1994 San Marino Grand Prix
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3rd of 16 races in the 1994 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
|
||
| Surname: | 14 ° Gran Premio di San Marino | |
| Date: | May 1, 1994 | |
| Place: | Imola | |
| Course: | Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari | |
| Length: | 292.32 km in 58 laps of 5.04 km
|
|
| Weather: | sunny | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Ayrton Senna
|
 Williams-Renault
|
| Time: | 1: 21.548 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
Damon Hill
|
Williams-Renault
|
| Time: | 1: 24.335 min (lap 10) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
 Michael sSchumacher
|
Benetton-Ford
|
| Second: |
 Nicola Larini
|
Ferrari
|
| Third: |
 Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Peugeot
|
The Grand Prix of San Marino in 1994 was held on 1 May at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the Italian Imola place and was the third race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1994 and the first of the season in Europe. The race weekend was overshadowed by serious accidents in which the Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger and the three-time Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna were killed and numerous other people were injured.
Michael Schumacher won the race ahead of Nicola Larini and Mika Häkkinen .
The race led to increased attention to safety in Formula 1. The Formula 1 drivers 'association GPDA ( Grand Prix Drivers' Association ) was re-established, the safety of many race tracks and that of the cars were increased and a number of rule changes were made. Legal battles related to Senna's death did not end until 2005.
Reports
background
After the Pacific Grand Prix , Michael Schumacher led the drivers' standings with 13 points ahead of Rubens Barrichello and 14 points ahead of Damon Hill . Benetton led the constructors' championship with 10 points ahead of Ferrari and 13 points ahead of Jordan .
Johnny Herbert contested his 50th and Gerhard Berger his 150th Grand Prix at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Ayrton Senna (three times) was a former winner of this Grand Prix.
Senna, who had retired early in the previous two races, was struggling to find the right set-up for his car. He and his team-mate Hill had their cockpit, including the steering column and monocoque, modified to give them more freedom of movement.
Qualifying
Friday
During the first qualifying session on Friday, April 29, the Brazilian driver Barrichello had a serious accident with his Jordan-Hart . His car took off at a speed of around 225 kilometers per hour when crossing the curbs in the chicane variant Bassa and hit the top edge of a stack of tires. The car then overturned several times before it came to rest with the wheels up. Barrichello, whose tongue lay in front of the windpipe due to the accident and who lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen, was treated medically on the route immediately after the accident and then taken to a hospital. A broken nose and a cast on his arm forced him to sit out as a driver for the rest of the race weekend.
Saturday
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During the second qualification training on Saturday, April 30th, Simtek driver Roland Ratzenberger , who had only previously contested a Formula 1 race, ran over the curbs at the Acque Minerale chicane and probably damaged his front wing as a result. Instead of returning to the pit lane, he started another fast lap. At around 290 km / h his car lost the front wing, which made it impossible for Ratzenberger to control his car any longer. At this speed, he hit the concrete wall of the Villeneuve curve almost head-on . Although the monocoque remained largely intact, the tremendous force of the impact resulted in a fracture of the base of the skull . After the impact, the car was thrown back onto the track, where it slowed and came to a standstill. Qualifying was stopped immediately and the marshals and the medical team were on site shortly afterwards. Ratzenberger was taken away in an ambulance and flown to a hospital in a helicopter. It was later announced in the hospital that Ratzenberger had succumbed to his serious injuries. It was the first fatality in a Formula 1 race since the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix , in which Riccardo Paletti had died.
Senna had qualified for pole position ahead of Michael Schumacher, the leader in the overall World Championship standings . Berger came third in qualifying, Senna's team-mate Damon Hill fourth. The lap time that Ratzenberger had set before his fatal accident would have put him on the 26th and last place on the grid.
run
On the morning before the start of the race, Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger expressed their concerns about the use of the safety car at the drivers' meeting . They argued that the safety car could not go fast enough to tire of, Formula 1 car before the start, while the field on the formation lap to bring leads to the necessary temperature. They also argued that a similar problem could arise if the safety car were used during the race. The race stewards took note of these concerns without making any changes to the safety car. It is true that the commissioners did not participate in the introductory round; but were not dissuaded from using it in the race.
First start
At the start of the race, the car of the fifth-placed driver JJ Lehto broke down . Pedro Lamy's view of Lehto, starting from 22nd place, was blocked by other racing cars. Lamy collided with Lehto's car, from which wheels and parts of the body threw over the security fence and slightly injured nine people. Although the home straight was littered with sharp-edged wreckage, the race was not stopped, but rather neutralized by using the safety car so that the debris could be cleared from the track under safe conditions. The safety car was an ordinary Opel Vectra ; its brakes were already largely ineffective after two laps at top speed behind it. Senna, who was in the lead behind the safety car, drove next to the safety car at one point to signal him to drive faster. In the safety car phase, the tire temperature and pressure of the racing cars fell significantly due to the lower speed.
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After the accident site had been cleared and rubbed off, the safety car drove back into the pit lane and the race resumed with a flying start at the beginning of the sixth lap. Camera recordings show that Senna's car hit the road with sparks in the Tamburello curve . One lap later, Senna left the track tangentially at this point at a speed of 306 kilometers per hour. By emergency braking he was able to reduce the speed of his car and crashed at 211 km / h against the boundary wall at an acute angle. When it hit the wall, part of the front suspension came loose, pierced Senna's helmet visor and fatally injured his skull. Due to the great force of the impact, the car was thrown back onto the edge of the track, where it stopped.
Immediately after the accident, at 2:17 pm local time, the race was stopped with the “ red flag ”. Racing doctor Sid Watkins reached the scene of the accident to take care of Senna. Camera images showed that Senna's helmet moved for a brief moment, making it appear as if the driver was alive. He was then lifted from the wreck and given medical treatment for several minutes at the edge of the route.
During treatment, the Larrousse team accidentally allowed its driver Érik Comas to leave the pit lane despite the closed circuit. Marshals tried to flag him with flags to slow down, but he still reached the scene of the accident at high speed. Comas was able to brake in time; he then withdrew from the race.
Senna was then flown to the Maggiore Hospital near Bologna by rescue helicopter.
Second start
38 minutes after the race was stopped, at 14:55 local time, the race was restarted. Although Berger led the field, Michael Schumacher was overall in first position, as the drivers' racing times were added up before the cancellation due to the cancellation of the race. On the twelfth lap, Schumacher took the lead, four laps later Berger gave up with steering problems. During a pit stop by Schumacher, Nicola Larini briefly took the lead.
Ten laps before the end of the race, Michele Alboretos Minardi lost his right rear wheel when leaving the pit lane. The tire hit two Ferrari and two Lotus mechanics who then had to be treated in hospital.
Schumacher won the race ahead of Larini and Häkkinen and achieved the best possible result of the first three races of the season with a total of 30 points. For Larini it was the first world championship points and the only podium position of his Formula 1 career. At the award ceremony, no champagne was sprayed out of respect for Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.
After the race
At 6:40 p.m. local time, more than two hours after the end of the race, Senna's attending doctor, Dr. Maria Teresa Fiandri, announcing his death. Senna had intended to dedicate his 42nd victory to Roland Ratzenberger, who died the day before. An Austrian flag was found in his accident car, which he would probably have waved on a lap.
Senna received a state funeral on May 5, 1994 in São Paulo . About 500,000 people lined the streets to see the coffin. Many Formula 1 drivers and officials attended Senna's funeral.
The first two places on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix, which took place two weeks later, were painted with the colors of the Brazilian and Austrian flags in memory of the two dead and left vacant. There was also a minute's silence before the start of the race. During qualifying for the Monaco GP, Karl Wendlinger, another Austrian, had a serious accident; Wendlinger didn't wake up from his coma until three weeks later. Additional safety precautions were taken at the Spanish and Canadian Grand Prix of the 1994 season.
The Imola racetrack, which has been used for many years for Formula 1 races, was changed significantly after the 1994 Grand Prix. The Tamburello curve, in which Nelson Piquet (1987) and Gerhard Berger (1989) had serious accidents, was converted into a chicane in order to reduce the speed of the cars. The approach to other fast passages and bends was also slowed down by tight chicanes, and run-off areas were enlarged.
After the race, the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) was re-established, which was founded in 1961 and dissolved again in 1982. The aim of the GPDA was to allow drivers to discuss safety issues and their point of view on this issue and to raise safety standards. From then on, the GPDA had a major influence on the design of the Formula 1 circuits. The attitude towards the priority of safety issues changed among pilots, designers and team leaders. Safety improvements that were introduced relatively quickly were removable seats, more stringent crash tests and larger, raised cockpits . From 1996 the safety car was provided by Mercedes-AMG and driven by professional racing drivers. Technically it corresponded to a racing touring car . Improvements such as the wheels anchored by steel cables and the HANS head and neck protection system , both of which were initially used in the Champ Car series , were examples of a rethinking beyond Formula 1.
Legal consequences
The Italian prosecutor charged six people in connection with Senna's death. These were Frank Williams , Patrick Head and Adrian Newey from the Williams team; Federico Bendinelli as representative of the owners of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari ; Giorgio Poggi as course director and Roland Bruynseraede as race director, who approved the course. The verdict was pronounced on December 16, 1997 and acquitted all six defendants of negligent homicide . The broken steering column was identified as the cause of Senna's accident. At Senna's request, this had been modified before the race to give him more freedom of movement.
Following the court ruling, the prosecution launched an appeal against Patrick Head and Adrian Newey. On November 22, 1999, Head and Newey were acquitted of all charges on the grounds that there was no new evidence. According to Article 530 of the Italian Criminal Code, the allegation had to be assessed as “nonexistent or the fact does not last”. That appeal judgment was annulled in January 2003 because the Court of Cassation found that Article 530 had been misinterpreted. It came to another investigation, in the course of which on May 27, 2005 Head and Newey were acquitted. As chief designer, Newey could not be held responsible for subsequent modifications to the car. The proceedings against Patrick Head were closed due to the statute of limitations, but with the finding that he was responsible for the changes to the steering column, which had broken due to the improperly welded extension.
Registration list
Classifications
Qualifying
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Michael sSchumacher
|
Benetton-Ford
|
58 | 1: 28: 28.642 | 2 | 1: 24.438 (43rd) | |
| 2 |
Nicola Larini
|
Ferrari
|
58 | + 54.942 | 6th | 1: 25.825 (18.) | |
| 3 |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Peugeot
|
58 | +1: 10.679 | 8th | 1: 25.737 (18.) | |
| 4th |
 Karl Wendlinger
|
 Clean Mercedes
|
58 | +1: 13.658 | 10 | 1: 25.727 (54th) | |
| 5 |
 Ukyō Katayama
|
Tyrrell Yamaha
|
57 | + 1 lap | 9 | 1: 26.176 (11.) | |
| 6th |
Damon Hill
|
Williams-Renault
|
57 | + 1 lap | 4th | 1: 24.335 (10.) | |
| 7th |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Clean Mercedes
|
57 | + 1 lap | 7th | 1: 25.307 (41st) | |
| 8th |
Martin Brundle
|
McLaren-Peugeot
|
57 | + 1 lap | 13 | 1: 25.774 (54th) | |
| 9 |
Mark Blundell
|
Tyrrell Yamaha
|
56 | + 2 rounds | 12 | 1: 26.259 (25.) | |
| 10 |
Johnny Herbert
|
Lotus Mugen Honda
|
56 | + 2 rounds | 20th | 1: 28.032 (10.) | |
| 11 |
 Olivier Panis
|
Ligier-Renault
|
56 | + 2 rounds | 19th | 1: 27.908 (16.) | |
| 12 |
Eric Bernard
|
Ligier-Renault
|
55 | + 3 rounds | 17th | 1: 28.091 (23.) | |
| 13 |
Christian Fittipaldi
|
Footwork Ford
|
54 | DNF | 16 | 1: 25,954 (11.) | |
| - |
Andrea de Cesaris
|
Jordan-Hart
|
49 | DNF | 21st | 1: 27.627 (38th) | |
| - |
Michele Alboreto
|
Minardi-Ford
|
44 | 1 | DNF | 15th | 1: 27.995 (21.) |
| - |
Gianni Morbidelli
|
Footwork Ford
|
40 | DNF | 11 | 1: 25.652 (12.) | |
| - |
Pierluigi Martini
|
Minardi-Ford
|
37 | DNF | 14th | 1: 27.221 (21.) | |
| - |
 David Brabham
|
Simtek-Ford
|
27 | DNF | 24 | 1: 28.613 (10.) | |
| - |
Bertrand Gachot
|
Pacific-Ilmor
|
23 | DNF | 25th | 1: 29.094 (12.) | |
| - |
 Olivier Beretta
|
Larrousse-Ford
|
17th | DNF | 23 | 1: 28.891 (10.) | |
| - |
Gerhard Berger
|
Ferrari
|
16 | DNF | 3 | 1: 25.040 (11.) | |
| - |
Ayrton Senna
|
Williams-Renault
|
5 | DNF | 1 | 1: 44.068 ( 1.) | |
| - |
Érik Comas
|
Larrousse-Ford
|
5 | DNF | 18th | 1: 58.505 ( 1.) | |
| - |
JJ Lehto
|
Benetton-Ford
|
0 | - | DNF | 5 | - |
| - |
 Pedro Lamy
|
Lotus Mugen Honda
|
0 | - | DNF | 22nd | - |
|
Roland Ratzenberger
|
Simtek-Ford
|
- | - | DNS | 26th | - |
World Cup stands after the race
The first six drivers in each race received 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s), respectively.
Driver ranking
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- Paul Belmondo could not qualify for any race
Constructors' championship
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See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Strathlachlan (April 23, 2004): Senna and Imola: Ten Years Later. ( Memento of April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ Brad Spurgeon: 5 Years After Senna's Crash, Racing Is Safer - Some Say Too Safe: Imola Still Haunts Formula One. The New York Times , April 30, 1999, accessed July 24, 2013 .
- ↑ sport@ORF.at (without date of publication, around 2009): The black “weekend” - The tragedy of Imola. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ^ A b The Times (April 19, 2004): A tragic weekend. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ 1asport.de (without date of publication): Ayrton Senna - Sports legends. ( Memento of April 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ BBC on this day (no publication date): 1994: Race ace Senna killed in car crash. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ F1Fanatic.CO.UK (no release date, about 2008): 1994 - Tragedy and Controversy. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ^ Elmar Brümmer (April 30, 1999): With Senna, a dangerous illusion died. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ^ The Senna Files (December 16, 1997): All six cleared in Senna trial. accessed on October 24, 2008.
- ↑ The Senna Files (no release date, around 1997): Faulty Steering caused Crash! accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ Anno Hecker (FAZ.NET, April 23, 2004): Crash, Dust, Stille - Die. ( Memento from January 6, 2010 on WebCite ) accessed January 6, 2010.
- ^ The Senna Files (January 27, 2003): Appeal: More to Come? , accessed January 6, 2010.
- ↑ BBC Sport (January 28, 2003): Senna death case back in court. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ BBC Sport (last updated on May 27, 2005): Top designers acquitted on Senna. accessed on January 6, 2010.
- ↑ Katrin Sturm (no date of publication, around 2005): Summary of the trials against those responsible for Williams , accessed on January 6, 2010.
Web links
- Weekend statistics at Motorsport-Total.com
- Video from Barrichello's accident in free practice (English)
- AtlasF1's The Races we Remember: the Specials of the 90s - Recap of the events of the weekend
