Remembering Senna - 24 Years Later
May 1, 1994 is a day burned into the synapses of any motorsports fan who was alive to remember. It changed racing forever.
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a horrible weekend for F1. For racing in general, actually.
It was the San Marino Grand Prix at the "Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari" circuit located in Imola, Italy. It started as any F1 weekend did — fast cars with amazingly skilled drivers on a fast track. The reason so many of us are drawn to the sport.
During the afternoon qualifying on Friday, Senna landed the pole for a record 65th time (and sadly, the last), Senna's friend and protégé Rubens Barrichello was involved in a serious accident when his Jordan became airborne at the Variante Bassa chicane and hit the tire-wall and fence. Barrichello suffered a broken nose and arm, and was out of the race. Barrichello said that Ayrton was the first person he saw when he regained consciousness.
Senna was also having issues with his Williams. He was complaining of the handling of the FW-16, and things seemingly got worse with the engineer's adjustments.
Saturday during qualifying, the Austrian rookie Ronald Ratzenberger had a fatal accident when the front wing on his car failed and he lost traction in the very fast (310 km/h or 190 mph) Villeneuve Corner and he slammed into the wall. An already uneasy Senna visited the scene before going to the med center. He was met there by his friend, Dr. Sid Watkins, who told him he should retire and go fishing. A tearful Ayrton said he could not quit racing. He later got into it with the race stewards for taking an official car and climbing the med center fence, but no actions were taken.
He and his former teammate (and rival) Alain Prost talked about restarting the Grand Prix Drivers' Association to enhance safety in F1 and said he would take point and lead it starting at the next race, Monaco. There were concerns raised during the drivers' meeting that led to the promotional Porsche 911 being removed as lead car.
At the start of the race, there was a major collision as JJ Lehto's Benetton-Ford stalled and was hit by the Lotus-Mugen Honda of Pedro Lamy, sending debris into the crowded grandstands injuring 9, including a police officer.
This deployed the pace car, which some say was not going fast enough as Senna pulled alongside and motioned for them to pick up the pace. Tire pressures apparently dropped because the racers could not get enough speed to keep the temps up.
On the restart at lap 6, Senna set a blistering pace with Schumacher close behind.
Then, on lap 7, the racing world was rocked to its knees.
Senna was rounding Tamburello corner at 307 km/h (191mph) when his car left the racing surface and hit the concrete retaining wall at around 233 km/h (145 mph), after what telemetry showed to be braking for approximately two seconds.
The red flag was shown as a consequence of the accident.
Senna was extracted from the wreckage in under 2 minutes and still had a weak heartbeat, but lost a massive amount of blood (4.5 liters) and was airlifted to the nearest trauma center in Bologna. The doctor declared Senna dead at the time of his accident roughly an hour later, as Italian law dictates death happens when the brain dies. Dr. Sid later said he knew when he saw his dilated pupils that the brain stem was inactive and he would not survive.
Race workers found a furled Austrian flag in Senna's wreckage. He was planning on flying it after the race in honor of Ratzenberger.
The world mourned his loss, but none more than his home country of Brazil. He was given a funeral usually reserved for royalty.
I was fortunate enough to have worked the F1 races in Phoenix and got to see firsthand the awesomeness that was that era of the pinnacle of motorsports. Senna, Mansell, Prost, Berger, Boutsen... Just to name a few. The level of perception of the drivers in an F1 car is next level. The fans of Senna from Brazil sat right behind my station at turn 3 and they were raucous. SEEEEENNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAA was chanted non-stop for the entire weekend. To this day I do not know how those fans didn't lose their voices. You could hear them over the screams of the engines.
It was awesome.
Senna's death was the third in a series of crashes that made me leave the racing world for a long time.
The first was legendary Porsche driver, Al Holbert in 1988. I always respected Holbert who would always have a kind word, a friendly smile, and a respectful air about him. He was my idol in racing along with Derek Bell. They were and are still the epitome of gentlemen in my mind.
The second one that hit close to home was Graig Hinton's death at Moroso Motorsports Park in West Palm Beach, FL in 1992. I was friends with him and did illustration work for him while he was leading Leaping Cats Jaguar. His vintage Jag got airborne after a collision on the main straight and he was killed.
The final incident was Jeremy Dale and Fabrizio Barbazza's career-ending collision at Road Atlanta in 1995. I had come to know Jeremy while I was a young corner worker at Sebring for the Skip Barber schools and series. He was very friendly and quick with a smile. He ended up being one of my instructors when I took the school in 1987, which I will tell anyone has saved my life behind the wheel countless times in the 3 decades since I took the school. I was at Road Atlanta when that wreck happened and watched the helo airlift the two drivers from the track.
I had been into racing since my dad took me to my second 12 hours of Sebring and we got volunteered by some his friends to be pit marshals since they were short handed when I was 12 or 13 years old. I spent nearly every weekend at a racetrack be it Moroso, Miami, Sebring, Tamiami, and Palm Beach in Florida, then at Firebird, PIR, Eloy, and Phoenix when I went to school at Arizona State. A solid decade of trackside excitement when I stopped — cold turkey — watching all racing after that day and it was well over a decade before I watched another.
It just hurt my heart to think about it.
Then in 2009, I picked up a one year old MINI Cooper S. The bug was back and I love the speed, but I still get teary-eyed thinking of those who left us way too soon.
I designed the shirt above out of a massive amount of respect for not just Senna, but all of those who have perished in the most exciting sport there ever was or will be.
Godspeed, gentlemen.
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Comments (2)
Welcome to Drivetribe John!
Thanks!