Roland Ratzenberger

[Penelope Stopit]

A horrible weekend, will never forget it

[Phil Dicky]

Penelope Stopit said:

A horrible weekend, will never forget it

I was on a stag weekend, a weekend I won't forget for all the wrong reasons.

[Muzzer79]

belleair302 said:

The weekend should have been cancelled on the Friday in my opinion.

Without wanting to labour this......what for?

Roland perished on the Saturday and Senna on the Sunday.

In hindsight, it was obviously awful but I can’t see how anyone would have known what was coming to enable a race cancellation.

[Crafty_]

Remember watching all three accidents.

Those horrid seconds as his car slewed around and finally came to a stop I can vividly remember.

Ruben's accident had been bad enough, it was almost unbelievable that things were just getting worse.. and that was before Sunday..

35 years this weekend since Toivonen's accident too.

[thiscocks]

Gameface said:

95 fiesta si said:

dont know about that, but he did have a bad crash on the Friday.

From the man himself

https://youtu.be/08xCZdj6VfY

I don't think it's possible to die and then come back to life. Perhaps Watkins was just being light hearted. I thought he was knocked unconscious and had swallowed his tongue, perhaps his choking on his tongue is what Watkins was referring to?

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I can't believe it's been so long. I still remember the footage. The weekend.

I remember calling my girlfriend, now wife from a phone box and her telling me the news about Sena too.

[Zoobeef]

When you factor in the start line crash, the pit lane tyre incident and the fact a team sent their car back out at race speed with a helicopter on the track it was a truly disastrous weekend.

[Penelope Stopit]

Phil Dicky said:

Penelope Stopit said:

A horrible weekend, will never forget it

I was on a stag weekend, a weekend I won't forget for all the wrong reasons.

Such is life, some things stick with us forever

Today is Easter Sunday, this is a year to the day when a very close friend died, still possible to wish her three children happy Easter and they do understand, difficult though

For many, Senna was never going to die like that yet he did

When did you find out he had died?

[Penelope Stopit]

To keep more on topic

Seeing Ratzenberger as he was in his car that was still moving at a considerable speed shocked many, it was so horrible

[Moley RUFC]

An amazing photo of Rubens covering his helmet with his hands on impact - a natural reaction that sort of summed up how big the impact was about to be....

[Digger]

Moley RUFC said:

An amazing photo of Rubens covering his helmet with his hands on impact - a natural reaction that sort of summed up how big the impact was about to be....

Thanks for the link

[Moley RUFC]

Digger said:

Thanks for the link

I saw it in a book

[Moley RUFC]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/fo...

[Digger]

Moley RUFC said:

Digger said:

Thanks for the link

I saw it in a book

I just used googled & saw it. As you say purely instinctive as we all would no doubt.

[Gameface]

[Digger]

Boggles the mind how some photographers capture their images. . .

[Penelope Stopit]

Digger said:

Moley RUFC said:

Digger said:

Thanks for the link

I saw it in a book

I just used googled & saw it. As you say purely instinctive as we all would no doubt.

If you mean react the same as,I doubt it, peoples reactions differ

Will never forget a high speed head-on impact, had one to two seconds to react, straightened arms and pushed against the steering wheel as hard as could, on, off and on brakes at the same time, felt like slow motion, five seconds or more

Do think that many involved in big impacts will push against the steering wheel and stay like that

We all differ though so..................

To this day still ask myself how did the mind tell the foot to on off the brake pedal

[Digger]

Penelope Stopit said:

Digger said:

Moley RUFC said:

Digger said:

Thanks for the link

I saw it in a book

I just used googled & saw it. As you say purely instinctive as we all would no doubt.

If you mean react the same as,I doubt it, peoples reactions differ

Will never forget a high speed head-on impact, had one to two seconds to react, straightened arms and pushed against the steering wheel as hard as could, on, off and on brakes at the same time, felt like slow motion, five seconds or more

Do think that many involved in big impacts will push against the steering wheel and stay like that

We all differ though so..................

To this day still ask myself how did the mind tell the foot to on off the brake pedal

In those days was it also drummed in to the drivers to take the hands off the steering wheel at point of impact? I assume so. Natural reaction would be for the hands to protect.

[Penelope Stopit]

Digger said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Digger said:

Moley RUFC said:

Digger said:

Thanks for the link

I saw it in a book

I just used googled & saw it. As you say purely instinctive as we all would no doubt.

If you mean react the same as,I doubt it, peoples reactions differ

Will never forget a high speed head-on impact, had one to two seconds to react, straightened arms and pushed against the steering wheel as hard as could, on, off and on brakes at the same time, felt like slow motion, five seconds or more

Do think that many involved in big impacts will push against the steering wheel and stay like that

We all differ though so..................

To this day still ask myself how did the mind tell the foot to on off the brake pedal

In those days was it also drummed in to the drivers to take the hands off the steering wheel at point of impact? I assume so. Natural reaction would be for the hands to protect.

Don't know and am not going to assume anything

Very much doubt that training someone how to face possible death would change a persons reaction to a possible death

Anyway...........

Horrible weekend and not bothered much with F1 since

[coppice]

The reactions to that weekend depend on your age. It was shocking , of course , but if you had already been watching motorsport for 25 years it was more deja vu than anything else . As a teenager in 1968 , every month seemed to bring another tragedy - Clark , Spence , Scarfiotti and Schlesser and it made me realise , first hand , that the sport exacted a high price. But even then , it was far safer than in previous decades ,and some pre war races were carnage . I do wonder about the level of handwringing we now get - of course poor Jules Bianchi 's death at Suzuka was terrible , but the coverage in Autosport was crass overkill .

It's up to an individual to decide whether to carry on watching after the death of a high profile driver but I do wonder - was it really that much of a shock that people get killed sometimes?