All those who like Formula 1 or not will have immediately recognized the name of Ayrton Senna. Qualified as the best Formula 1 driver of all time by the majority of motor sport fans, his career was cut short on a fateful May 1, 1994 at the Imola circuit. Despite having already passed 13 years, his name continues to resonate in everyone’s memory every time Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton compete in a Grand Prix, since according to what they say, one of the two will be his heir (With the permission of Michael Schumacher).
The tragic accident that cost the life of the Brazilian pilot was not without controversy and unresolved unknowns. This is how it all happened. Prologue
The year was 1994. At that time the dominance of the Williams team was absolute. Ayrton Senna, who had been three-time champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991, had not won for 2 years because Williams, with Mansel and Alain Prost as drivers, had incorporated significant improvements in the electronics of its vehicle, turning it into an unbeatable machine.
Senna did everything he could to drive the Williams, and in 1994 he managed to oust Alain Prost from the team even though he still had a contract with the team. Unfortunately for Senna, that year, the FIA had made a series of modifications to the championship regulations, in order to reduce costs, and that meant taking away many of the Williams’ virtues, something that significantly affected its performance, turning it into “just another car.”
The season begins…
While Williams had to remake a car from scratch, Benetton had started the championship strong, since they already had their car prepared from the previous year and had several weeks of advantage. This is how the third Grand Prix of the championship was reached, with a young Michael Schumacher at the head of the world championship after having won the first two Grand Prix, and with a Williams that was not quite convincing, since many things still needed to be improved. Senna did not score in any.
The improvements to the Williams came in the third round of the world championship: the San Marino Grand Prix, when the mechanics modified the car’s rear axle, suspension and air intakes. Thanks to this, Senna took pole in qualifying, ahead of Schumacher by almost 1 second.
The problems begin…
The problems began on Friday in free practice, when Rubens Barrichello had a spectacular accident and was admitted unconscious to the hospital. Senna went to see him and, when he found out that he was out of danger, he withdrew, but somehow or another, the tension had already taken over him.
On Saturday in qualifying it became clear again that something was not going well, since the Austrian driver, Roland Ratzenberger, suffered a very serious accident that cost him his life after hitting the wall at the Giles Villeneuve curve.
Would you continue with the Grand Prix despite these two tragic events? Yeah.
Moments before the race…
Senna had lost the desire to run, something obvious after what had happened in the two previous sessions, and it had to be his girlfriend who convinced him that he should do it. That day, he had breakfast with other pilots, who noticed him “different.” All the habits that Senna had before the start of a Grand Prix that day changed: he took longer than necessary to go out on the track, he meticulously checked the car, he performed 3 reconnaissance laps when the usual 2 laps for him were, he criticized his team and the safety of the Ímola circuit after placing his car in the first square on the starting grid, when what he usually did was stay in the car concentrated. Lastly, he asked for an Austrian flag to raise when he had won, something he only did with the Brazilian one.
The accident.
On the third lap of the race, Pedro Lamy hit Jirky Jarky Lehto’s Benetton, which was stopped, and the Safety Car was necessary. The race resumed on lap 5, and no one expected what would happen on the next lap.
Senna was still first, followed by Michael Schumacher. At the Tamburello curve, Senna loses control and crashes brutally into the concrete wall. The impact was such that Senna was bounced to the middle of the track, although due to inertia he left it again.
Everyone was paying attention to the driver’s condition, and they began to fear the worst when he did not get back up to get out of the car. The only gestures the pilot made were two spasms caused by two nervous impulses. 21 seconds after the crash, assistance from the circuit arrived, and 1 minute later the doctors, who took him out of the car and performed a tracheostomy. The enormous blood stain on the circuit made us fear the worst. Minutes later he was taken to the Bologna hospital, but at 6 p.m. he was officially declared dead.
The controversy is served
There are numerous unknowns about Ayrton Senna’s accident: Why was the circuit helicopter not used to evacuate the injured person? Why wasn’t the race suspended after the spectacular accident? Those questions may never be answered.
Apparently, the cause of the accident was a broken steering bar on Senna’s car, which caused him to be unable to turn into the curve, but according to Williams officials, Senna had already lost control of the car before that happened, so the fault was his. According to the forensic experts, he died instantly, but the Bologna hospital where he was evacuated claimed that he had arrived breathing.
Possibly the fact that draws the most attention is that despite the existence of an Italian law that says that after the death of a person in a sporting activity, the activity must be canceled and the site closed to carry out investigations, but after Ratzenberger’s death the show continued.
Today the Imola circuit is still open, but the Tamburello curve has become an S. It is very possible that the whole truth of the matter will never be known, but the main fact is that a great driver has been lost, who knows if the best of all time, and things like this must be prevented from happening again.