Ayrton Senna at Imola: 1 May 1994
1994 · event
On the afternoon of 1 May 1994, on the seventh lap of the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, the car of Ayrton Senna left the track at the fast Tamburello curve and struck the concrete wall. The Brazilian driver, three times world champion and at that point the most admired figure in the sport, died from his injuries. It was the darkest weekend in the history of Formula One. The Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger had been killed in qualifying the day before, and another driver had survived a heavy crash on the Friday.
Senna had won his first title in 1988 and had built a reputation for extraordinary speed in the wet and for a seriousness about his work that set him apart. He was also uneasy that weekend. He had spoken with other drivers about reviving their association to press for better safety, and an Austrian flag was found in his car, which he had intended to raise for Ratzenberger after the race.
Brazil declared three days of national mourning. An estimated three million people lined the route of his funeral procession in Sao Paulo. In Italy the accident led to a long legal process, and in the sport it produced the most sweeping safety programme ever undertaken, with redesigned circuits, stronger cars, mandatory head protection, medical procedures and continuous testing. Tamburello itself was rebuilt as a slower corner.
The measures worked. More than twenty years passed before another driver died at a Formula One race weekend. Senna is remembered in Brazil as much for his foundation, which has supported the education of millions of children, as for his driving. The sport that lost him on that Sunday became, because of him, a place where drivers are expected to come home.