1 May 1994: Ayrton Senna

[khyndart in CA]

Ayrton Senna's death was a shock to all of us. Having known Patrick Head, I followed the subsequent investigations and perhaps one positive result was that F1 cars were built to safer standards and thankfully there has not been a weekend like that since and may that continue.

The "Chequered Flag" garage had quite a history of talented drivers drive their cars over the years from Jim Clark to our own Graeme Lawrence who was driving a " Chequered Flag" McLaren M4A F2 at Hockenheim when poor Jim Clark died.

May 1 1994 and April 7 1968 were indeed two dark days for motor racing.

(Ken Hyndman)

[seaqnmac27]

Ayrton Senna's death was a shock to all of us. Having known Patrick Head, I followed the subsequent investigations and perhaps one positive result was that F1 cars were built to safer standards and thankfully there has not been a weekend like that since and may that continue.

The "Chequered Flag" garage had quite a history of talented drivers drive their cars over the years from Jim Clark to our own Graeme Lawrence who was driving a " Chequered Flag" McLaren M4A F2 at Hockenheim when poor Jim Clark died.

May 1 1994 and April 7 1968 were indeed two dark days for motor racing.

(Ken Hyndman)

Completely agree, though I would add 8 May 1982. Great article on Autosport re:Ratzenberger. The thing for me about his death is reading David Brabhams comments regarding the Simteks telemetry.

Early in the session Roland was indeed faster than Belmondo. Simtek's data would later indicate that on a subsequent lap he had a minor excursion, and had then given the steering wheel a shake to ensure that all was OK, and to clean the tyres. He then went for another quick lap.

"He didn't lose a lot of time, but it was enough for him to think, 'I'd better check the car,'" says Brabham. "Looking at the data he'd zig-zagged and braked, and in his mind he'd be saying, 'Do I come in and check it?' I can understand why he didn't.

"He couldn't have felt if there was an issue with the front wing, and off he went. And that lap is when he didn't come round."