Ayrton Senna’s death 30 years ago shocked the world and changed Formula 1 forever

It was Schumacher who relentlessly pursued Senna’s Williams on the circuit in Imola on the fateful Sunday, May 1, 1994, in his Benetton. Then came the seventh round and the tricky Tamburello left-hand turn, which the Brazilian entered at a speed of 310 kilometers per hour. He skidded slightly on cold tires, but he couldn’t balance it due to a suddenly broken steering rod and, despite hard braking, he crashed into a concrete wall at a speed of more than two hundred kilometers. At that moment, Michael Schumacher symbolically took the lead in the race.

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Doctors found that despite the hard impact, thirty-four-year-old Ayrton Senna did not have a single broken bone in his body. But the fatal thing was a piece of the hinge of the right front wheel that hit his typical yellow helmet and the sharp impact caused Senna a skull fracture and other injuries. “I could see it was going to be a fatal head injury,” Sid Watkins, Formula 1’s chief medical officer, who was among those trying to help Senna, described the moments just after the accident. Even an urgent air transport to the hospital could not save him.

The death of Ayrton Senna affected the whole of Brazil

But the three-time world champion was not the only victim of the ill-fated San Marino Grand Prix at the turn of April and May 1994. Already in Saturday’s qualifying, the Austrian racer Roland Ratzenberger, a rookie in Formula 1, was killed, and Senna’s compatriot Rubens Barrichello was injured in another accident. Doctor Watkins persuaded Ayrton Senna, who was particularly shaken by the Austrian’s death, to withdraw from the race, but the Brazilian pilot wanted to continue. And he took an Austrian flag into the cockpit in Ratzenberger’s memory.

Star rivals

Senna’s desire for success was much greater than his concern for his own safety, especially in the unsuccessful 1994 season, when he was eliminated in the first two races. “Once you experience it, you try to repeat it again and again, it’s like a drug,” he once described the feelings of victory, for which he was willing to sacrifice everything, including friendship. The proof is Senna’s rivalry with Alain Prost, a former teammate from the McLaren stable. The two great drivers could hardly speak to each other towards the end of their time together in the British team.

“He never just wanted to beat me, he wanted to humiliate me, show people that he was much better, and that was his weakness,” Prost said of their rivalry. For example, the Grand Prix of Japan in 1989 and 1990, which decided the world champion, entered history. The first ended with the controversial disqualification of Senna and the subsequent crowning of Prost, a year later the title was decided by a crash in the first corner when Senna tried to overtake Prost, who failed. But Senna’s points advantage was enough for his second title, and he won the third one a year later.

The following two years could not satisfy Senna, who believed in the motto “you must always try to be better and better”. His McLaren was far behind the rival Williams, but he could not go for better technology, because the Williams team engaged Prost. And he had only one condition – his colleague must not be Ayrton Senna at any cost. Frank Williams could thus engage the Brazilian pilot only after Prost’s fourth title (1993) and his subsequent retirement.

Thanks to Senna, he is safer on the tracks

But at the same time, the rules changed and Senna’s new team lost the technical lead from the previous two years. The Brazilian tried in vain to break it, and it is a question to what extent his nervousness contributed to the decision to enter the race on May 1, 1994. The death of two pilots during a single weekend marked the world of Formula 1 at the time, but at the same time resulted in an increase in the safety of the tracks and the cars. Accidents still happen, but after Senna, only one competitor, the young Frenchman Jules Bianchi, died behind the wheel of the “fastest coffins in the world”. He died in July 2015 as a result of an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2014.

At the same time, Senna was interested in safety even during his lifetime, he also participated in the creation of the drivers’ association. At the same time, he was not afraid to take risks, his strong point was driving in the wet and in conditions when other drivers slowed down, he still “pushed Senna to the saw”. Thanks to this, he quickly moved from the secondary Toleman team, where the former kart racer started in 1984, to Lotus and later to McLaren. In his colors, Senna won most of the 41 victories and all three world titles (1988, 1990, 1991).

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