This weekend marks the 16th anniversary of that shocking April/May weekend at Imola in 1994. The San Marino Grand Prix will be remembered for one of the most hideous times in Grand Prix history, with a catalogue of spectacular and deadly crashes, which may have helped the safety of today’s modern-day cars, but caused its destruction in the process, taking away the life of the greatest Grand Prix driver of his generation, Ayrton Senna.
The horror of the weekend began on Friday 29th April 1994, when in the first official qualifying session, the young Brazilian Rubens Barrichello lost control of his Jordan Hart car approaching the quick Variante Bassa chicane. His car launched off a kerb and smashed into the tyre wall at colossal speed, narrowly avoiding going over some catch fencing, which separated the track from local spectators. Only the quick reactions of Professor Sid Watkins prevented the talented Barrichello from swallowing his tongue. Remarkably, he walked away with just a cut lip, minor bruising and a broken nose. His weekend was over, but his life had remained intact. It reminded Grand Prix fans and drivers of the real dangers that the sport possesses. Just 24 hours later, the luck ran out.
31-year old Austrian Roland Ratzenberger was qualifying for only his second Grand Prix, having finished his first race in Aida, Japan just a fortnight earlier. Eighteen minutes into Saturday’s second qualifying session, Ratzenberger’s front wing broke off exiting the flat-out Tamburello bend. It is thought that the wing may have been weakened by an earlier off-track excursion. With no steering capability, the Simtek Ford car ploughed straight into the concrete wall at Villeneuve, on the approach to the Tosa hairpin. The impact was thought to be close to 200mph, Roland powerless to control any impact with this crash. With his car smashed to pieces, it came clear from a very early evident stage that Roland wasn’t going to be as lucky as Barrichello was. Once again, the session was stopped and the medics did what they could to save the rookie’s life. However, it was a battle in vain, with Ratzenberger being pronounced dead on arrival at Bologna Maggiore Hospital. He became the first driver to be killed at a race meeting for twelve years, since Ricardo Paletti’s demise at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. The last driver to suffer a fatal crash in an F1 car was the Italian Elio de Angelis at the wheel of a Brabham, during a test session at Paul Ricard, France in 1986. The next tragedy to hit the sport was less than 24 hours away.
Having taken his 65th pole position, the Williams FW16 of Brazilian, Ayrton Senna raced into an instant lead, from German wunderkind Michael Schumacher (winner of the first two races) and Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari. However, the race was put under caution, when JJ Lehto’s Benetton stalled on row three of the grid, and was collected immediately by the unsighted Pedro Lamy in the Lotus. Lamy escaped unhurt and Lehto suffered a light arm injury, but it was spectators hurt; eight of them hit by flying debris from the crumbled Lotus Mugen Honda. After five laps under Safety Car, Senna charged away, needing the points badly to keep up with Schumacher at the top of the drivers’ standings. On lap seven, Senna’s car refused to turn into the flat-out Tamburello corner, pitching straight-on into a concrete wall at some 140mph, possibly even greater speed. The destroyed Williams returned to the edge of the circuit, throwing debris in all directions. The race was red-flagged.
Once again, it was clear that Senna was in a grave condition from the outset, with very little sign of movement from the cockpit of his car. As Watkins and the marshals got to work again, the severity of the crash, especially from the pictures being beamed around the world on Eurosport made the scene even worse. Senna was airlifted to hospital from the track, and very quickly, medical bulletins filtered through that any hope of a recovery was being realistically lost. The race continued, with Schumacher claiming another win under a deep black cloud. After the race, Senna was announced as clinically brain dead and his life machine was switched off. Brazil went into a state of national mourning, the world of sport stunned into silence. Where would Formula 1 go now, after the loss of its most influential and iconic figure? Another crash involving Michele Alboreto’s Minardi in the pit lane in the restarted race, which injured mechanics from Lotus and Ferrari just added to the doom and gloom around the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari.
Fortunately, the steps taken to improve safety in Formula One have been of massive leaps and boundaries. Many drivers since then, including Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Takuma Sato and more recently in Hungary last year, Felipe Massa have had serious, shocking accidents, but have been able to live the tail and go racing again. The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix will go down as the darkest weekend in motorsport history and sixteen years on, its legacy will remain, but its pain will never heal.
R.I.P Roland Ratzenberger & Ayrton Senna: Gone, but never forgotten!
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