Ayrton Senna the memorable champion, a tragic death

It's been exactly 24 years since the 1st dramatic May 1994. The day on which more than 2 billion people from around the world were assisting live television with the tragic incident of Ayrton Senna. With 300 miles per hour in Imola's circus during. San Marino's Grand Prix, Kurba Tambiello has been the last image the pilot's eyes have ever seen. Then, suddenly, an exit from the track and, a few fractions later, impact. A very violent clash against the circus's outer wall. A terrible event that has put an end to the tale of a great man, an extraordinary sports champion, a king of Forum 1 in the tragedy of fame and career. Hard to understand. A bug? A human error? There are multiple estimated hypotheses. For many, though, it is just fatality but cruel. There are some who ask whether this fate was written and believe that the events of that cursed weekend, in which other pilots have suffered serious incidents, were a warning of what would happen.

Hard car

Thursday, April 28, 1994. Three more days are missing from San Marino's Grand Prix. Senna arrives in Imola and spends the week among various public efforts: he has to introduce a bicycle by his name. At 34 years of age, business becomes more and more space in his life. But now, in Italy, I can't afford to be careless. After a catastrophic debut season, he must win. It's a crucial period for Brazilians: he's been a world champion three times, but for three years he won't get anything. With a decade of racing on his shoulders, Senna is a veteran of Formule 1. There's the big target of breaking Juan Manuel Fangio's record record: 5 world victories. That's why he just left McLaren for Williams Renault, who, a year ago with Alain Prost, won the world title. “Makina was not technically any major success”, claims Bernard Dudot, former Deputy Director of Renault F1. “potentially quick, but there was a margin of extremely reduced access. Only a skilled pilot could direct it at this serious limit”. Gerhard Berger, a former pilot, recalls that Senna told him that a country was difficult to drive and was not a competition. “Because of his credit, not his car”.

Amid Boring and Assumption

Imola is the third championship race and it's time for Senna to demonstrate what he's capable of. It's not even finished the first two races in Brazil and Japan. Both won by the boy challenger, German emergency pilot Michael Schumacher. However, as his friends confirm, Ayrton does not seem preoccupied with his disappointing performance. Perhaps at 34 years of age, after an amazing decade, it begins to reveal a more human aspect. This is Jean Louis Monkeyt, a sports journalist. That year, French television convinced him to assemble a camera aboard his car and comment on a dirty” ride. Which Ayrton did on Friday morning, perhaps to break the monotonous racing. The comment was technically perfect: “I'm leaving the mat stop, I'm getting to the curve, I'm putting in the fourth one, now I'm gonna have to pull over...” And here, between one explanation and the other, Senna utters the expression considered at that incredible time. He addressed Alain Prost, his eternal rival, recently removed from Form 1: “A special morning for my dear friend Alain. We miss Alain” That Friday morning, in Imola, Ayrton was probably a man stuck with homesickness?

Had all the problems of starting the championship created in him the gap left by his rival?, explains Lionel Fryssart, Senna's biographer. And it adds: “was missing the reference point represented by Prost”.

Free evidence: Barrichello incident

The race session begins in which the car and circus are tested. As always, Senna records the best time. Everything seems to be walking like oil, when at 1: 00 p.m., an incident marks the beginning of the weekend's nightmare. In the vicinity of the Downside part of the circus, Reuben Barricello's car deviates from the street by reaching the boards. Unfortunately, she's a little high up, and his Jordan jumps up like a trampoline: the car flies, slams into the wall, breaks down and falls, standing upside down. So much tension and concern for young Barricello's health at the age of 21. The first one to be distracted is Senna, his co-ordinator.

“dal from the emergency room and look up to me Ayrton”, recounts Giuseppe Piana, head of the medical team of the Imola circus. “Kwas entered from behind crossing a 2m high gate enough to see Reuben”. Barrichello has a broken ribs, broken nose bone, scratch on his face, in his mouth, but fortunately alive. Aside from the incident is another circumstance, for the sake of a rather mysterious truth, that has characterised that afternoon. Senna has completed the evidence before. He got off the car, made an unusual statement. He said he had experienced something unique, a state of full power. The higher the rate, the less likely it was. He felt so strongly about the situation, and that's why he stopped. Why? Had there been any feelings? What had prompted him to complete his trial session before?

Death is in the air...

Day two of the evidence: It's about a decisive session, as the starting order is determined right now. It's been 24 hours since Barricello's incident. There is another, this time even more dramatic. Austrian Ronald Ratzenberger, who, in the straight line between the Tambimello curve and the Villenus, loses a piece of his background and no longer manages to control his car: he bumps into over 300 miles an hour against the surrounding wall.

“Impact was horrible” reports Dr. Giuseppe Piana. The car's made 7 or 8 times the 360 degree spin until, without three wheels, it's stopped. I remember noticing in the camera a terrible image: once the car stopped, I saw the pilot's head lean from the left. That was a pretty bad sign for me: x3>, doctor, come in. “Airton was standing next to me and the incident with Ratzenberger occurred in front of our eyes”, recounts Bernard Dudot, adding, “being a terrible friend, because we immediately realized he was dead. Ayrton's face changed expressions. I realized that he was overwhelmed by the opposite emotions. He got away and he didn't get back to his”.

Ratzenberger was the age of Senna, 34. It was in Formula 1 of only 53 days, versus the Brazilian 10 years. For the newcomer, Imola's Grand Prize represented the entrance to the greats. His objective was, not victory, but qualifications. To gain fame, not the youngest Ratzenberger was willing to give everything. And that hot April 30th in Imola, he gave his life.

Unexpected Rituals

It's Sunday, 1 May. Senna prepares to perform its 161st Grand Prix. A special race, as a boy, Michael Schumacher, is trying to win the faster pilot's throne. Brazil was also to defend its fame, made up of 3 world titles, 41 victories, and 65 poles. This Sunday is also first in the starting sequence.

It's 13 and 30 minutes. There's a lot of excitement on the pet lanne, the area on the side with the arrival of boxing and the runway. Ayrton decides to place in his seat a small Austrian flag to display, at the end of the race, in memory of Ratzenberger. But then, who is watching the Brazilian pilot notices something special, something that never happened before. Senna used to wait for the departure in the car with the straps tied. He does it that day, but it's totally unusual, taking the helmet off his head and showing his extremely serious face. The thing intrigued everyone, even Nuno Cobra, his personal trainer: “I knew all the rituals he performed before the race. That day, surprisingly, he behaved in a completely different way if he knew what would happen or had trouble with his car. I saw it from the way he looked at it. That made me nervous and left me speechless. I had the impression that Ayrton had smelled something”.

Goodbye, Ayrton...

The series of fucking events goes on. Immediately after the launch another collision between two cars: Finnish Benetton JJ Lehto remained motionless on the green light, and Portuguese Pedro Lamy, coming behind with his Lotus, cannot avoid it. Pilots leave unscathed, but car waste crashes in the tub and wound some spectators, one of whom, hit by a wheel, will remain in a coma for a month.

In order for the track to be cleared of waste, cars eagerly follow the safe car six laps. Then the group resumes. It's 14 and 18 minutes. Ayrton Senna is already in charge, followed by Michael Schumacher. It's passing the Tamburello curve by over 300 miles an hour. On a monitor, it's understood that a car comes out of the track and crashes violently against the wall of Tamburello”, says Dr. Piana. I can see without moving images, counting until 8, I understand that the pilot won't move and I'm setting up the alarm “the pilot doesn't get out, the pilot doesn't get out”.

Red flags are raised, showing that the race is temporarily suspended and immediately intervenes in an ambulance leaving a country just behind the Taburaello curve. It's from this boxing that comes out even the doctor who gives Ayrton Senna first aid: it's Giuseppe Pezzi.

There was a large blood flow, there was unconsciousness, there was a pulse okay, but it was seen to be critical. He was alive, in the sense that he had a heartbeat and breathing activity, even though he was in deep coma and with visible cell damage”. And as the reanimators continue in a desperate attempt, Dr. Piana sends a radio message to the directors: “Codi 3, Charlie on track” This is how you apply the extreme procedure of rapid health intervention. So landing a helicopter on the runway. At 14 and 35 minutes, Senna is transferred to Bologna Maggia Hospital.

“The show must go on”

20 minutes later, the race resumes and continues to the end, despite another incident. A few laps from the end, Michele Alboreth, a Minard, lost a wheel that hits 3 mechanics in boxing, seriously wounding one of them. Spectacles do not stop, a absurd farce climaxing on the podium with celebrations for the winner: Michael Schumacher. Although, as a recent concession to ethics, the champagne in Imola that day remains in bottles.

In the meantime, fans and journalists gather at Bologna Maggia Hospital to have information about Senna. It's 17 and 30 minutes and it's diagnosed, unfortunately, the pilot's cell death. Intensive Therapy Department's possession, Maria Teresa Fiandri, officially announces death at 18 and 40 minutes. I remember that as I was getting in, I was as attacked by journalists and microphones, as many as two policemen were making a little way for me, because I couldn't get past”, says Dr. Fiandri. The anxious “was the fact that there was nothing we could do, that there was nothing we could do to save a young man from death, a hero for many. I think he was a really rare man”.

Errors or fatalities?

But what has been the cause of the death of Ayrton Senna, a champion who has always been pushed beyond all limits? The first one to be charged is Kurba Tamburello. Bad memories of Gerhard Berger, friend and colleague of Senna, who had risked his life five years earlier. The hypothetosis of the wall leaves with suspicion both fans and experts, for whom only one technical problem may have caused the incident. According to Lionel Freissart, Senna's biographer, it's hard to determine whether the wheel's arm is broken while Senna was in the direction, causing the car to exit the track as seen by the sights of the moment, or is cut off afterwards. But we know that there was no human error”, Froissart claims. “Sena was fine, didn't lose consciousness. He is seen fighting with his car to the end, putting the brakes to work, and he is being set up. He did everything perfect, but he remained the victim of an extremely unfortunate event - a piece of metal and amortizers of the cascon, getting to his head”. There were no injuries, no fractures. If the fans hadn't hit him, he'd have turned with his feet into boxing.

Was it a simple case or was everything written and it was the fault of a strange curse that had hit that great prize stage? Is there a fate or is there a free referee, of course, a protagonist of our lives? A subject that leaves you a bit of a doubt, that makes you think.

Perhaps these allegations have tortured Alain Prost, rival before the excellance of Ayrton: “Remember Friday's message in the morning and, just ahead of the race, when I was past him, we looked into him, shook our hands, something extremely unusual, and I wished him good luck... I wish I hadn't congratulated”.

Prepare: ARMIN TIRANA / World.al