May 1, 1994

[Panzer909]

For all you older F1 fans out there, this Sunday it will already be eleven years since that infamous race at Imola.

ELEVEN years already???

[tersmc]

Rest in peace Ayrton.

[speeder]

Talk about losing a great one.

[KevinP73]

Was there ever an official decision made as to the cause of the accident? I read something about an improperly welded steering shaft.

[jyl]

I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Imola.

That, and when Magic announced he had AIDS, were the sports-related moments I remember best from the 90s.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

R.I. P.

I remember that day vividly, no one else in my high school knew who he was..

[tabs]

Ohhhhhh Pleeeeze.....Magic and Aids....pbbbt...lets cry about something more important.....

[911-m5]

No the steering shafts were designed to have flex in them for some reason. It was a secret until this particular show I saw about the whole incident.

[dd74]

I remember watching it on TV as it happened. His is still a hard death to take.

[Saintly]

The official reason was that they where running extremely low ground clearance to produce large amounts of down force (you remember all the sparks that F1 cars used to make out the back). They went a little too low and he bottomed out for a split second in the bumpy corner. That stopped all of the down force provided by the body and he lost traction and speared off the track.
The car telemetry showed he was making steering adjustments up to the point of impact so the steering was not broken

[nostatic]

it's funny because I wasn't into racing back then, but I knew of Senna. My ex-wife's uncle is a HUGE car guy, goes to Monterey historics every year, has a totally restored '64 Ferrari 2+2, a cherry early Ranchero, Omni GLH, and a Daimler (on blocks, but original). I remember hanging out with him and him talking about F1 and how Senna was the "best ever." Not sure about that, but from the footage I've seen, he definitely had "it".

[motion]

Mention his name to any Brazilian you know. They will more than likely break down in tears. He was very special.

[Panzer909]

F1 was very obscure and not nearly as covered back then as it is today. I remember dating a girl who effectively called it quits between us the Saturday night before the race. Feeling beat up, I remember thinking as I drove home late that night: “well, at least Senna is is gonna get his season back on track with a win tomorrow” (he had DNFs in the first two races).

I heard my VCR timer fire up downstairs for the San Marino GP around 7:00am the next morning, came down & watched in horror as things unfolded. Talk about rubbing salt into my wounds at the time!

[}{arlequin]

yeah, that's a big loss

it was going to be a pretty good season too... just as Michael was getting better... Ratzenberger too

[Owain]

Yeah, I remember that day. I had taped the race because I had to go to work early that morning (pumping gas to pay for college), so I was looking forward to watching it when I got home.

The first customer in that morning says "Hey, are you an F1 fan?" and went on to tell me that someone was killed in the race that morning. I figured he was talking about Roland Ratzenberger who had been killed the day before in practice so I took what he said with a grain of salt, although he did mention that he thought it was Senna. He didn't sound like that big of a fan, so I thought he probably just heard something on some sports radio show in his car and had gotten the facts mixed up.

I was still thinking about it a couple of hours later when a friend and fellow F1 nut drove in. He never dropped by so as soon as I saw him I knew that what the guy had told me earlier was correct.

When I got home I didn't really want to watch the race, although I eventually did. Very sad.

That was a pretty bad couple of weeks for F1. Ratzenberger and Senna killed. A couple of other big crashes at San Marino, including one by Barichello in practice, and Wendlinger's crash and effectively career-ending injuries in Monaco. It was a tough time to be a fan.

[arcsine]

I was/am a Senna fan and believe he had "it" more than anyone I have seen. I vividly remember watching that race and knew it was bad when following the accident, the corner workers nearby just looked, no one made a move towards the car. Senna twitched and the announcers thought all was well but still no one moved to the car.

Only two premature deaths have affected me: Senna's and Stevie Ray Vaughn's. Fair winds to both.

[Adam]

Too sad. I remember that day, too. I was watching it on TV.

A friend of mine was an exchange student, living in Brazil and when he came home, he told of 3-4 days of national mourning. It seemed that the whole country came to a standstill - nobody worked for days.

[greglepore]

I'm of a generation that grew up with the mega hp turbos and thinking that our heros were more or less invincible. Senna's death changed that naive view.

I tuned into the race about 15 min after it happened (it was in the opening laps) and sat there more or less comatose for the remainder.

It wasn't just Ayrton's talent, it was the flair that he had-there are a couple of wet races that I can look back on where he just ate the field alive-yeah, he and Jim Clark-they come along once a generation.

Thanks for the post, black as it is, its good to remember.

BTW, last I heard, the Italians were still trying to nail someone to the cross for this, and he wasn't even one of theirs.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by arcsine
I was/am a Senna fan and believe he had "it" more than anyone I have seen. I vividly remember watching that race and knew it was bad when following the accident, the corner workers nearby just looked, no one made a move towards the car. Senna twitched and the announcers thought all was well but still no one moved to the car.

Only two premature deaths have affected me: Senna's and Stevie Ray Vaughn's. Fair winds to both.

I read an amazing article in Racer Magazine last year about Senna on the 10th Ann. of his death.

I started following F-1 about 3 years ago when I started to get into motorsports myself. (way too late in life) I had heard of Senna and how great he was but never knew how amazing of a driver he was until I read that article.

They talked about how he would be traveling 40-50 MPH faster than the rest of the field when it would rain. He himself described a phenomena on track where he felt like he slipped into another dimension and things would suddenly appear to be happening in slow motion. The author of the article went on to add that if ANY other driver had claimed that he would have thought they were nuts but, with Senna it was the explanation his amazing ability.

I am mad that my only exposure to Motorsports growing up was NASCAR. It was not my father doing either he couldn't care less about motorsports. It is mainstream media what is popular. I am mad that I missed some of the most amazing years of F-1 oblivious that such greats were racing.

I was listening to Howard Stern after the Tsunami thing went down and MS donated 10 Mil. They didn't know who he was!!! No one in the studio knew what sport he was involved in. I couldn't believe it. But then again I didn't know who Senna was untill I got into F-1.

[}{arlequin]

Jims,

I'm not sure what season(s), someone here will be able to remind me, but you can still get full season in depth reviews (now on dvd) that cover '90-'94 and you can see him in action. Some of the best races were when he was battling (and shoving!) back and forth w/ Prost. Some amazing racing to be seen.

I'm not even going to mention the wet races, esp. in Monaco. Simply masterful. Get them and you won't be disappointed.