed to bring the change.
Ayrton
Senna
 |
| TombStone of Senna |
References:
