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[Irv the Swerve]

Ayrton Senna's last lap with the soothing noises from the engine. A truly great lap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuN_TGxGlK4

[madbrad]

truly a work of art, that renault V10, as was the execution of that lap. What is unseen and unheard is the low tire pressures and therefor low ride height brought about by the safety car laps, that would cause Ayrton to bottom out and lose grip

[Irv the Swerve]

And didn't the steering brake??

[madbrad]

The whole steering shaft breakage theory is pure crap.

[Irv the Swerve]

''The steering column in Senna's car had snapped and was found outside of the vehicle after the impact. This column had been cut and welded together again at the driver's request for more room in the cockpit. The prosecution in the Senna manslaughter court case tried to prove that the column had broken prior to the impact, causing the loss of control. This was also never proven, with Williams engineers saying that it broke as a result of the crash, although they did concede that it may have been partially cracked before impact, see figure on right.''

There are many theories about what happened, the tyres as you said, the part of the track but how can you count this out?

[madbrad]

The tire pressure cause is the one most recently bolstered by evidence. Viewed in light of everything, it seems most logical to me. That's not to say more evidence won't surface in the future to support another possible cause. At first I thought the breaking steering column idea was at least plausible, but not now. It seems Ayrton had control of the steering up to impact. Telemetry shows the steering position was what it would be for a driver in that slide. It also shows the the suspension going up(car going down) to beyond a height that would have the chassis higher than the road, at a point in timw we can surmise was the moment of lost traction. The ride height for most everyone was set lower than usual that day. The on board data recorder was removed from the car and smashed by someone on the scene. This causes me to view any argument that seeks to damn Williams as suspect.

[Marco]

Very sad.

[madbrad]

This wikipedia article so eloquently tells what I could have tried to explain about the safety at the track, the handling of the williams after the driver aid ban, the dirty politics of keeping the body alive, etc:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ayrton_Senna

I'm interested by the statement that had Roland been declared dead as he should have, the weekend would have been cancelled, saving Senna's life.
Adrienne saw the crash live in Sao Paolo and then was called and asked to come to bologna. I can't imagine the feeling that must put in a person.

Several drivers had in the past crashed at Tamburello. Berger even broke his neck there. After the 1994 race, it was changed to a chicane.

[sonic]

The on board data recorder was removed from the car and smashed by someone on the scene. This causes me to view any argument that seeks to damn Williams as suspect.

Unless someone from Williams removed and smashed it.

[madbrad]

Yes but it wasn't the way I understood the text.

I don't know about south African law, but when Tom Pryce and that marshall were killed there in'78, there was no way they could hide the fact that these two men were dead, especially the marshal, who was in several gooey pieces all over the place, and they didn't stop the race. They couldn't even tell which marshall it was. The had to use the exclusion method to identify him. They called all the marshalls to a meeting point and he was the only one who didn't show up. Lauda won it.

[Irv the Swerve]

F**king hell!! The vid got taking off.

Found another one, hopefully it will stay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-dV-69V4M