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| Aftermath: The wreckage of Senna's Williams |
It's May 1st 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. Ayrton Senna is about to embark on what will be the final lap of his career - and his life. What happened over the next 90 seconds and, more specifically, the corner at which he fatally crashed, Tamburello, shook the Formula One world and is still the subject of much debate 17 years on from that fateful day.
Senna was arguably the fastest driver over one lap Formula One has ever seen. Sure he won three world titles but probably the most impressive statistic was his 65 pole positions from just 162 grand prix, an average of a pole position every 2.5 races, easily the best ratio of all the leading drivers in the sport's recent history (Michael Schumacher's average is a pole every 3.66 races).
However, controversy always seemed to stalk the triple world champion. Collisions with nemesis Alain Prost decided two world titles, one in the Brazilian's favour, and there was the occasional disagreement with other fellow drivers. Not least when he punched Eddie Irvine for having the temerity of un-lapping himself by overtaking Senna.
The Guardian’s Formula One correspondent, Paul Weaver, said the Brazilian was much more than just a racing driver. He explained: "He gripped the imagination like no other driver, before or since. F1 is often criticised for not being a spectacle, a bit predictable, but Senna was somebody who showed motor sport at its best. He was an out and out racer and it is no wonder Lewis Hamilton reveres him."
Throughout his career Senna drove with his heart on his sleeve, as well as by the seat of his pants, and it was no different on the day he died.
Perhaps we should look a little further back to determine the cause of the accident, though. Senna was leading the race just ahead of Michael Schumacher but in the championship the Brazilian was 20 points adrift of the German following two DNFs (Did Not Finishes) in the opening two races.
At Imola Senna's desperation was palpable. He was supposed to win that year's championship following his move from McLaren to the widely recognised best team/car/chassis combination in the paddock - Williams Renault. He was hot favourite to become world champion for a fourth time but his title hopes were beginning to disappear before the season had truly got going.
Could the pressure have got to Senna whilst he was being pursued by Schumacher? This appears unlikely. The triple world champion's car control skills were much admired throughout the paddock and the Tamburello bend, though fast with little run off area, was not difficult to negotiate. It was comfortably flat out at 200mph with no braking required.
So if it was not driver error, why did Senna's Williams car inexplicably head straight on, into the wall?
Ex-Formula One driver Michele Alboreto confirmed to National Geographic in the documentary series ‘Seismic Seconds’: "It (Tamburello) is a dangerous corner because if you have a failure in the car the wall was very close in a high speed part of the track but I am sure, because I know, I had the same crash that Ayrton had, in the same place. I know that you can go out in this corner only if you have a mechanical failure on the car."
Just hours after Senna was pronounced dead speculation was rife. Former F1 driver and commentator Jonathan Palmer told the BBC at the time: "It is a very hazardous area trying to speculate (so soon after the incident) but a failure of some sort, a mechanical failure, a problem with the mechanics of the car, a problem with the tyre, all of these kind of things, possibly something on the road surface – oil or whatever. All of these things could play a part."
Tragically, Senna was not the only driver to suffer in what has been described as the darkest weekend in the sport's history. Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died in Saturday's qualifying. This followed a terrible crash that hospitalised Rubens Barrichello, Senna's compatriot, on the Friday.
Senna visited Barrichello in hospital later on the Friday and was be shaken by the events of the weekend.
Formula One's chief doctor, Sid Watkins, urged Senna not to race on the Sunday morning. Senna, as was his wont, ignored the protestations of his friend.
Veteran Gerhard Berger had a serious crash at the same corner as Senna's fatal accident five years earlier. Berger's Ferrari was destroyed and soon became engulfed in flames. Miraculously, the likeable Austrian escaped unharmed.
The Imola track, however, was quickly dismissed as being culpable for these events. In the immediate aftermath commentator Murray Walker told BBC News: "Motor racing is dangerous. I don't agree with the suggestions that the Imola circuit is dangerous. We've had turbo-powered cars here in the past which went faster than the cars he have today. I honestly think this is just a hideous chain of circumstances, coincidences, which have all come together."
Subsequent to the events of that Spring weekend in 1994, the Tamburello bend was reshaped to become, by Formula One standards, a pedestrian-like chicane but this alteration owed as much to the memory of Senna's passing than it did to any danger posed by the track.
With human error ruled out, the mechanical aspects of Senna's FW16 car and other aspects of the race soon came under scrutiny.
The initial prognosis was that there was a problem with the steering on the Adrian Newey designed Williams. This would explain why the car veered straight on, without any motion to the left. Senna, no matter how talented, would be powerless to prevent an accident without any steering.
Newey recently claimed that Senna’s loss of car control was probably caused by a puncture picked up from debris on the track but this argument is contradicted by the evidence given in court following the loss of the triple world champion.
Due to Italian law, whereby any un-natural death should be investigated with someone, or something, held accountable, a trial was held to determine the cause of Senna’s crash. (N.B San Marino is a principality within Italy)
Mauro Forghieri, former technical director at Ferrari, was called in as an expert investigator at the trial. He was in no doubt as to the cause of the accident. He told National Geographic: "In my opinion the crash was caused by the steering. Something was strange in his driving because the steering wheel was moving too much."
What Foghieri was referring to was that the steering wheel, as shown by the on-board camera, was coming away from its socket towards the driver, even by just a few centimetres, just seconds before the car went off the circuit. This unexpected movement indicated the steering column had broken.
"So he (Senna) realised something strange was going on," Forghieri continued. "So he decided to stop the car. If you are driving in your car and you feel that your steering wheel is moving (he gestures with his hands on an imaginary wheel, moving all around and towards himself) what do you believe? That something is broken. And what do you do? You stop the car. Of course he was stopping a car from 320kmph (200 mph)."
The column links the steering wheel and the front wheels of the car. It was made of steel and had recently been modified, at Senna's request, to make it longer. This extra length was grafted and welded in by the Williams team.
In the wreckage of Senna's car the column had snapped.
This, however, could have been caused upon impact with the wall. After all, that impact was calculated to be at around 130mph.
The second theory was that the Williams had a dramatic loss of downforce as it entered the corner.
An F1 car's key component as it corners is downforce. This is where the car is forced into the track by the airflow that goes through its wings. Much like an aeroplane takes off due to the air flow above the wing being greater than that below, in Formula One they simply reverse the process, sucking the car onto the track.
The car's downforce is so great that it could stick to a ceiling upside down at 200mph and any sudden loss of such a force could have disastrous consequences.
At the start of the San Marino Grand Prix a multiple pile-up occurred, leaving debris strewn across the road. Inevitably, the safety car was deployed.
This vehicle led the cars round as it lapped but at a fraction of the speed of an F1 car. As a result, Senna's tyre pressures dropped significantly.
The car 'bottomed out' (scraped the ground), caused by the tyre pressure loss, as it navigated its way round Tamburello on Senna's penultimate lap. This, the documentary concluded, was clear evidence that the Williams FW16 was losing downforce as it cornered. One lap later, this loss of grip caused the car to head off the track and into the wall.
However, this does not explain why many other cars in the race had similar scrapes with the road and still maintained their trajectory. Also, why did Senna not go off on lap six when his tyres would have been colder, with lower air pressure, instead of lap seven when they would have been nearer 'racing temperature' with greater pressure?
Furthermore, even accounting for a loss of downforce, why did Senna not attempt to steer the car away from the wall, thus lessening the impact?
At the trial the Williams team declared that the steering column had not broken and that the car had been designed in a manner where the steering wheel could come towards the driver from its centre point. Yet the footage from morning practice on the 1st of May did not indicate that to be the case.
Furthermore, Adrian Newey, Williams’ Technical Director in 1994, recently admitted to the Guardian that the steering column "had fatigue cracks in it" and "would have failed at some point". He also confessed its design was "very poor".
To thicken the plot further, the car had been tampered with by Williams team officials before being properly scrutinised by the authorities. This contravened the rules of the FIA, the sport's governing body.
In 1997 the News of the World reported that Fabrizio Nosco, a Regional technical commissioner who had worked at the Imola track for 10 years, told the trial: "The wreckage of Senna's car was brought into the Parc Fermé and put into the garage. Then, ten minutes later, two Williams mechanics came and asked to see the car. We politely told them this was impossible because of FIA rules.
"However, Nosco claimed that the FIA's race director, Charlie Whiting, arrived soon after with two more Williams mechanics and ordered him to remove the vehicle's black boxes.
Nosco added: "Whiting told me to open up the garage and that he had permission from John Corsmit, the FIA security chief that day. Whiting told me to remove the black boxes."
The Renault engine box was situated behind the cockpit. I removed it with a pair of large pliers. The Williams chassis box was behind the radiator near the back wheel on the right wing of the car.
"I have seen thousands of these devices and removed them for checks. The two boxes were intact, even though they had some scratches. The Williams chassis box looked to have survived the crash."
The boxes were eventually given to the authorities one month after the race. They were unreadable.
As for the steering column, during the Senna trial experts showed how it had cracked with metal fatigue by as much as 60-70 per cent prior to impact.
The Williams team was entangled for many years in a court case with the Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, ending in a guilty verdict for Patrick Head, the team's technical director. The Italian Court of Appeal, on April 13, 2007, stated this verdict: "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control". Despite being found guilty, Head was not arrested. In Italy the statute of limitation for manslaughter is seven years and six months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.
A spokesperson for Williams F1, said recently: "Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and legalities surrounding the case, this isn't something we would be able to comment on."
The loss of Senna was sorely felt. His ability and will to win were unrivalled at the time of his death. Even away from the circuit the Brazilian would want to be first. Michele Alboreto describes an example: "He always wanted to be the best. He showed, all the time, a competitive edge. He showed, all the time, that he wanted to win. Even on the way to the airport with a rental car he wanted to be there first."
Before Senna's death motor sport's premier racing series had grown complacent having not witnessed a death for 12 years. It had been lucky, not safe.
Subsequent to the tragic of events at Imola, F1's safety improved dramatically. Circuits were closely analysed, the Grand Prix Driver's Association was reformed and the protection of a driver's head was given far greater protection. Senna's legacy lives on.
Had he lived one wonders just how many titles Senna would have accumulated. The cause of his untimely death, like much of his career, is surrounded in mystery and controversy still to this day.
