Fifteen Years Without Ayrton Senna... :(

[Zulu Romeo]

Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna. As you may recall, he died following a crash where his Williams-Renault car drove off at the Tamburello curve of the Imola circuit in Italy during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

It was arguably the lowest point of a terrible Grand Prix weekend which also saw the death of Simtek rookie Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying on the previous day, plus serious injuries to Jordan's Rubens Barrichello during Friday practice and a later race incident which saw some mechanics injured by a rogue tyre.

For UK viewers, the BBC website is showing the 1995 documentary on Senna's life here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8027912.stm

I remember watching the race at a friend's house and couldn't believe what I was seeing on the screen. Yet in hindsight, his death was one of many factors (arguably the most influential) that led to a huge flurry of safety changes and improved driver representation in Formula One, meaning that similar accidents have led to more favourable outcomes for drivers (my mind goes back to the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix where Robert Kubica somehow survived a shocking crash). So some good came out of a tragic series of events.

 

[BRG]

Indeed, 15 years have passed, yet sometimes it seems like only yesterday I has watching the great man push a racing car to its absolute limit.

That terrible sunday is etched in my memory. As stupid as this sounds, when he went off at Tamburello, I was annoyed that he had crashed out and probably gifted Schumacher another win, and a 30 point lead in the championship. All this despite the fact Ratzenberger had died on the track only a day before.
I felt sick as I realised that it was a bad one, and devistated when we heard it was effectivly fatal.(He lived on life support for a few hours)
It is thankfully the only time in my many years of watching F1 that I have witnessed a driver fatality during a weekend(We have had a couple of track marshalls killed by debris).

I still say Senna was the fastest driver who ever lived. Schumacher, Prost, and Alonso are probably better all round drivers, but for getting pure speed out of a car in any weather condition, Senna was peerless.
BRG

 

[TheLonelySquire]

I've been to Sao Paulo many times. He is so revered there it is unbelievable. It was a terrible loss.