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The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix

1994 would be an unprecedented event in that it was one of the most tragic race weekends F1 would experience in decades. One unfortunate event Two deaths would change F1 in ways no one could have predicted.

Start of the weekend

As with any weekend, it started with the practice followed by Qualifying, but this Qualifying would turn out to be something out of a movie. Roland Ratzenberger began his racing career in Formula Ford and won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships. 

Ratzenberger had always deeply desired to be in F1 as his F3000 competitors Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert had reached the pinnacle of racing long before he had. 1994 marked the year he finally achieved his goal of racing in Formula One with a very noncompetitive car he had failed to qualify for the first race at Interlagos. The second race went much better for Ratzenberger as he not only managed to qualify but finish eleventh; an impressive feat considering he was the only rookie driver to race at this track. 

Roland Ratzenberger driving for the Simtek team.

Qualifying

Imola in 1994 would’ve marked his third race in Formula one, concerned about his brakes he asked his teammate David Brabham to take the car for a shakedown and he confirmed that the brakes were indeed less than optimal. The brake issues were soon resolved to the satisfaction of both. 

The second qualifying proceeded as normal without event – Ratzenberger went off at the Acqua Minerale chicane; with his sponsor being around he decided to carry on as he couldn’t see any major issue with his car. This, though would later prove to be fatal as he went around the Villeneuve corner, a piece of wing that had broken due to the previous impact got lodged under his car; resulting in him crashing into the outside at 195.7mph. 

Ratzenberger was transferred by ambulance to Imola Circuit’s medical centre, then by air ambulance to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna where he later was pronounced dead on arrival. 

Race Day

With a dark cloud haling over the race start, Ratzenberger’s grid position was left open out of respect for the German. It was race time and the weather conditions were perfect, without event – Michele Alboreto, starting from the pit lane in the spare Minardi as his car developed a problem. This was a great inconvenience as he was supposed to start in P15. 

As the race is underway JJ Lehto’s Benetton stalled on the grid; having his view obscured by other cars Pedro Lamy’s Lotus hit the back of Lehto’s Benetton and as a result causing bodywork and tires to fly in the air injuring spectators and a police officer. Martin Brundle overtook two cars at this point and Lehto made up 5 positions – placing him in P10 at the time. The safety car was deployed so that the debris can be cleared out. 

The safety car at present was an Opel Vectra – with the safety car being in position and controlling the pace. None of the racers was allowed to overtake as they were travelling at a reduced speed. Naturally, though, this caused the tires to cool which in Formula One is not the ideal setting. 

At the race briefing – Senna and Berger stressed their concerns about the safety car. Senna who was leading the race would speed up alongside the safety car urging the driver Max Angelelli to speed up, later it would be revealed that the Vectra’s breaks started to fade after only the first lap; with fears that the safety car itself could cause a collision he had no choice but to slow down. 

At the restart

At the race restart, as lap 5 was drawing to an end the reporters speculated, based on his times during Sunday morning’s warm-up session that Schumacher would be doing a 1-stopper making his car heavier than Senna, but Senna in retrospect would have had two stops. Catapulting him into the lead. 

On the seventh lap, the second lap at racing speed; Senna was leading Schumacher. Travelling at a speed of 305km/h(190mph) his steering column collapsed due to poor upgrades and maintenance causing his car to understeer and collide with a wall at 211km/h(131mph) killing the three time-world champ on impact.

Senna’s destroyed Williams after his impact

After this disastrous event, the race was red-flagged. Erik Comas and Eric Bernard had made contact and as a result, had to return from the pit lane. Comas, now with a repaired car was utterly unaware that this accident had happened; got the go-ahead to go out on the track at full speed. As he was approaching the scene of the accident he was flagged down and, naturally, there was uproar and criticism. 

Comas was so distressed with what he had witnessed that he would not speak out about it for more than 10 years after said event. The broadcasting was too upsetting for live TV so instead, the feed was focused on scenes from the pit lane. 

Senna was airlifted to Maggiore Hospital where he was the third and final driver being admitted there on this fateful weekend. 37 minutes after Senna’s fatal crash the race would be restarted, with Schumacher taking the win. After the race, the mood was grim, as everyone knew that the news about Senna who – at the time was already declared as one of the greats; was not good. 

There was no champagne or any post race celebrations after the race. This would prove to be one of the most catastrophic F1 accidents in recent years.

Published in Car Stories

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David Olsen-Fabian
1 year ago

I saw those races. I cannot forget Senna hitting that wall. Won’t ever unsee that one. Lost some greats that year. Motorsports are inherently dangerous.

David Olsen-Fabian
1 year ago

Also, excellent read. Kept me engaged for the entire post. Keep it up!!!!!!

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