2024-05-02 02:35:36
It has been 30 years since the fruitless search for the reasons behind Ayrton Senna‘s tragic crash during the San Marino Formula 1 Grand Prix at Imola.
It was one of the most heartbreaking moments in Formula 1 history, but also one of the most controversial.
The Brazilian’s Williams crash on May 1, 1994 resulted in a lengthy thirteen-year investigation filled with lawsuits and appeals that left many issues unresolved.
Three million people attended the funeral in the pilot’s homeland. Senna’s grave in Sao Paulo and the statue near the site of the tragic crash at the Imola circuit are still a place of pilgrimage today.
This is just a small example of the admiration and respect Brazilians and fans from all over the world have for this driver.
The official autopsy concluded that Senna died of “multiple skull base fractures, forehead crush and rupture of the temporal artery with bleeding into the respiratory tract”.
Forensic experts debated whether he died immediately or later in hospital. He was officially declared dead only after being kept alive on machines for several hours.
Like falling from the tenth floor
The dynamics of the accident are particularly shocking. Calculations show that the deceleration experienced by Senna was similar to a blow to the head after falling from a height of 30 meters – that is, from the tenth to the twelfth floor.
Frank Dernie, a veteran F1 designer and aerodynamicist, described that when Senna’s Williams FW16 hit the wall at the Tamburello corner, the driver’s head was struck by the right front wheel caught between the wall and the chassis.
“If it hadn’t been for that, he would have come out of the accident unscathed,” Dernie claimed, blaming the car’s collapsed suspension.
This impact was strong enough to cause fatal skull fractures compounded by suspension parts attached to the wheel. One of them even penetrated the helmet above the right eye.
However, the exact cause of Senna’s fatal crash remains a matter of debate and speculation. The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation finally ruled in April 2007 that the accident was caused by a malfunction of the steering column. However, other theories persist that focus on other factors that may have contributed to the tragedy.
Among other things, constructor Dernie expressed the opinion that as a result of the incidents at the beginning of the race and the longer drive behind the safety car, the tire pressure dropped significantly, perhaps by as much as 20 percent.
As a result, the car sat lower and the chassis literally rolled over the bumps in the Tamburello bend. Something similar to aquaplaning in the wet occurred, where the rider loses all steering control.
According to opponents, Senna’s formula failed
Most people in the Grand Prix world, including drivers and team owners, are inclined to believe that a mechanical fault was the cause.
“You can’t go off-track in that place without a technical fault – except perhaps in the rain. Something was definitely not right,” said then-Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, who himself almost burned out at the Tamburello corner in 1989.
Martin Brundle, a former F1 driver and commentator for Sky Sports F1, recalled that the footage before the accident appeared to show the car was behaving well. “I spoke to Damon Hill (Senna’s Williams team-mate) about it and he said to me: ‘Look, if the steering had broken, you would have seen his arms cross, but they didn’t’.
Brundle therefore considers it a real possibility that the car drove too low and touched the unevenness of the asphalt.
Ron Dennis, the former boss of the McLaren team, under whose colors Senna won all three world titles, insisted on the fault of the car. The Brazilian’s arch-rival Alain Prost held the same opinion.
Despite numerous theories and an extensive investigation, the exact sequence of events leading up to Senna’s fatal crash remains unclear. Even after three decades, it remains shrouded in mystery and speculation.