Ayrton Senna was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He was leading the race when his car crashed into a concrete barrier. The previous day, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger had died. The crash became a turning point in the safety of Formula One.
About Death of Ayrton Senna in brief
Ayrton Senna was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He was leading the race when his car crashed into a concrete barrier. The previous day, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger had died. Senna left McLaren to join Williams, replacing his former teammate Alain Prost. He had his worst ever start to a Formula One season, failing to finish or score points in the first two races, despite having taken pole in both. The crash became a turning point in the safety of Formula One, prompting the implementation of new safety measures in both Formula One and the circuit. The Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy ruled that mechanical failure was the cause of the crash, although this has been disputed. The Brazilian driver won three World Drivers’ Championships with McLaren, which he had joined in 1988 and 1990, and in 1988, 1990 and 1991, with Williams. He also won the Drivers’ Championship in 1992 and 1993 with the McLaren team, before joining the Williams team in 1994. His protegé Rubens Barrichello, driving for the Jordan team, clipped a kerb and crashed heavily at 140 mph at the Variante Bassa chicane on the Friday before the race. The emergency work done by FIA doctor Sid Watkins saved his life. On Saturday morning, Senna set a personal best time of 1m 22. 03 seconds and agreed with teammate Damon Hill that the car had improved. On Sunday morning, the second qualifying session began and 18 minutes into the session, Simtek driver RolandRatzenberger struck the concrete wall on the outside of the Villeneuve curve at 314h, as a result of a suspected front wing failure.
After the impact with the concrete barrier, the car bounced off the middle of that section of the track and off the course of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The next day Senna saw the replays of the collision and rushed into the pitlane to get inside a car of the car. He then attended the circuit’s Medical Centre where he learnt from neurosurgeon Sid Watkins that Ratzenberger had left the two left the centre together. He told Watkins that he could not stop racing and then went back to the Williams garage where he summoned Patrick Patrick to the paddock where he did not have to race again. After learning Barric hello had survived, he returned to his car and continued his practice session. On the final lap of the race, he told the journalists to wait one hour while he was checking car problems with his engineer, David Brown. On his debut for his new team during the traditional pre-season testing at Estoril, he said of the Williams FW16: I have a very negative feeling about driving the car and driving it on the limit and so on. It makes you a lot more tense and that stresses you. The problems continued as the season commenced. Benetton’s Michael Schumacher was the championship leader entering the third race at Imola, with Senna trailing by 20 points.
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