30/04/2023
On this day 29 years ago Formula 1 went through its darkest race weekend.
The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend started off with Rubén’s Barrichello having a huge crash in qualifying which lead to him being transported to hospital due to injuries, but he was fortunate to have walked away from his accident.
Moments later in the same qualifying session Roland Ratzenberger lost control of his car due to front wing damage/failure and collided heavily with a concrete retaining wall at the Villeneuve Curve and suffered fatal skull injuries.
A mere 24 hours later in the race Ayrton Senna was leading and being chased down by a young and hungry Michael Schumacher. In an attempt to create a gap between himself and Michael, Ayrton starting pushing and when he reached turn 1 Tamburello Corner (a then very fast left curve) his Williams car suffered a failure leading it to drive straight on and collide with a concrete retaining wall at close to 200 mph (320km/h). Ayrton had succumbed to his injuries and Sir Frank Williams was involved with a long legal battle regarding manslaughter charges and was later acquitted as it was found that there was no responsibility on his teams part regarding the mechanical failure.
You had a young driver in Roland who was in his first season in F1 and could of gone onto be successful (his demise lead to his Simtek team going into administration the following season). And you had Ayrton who was a seasoned legend. Who had 3 world drivers titles to his name, 30+ race wins and had joined Williams that season in an attempt to bring home a 4th world title. Oh how history could of been different had he and Roland survived.
Rest in peace to these two highly respected drivers! Hope you’re still enjoying the race track up there ❤️
(Credit to photo sources)