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Wednesday 30 April 2014

How did it all go so wrong in 1994 for F1?

1994 proved to be Formula One's darkest hour...
For those of us old enough, the 1994 Formula One World Championship will always be remembered as one of the darkest periods in the history of the sport. It was a season that began with two drivers sustaining serious neck injuries during pre season testing and ended with Michael Schumacher crashing into Damon Hill to seal the driver's title at the final round in Adelaide by just one point. In between there was death, serious injury and controversy at almost every round. The most infamous of these was the death of triple World Champion, Ayrton Senna at Imola, the day after Simtek driver Roland Ratzenberger had also been killed, but there were however, many more. At the end of sixteen grueling races there was a feeling of relief that it was all over and a certainty that Formula One would never be the same again.

But after so many years of trouble free motoring, just how and why did so many serious and in some cases fatal incidents happen in one season? There is no clear answer to that question, as we will soon discover in this article. Rather a combination of convergent events, freak circumstances and alleged underhandedness by several participants in that year's championship made the 1994 season one that no one would ever forget.

During the off season between the 1993 and 1994 World Driver's Championship one of the biggest sets of rule changes in the history of the sport was announced. Almost all of the electronic driver aids of the previous season were banned. Things such as active suspension, traction control, ABS, four wheel steering and launch control were all outlawed. As well as this, refueling was allowed in the sport again for the first time since 1983 and an Indy Car style 'Pace Car' as it was known as in those days for controlling the pack after big accidents and incidents was introduced to the sport for the first time.

The all conquering Williams FW15C of 1993, seen here with Damon Hill at the wheel took Alain Prost to that year's Driver's World Championship and Williams to the Constructor's Championship, but most of it's technology was banned for 1994.

The teams had argued that the FIA was forcing through these changes far too aggressively and without adequate planning. Several drivers, including the great Brazilian, Ayrton Senna predicted a season packed full of accidents. They had no idea how right they would turn out to be.

Things started ominously during pre season testing. Ferrari's Jean Alesi and Benetton's JJ Lehto both had serious shunts that forced them to miss the opening few rounds of the season. Both Ferrari and Benetton had run active suspension in 1993 as had Williams who were having even more problems with the handling of their car. The initial version of the Williams FW16 was an absolute beast to drive. Even Senna was perturbed by the car's erratic handling, that at times bordered on the uncontrollable. This was later traced to a design fault in part of the car's front suspension that wasn't addressed until the appearance of the FW16B at the mid season German Grand Prix, well after the Brazilian's death.

If the banning of electronic driver aids at the front of the field could be pointed to as the cause of some of the nervous handling of that season's cars, the same could not be said further down the grid. None of the team's lower down the field that would later become involved in on track accidents later in the season had run any significant electronic driver aids on their cars the year before, however there was still a feeling that all the entrants that year had produced cars that were difficult to drive. As a result many arrived at the opening round in Brazil with a feeling of trepidation.

The Brazilian GP picked up where pre season testing had left off.  On lap 35 a three way scrap for fifth place turned into a huge four car accident as Jos Verstappen, Eddie Irvine and Martin Brundle came up to lap Eric Bernard. Irvine in the Jordan pushed Verstappen in the Benetton (who was deputising for the injured Lehto) onto the grass. The Benetton then came back across the front of the Jordan just as they drew level with Bernard's Ligier and was pitched into a terrifying roll across the top of both cars and Brundle's Mclaren who was just in front of them. Brundle took a bang on the head that on another day could have been much worse. Irvine later received a one race ban, later extended to three after a failed appeal was lodged.

Senna had been leading Michael Schumacher in the Benetton until the first round of pit stops, where the German got ahead after a much quicker stop (a story we will come back to later). Thereafter Senna was unable to catch Schumacher and eventually spun off late in the race.

Few could believe how quick Schumacher and Benetton had been at the opening round, especially as Interlagos has always been considered a power circuit, a track which the under powered Benetton was not considered to be well suited to. Senna has his misgivings about this, which became a full blown suspicion of cheating at the following round in Japan, dubbed the Pacific Grand Prix.

This hamfisted attempt at getting two races on the calender in then land of the rising sun was not really a success in general, but even less so for Senna who was punted off at the first corner by Hakkinen and then rammed by Larini in the Ferrari, who was deputising for the injured Alesi. Schumacher strolled to victory number two.

After being tipped off my Hakkinen, Senna's race was ended at the first corner after being rammed by Nicola Larini in the second Ferrari.
Senna waited by the track side at the first corner for a few laps and listened intently as Schumacher's Benetton went past. The Brazilian returned to the pits totally convinced that the Benetton was still running traction control. The flattened engine note, he said was a dead give away of computer control of the engine's throttle response. The Brazilian went to his grave convinced Schumacher and Benetton were cheating.

The third round of the 1994 World Driver's Championship was at Imola, Italy for the San Marino Grand Prix and will go down in history as one the most tragic single weekends the sport has ever had. On Friday Rubens Barrichello had a huge shunt when his Jordan-Hart clipped the kerb at the final chicane and was launched into the barriers on the opposite side of the track. For a split second it looked as though the Jordan was going to vault the fencing and crash into the crowd filling the stand behind it. Fortunately this did not come to pass, but the Jordan still ended up inverted against the barriers. Once it had been rolled right way up again it was discovered an unconscious Barrichello had swallowed his tongue. His airway was cleared and he was lucky to escape with just a fractured nose, bandaged arm and a bloody lip.

The following day however, Austria's Roland Ratzenberger was not so fortunate. Driving in only his third Grand Prix for the new Simtek team, Roland had a minor off during qualifying. Rather than coming in to get his car checked over he continued on another hot lap. During the flat out, 200mph approach to the Tosa hairpin his front wing, weakened in the previous lap's excursion failed. Robbed of all front downforce at such high speed, the car became uncontrollable. Roland crashed into the wall head on at around 190mph and was killed instantly, dying from a broken neck.

Roland Ratzenberger, who died instantly after this head on smash with the wall just before the Tosa hairpin on the Imola circuit in Italy.
All the drivers were naturally devastated by the first fatality on a race weekend for 12 years, but Senna took it particularly hard. His friend and FIA Chief Medical Officer, Professor Syd Watkins begged Ayrton to give it all up and retire. Ayrton said he could not however. During the pre race driver's briefing Senna took a lead role in early discussions about reforming the Grand Prix Driver's Association, a long since defunct body that had campaigned for driver safety during the dark days of the 1970's. They had planned to meet at the following round in Monaco.

As the field lined up for the start with Ayrton on pole for the third straight race that season, it briefly seemed business as usual for Formula One again. However that illusion lasted all but seconds as on the restart the returning JJ Lehto stalled in the Benetton as the lights turned green. He was collected at huge speed by Pedro Lamy in the Lotus-Mugan-Honda, who's view of Lehto was blocked until the last second by the cars in front of him.

Pedro Lamy's Lotus came to rest on the opposite side of the track from Lehto's Benetton, just past the pit exit. A red flag looked likely, but instead the safety car was seen for the first time in Formula One.
The following carnage brought out the 'Pace Car', or Safety Car as we call it today for the first time. Debris from the accident was also thrown over the catch fencing and into the main grandstand, injuring several spectators and a policeman. With a wrecked car on both sides of the pit straight and debris everywhere, it looked as though the race was about to be stopped, but it was not. Whether this was because the officials, overly keen to try out their new toy made the wrong choice, we will never know, however the decision not to stop the race was to play a significant part in the tragic events that followed.

Today the Safety Car is a high power sports car that looks more like a GT racer than a road car, however at the start of the 1994 the vehicle out front controlling the field was more like a basic saloon than a race car. It was nowhere near quick enough. For six laps the field circulated behind it at a pace far too slow for anything an F1 car is designed to do for any length of time. Tyre pressures dropped and a furious Senna gesticulated wildly at the driver of the Pace Car to get a move on.

What he knew, but that nobody else did was that he had set his car ride height up extra low to gain an edge on Schumacher's Benetton. The lower the car was to the track in those days, the more downforce it generated and thus the quicker it was. However, on a bumpy track it could also make the car extremely unstable. Imola was just such a track.

As the tyre pressures fell crawling along behind the Pace Car, the ride height started to become critical. Senna knew at the restart his car would be highly unstable until he could get heat back into the tyres again. The total commitment and cast iron will to win that had served him so well during his life in Formula One was about to play a key role in the circumstances leading up to his death.

On the sixth lap, as the all clear was given, the field roared away with Senna in the lead. As everyone gunned through the 190mph left handed, Tamburello corner sparks were seen to shoot up from the rear of the leading Williams. Schumacher, following just behind in second place observed how unstable Senna's car was as it hit the huge bump on the inside of the corner. Everyone knew this bump was there and several drivers avoided it, knowing that they were on cold tyres.

Senna leads Schumacher on his final full lap in Formula One.
However the bump also formed part of the quickest line through the corner. Senna, desperate not to be beaten by Schumacher for the third race in a row went straight over it. The Williams opened the slightest of gaps to the chasing German during the rest of the lap but was unable to pull away from the Benetton. Perhaps feeling a sense of desperation at his inability to shake off Schumacher and possibly angry at his suspicions of Benetton running illegal driver aids, Senna was driving way over the limit.

If someone like Prost had still be in the Williams for 1994 he would likely have taken a much more long term view of the situation, conceding ground to Schumacher early on, but with the confidence that Williams would eventually overcome their initial struggles to get to grips with the new regulations in Formula One.

Conceding ground was not in Senna's vocabulary however and as he began the seventh lap of the race he could not have known he had only seconds to live. As the field once again came upon Tamburello, Senna's car suddenly veered to the right, having left the track at over 190mph.

Senna's Williams-Renault just after the moment of impact at over 130 mph.
He had just enough time to hit the brakes and start changing down through the gears to scrub off some speed, but he still hit the wall at over 130mph. In previous seasons Alboreto, Piquet and Berger had all survived huge accidents at the same corner at even higher speeds and survived. Berger had even been sat unconscious in a burning Ferrari after a big accident there in 1989 and suffered little more than minor burns.

Ayrton was not so lucky. His Williams hit the wall precisely the wrong angle, causing the front right tyre to sheer off and come back and strike the Brazilian on the head with extreme force. As he was extricated from the car covered in blood, live on television round the world it soon became clear that Senna was not going to survive.

As Chief Medical Officer at the track, it was the sad duty of Senna's friend Syd Watkins to lead the hopeless attempts at saving his life. In his autobiography entitled 'Life at the Limit' Professor Watkins described his dismay at the extent of Ayrton's injuries when he examined him. His pupils were totally dilated, indicating that his brain stem had been completely destroyed. There was a hole in his his temple, where a piece of the front suspension had pieced his helmet and blood and brain matter were spilling from his nose. As well as this he had sustained a burst temporal artery and an unsurvivable rear skull fracture.

Attempts were made to save Senna's life at the side of the track, but the situation was hopeless.
Rather than the standard procedure of stabilising the patient at the track medical centre and then taking them to hospital, Senna's injuries were so severe that he was airlifted straight from the circuit to the hospital via helicopter. He was pronounced dead later that evening, having only survived that long because he was placed on life support.

There was initially total confusion as to the seriousness of Senna's condition among the other drivers  team personnel. Inexplicably, Erik Comas was released from the pits whilst the track was blocked by the air ambulance and other track vehicles. The roar of the Lamborghini V12 in the back of his Larrouse shattered the eerie silence that had enveloped the circuit. Comas screeched to a halt just after Tamburello and was confronted by the sight of attempts to resuscitate Senna. Two years earlier, Senna had been the only driver to stop after Comas, then driving for Ligier, had a massive corkscrew accident at Spa. The Frenchman was distraught.

Gradually the message started to seep through the paddock. At the very least most of the crews had heard that Senna would never race again, some had realised it was even more serious than that. Johnny Herbert, upon seeing Senna's blood spattered Williams being brought back to the pits on a trailer, shook his head and walked away.

The wreckage of Senna's FW16 on being loaded aboard a trailer to be taken back to the pits.
Many theories about what caused Senna's accident have been raised, several by the Italian judicial system as it prosecuted key Williams personnel for "Culpable Homicide", but the telemetry and footage of the accident never really supported a broken steering column or rear suspension failure as the case against Williams suggested.

The most likely answer is that a desperate Senna, unable to shake off Schumacher behind him, driving on cold tyres and with a dangerously low ride height set up was simply pushing too hard in a car that had proven itself to be hard to handle. The version of events that most serious commentators on the sport now accept his that his car bottomed out on the bumpy Imola circuit, lost traction and broke away from Senna before he could do anything about it. His rare mistake in Brazil shows just how hard he was pushing in those early rounds to keep ahead of Schumacher.

The race continued as it always does in Formula One. Berger led for a while in the Ferrari, but knowing something serious had happened to Ayrton retired from the race. He and several Mclaren personnel left the circuit for the hospital in Bologne where Senna had been airlifted to. They were among the last people to see him alive. Before Schumacher took his third straight victory there was still time for yet more tragedy on the blackest of all weekends in Formula One.

In those days, there was no pit lane speed limit in F1. Cars used to drive down the pit lane at full throttle. In retrospect it was complete madness and fortunate that a serious incident had not happened sooner. But this time, it did. Michele Alboreto's Minardi lost a rear wheel after a pit stop ( a not uncommon event in those days), which then proceeded to bounce down the pit lane injuring several pit crew, one seriously.

Alboreto's Minardi being pushed clear of the pit lane exit after losing a wheel that injured several people in the pit lane.
In the aftermath of Imola, sweeping rule changes were promised and hastily drafted whilst the funerals of Senna and Ratzenberger took place. In retrospect these rule changes came to be regarded as being brought in with the same haste as the original set of new regulations implemented at the start of the season, which many were now holding up as the cause of series of accidents witnessed during the season so far.

Both the FIA and the now reformed GPDA had barely even begun to react by the time the mourning F1 circuit reached the next round in Monaco, when yet another serious, life threatening incident happened. During the first free practice session of the weekend, Karl Wendlinger's Sauber emerged from the tunnel at the quickest part of the circuit, weaving strangely as the Austrian wrestled for control of the vehicle. Unable to slow the car down, he slammed head on into the barriers at the end of the run off past the chicane.

The actions of the marshalls and the FIA medical team saved his life, but he suffered a serious brain injury and was in a medically induced coma for a lengthy period of time whilst the swelling inside his skull subsided. Wendlinger, who had once been considered the equal of Schumacher when team mates in the Mercedes Junior Sports Car Team in 1990 eventually returned to Formula One, but was never the same driver again.

Karl Wendlinger being extracted from his Sauber at Monaco after a life threatening smash left him in a coma.
The rule changes designed to slow the cars down still further were scheduled to come in stages through the rest of the season and at the beginning of 1995. Downforce would be reduced and from the beginning of the following season engine capacity would be reduced from 3.5 to 3 litres in a bid to reduce horsepower.

Those rule changes did nothing to prevent Andrea Montermini, who was Roland Ratzenberger's replacement at Simtek from having a big off at the final corner of the next round in Spain during Saturday morning free practice. The Italian was lucky to escape with just a broken ankle and a chipped heal, especially as his feet could clearly be seen through the front of the car where the bulkhead had failed.

By now the grief that had at first enveloped the paddock had started to turn to panic. Who would be next? When would it end? Added to Montermini's crash in Spain, during testing in the run up to the race, Pedro Lamy had been seriously injured after the rear wing on his Lotus failed at high speed on the Silverstone circuit. His car became airborne, cleared the spectator fencing and ended up landing in a pedestrian tunnel under the circuit. Lamy suffered two broken legs and two broken wrists. He did not race again for over a year. If the accident had happened on a race weekend the damage would have been incalculable.

Ratzenberger's replacement at Simtek was lucky to only sustain a broken ankle and chipped bone in his foot after the whole front of his Simtek was destroyed during free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Lamy's rear wing failure was put down to the FIA rushing through rule changes to reduce the speed of the cars without the necessary planning and fore thought to be confident that these new regulations would not cause more accidents themselves. During most of the 1980's and early 1990's the rear wing had been mounted to the substantial rear diffuser that had been permitted up until mid way through 1994. With these anchoring points removed, so the theory went, Lamy's Lotus no longer had sufficient structural integrity in a key area to support the loads presented to it through the rear wing. It's a matter of subjectiveness if you consider the blame to lie with Lotus or the FIA over Lamy's accident, but the point remains that rushing through mid season rule changes had the potential to make the situation worse, a lesson that has not been lost on the FIA in recent times.

However, the often quoted fact that the changes brought in at the start of the 1994 World Championship contributed to all the accidents that year does not stand up to scrutiny when examined carefully. By the end of 1993 the only teams on the grid running technology like active suspension and traction control were Williams, Mclaren, Benetton and Ferrari. Lotus had an active suspension system that was a legacy from their days as a pioneer of the technology in the 1980's, but it was so unreliable and the team so badly underfunded by 1993 that they did not use it at all circuits. Ferrari's active suspension system was little better. In fact it was so unreliable that it had pitched Gerhard Berger into the wall at the Portuguese Grand Prix in an enormous shunt that saw him come racing out of the pits at full speed, lose the car and career across the pit straight right in front of Derek Warwick's Footwork-Mugan-Honda and into the wall.

Gerhard Berger's drama exiting the pits in 1993 showed that the cars could be just as dangerous with active suspension as without it.
Also Mclaren, Ferrari and Benetton were only recent converts to the dark arts of electronic driver aids, mainly during the 1993 season. To say that they had become completely dependent on the technology would not be a fair statement. Indeed Williams, the kings of advanced electronics in Formula One had not begun to make serious strides with the technologies involved until mid way through 1991, so were fairly new to it all themselves.

Plus there is also the fact that teams such as Sauber and Simtek who had cars involved in serious incidents in 1994 had never run any kind of driver aids program. Whilst the sudden withdrawal of the technology from the bigger teams may have been a factor with some of the bigger teams, it was certainly not the only one and definitely not further down the grid.

A factor worth considering is that the chassis regulations had not changed massively since ground effect was banned at the end of the 1982 season. Despite the banning of the monstrously powerful turbo engines in 1988 lap times had continued to fall as speeds increased. A case could be argued that the cars had simply become too fast for the flat bottom design that had been a mainstay of the sport for more than a decade.

Perhaps the real explanation though of how the 1994 World Championship became so turbulent can be attributed to the fact that Formula One's luck just simply ran out. The lack of a death on a race weekend since Riccardo Paletti in 1982 had blinded both people within the sport and those outside it to how dangerous F1 still was.

There had been numerous big accidents either in races, qualifying, free practice or testing that had either killed or maimed several drivers since Paletti's death. Didier Pironi's career had been ended in a massive aerial crash that completely shattered his legs later in the 1982 season. Brundle broke both ankles in 1984, the same season Johnny Cecotto's career was ended with two broken legs during a shunt in qualifying. Laffite badly broke both legs at the start of the 1985 British Grand Prix and Andrea De Cesaris was lucky to walk away from a high speed, cartwheel crash also in a Ligier at the Austrian Grand Prix the same year. Then came Elio De Angelis' death during testing in 1986, followed by Phillipe Streiff breaking his neck during a pre season test in Brazil at the start of the 1989 season and being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Derek Warwick walked away from a roll over crash in the Lotus at Monza in 1990, the same season as his teammate, Martin Donnelly had been left with life threatening injuries after his car disintegrated upon smashing into the barriers at Jerez. Add to that Eric Bernard's compound leg fracture in 1991, Patrese's Williams almost being vaulted over the pit wall after a tangle of wheels with Berger's Mclaren in Portugal that year, Erik Comas's corkscrew accident at Spa in 1992 and Alex Zanardi's gargantuan crash at Eau Rouge in 1993, it is clear to see that F1 was not safe at all. It had just been lucky.

Berger again, this time at Imola in 1989. The Ferrari broke on the way into Tamburello and burst into flames after a near head on smash into the wall. Here the Austrian sits unconscious in a burning car. He was incredibly lucky to survive with only minor injuries.
Whilst there is no denying that big strides in safety continued to be made through the 1980's and early 1990's the sport was not as safe as the people who ran it believed it was. Much of the safety features that the sport now boasts have their roots in the 1994 F1 World Championship. For the first time in it's history, safety at the circuits F1 visits is now the sport's number one priority. It took blood on the track that fateful year to make it happen though.

The Spanish Grand Prix saw Williams take their first win of the season and a highly emotional one at that as Damon Hill crossed the line ahead of Schumacher. The German had been leading the race comfortably and on for his fifth straight victory when his Benetton became stuck in 5th gear. Schumacher then put in one of the most remarkable performances ever witnessed in an F1 car, completing the majority of the race distance stuck in one gear and still managing to finish second.

Senna's seat in the second Williams was taken up for remainder of the season on a time share basis between David Coulthard, the team's test driver and Nigel Mansell, who raced whenever his Indy Car commitments allowed him. Mansell peformed well on his comeback and made a solid start at the French Grand Prix, but his return was overshadowed as the cheating rumours resurfaced around Benetton and Schumacher.

Mansell's big money return to F1 lifted everyone's spirits during this darkest of seasons.
The two Williams cars had out qualified Schumacher, yet the German still led at the first corner after a start that can only be described as stunning. Straight away rumours started spreading of launch control being a factor. Everyone at Benetton denied it, but later the FIA began an investigation of all the teams during that summer and found Benetton, Ferrari and Mclaren to be in breach of the rules by still having some banned technologies present in their cars (although all claimed they were never used).

Benetton however were discovered to have the most serious breach of the rules. The launch control system from the 1993 car was found to still be on accessible on the grid, via a hidden menu on the car's start up software. Nothing was ever fully proven, but big fines were handed out to several of those involved.

The pressure of filling Senna's boots seemed to be weighing on Schumacher more heavily than the Brazilian's team mate at Williams as the season wore on. As Damon rose in stature, Schumacher appeared to be cracking up. At Hill's home race, Schumacher, in clear breach of the rules overtook Hill on the parade lap, who had qualified ahead of him as if he was trying to intimidate him.

On lap 14 Schumacher was given a five second stop and go penalty for his transgression. Benetton ignored it as they claimed they were appealing the decision. Schumacher stayed out for longer than the three laps permitted to complete the penalty and was subsequently shown the black flag. The Benetton team's management engaging in a very public dispute with the race director Roland Bruynseraede won them few fans, especially not at the FIA. Amazingly though, Benetton somehow managed to get the black flag commuted back down to a five second stop and go penalty which Schumacher served on lap 26. He went on to finish second behind Hill, but was later disqualified and banned for a further two races, which Benetton then appealed.

Damon Hill, triumphant after winning the 1994 British Grand Prix.
This allowed him to race in his home race in Germany where his team were in yet more hot water. Benetton's lightening quick pit stops had been a topic of conversation all season and as Verstappen came in for his in the second Benetton, the fuel rig malfunctioned spraying petrol all over a red hot car. What followed was an enormous fireball that engulfed Verstappen, his car, his mechanics and most of his pit box, sending flames high into the sky.

The most anyone suffered was light burns, but it had been a massive shock to all who saw it. In the investigation that followed it transpired that Benetton had removed a filter from the rig to make refueling quicker. Eventually it transpired that they had been given the appropriate clearance by the FIA to do so, but the timing could not  have been worse for them. Until the matter was clarified threats of expulsion from the championship were being talked about as a serious possibility.

The Benetton pit crew working on Verstappen's car, here shown engulfed in the shocking fireball that occurred during the Dutchman's first pit stop.
The Benetton fireball had occurred not long after a enormous, multi car crash at the start, for which Hakkinen was blamed and banned for one race. Schumacher retired on lap 20 of yet another eventful race weekend with a blown engine.

Whilst still racing under appeal Schumacher hit back by winning in Hungary and Belgium, but he was disqualified for the second time that season at Spa after the plank under his car was found to have worn down by more than permitted amount. This primitive, but effective device to change the profile of the underside of the cars to something safer than that seen during the flat bottom era had cost the German ten more points.

Benetton and Schumacher's appeal to the FIA failed and the he completed his suspension by sitting out the Italian and Portuguese rounds, which Hill duly won both of in the much improved FW16B. Schumacher won on his return at the European Grand Prix in Jerez, but Hill hit back with a masterful victory in the wet at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The two part race, stopped at one point due to the appalling conditions saw Brundle leave the circuit on a flooded track and crash into a race marshal, breaking his leg. Yet another low in a season of lows.

In the end the championship came down to the final round in Austrialia. Schumacher led Hill away in the early stages of the race, but cracked again under the pressure and hit the wall. His car was terminally damaged, but Hill who had not yet rounded the corner could not have known this. Schumacher's car veered across the track into the path of Hill and was vaulted over the Englishman's wheel into the barriers. Whether it was intentional or not we will never know, but Hill was unable to continue due to front left suspension damage, which made Schumacher the champion by just a single point.

Schumacher's car seen here in mid air almost after receiving a launch from Damon Hill's near obscured Williams. 
It felt like an unsatisfactory conclusion to what had been the most distressing of seasons. Few people other than fans of Schumacher and Benetton wanted to see anyone other than Williams take the title as a reward for their fighting back from Imola so bravely, but it was not to be.

As traumatic a season as it was, it was also a season of gripping high drama on so many levels simultaneously, the likes of which we may never see again. In the end Mansell crossed the line first that day in Adelaide to take his last career win. His sporadic return to the sport on a rumoured one million Dollars per race gave his presence the air of the surreal. Like a Hollywood A-lister having a run on Coronation Street almost.

F1 has most definitely never been the same since 1994 and the driver's owe their continued safety and longevity to the events of that tragic season...








2 comments:

  1. Chris, regarding the cause of Senna's accident, I suggest you read Tamburello book by Martin Zustak - http://www.martinzustak.com/tamburello.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great article. It reminded me that obscure season as I saw my favorite driver of all time dying live on tv, having only 14 years old. For many reasons I have never backup up a driver again. These days I only cheer McLaren's victories.

    ReplyDelete