Ayrton Senna

[anonymous-user]

Imola 1994 starting grid. Pole position

R.I.P Ayrton Senna

[Sandpit Steve]

Always a day of sad memories, the weekend when a sixteen-year-old me, Karting regular and massive Senna fan, discovered the existence of human frailty. RIP Ayrton.

[Penelope Stopit]

Hardly watched any F1 since

Was a horrible weekend

Hurts to this day when thinking about it

His protest about the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix pole grid position followed by the taking out of Prost still brings a smile though

Senna was a man of his word and one of the several greatest F1 drivers ever

[anonymous-user]

I think for many it was the first time seeing drivers being killed live on tv and the images of what happened at Imola are stamped in our memories.

To see both Ratzenberger and Senna having accidents and not walking away was one thing but to watch CPR being administrated on the track was just beyond words.

I knew as soon as we saw Ratzenberger he was in an extremely critical situation but I still thought he would survive.

This was the same with Senna especially when his head moved but I was very much mistaken.

Seeing what was left after Senna was moved made it very clear he was not going to make it.

Even now it seems unreal.

[Nickp82]

I remember my friend calling me after the race to ask if I knew he had passed away. Being 11, I hadn’t realised how grave the situation was so was shocked.
A disastrous weekend throughout.

[CeramicMX5ND2]

After Ratzenberger the day before, Ayrton was nervous about the race on Race Day. I believe his manager advised him not to race and just go and play some golf.. I wish he'd picked up his bag of clubs on that fateful day....!
R.I.P Ayrton..

[KR158]

fesuvious said:

I was sixteen
I still have the front and back pages from the Daily Mail.

I cried, a lot.

I was also 16. Popped into the Newsagents on Monday morning & was a little suprised to see that it was front page news. All of them if I remember correctly? I also still have those Pages. Somehow buying a copy bought it home to me that I wasn't imagining it, made it more "real" somehow. A terrible weekend.

[Andy_C77]

Still a day that makes me sad. I remember sitting in front of the TV with my dad when it happened.

[thiscocks]

Penelope Stopit said:

Hardly watched any F1 since

Was a horrible weekend

Hurts to this day when thinking about it

His protest about the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix pole grid position followed by the taking out of Prost still brings a smile though

Which could have ended up a lot worse, for both of them.

[Penelope Stopit]

thiscocks said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Hardly watched any F1 since

Was a horrible weekend

Hurts to this day when thinking about it

His protest about the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix pole grid position followed by the taking out of Prost still brings a smile though

Which could have ended up a lot worse, for both of them.

Feel that you've posted to the wrong topic, try searching PH topics using the search button found at top right of each page

[Penelope Stopit]

KR158 said:

fesuvious said:

I was sixteen
I still have the front and back pages from the Daily Mail.

I cried, a lot.

I was also 16. Popped into the Newsagents on Monday morning & was a little suprised to see that it was front page news. All of them if I remember correctly? I also still have those Pages. Somehow buying a copy bought it home to me that I wasn't imagining it, made it more "real" somehow. A terrible weekend.

Wouldn't wish the witnessing of the accidents on my worst enemy

Do understand how hard it was for both of you being so young and no doubt difficult to get away from

Many moons ago was at Oulton Park for a Formula 3000 meeting, was with partner and two nippers, kids were timing Paul Warwick and........................heartbreaking

[Simes205]

fesuvious said:

I was sixteen
I still have the front and back pages from the Daily Mail.

I cried, a lot.

I was 19, I still have the front cover of the Times.

[LukeBrown66]

Thing is you always felt it likely it would happen, people like him, Gilles were always on that edge.

I have to admit my memories of him are tainted by what he brought to F1 overall, and that was that driving into people and going for gaps was fine, regardless.

The more you watch those years and I have been doing a lot recently you can see why Prost got to him, Alain was so effortless, all about race day, and Ayrton was totally lost without him, he literally could not see the point.

It was the greatest rivalry we will ever have in my eyes in F1 and when it stopped, my passion for the sport also largely stopped as I found Schumacher so utterly uninteresting and devious that even the bright spots of Hakkinen and Alonso beating him meant I moved on from F1.

I still take a passing interest and keep up with it to an extent, but those days were mercurial in so many ways

[Eric Mc]

I actually am far less morose and weepy about this than many. I grew up in an era where racing drivers occasionally got killed - even great ones. Senna's accident occurred in an era where many thought no more drivers would die in accidents.

I never thought that.

I always thought that Senna himself had a misguided belief that somehow he was immune from such incidents. As a result I thought he wasn't very perceptive and lacked imagination - and also lacked a sense of hubris.

[carl_w]

CeramicMX5ND2 said:

After Ratzenberger the day before, Ayrton was nervous about the race on Race Day. I believe his manager advised him not to race and just go and play some golf.. I wish he'd picked up his bag of clubs on that fateful day....!
R.I.P Ayrton..

I think it was actually Sid Watkins (FIA Medical Delegate) who suggested they both go fishing.

[cuprabob]

carl_w said:

CeramicMX5ND2 said:

After Ratzenberger the day before, Ayrton was nervous about the race on Race Day. I believe his manager advised him not to race and just go and play some golf.. I wish he'd picked up his bag of clubs on that fateful day....!
R.I.P Ayrton..

I think it was actually Sid Watkins (FIA Medical Delegate) who suggested they both go fishing.

That's what I remember too, from the "Senna" film.

[carl_w]

cuprabob said:

That's what I remember too, from the "Senna" film.

It's also mentioned in Sid Watkins's book, which is a good read.

[CeramicMX5ND2]

cuprabob said:

carl_w said:

CeramicMX5ND2 said:

After Ratzenberger the day before, Ayrton was nervous about the race on Race Day. I believe his manager advised him not to race and just go and play some golf.. I wish he'd picked up his bag of clubs on that fateful day....!
R.I.P Ayrton..

I think it was actually Sid Watkins (FIA Medical Delegate) who suggested they both go fishing.

That's what I remember too, from the "Senna" film.

Oh that's it yes.. I knew it was doing something other than racing.. You guys are right it was fishing!

[A500leroy]

For a brief horrible second i thought we were going to have it again a few weeks ago when Russel and Bottas had a coming together at that spot.

[entropy]

Simes205 said:

fesuvious said:

I was sixteen
I still have the front and back pages from the Daily Mail.

I cried, a lot.

I was 19, I still have the front cover of the Times.

I remembered it made the front cover of my local paper. You'd need to be one heck of a personality for that to occur. Shows you how popular F1 was and how Senna transcended the sport.