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Ayrton Senna's final racecar, the Williams-Renault
FW16. (Image source: cartalk.in)
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And then it was unfortunately "D-Day!" As
we all know that twenty years ago today, one of Formula 1's greatest drivers
was taken from us...
As mentioned previously, Ayrton Senna was
showing signs of a different self that weekend in Imola, with one of the most notable
things being his amazing decision over
remarkably dropping his Angst towards "Alaine!" As it was "The
Professor's" (Alain Prost) first Race visit of the season and Senna even
went so far as to say over the in-car radio: "Hello to my good friend,
(Alain) we miss you!" As Prost was sitting in the Williams hospitality
area - while Ayrton was filming a lap of Imola for France's FT1. (French
television network)
Senna once again reiterated these sentiments
in the Team Willy' (Williams) motorhome, where seeing Prost seated, Senna
joined him, had a light breakfast and a highly animated, yet friendly 30min
conversation with his past adversary - finishing with Prost agreeing to help
Senna on Safety issues in another meeting slated in a Fortnight in Monaco...
As Prost says: "They both dropped their
Disgust for each other and simply Got On with one another." As Alain said
later it was so unusual, since previously when the pair were in the motorhome
together Senna wouldn't even say Hello to him.
And I broke into tears when reading of
Senna's friend and past team-mate Gerhard Berger recalling his last image of
Senna; when Ayrton turned and smiled a smile of genuine admiration when the
Tifosi went Ga-Ga over Gerhard's name being spoken during the Driver
introductions on the Imola Pre-grid...
Cannot help believing that the Senna movie is
somewhat largely scripted off of this book, as its weird reading word for exact
word what's spoken in the movie as Rubython's book was written seven years prior...
Sunday, May 1, 1994
Presumably, as a previous generation can
recall exactly where they were when JFK was Assassinated, I myself can still
vividly recall where I was that fateful weekend, along with where I first
learned the news of Ayrton's death, since I've never noticed before how
symbiotic it seems that I was ensconced in fabulous Italian machinery in los
wages' (Las Vegas) at a Pantera International meet the very same weekend that
the F1 circus was in Italy - which I believe I've scribbled 'bout in;
Thus, I won't try retelling the entire day's
events, especially since I was neither there in person or watching the race
upon Thy 'Telie.
Yet ironically, J.J. Letho, who I've
previously noted was injured in a testing accident earlier that year, made a
hasty return to action at Imola, taking his race seat back from Jos Verstappen.
In a weekend of incidents, Letho stalled his
Benetton B194-Ford chassis at the start and was collected by Pedro Lamy, sending
his wheel and suspension pieces high above the catch fencing and ultimately
hitting four spectators! With Lamy's collision causing the Safety Car to be
deployed, the very same safety car period that would ultimately lead to further
tragedy on lap-6 when the race was resumed.
In an even more bizarre twist 'O fate, Senna
was to perish at the exact same corner that his good friend Gerhard Berger had
almost lost his life at five years earlier, the daunting Tamburello corner,
where Berger had been engulfed in flames for some twenty-plus seconds!
Yet let's not forget about the further mayhem
caused by Minardi's Michele Alboreto, who during a subsequent Pit-stop lost a
wheel and ran into nearby Ferrari mechanics while a Lotus mechanic was struck
by debris!
As somehow, perhaps I'd recorded the race? I vaguely
recall seeing footage of sheets being placed around Senna's stricken Williams
racecar in order to shield the probing camera's eyes while being attended to by
Professor Sid Watkins and his medical staff before being flown to nearby
hospital in Bologna where ultimately Ayrton was pronounced dead. As although
this tragic announcement wasn't pronounced until 6:40PM, Senna's official time
of death was listed as 2:17PM, thus having died instantly!
After the carnage had been cleaned up during
the Red flag period, the race was re-started and ultimately Michael Schumacher
romped to victory upon aggregate time, albeit a very somber win nevertheless,
with Ferrari's Nicola Larini being the race's runner-up - the last Italian to
score Grand Prix points for la Scuderia, with McLaren's Mika Hakkinen taking
the podium's final step - where "Mika-the-Finn" had led his very
first ever Grand Prix laps.
In the aftermath of Senna's & Ratzenberger's
deaths, the FIA pushed thru mandatory safety changes to the Formula 1 chassis,
most notably the curtailing of driver electronic aids, along with extensive
driver cockpit modifications - as notably the curtailment of launch control was
found to be suspect upon Schumacher's car! As the Benetton team would
subsequently be found to have "unknowingly" left embedded upon the car's software, known
as the mysterious "Code 13." As the top three finishers had their
respective software data requested for analysis by the FIA with both Benetton
and McLaren initially refusing to do so, being fined a cool $100-grand a-piece
before complying...
Thus, it's with these changes in safety twenty
years ago that I find it rather ironic that the FIA is now mulling the
reintroduction of active suspension in 2017, which seems like a very bad idea
indeed!
For a slightly
different twist upon this horrific anniversary, primarily focusing upon the
IndyCar side of the fence, including Senna's "secret" IndyCar test,
see;