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Celebrate over sixty years of F1 - your memories, experiences and opinions.
#253741
It still seems like yesterday, hearing the news that Ayrton Senna had been killed.

I was 14 at the time, and pretty sure we didn't get to see F1 races in Australia or I would have been watching it.

So hearing the news the next day was devastating & completely unbelievable. I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing.

That day at school was terrible, none of us could believe it, or didn't want to.

This time every year I spend some time looking at old clips, watching old races or reading old news stories & books about Ayrton.

Today I found a nice tribute & awesome video so thought I would share it here, if you have any others please share them as well!

<Link Removed - Jabberwocky>
#253742
I was only 4 years old when it happened. Didn't even know about F1 at the time. But Senna was a great world champion, just wish he'd been able to enjoy his time at Williams... :crying:
#253752
I was 14 as well, and I still remember the moment so well. I was sitting in the kitchen of my parents house round the breakfast bar, we were having soup for lunch and watching the race on the portable tv that sat in the corner of the room. The crash happened and I held my breath, then I saw the brief movement and and said 'it's ok, he moved, he's alive, he's probably just a bit groggy. Then we waited and waited for him to get out of the car... the rest of course is history.

It still makes me feel sick thinking about that day as it is still so clear in my memory. It's as clear to me and in the same way as still remembering the challenger disaster, even though I was only 6, I still remember it with the same clarity. The same as remembering that I was at a job interview when 9/11 happened and somebody rushed into the office in the middle of my interview to tell the manager what was happening, we all turned the tv on right there and then and watched it all unfold.

I'm glad I've still got a number of old VHS tapes of races I recorded from the late 80's and early 90's that I stick in every now and then. I'm glad too to have all of the Year in review tapes from 1984- 1994 to see edited highlights of Senna's entire F1 career, along with many of the others from his era.

People often forget, it's not just the man we remember, it's the famous rivalries, and not just Prost v Senna. There were so many great battles with Prost, Mansell, Piquet and many others with Senna being the counterbalance.

RIP Ayrton.
#253755
And one day before that horrible accident another driver, Roland Ratzenberger, died.

I remember that weekend. I realized the huge loss for F1 during next two seasons. Mansell left F1 in 1992 (came back for few races then), Prost in 1993, Senna died in 1994, it was the end of a great era.
User avatar
By bud
#253768
Ayrton was my favourite since i was 5 in his black JPS Lotus, I feel lucky to have seen him in person as well as see him race in person. I was 13 turning 14 when he died, and its a similar story that night still lingers in my memory watching the race.
User avatar
By Fact Man
#253779
It was a sunny day in southern France where I was living at the time.
I was watching it on TV when it happened and couldn't believe my eyes.
I just still can't imagine that's been 17 years.
I will always miss him.

<Moved to existing thread, please use the search function - Jabberwocky>
#254152
An absolute legend, the best of them all.

R.I.P Ayrton Senna.
#255795
Ayrton Senna's death 'changed me physically', says Adrian Newey

• 'Did I want to be involved in a sport where people die?'
• Red Bull engineer admits he came close to leaving F1

guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 May 2011 22.01 BST

Adrian Newey, the man who designed the cars that have made Red Bull a dominant force in Formula One, has spoken for the first time about how close he came to leaving the sport after the 1994 death of Ayrton Senna in one of his cars.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, Newey revealed how badly he was affected when Senna was killed while leading the San Marino Grand Prix in a Williams car.

"The little hair I had all fell out in the aftermath," Newey said. "So it changed me physically. It was dreadful. Both Patrick Head [Williams's technical director] and myself separately asked ourselves whether we wanted to continue in racing. Did we want to be involved in a sport where people can die in something we've created? Secondly, was the accident caused by something that broke through poor or negligent design? And then the court case started."

Newey and Head were charged with manslaughter in Italy – but his soul-searching was the reason he considered leaving Formula One. "The court case was a depressing annoyance, and extra pressure, but it did not make me question whether I wanted to be involved in F1. It's the self-searching rather than the accusations that really matter."

Asked if he came close to walking away permanently, Newey replied: "Yes. For the whole team it was incredibly difficult. I remember the day after the race was a bank holiday Monday and some of us came in to try and trawl though the data and work out what happened. They were dark weeks. The honest truth is that no one will ever know exactly what happened. There's no doubt the steering column failed and the big question was whether it failed in the accident or did it cause the accident? It had fatigue cracks and would have failed at some point. There is no question that its design was very poor. However, all the evidence suggests the car did not go off the track as a result of steering column failure."

Newey admits that he has considered the causes of the crash repeatedly over the past 17 years. "If you look at the camera shots, especially from Michael Schumacher's following car, the car didn't understeer off the track. It oversteered which is not consistent with a steering column failure. The rear of the car stepped out and all the data suggests that happened. Ayrton then corrected that by going to 50% throttle which would be consistent with trying to reduce the rear stepping out and then, half-a-second later, he went hard on the brakes. The question then is why did the rear step out? The car bottomed much harder on that second lap which again appears to be unusual because the tyre pressure should have come up by then – which leaves you expecting that the right rear tyre probably picked up a puncture from debris on the track. If I was pushed into picking out a single most likely cause that would be it."

His cars have won 119 races, seven constructors' titles and six drivers' championships, but Newey admits that Senna's death still haunts him. Asked if he has seen the acclaimed documentary, Senna, the 52-year-old said: "No. It would not be an easy thing to do."
#255848
I just read that and this statement

was the accident caused by something that broke through poor or negligent design?


makes me think, I am an engineer (nothing to do with cars) but it makes you think about things you could never forsee and the outcome that it could cause.
#255856
Chapman's cars always were on the verge of too insubstantial but he blamed a puncture for killing Jimmy Clark. That Newey should raise the same question gives me to wonder if they're seeking exculpation or just solace.

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