Something that never gets mentioned is that the year before, when Michael Andretti went to McLaren, one of the things he said he didn't like about F1 cars was how low the sides of the cockpit were cut. F1, full of their usual arrogance, just rolled their eyes no doubt thinking, "What do these guys from CART know? We're Formula 1, we're the epitome of motor racing." The day after Senna's accident, one of the first things they talked about changing was the sides of the cockpit.

The fact that Roland’s death was confirmed away from the circuit tells you all you need to know about the FIA at that time. Announce it away from the circuit and we can carry on here and not lose millions or have it confirmed on the track and the race gets cancelled. If anyone has seen the video of Roland’s body being extracted from his wrecked Simtek (& just a warning it’s very disturbing) you can clearly see he was already gone from us. So the FIA decided that money was more important than a drivers life and the race went ahead and everybody knows what happened the following day. One thing that always intrigued me about the Tamburello corner was the run off area. It’s a well known fact that the river behind dictated that the outer wall couldn’t be moved so it amazed me the choice of surfaces used in that corners run off area,grass and then tarmac. Surely sand or gravel would have been a better choice laid in such a way that the nearer the wall the deeper it got say rising from track level on the circuits edge to say 4ft at the wall. It just beggars belief that with all those close calls that came before that fatal day nothing was ever done.

There may have been no way to increase the runoff for Tamburello on the outside but it could have been re-profiled on the inside. The death of Ayrton Senna has saved the lives of many drivers since, I lm certainly aware of changes the Sauber team made in the aftermath of Ayrton’s death which potentially saved Karl Wendlinger. The fact that there were no deaths between 1994 and 2014 is testament to improvements in safety, to cars, helmets and protective clothing & equipment, crash testing, circuit design, safety structures, barrier design, run off areas and race control intervention and marshalling.

Incredible video. Thank you for posting. Very informative. It seems in all businesses, when money is at stake, lives are less precious. Very sad time in F1 history.

Just discovered your channel, pretty amazing videos, keep up the good work

Gérard Berger and Ayrton Senna had gone to the Tamburello corner because they were concerned about how dangerous the corner was but the wall couldn't be moved back. Ayrton said someone would die at that corner but it ended up being him that was killed at the corner. I believe if they had gone to the people in charge of the circuit modifications and asked them to put a tyre barrier and a gravel trap at that corner, the possibility of a serious injury would have been diminished. Rip Ayrton ❤

Appearently Imola 1994 was the clash of Old Formula 1 meeting new Formula 1. An old bumpy track suitable for heavy cars which can take damage and these forces meeting new F1 cars, which are made to be as light as possible but in a time where people still thought: "Oh we can put everything on our car and it will somehow work" - in case of Senna's car: His steering column was extended using a simple rod, no one cared about even testing out if it could withstand the forces from a bumpy track with high chicanes or even the g-forces from the side as well. If you look at the onboard and slow it down, it might be that this column-extension already broke the lap before, because of all the forces applied to it, which it simply couldn't withstand.

Behind the tragedy. Love it. Top narration

sennas crash was demonstrably survivable he was unlucky to have a headstrike ratz was unsurvivable

it's a really uncommon failing and anyone can figure how hard it is to found a similar failure in motorsport history. this is enough to be suspicious. a column is essencial to turn and shouldn't broke, even on everyday's car, it's not something that broke every 4 corners.

There were more than warnings at Tamburello. That Berger survived was a miracle to be honest.

Currently released "Senna's last lap - HQ" here on YT shows that the steering wheel bent down in Tamburello so much that the display became visible above the steering wheel... and then snapped.... :(

This is by far the best documentary KZfaq post I've seen on this subject. It pains me to disagree with anything you've said but I must comment on teams withdrawing their drivers or not. Correct me if I'm wrong, Ferrari didn't withdraw from Germany in 76 or Lotus from Italy in 78 because they believed their drivers had survived the accidents. At Imola in 1994, the race was still in progress, albeit under a red flag and as far as I know, no definitive news had emerged of Senna's demise. On that basis, I don't think Williams could be blamed for continuing. I don't know how Simtek came to their decision but maybe it was an ill-advised effort to respect Ratzenberger by not giving up?

That race shouldn't have carried on after Roland's death. The fact that they believed that the race must go on is still appalling to me.

Good informative video.

it's obvious that many and many violent crashes keep happening in the same corner, you have to question yourself about this specifiic corner. maybe senna and berger didn't found a solution, but it wasn't their job, it's not somehing you can came up with within 5 minutes, and it's why sefety is the role of full times employees at the fia. more importantely, despite what people say, death was a concern, each time a driver died, even in the 70s, there was always a seftey improvement somehow. so theses accidents should have alert some responsables, i'm absolutely agree. it's a accumulation of negligence: williams who performed a such crucial change to the steering wheel in a hurry, the corner too fast for a lack of room for braking, the bumps who destroy your car and push you to the wall in a spot you know the consequences can only be bad, the f1 itself, who waited for deaths to improve safety.

I was a huge Williams fan and was delighted when they signed Ayrton but in the days/weeks after his crash, I was no longer a Williams fan and I despise them now. I think without a doubt they are responsible for his crash, the steering weld did cause the accident for sure. Did you know Williams took the telemetry box out of Senna's Williams and smashed it? I hold Frank Williams, Patrick Head and Adrian Newey responsible and I'll never forgive any of them for the accident or their "cover up" afterwards, ie Coulthard saying it's normal that a wheel moves so much (which several drivers including Michele Alboreto said was utter nonsense!). To hell with Williams!

funny how the idea of widening the track outwards was the only option looked at, no one looked at taking ground from the inside of the track the part now used for the chicane that now sits there

I don't agree that Simtech was wrong in starting the Grand Prix. They knew Ratzy and decided it's what he would have wanted. Good video though. I didn't know Senna also had a basilar skull fracture.

guys ; Williams was found GUILTY in an English COURT of LAW of NEGLIENCE for the unsafe changes made in and around Senna's steering column. READ ABOUT IT for yourself on Y.T. Stop with the Tambulello. Senna crashed b/c his car (due to changes in steering) couldn't steer around curve.

What they did after Ratzenberger' death was unforgiveable and led to Sennas death! As you say too much money to be lost.

nowadays f1 can stop a session after 1 lap or 1 minutes and still find good excuses in its terms and condition to not refund a penny to anyone. las vegas FP1 & 2 2023, belgium 2021. so in 1994 lawyers wasn't that good and still thought therace might be 100% covered to get the broadcastors and spectator's money.

It'll never, ever be agreed as to how the crash occurred but everyone claiming the steering column failed and caused it will have to explain why the car oversteered right before it went off. There are three dark patches of tarmac at Tamburello in 1994. Not particularly notable except for that as the car goes over the third one, it hits bumps and oversteers, noticeable to everyone because the front of the car changes angle and starts pointing at the kerb on the inside of the turn. It's only fleeting as you'd expect a driver of Senna's calibre and reflexes to counter steer except when he does is the exact time he goes spearing off the track. Watch any video uploaded of the onboard of Senna's car and you see it go over the third dark patch, he oversteers and then he goes off. It's unmistakable and undeniable. Now I know if you suggest the tire pressures were low people jump down your throat and say he did the fastest lap the lap before and temperatures/pressures were up to race spec by the time he entered Tamburello so it couldn't be that the crash was caused by that so there are other ways the car might oversteer. The FW16 in it's Imola configuration was still suffering aerodynamically and Williams were still re-learning how to setup cars with non-active suspension. Senna would've absolutely set it up for the maximum performance but did he do it at a cost of safety? It was obviously bottoming out through Tamburello - Scumacher was right behind and confirmed it, the cameras from his car and throughout the broadcast show it. There was debris on the track from the Lehto/Lamy incident and it doesn't take much to run over and puncture a tire. It's just not inconceivable and in fact very likely that something to do with either the set up causing it to run too low and bottom out or a puncture to cause the same thing to have it skate along the track surface and momentarily lose tractioin only to regain it the moment it rebounds. If Senna's wheel is turning to the left to navigate the left hand turn then the moment it grounds the friction of everything will be lost so it'll turn to the inside (like we see) and then it grips again having counter steered, the front wheels would be facing right and it'd take him straight off. That for me is the most likely. Hitting a wall at 131 mph will cause a lot of things on a car to snap and break, hence the broken steering column. That it was a crap welding job and a bad design is not up for debate, it absolutely was and everyone involved has admitted as such. However I fail to believe it was so bad it was unsafe to race. Williams designers, engineers and mechanics would never have sent anyone out to die knowing that it would fail or could fail, they're not that callous. I also don't believe that Newey would still be designing cars now with a clear conscience if he was hiding something, he's not that good of an actor nor is he anything but human. It got lost in the need to find someone or something to blame with the way Italian law worked and the fact that it was Senna so he could never have made any mistakes at all in either setting up or driving the car. Fans will believe what they want to believe.

@8:10 i was wondering why his bloody head was so big but it's the neck brace that we see. they used it in that kinda of head trauma to avoid injuries getting worse.

Formula 1 is like any business I've ever worked in. Nobody wants to listen to warnings of impending disaster until its too late. Is this human nature or a case of money first, human cost second?

Blanchimont is comparable to Tamburello, yet that place had always had a big gravel run-off area and tyre walls. When it gets to Tamburello, tyre walls wouldn't have made a difference, because the car would have been stopped dead-end putting all the energy onto the driver (you can see how Barrichello's car was stopped) PLUS back then tyre walls didn't have the band in front, so the tyres would have come lose and flying around, causing even more damage.

I don't understand why Tamburello wasn't changed in 1990 after what happened to Gerhard Berger in 1989

ironecally, without the death of Senna his death, much more F1 drivers would have died

8 was amazed how many accidents were at that corner I rememrase but didn't think it was imola because of the adverts sign at the cornerber seeing something about the other accidents Michelle and pat

Imola was, and still is, a death trap, like having a particle accelerator in your downstairs bathroom. Narrow track, no runoff, wickedly fast. It is not done claiming lives even with the improvements.

It occurs to me, not just in circuit design but any system really, laws, software, roadcars, the nets’ security, politics, anything, that things are designed to go well as long as they go well. Contingency is never built in. It is assumed that things will always go according to plan, as per spec. And whenever you suggest it might not, during the planning stage, you’re efficiently and elegantly pushed aside as a miser, a non believer. True that, I’m a Thomas. Show me. Give me practical, empirical proof. Of course not. Their dream must be made true. Well, hear me: the misers have always been proven right in the long run. QED

Surely even if the corner couldn't be altered, a layer of tyres before the concrete wall (as was commonly used at the time) would have absorbed significant amounts of impact and been safer? The fact that the Italian authorities prosecuted the Williams team after the accident always struck me as a blatant attempt to shift the blame. Having said that though, I don't think the Williams team ever really recovered from the death of the greatest driver of the era.

Here is a conspiracy for you. The team that seemed to have the most crashes is Williams. Senna - Williams 1994 Patrese - Williams 1992 Piquet - Williams 1987 But Frank Williams also had a life changing accident in 1986. Is the Williams team cursed?

Why did you pick a pic of Montermini here?

unfortunately i don't think senna was instantly killed, he was moving on his car and probably survive 3 minutes with a piece of metal in his head, probably long and painful minutes. even if for us theses 5-10 minutes don't make a difference, there is, because it's a very painful death. even worse, i think theses head movement were because of his pain. maybe the pain was so strong that is was kepting him conscient and alive. there is lot of example in lifes that even after head injury, people can stay conscient or alive, even severe ones. if you take the example of wendlingler, everyone thought he was dead, but he recovered and is still alive when i'm writing this.

All Sennas injuries were due to the piece of suspension.

F1 owned by Liberty Media is taking F1 in the wrong direction, we are seeing more and more street racing which I fear will end up in a drivers death to make the FIA wake up.

They need put chicane 1987 why they didn't good question Villeneuve also dangerous turn so fast they didn't slow him down

8:56 is Andrea Montermini in Spain

The problem wasn't the curve, the problem was the poor British engineering in reduce the diameter of the steering bus...that broke and hit as an arpon Senna head, perforing Senna helmet and hurt him to dead...so the curve was dangerous, yes, but the problem was not the crash that always can be dangerous but the change of the streng of this piece of the steering, cause the fatality, he could survive if this piece wasn't modify in the way it was to be less wide...

I'm a grandmother, I don't understand cars, but I watched the races. Senna's death shocked me. Now, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary, I watched a lot of videos and cried, because it was a terrible blow and it hurt. A race where 3 people were injured, 2 of those 3 died and were not stopped is a disgrace as it is. In Schumacher's place, I would not have stood in the place of the winner. I never loved him, but not now, although fate has punished him very much! Couldn't the entire course have been poorly designed, with so many dead and injured at this point? Here in Hungary, we have had such tracks for a very long time, our track is said to be slow, but very safe, it is now being rebuilt and renovated. The competitors love me and I love them and I was very afraid of them.

8:55 That's not Ratzenberger.

Berger was lucky

Oddly enough, drivers slow for a chicane but not a sharp corner. Blaming the corner is crazy. Many of the accidents are from the cars failures, the rest, driver fail!

How that was just a concrete wall as a barrier with nothing to absorb energy is beyond me. That being said it is Williams’s fault the steering failed

Experts seem to agree that Senna would have walked away from the incident if the right front wheel had not struck his helmet. But you think you know far more than them either through ignorance or arrogance, or both.

There is NO greatest of all time every era of tech, cars and driver style is different.

Why are you talking like that? Really??

Ironically, Senna‘s biggest enemy was Senna. He was a personal friend of the track owner and he could’ve had tires put at the Tamborello curve. But he disliked tires as he had a bad experience with them in Mexico in which his car flipped.

Roland was dead for sure. He died right there and you can see the color had left his skin. The Grand Prix should have been canceled. The recent floods cancelled the Imola GP but not a death.