Death of Ayrton Senna

On 1 May 1994, Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna was killed after his car crashed into a concrete barrier while he was leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola Circuit in Italy.

The Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy ruled that mechanical failure was the cause of the crash, as post-crash analysis found that Senna's steering column had snapped around the time that his car was about to round the Tamburello corner.

However, the most controversial aspect of Williams' package was its set of innovative electronic driver aids, including active suspension, traction control, and anti-lock brakes.

[9] In fact, the car was not even ready in time for the traditional pre-season test at the Estoril Circuit, where Senna actually drove a modified version of the previous year's Williams FW15C (the FW15D).

In the season opener at Interlagos, Senna took pole and initially got out to a large lead, but fell behind Benetton's Michael Schumacher after a poor pit stop.

Senna's teammate Damon Hill also spun off several laps later, but was fortunate to recover and made his way back to second place before retiring with a transmission failure.

On the Friday before the race, Senna's protégé, Jordan's Rubens Barrichello, clipped a curb and crashed heavily at 225 km/h (140 mph) at the Variante Bassa chicane, breaking his nose and arm.

[16] Once he arrived back at his hotel in Castel San Pietro, Senna reportedly telephoned his girlfriend Adriane Galisteu and broke down in tears while recounting Barrichello's crash earlier that day.

Senna was scheduled to film an in-car lap of the Imola Circuit for French television channel TF1, where his now-retired rival Alain Prost was working as a pundit.

Since he was unwilling to speak out due to the earlier row with race officials that had left him still fraught with emotions,[16] Senna asked Berger to raise his concerns about the pace car's presence during the formation lap, which had no role other than to promote the then latest Porsche 911.

Track officials deployed the safety car, an Opel Vectra driven by Formula Three driver Max Angelelli,[27] to slow down the field and allow the removal of debris.

Close inspection of the area in which the medical staff treated Senna revealed a considerable amount of blood on the ground, probably from the pieces of suspension and upright assembly penetrating his helmet, which had ruptured his superficial temporal artery.

[16] During the safety car period, Érik Comas brought his Larrousse-Ford to the pit lane to correct a vibration issue caused by contact under a yellow flag on the first lap.

Shortly after the helicopter landed on the racing surface, Comas left the pit area and attempted to rejoin the now red-flagged Grand Prix due to a miscommunication with his crew.

The race marshals waved frantically at Comas as he approached Tamburello, since he was apparently unaware of what was taking place, and he slammed on his brakes in time to stop the Larrousse and avoid a collision with the medical helicopter.

The Italian Air Force offered to fly the coffin back to Brazil, but the Senna family wished that it return home in a Brazilian plane.

Senna's grave bears the epitaph "Nada pode me separar do amor de Deus", translated to "Nothing can separate me from the love of God" (Romans 8:38–39).

[41] Many prominent motor-racing figures attended Senna's state funeral, which took place on 5 May, such as team managers Ken Tyrrell, Peter Collins, Ron Dennis, and Frank Williams, and driver-manager Jackie Stewart.

"[45] For the next race at Monaco, the FIA decided to leave the first two grid positions empty and painted them with the colours of the Brazilian and the Austrian flags, to honour Senna and Ratzenberger.

[53] Later on, the governing body announced new safety measures for the next round in Monaco which included the following three changes:[54] On 8 May, it was reported that Federico Bendinelli, an official who worked at Imola, said Senna had inspected the Tamburello corner and declared it was "O.K.

In February 1995, a 500-page report by a team of judicial investigators was handed over to Italian prosecutors which attributed Senna's crash to steering column failure caused by a pre-race adjustment.

The FIA and Italian motorsport authorities still maintain that Senna was not killed instantly, but rather died in the hospital, where he had been rushed by helicopter after an emergency tracheotomy and IV administration were performed on the track.

[citation needed] The former Director of the Oporto (Portugal) Legal Medicine Institute, Professor José Eduardo Pinto da Costa, has stated the following: From the ethical viewpoint, the procedure used for Ayrton's body was wrong.

The autopsy showed that the crash caused multiple fractures at the base of the cranium, crushing the forehead and rupturing the temporal artery with haemorrhage in the respiratory passages.

[60]Professor José Pratas Vital, Director of the Egas Moniz Hospital in Lisbon, a neurosurgeon and Head of the Medical Staff at the Portuguese GP, offered a different opinion: The people who conducted the autopsy stated that, on the evidence of his injuries, Senna was dead.

Medical personnel attending an injured person, and who perceive that the heart is still beating, have only two courses of action: One is to ensure that the patient's respiratory passages remain free, which means that he can breathe.

The release by the Italian authorities of the results of Ayrton Senna's autopsy, revealing that the driver had died instantaneously during the race at Imola, ignited still more controversy.

Assuming both Ratzenberger and Senna had died instantaneously, the race organisers might have delayed any announcement in order to avoid being forced to cancel the meeting, thus protecting their financial interests.

[69] In a 381-page ruling, Judge Antonio Costanzo concluded that steering column failure was the probable cause of Senna's crash; however, there was no proof of negligence on the part of Head or Newey, or that they had designed the modifications in the first place.

[82][83][84] Riccardo Patrese suffered a right rear tyre failure at Tamburello during practice for the 1992 Grand Prix, yet his car (an active suspension FW14B) was seen to be spinning before even leaving the track.