Ayrton Senna died on this day in 1994 in a car accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. 29 years have passed, but the driver remains alive in the memory of millions of people around the world. How can we not remember him and that fateful day every May 1st?
When you imagine a race car driver, Senna was the Platonic ideal of one. Young, impetuous, handsome, and very, very fast. On the track, few could match his blistering pace and his refusal to accept anything less than being the fastest. If he couldn’t finish in first, he preferred to crash fighting for the top of the podium rather than accept second place.
Off the track, he was equally uncompromising. A devout Catholic, he spoke about his faith and its influence on his profession. “Just because I believe in God, just because I have faith in God, doesn’t mean I’m immune. It doesn’t mean I’m immortal,” he predicted in 1989.
Throughout an exhilarating career, Senna won three world championships and 41 races. He sparked a love for the sport in Brazil that endures to this day, becoming a legendary figure in the country and widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport. The fateful day
Then, May 1, 1994, happened. The San Marino Grand Prix was the third race of the season. Even before the race on Sunday, a sign that trouble was brewing: on Friday, fellow countryman Rubens Barrichello was seriously injured. On Saturday, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger died when his car crashed into a wall.
On Sunday, the race began. Starting from pole position, Senna maintained the lead. On lap seven, Senna’s car veered off the track in a straight line and crashed into a concrete wall. The race was temporarily halted, and Senna was taken to a hospital, where he was later declared dead due to the severe impact.
Senna’s death shook the world. 200,000 Brazilians attended his funeral. A 21-gun salute was fired by the 2nd Artillery Brigade, and seven jets from the Brazilian Air Force flew over his funeral procession.
The deaths of two drivers in one weekend rocked the sport, and mass changes were made to racing circuit safety. The sport’s safety was revised so thoroughly that, after decades of injuries occurring with a certain regularity, there were no deaths for more than 20 years after the changes, until the death of Italian driver Jules Bianchi in 2014.
Since Senna’s death, the driver’s family has dedicated itself to preserving his legacy through the Ayrton Senna Institute, a non-governmental organization that supports the development of children and young people from underprivileged communities.
Source: Euronews