Senna - 25 Years ago

[jcfaeecht]

25 years ago today the great Ayrton Senna died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. A terrible weekend for F1 with Roland Ratzenberger also killed the day before.
I remember it well, watching it on TV and then being in Filthy McNasty's, Aberdeen later in the afternoon when Senna was actually pronounced dead. It's funny the things you clearly remember and where you were...........

"On the morning of the San Marino Grand Prix on 1 May 1994, Ayrton Senna placed an Austrian flag in his racing car. The great Brazilian champion had planned to wave the flag as he passed the finishing line in victory. Senna wanted to share the moment of triumph with his fellow driver, Roland Ratzenberger, the young Austrian who died on the Imola track the day before.

Senna never made it to the chequered flag. Like Ratzenberger, a Formula One novice who crashed and died while trying to qualify for only his second Grand Prix, Senna's life was cut short on that fateful weekend in the spring of 1994".

 

[andyglym]

Yup. Remember it like it was yesterday.

 

[petecossie]

How time just rushes by, I can vividly remember that race, the crash, Murray Walker's commentary, the helicopter taking off to transfer Senna to hospital. What a sad weekend both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayton Senna being taken from us.
I can only be thankful that I have the memory of witnessing his Donnington 1993 first lap in which he passed four drivers – Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, Damon Hill and Alain Prost on a soaking wet track, then going on to win.
I also remember having to get a tractor to tow my M5 out of a total quagmire of a carpark after the race.

 

[Redline]

One of those moments of tv that stays in the memory for ever.
I had popped out to the car for a moment when the accident happened. It was clear it was when I came in that this was one of those dreadful moments - it wasn't ever going to be good outcome.
Thankfully, each accident provides improvements which often find their way in to our everyday lives. Still, it was a tremendously sad loss to motorsport. A true genius behind the wheel.

 

[Dino D]

I remember where I was when I heard (at a wedding so couldn’t watch it live).
I was only a teen then but it was shocking news. Never really got back into F1 after that.

 

[t-tony]

That weekend was the weekend we came home from our very first trip to Florida when our Carla was still with us. Never forget it.

Tony.

 

[Robert Wiles]

Yes, I remember it as if it was last month. Watching someone die on live TV isn't easy. How Murray Walker managed to commentate on it I just don't know.