The 20 years without Ayrton thread

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Autosport recently ran an article about Gerhard Berger's 1989 Imola crash. Extremely similar to Sennas, the difference being of course Berger wasnt struck by suspension pieces. Whats upsetting is that even after that crash they didnt do anything to that section of the course. No real changes were made until Senna was killed. They should have learned their lesson in '89 and Senna is probably here today.
 
Earth
Autosport recently ran an article about Gerhard Berger's 1989 Imola crash. Extremely similar to Sennas, the difference being of course Berger wasnt struck by suspension pieces. Whats upsetting is that even after that crash they didnt do anything to that section of the course. No real changes were made until Senna was killed. They should have learned their lesson in '89 and Senna is probably here today.
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Just looked this up. Senna and Berger went to the wall to see if it could be moved back, but due to the river at the back the both ruled it couldn't.
According to Berger the part of the wall they looked at was the exact place Senna hit in 94.
 
I could also point out that Nelson Piquet also had a crash in the same corner in practice at 1987, and didn't start the race as a result.
 
For the ones that missed it, here's the Senna tribute from Google again, i like it:
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DK
According to Wikipedia, the drivers decided to revive the Grand_Prix_Drivers'_Association on the morning of 1 May 1994 after Ratzenberger's death. If Senna had survived, I think he would have pushed for increased safety in F1.
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This, this, this, this, this.

How soon we forget that there were two driver fatalities that weekend. And Barrichello's horrific accident. Changes would have been made after Imola had Senna not even crashed at all. Wendlinger's accident the following Saturday (or Thursday, I forget which qualifying session it was) was also influential and would have still been influential had Senna attended that race.

I feel sad that Senna died but it wasn't the magic key which unlocked a lot of today's safety features. Unfortunately, because he was the three time world champion rather than the thirtysomething rookie in only his third Grand Prix, it's Senna's death which gets the adulation and credit for improving safety.

Remember Roland.
 
This week is Senna week on Sky sports:

On May 1st, 1994, Formula 1 lost one of the greatest, if not the greatest driver that this sport has ever seen. At 14:17, at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in Italy, Ayrton Senna was killed. To celebrate his life, Sky Sports F1 will be commemorating Senna in a series of special programming to air from Saturday 26th April to Friday 2nd May.

The week begins with ‘The Last Team Mate’ as Damon Hill visits the Imola circuit to relive the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix which killed his team mate, and Roland Ratzenberger, who Sky will pay tribute to in a separate half an hour show. Alongside a journalists special featuring Murray Walker and The F1 Show Special, the week will see Sky Sports F1 air a previously unseen interview with Alain Prost talking about the three time champion.

Nigel Roebuck speaks about Senna in ‘Echoes of the Past’, whilst Ted Kravitz visits the McLaren Technology Centre in a special edition of his Notebook. Also airing is a new edition of F1 Legends focussing on Senna, ‘A Winning Partnership’ and seven of Senna’s classic races.

Saturday 26th April
20:00 to 21:00 – The Last Team Mate
- with Damon Hill
21:00 to 21:45 – 1984 Monaco Grand Prix Highlights

Sunday 27th April
20:00 to 21:00 – Senna Journalist Special
- presented by Simon Lazenby with Murray Walker, Maurice Hamilton and David Tremayne
20:30 to 21:00 – The Boy from Brazil (BBC Radio 5 Live)
21:00 to 21:45 – 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix Highlights

Monday 28th April
20:45 to 21:00 – Echoes of the Past
- with Nigel Roebuck
21:00 to 21:45 – 1987 United States Grand Prix Highlights

Tuesday 29th April
20:30 to 21:00 – Ted’s Senna Notebook
- from McLaren Technology Centre
21:00 to 21:45 – 1988 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights

Wednesday 30th April
20:00 to 20:30 – Roland Ratzenberger Special
20:30 to 21:00 – Prost on Senna
- billed as an ‘unseen interview’
21:00 to 21:45 – 1992 Monaco Grand Prix Highlights

Thursday 1st May
06:00 to 13:00 – ‘Senna’ programming from earlier in the week (R)
13:00 to 13:45 – 1993 European Grand Prix Highlights
13:45 to 17:00 – ‘Senna’ programming from earlier in the week (R)
17:00 to 18:00 – 1986 Spanish Grand Prix Highlights
18:00 to 18:30 – Ted’s Senna Notebook (R)
18:30 to 19:00 – Roland Ratzenberger Special (R)
19:00 to 20:00 – A Winning Partnership
20:00 to 21:00 – F1 Legends: Ayrton Senna
21:00 to 22:30 – 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix Highlights
22:30 to 01:00 – FILM: Senna (ITV4)

Friday 2nd May
20:00 to 21:30 – The F1 Show: Senna Special
21:30 to 23:00 – 1989 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights

With seven hours of original programming, plus classic F1 races on top of that, I think it is fair to say that Sky have done a fantastic job in putting the schedule together, and a big ‘thank you’ in their direction for making it an entire week of programming as well.

As an aside, I’m happy there is, quite rightly, a programme focussing on Roland Ratzenberger as well. I imagine some bits have been taken from various F1 Legends episodes, but quite clearly some of it is new, such as the Prost interview. I’ll update the schedule if anything changes.

Update on April 14th – Okay, here’s what has happened filming wise in the past few weeks. Sky filmed at Donington Park on April 8th with some of Senna’s old cars, including the Lotus 98T, Bruno Senna and Martin Brundle at the wheel (click here and here). Yesterday and today (April 13th and 14th), Sky have gone out to Imola to film footage for The Last Team Mate and the Roland Ratzenberger special, with David Brabham and Damon Hill.

Back at base, interviews are being conducted with engineers and personnel who were with Simtek during the 1994 season. Neil Wooding tweeted saying that he has done a piece with Humphrey Corbett, Simtek race engineer, for the Ratzenberger special.

Update on April 15th – ITV4 are screening ‘Senna’ again, whilst BBC Radio has a documentary on Senna’s early years. I can’t see anything in the BBC TV schedules yet, although this is primarily a Sky Sports F1 piece, I’ve added those two bits above.
 
For those of us in the US who have Velocity as one of their channels, they'll be airing "Senna" this sunday.
 
While it's nice they are commemorating Ratzenberger, considering how much they programming they will have on Senna, I think they could dedicate a little more time than just half an hour on Roland. Granted he only had 1 career F1 start, but he did race some in other series' beforehand.

Not that this affects me in any way, as we don't get Sky Sports here in the States. Still think Roland deserves a bit more mention, though.
 




When May 1st comes, it will have been 20 years since that tragic accident. 20 years since Grand Prix racing was changed forever. He inspired many to become drivers, and still does today. Even top-level drivers would say he was the best, including Michael Schumacher.

I spent just 3 years of life on Earth with Ayrton, but I would spend an eternity searching for his soul.
 
Koko Ban
i just had an interesting question: would people still look at Senna the same if he actually survived the crash?
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Two ways to look at this;

1. He would have won the WDC in 94,95,96 and 97 at least. The Williams was by far the fastest car through that time so he wouldn't have left them, so Hill's and Villeneuve's championships would've been his, and I can't see Schumacher winning his with Senna still in the fastest car. So in that respect he may be held higher than he is now

2. Senna was not highly respected in his time. Everyone knew he was the fastest qualifier but also one of the dirtiest racers, he had no respect for others on track and had a 'let me pass or we both DNF' attitude so he was not a popular man in the pitlane. So in this respect he may have been known as 'the fastest :censored:hole ever', and we'd be discussing the pros and cons of punching Eddie Irvine in the face for unlapping himself, rather than how amazing that Donnington drive was (which was more due to the superior traction control of the McLaren, but that's another story)
 
Malcolm Tucker
2. Senna was not highly respected in his time. Everyone knew he was the fastest qualifier but also one of the dirtiest racers, he had no respect for others on track and had a 'let me pass or we both DNF' attitude so he was not a popular man in the pitlane. So in this respect he may have been known as 'the fastest :censored:hole ever', and we'd be discussing the pros and cons of punching Eddie Irvine in the face for unlapping himself, rather than how amazing that Donnington drive was (which was more due to the superior traction control of the McLaren, but that's another story)
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Suzuka '90 influenced this image greatly. Yes he drove into Prost but people usually don't know the whole story that went behind it. He was robbed of the championship the year before when Prost drove into him, and Balestre had Senna disqualified for skipping the chicane. The next year his pole position was moved to the dirty side of the road by said Balestre, and when on top of that it was communicated during the drivers meeting that skipping the same chicane wouldn't mean disqualification, he must have been boiling of injustice in his cockpit at the start of the race, which in turn explains why he just thought "**** this, that first corner is mine".

Schumacher did the same in '94 and '97 without this kind of injustice put on him.

Apart from that F1 is a hard and generally cold world of competition and envy between drivers and teams, so he wasn't an exception to the rule if he preferred to keep to himself and step up to people that mess with him on the grid.
 
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Senna did what he felt was reasonable to do at the time, especially since Balestre had every intention of screwing him over so Prost could prevail.

I don't care if he was seen as an a-hole either. It's not the nice guys that win the big prizes.
 
We're grasping at straws here, but I don't believe he would have been WC in 1994. Coming into San Marino, he was already 20 points down on Schumacher, who was consistent all season long, even while being suspended. The Benetton, while most likely not being anywhere near legal, was also bulletproof. I still believe Schumacher's car was very different, both in the engine department and in the electronics department... Lehto and Verstappen (and Herbert, too) were constantly qualifying around 10th position or worse, with a 4th by Lehto once, and Schumacher was on the front row for nearly every race. Schumacher might be good (although I'll keep my opinion on the matter for some other time) but Lehto and Verstappen were no slouches. But, debating stuff that happened 20 years ago is pointless. We can't go back, and even if we did, it wouldn't have much purpose.

We'll never know what might have been.




Today also marks the anniversary of Rubens Barrichello's practice incident, which still stands as one of the fiercest, most brutal accident I've ever seen. He was very lucky, in retrospect. I still think it was a much more difficult crash to witness than either Ratzenberger's or Senna's, it looked so much more savage, so much more destructive. And how the marshalls were slow to respond, and generally careless when they flipped him over. I genuinely thought he was done for.
 
I agree with some of what's been said if Senna lived on beyond Imola. He might have won the '94/5/6 seasons maybe but we will never know.

I was watching the last teammate programme on sky sports and what Damon said about his achievements since Senna died, I feel quite sorry for him as he mentioned that because of his death Damon was given the opportunity to step up and gun for the championship. Had Senna lived, he might not have done. So in a weird and awful way Damon owes nearly all his achievements and his title to Senna's death. I wouldn't like to have that upon me.


Also am I the only one to be intrigued in what it might have been like to see Senna vs Villeneuve circa 1985 had he lived.
 
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-Fred-
Today also marks the anniversary of Rubens Barrichello's practice incident, which still stands as one of the fiercest, most brutal accident I've ever seen. He was very lucky, in retrospect. I still think it was a much more difficult crash to witness than either Ratzenberger's or Senna's, it looked so much more savage, so much more destructive. And how the marshalls were slow to respond, and generally careless when they flipped him over. I genuinely thought he was done for.
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Saw that and it looked very nasty. That must have been a traumatic weekend him. To almost get killed himself one day and then two days later, his hero dies.
 
RACECAR
Saw that and it looked very nasty. That must have been a traumatic weekend him. To almost get killed himself one day and then two days later, his hero dies.
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Not only was it a traumatic weekend, there was also a newfound pressure afterwards from the Brazilian fans for him to do well... he more or less became their new hero. Christian Fittipaldi was less than stellar, Emerson was well into retirement, Massa, Da Matta and the likes were still lightyears away from becoming world class drivers, so Rubens was the logical choice for them.
 
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I'm at Imola for the tribute right now and for the first time I've seen the statue (some hours ago)
I was feeling strange, I was happy and sad at the same time...
I hope to post some photos tomorrow.
Unluckly my right arm is less agible (wirst tendonits, now is getting quite painful since I had to constantly move my luggage during the train trip) so I'm not sure if I will take part to the simulator events or pit stop races :indiff:
 
It is officially May 1 in my part of the world, and I have to say that while I did miss Senna racing in his heyday (I didn't get into F1 heavily until I'd say Grand Turismo 4 came out), all of my memories of him racing were from Top Gear and the Senna documentary. RIP.
 

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