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The San Marino GP twenty years ago started badly, very badly. During practice on Friday, Rubens Barrichello suffered a spectacular accident that left him unconscious inside his Jordan, fortunately without major consequences. During qualifying on Saturday, the front wing of Roland Ratzemberger's Simtek broke and, without support from the front end, his car continued straight into the Villeneuve curve at more than 300 km / h until it collided brutally with a wall. The pilot died on the spot. In Senna's jumpsuit pocket, at the time of his death, there was an Austrian flag with which he wanted to honor Ratzemberger in the event of his victory.
Comes to mind that afternoon of May 1994, XNUMX, watching the damn grand prize live on television. The race began following the trend of the weekend, with an accident at the very moment of the start, which is why it was decided that the pace car would burst onto the track until the pieces of the damaged cars were removed. Five laps later the competition resumed. Senna made the seventh lap leading the test followed by Michael Schumacher; When we reached the difficult curve of the Tamburello, we witnessed how the car with the number 2, incomprehensibly, left the trajectory and continued in a straight line at about 310 km / h until it crashed violently against the wall.
[su_quote cite = »Ayrton Senna Da Silva»]
"Cowards die several times before expiring, the brave only once tastes death."
[/ su_quote]
The impact was terrible. Still, we all expected to see him get out of the car without serious damage, as is often the case in modern Formula 1. We immediately realized that this accident had been different: his yellow helmet was hanging off the side of the car, in such a way that it was assumed that the pilot was unconscious. A few minutes of logical bewilderment passed, until we saw how the assistants removed his inert body from the remains of the car and the doctors performed a tracheostomy hiding the maneuver with a green sheet. That looked very bad ...
Seventeen minutes after the collision, he was taken by helicopter to the Bologna hospital. Four hours later, the macabre news was officially communicated: Ayrton Senna da Silva had died as a result of injuries to his brain caused by the impact on the head of a part of the suspension and the right front wheel of his Williams. In addition, a piece entered through the visor of the helmet causing a hemorrhage in the temporal artery. Nobody could believe it, it was impossible, a genius like Senna could not die at 34, what nonsense! I remember that I couldn't hold back the tears; like me, hundreds of thousands of people in all corners of the world.
From that moment the controversy broke out. A lot of questions began to arise: Why was the race not called off after Ratzemberger's death? Why wasn't the race stopped after the start accident and the Pace Car took to the track? Did Senna die on the circuit or in the hospital? Why were members of the Willams team allowed access to the wrecked car? And most importantly, what happened to bring about such a dramatic event? Still today some of these questions have no answer or, rather, certain answers do not satisfy everyone.
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Ayrton Senna Accident: What Happened?
At first and for a long time it was thought that what caused the accident was the fracture of the steering rod of the car. The pilot was not comfortable at the controls of the car and requested the lengthening of said bar to bring the steering wheel a little closer. A poor weld on the part that was added could have caused the disaster, as the shaft appeared split at that point.
During the trial held against those responsible for the Williams team, it was not possible to determine whether the break in the aforementioned bar occurred before or after the impact with the wall; therefore, the enigma that explained the fatal outcome was not solved. Years later, after the prosecution's appeal, it was concluded that it occurred before the collision, pointing out that the team's technical director, Patrick Head, was solely responsible for the involuntary homicide of Ayrton, who could not be imposed. any penalty for having prescribed the crime.
Since then, numerous investigators have continued to search for an explanation of the accident, and the version that at the moment seems most credible and accepted, thanks to the technology used, is that the car lost its grip on the asphalt when, when cornering at Very high speed, the airflow passing under the car was cut off. By hitting the ground at a critical moment, and losing for a fraction of a second the ground effect (or inverted wing) that pushes the car against the asphalt, caused the driver to lose control of the steering and head straight towards the road. outside the track, making it impossible to sufficiently reduce speed in the fifteen meters that separated it from the wall, all this as a result of the tires having lost temperature, pressure and height when performing five laps at low speed after the «Safety Car» or "Pace Car", as it was called then.
Anyway, you just have to spend a little time looking for videos and articles on the net to realize that there are still many people who do not agree absolutely; they are still convinced that the breakage of the steering rod was the one that caused the tragedy, because they see in the previous theory a slight responsibility of the pilot, or poor control on his part, and when we talk about a myth it is not easy to assume that he could have made a mistake, however small, that would have cost him his life.
The pilot, the human being
[su_dropcap style = »light» size = »2 ″] A [/ su_dropcap] yrton da Silva -in truth Senna was his second surname- was born in Sao Paulo on March 21, 1960, in a wealthy family. At the age of four, his father, Milton da Silva, gave him a first kart made especially for him, as there were none of the necessary size for such a small stature. That unleashed little Ayrton's passion for racing cars. Shortly after, when he was eight years old, he bought him a real kart with which he trained at the Interlagos circuit and with which he went to his first private race, but it was not until he was thirteen when he could officially start racing in karting, a category in which he stood out, winning several Brazilian titles and performing great performances at the international level. In 1981 he decided to pack his bags and try his fortune in British Formula Ford and, from that moment on, his career was unstoppable.
Senna's resume is impressive, in the promotion formulas, he won the three competitions in which he participated. In the 11 seasons that he was in the premier class, he played 161 Grand Prix and won 41 times, 6 of which were at the Monaco Grand Prix. He made 65 pole positions (a figure only surpassed by Schumacher), he won 3 championships and 2 second places, and it must be taken into account that these results were achieved by beating the copper with pilots such as Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher (all of them world champions), a circumstance that gives him even more merit.
He could have become the most successful driver of all time, he only had to win two more championships to equal Fangio, a goal that is not far-fetched if we take into account that at the time of his death he was driving for one of the best teams, Williams -Renault. If he had succeeded, it would have been two titles less for Schumacher, but of course, all this is speculation that can never be verified. With the figures in hand, the one who currently holds that title is the German, who, as everyone knows, continues to recover very slowly from the very serious accident he suffered a year ago while skiing.
He was an idol of masses all over the world, but especially in Brazil. The entire nation mourned his loss, his funeral was attended by approximately 250.000 admirers and he was dismissed with the honors of head of state. Their triumphs were celebrated like the victories of the national team canarinha football, his charisma was such that he even had his own comic book character called Senninha The aim was to set an example for the younger generations of Brazilians.
Always anonymously, he was very socially committed, he was very generous with organizations that help those in need. In fact, twenty years after his death, his legacy remains in full force: "The Ayrton Senna Foundation" is dedicated to helping the most disadvantaged Brazilian children, obtaining a large part of the income generated by the Senna brand merchandising; and we are talking about really large quantities, as their products are still highly sought after. All the inhabitants of this planet, even if they were born after 1994, know who Senna was and recognize without hesitation the owner of the famous yellow helmet.
Magic in the rain
He had deep religious beliefs, of which he always flaunted. At times he made somewhat mystical statements, assuring that Jesus had appeared to him in some circuits and was communicating with him, which caused certain jokes within the world of Formula 1. With Senna that rule was fulfilled that geniuses have that little point of madness that differentiates them from the rest of the mortals.
Those who knew him more deeply speak of him as a good person, a bit shy at first, but nice and joking, who found it very difficult to open up to others but when he did it with someone, that person would always find his hand outstretched. With the drivers who had the best relationship were Mauricio Gugelmin, with whom he shared a home in England for several years, Rubens Barrichello, his pupil, with whom he joined a deep friendship, and Gerhard Berger, teammate from 90 to 92, with whom He shared a lot of information and maintained a relationship of trust and mutual respect.
He was a very controversial pilot: his winning mentality, his aggressiveness on the track and off it (he came to blows with more than one pilot), as well as his lack of diplomacy earned him not a few criticisms from his colleagues, from the press and the sports authorities. Coincidentally, the president of the FIA at that time, Jean-Marie Balestre, was of the same nationality as Prost, his main enemy on the circuits, for which he received “too exemplary” sanctions that affected him in such a way that he was even on the verge of to retire. In everyone's memory are the images of the accidents of the Japanese Grand Prix of the 89 and 90 seasons that saturated the pages of the sports press and that resulted in a championship for the French and another for the Brazilian.
But what is absolutely indisputable, in which everyone agrees, is that he was an unusual pilot, with superlative talent. His driving was spectacular and brave, made impossible overtaking, he himself went so far as to say that "You can overtake in any curve, you just have to find the right moment." On wet asphalt he had no rival, in all the races in which it rained the emotion was in knowing who was going to accompany him on the podium.
It also had its weak point, since it made him crazy to run after other cars and he could not bear to be overtaken. Under these circumstances he could make mistakes, so whenever possible he applied the strategy of starting first, moving away in the first laps and managing the rest of the race and the machine with a head. With the passage of time he learned to control those great defects.
