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Post by Dirty Epic on May 1, 2019 9:27:19 GMT
Today marks 25 years since the tragic death of Ayrton Senna at Imola. Not going to dwell on the flaws of his character nor the what might have been's if this sad accident hadn't happened but thought I'd post a fairly decent article from Andrew Benson on the BBC site as a tribute to one of F1's leading great's.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/48093513
RIP Ayrton thanks for the memories and your achievements in F1!
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 1, 2019 12:18:30 GMT
Thanks for posting DE, that is a good article which talks about the man rather than his achievements.
That was a tragic race weekend with the loss of Roland Ratzenberger too and arguably a series of incidents that shouldn't have happened.
Senna's death was clearly and naturally, but also unfairly, the more high profile and consequently overshadowed poor Ratzenberger's death but that wasn't of Senna's own doing rather than the hype that surrounded him.
Although at the time I was supporting the British drivers, I did have massive respect for Senna and his remarkable abilities whatever the track conditions. Yes, as DE mentions there were flaws but how many achieve that level without there being a few issues along the way? There can be no doubt that he was a brilliant driver and F1 as a sport lost the potential for some superb racing between Senna and the upcoming drivers at the time - especially the likes of Michael Schumacher, now sadly with his own issues.
As regards DE's "might have beens"? Clearly the seasons that followed bought others to the fore and their achievements cannot be called in to question but I was always certain that Senna could have attained at least one more World Championship.
R.I.P. Ayrton Senna da Silva
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Post by Dirty Epic on May 1, 2019 14:18:37 GMT
Fully agree Sam about Roland Ratzenberger being overshadowed/forgotten by Senna's tragedy sadly even I forgot to mention him in my original post. That Imola race was a little bit weird in general with all that and Barrichello getting badly injured too.
Considering the last fatality was in the 1980's - IIRC Elliot De Angelis in testing, perhaps the teams, FiA etc. became complacent and as it's always been the margins between winning, losing and the consequences are always paper thin.
I believe the good thing to come out of Imola '94 was making the sport a lot more safer over the years. No it's not eliminated the risks as Jules Bianchi's tragic accident in Japan showed but at least Imola made the FiA make safety a top priority and the fact there had been no fatalities in 20 odd years is due to the work of the late Charlie Whiting, Sid Watkins and many others to ensure today's drivers usually end a race in one piece. I'm sure most of them appreciate the work done regarding this too.
Critics say safety has made F1 boring lacks excitement and features like Halo aren't what F1's all about but I'd much sooner have what we have now with all 20 drivers racing generally okay even if accidents and events on track happen.
RIP Ayrton, RIP Roland.
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Post by Gene Hunt on May 1, 2019 17:45:05 GMT
A very dark weekend for motor racing. It could so nearly have been 3 deaths with the horrific crash of Rubens Barrichello too. Watching it live over the weekend, I was stunned when Ratzenberger crashed, as was Senna who watched as it happened on the monitors in his garage. He looked visibly shaken. To think that he had just 24 hours left himself was incomprehensible.
RIP Roland & Ayrton.
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Post by Dirty Epic on May 1, 2019 17:52:06 GMT
Very true Gene I remember Ayrton was very concerned and shocked about what happened to Rubens and Roland during that weekend, such a twist of fate it would claim him too.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Oct 11, 2020 9:08:14 GMT
A very dark weekend for motor racing. It could so nearly have been 3 deaths with the horrific crash of Rubens Barrichello too. Watching it live over the weekend, I was stunned when Ratzenberger crashed, as was Senna who watched as it happened on the monitors in his garage. He looked visibly shaken. To think that he had just 24 hours left himself was incomprehensible. RIP Roland & Ayrton. Yes, RIP to both. I watched the Senna film again last night. Who was the knob who just pushed Rubens car upright with no thought to the driver? It just smashed back down on the ground, suppose he had a head or neck injury? They made made no attempt to soften the fall. It wasn't on fire so you didn't need to extract him at speed. Also they featured that horrible accident to Martin Donnelly, poor guy left all mangled in the middle of the track with the remains of his seat and his legs at a hideous angle. You would have to think is it all worth it in the name of sport.
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