Thirty years later, the death of Ayrton Senna in the tragic San Marino GP Formula 1 It was resolved in the courts in 2007, but in the world of motorsport it still generates discussions, controversies and a lack of consensus. The rumored accident, which cost the life of the three-time world champion and national idol, resulted in a series of judicial decisions in the 90s and 2000s, which resulted in six people being charged, one guilty party and no one being arrested.
Senna died on May 1, 1994 after a serious accident on the infamous and treacherous Tamburello Curve, at the Imola Circuit, in Italy. 30 years after the remarkable episode, which shook the country at the time, the Estadão remembers the tragedy and remembers how the investigation and the legal case, which ended 17 years ago, ended.
The Italian court ruled for the last time on the case on April 13 of that year. In 2007, the European country’s Supreme Court only confirmed a previous decision, keeping only one person to blame for the tragedy. His name is Patrick Head, former partner and co-founder of Williamsthe team for which Senna drove in his last season in F-1.
The 77-year-old British engineer was convicted of manslaughter, but did not serve time because the case had expired. Under Italian law, the statute of limitations for this type of crime is seven years and six months. But 13 years had already passed since the fatal accident. Head was blamed for being Williams’ technical director at the time.
“It was determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by poorly designed and poorly executed modifications. Responsibility for this lies with Patrick Head, guilty of omission of control”, stated the Supreme Court in 2007. In addition to being Williams’ technical director, Head was also the designer of the FW16 model, a car driven by Senna that season.
Despite his unintentional participation in the tragedy, the Briton is considered one of the greatest designers in the history of F-1. Co-founder of the team alongside legend Frank Williams, Head was involved with the team for almost 40 years, during which he participated in winning nine Constructors’ World Championships and seven Drivers’ World Championships. Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Frenchman Alain Prost and Briton Nigel Mansell, among others, celebrated titles with cars designed by Head.
His career in motorsport even earned him the title of Sir, a recognition from the British monarchy, in 2015. His image, however, was already damaged by his unintentional participation in Senna’s accident. In 2012, he sold most of his shares in Williams and stepped away from F1. He ended up returning in 2019 as a technical consultant and was close to the Williams leadership until 2021.
Interestingly, Head was married to Brazilian journalist Betise Assumpção, who worked as Senna’s press advisor at the time of the accident.
Who was charged with Senna’s death?
The case began to be tried in December 1997, three years after the accident. Six people were charged with manslaughter without intent to kill. In addition to Head, the list included Frank Williams himself, founder of the team; engineer Adrian Newey; Roland Bruynseraede, safety inspector at the International Automobile Federation (FIA); and Federico Bendinelli, partner in the company that managed the Ímola Circuit.
All were acquitted in the first and second instances of Italian justice. Dissatisfied with the decisions, the European country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the Supreme Court and, in May 2005, the court blamed Head for negligence in changing the steering column of Senna’s Williams (read more below). The British team appealed, but two years later the court upheld the decision, without acquitting Head.
From the list of those reported, only Newey remains in F-1 and his prestige is on the rise. He is the designer of the Red Bull cars that he has been making Max Verstappen shine on the tracks since 2021. In 2017, in his autobiography, the aeronautical engineer said that he would always feel guilty about Senna’s death.
“I was one of the responsible engineers on a team that designed a car in which a great man was killed. Regardless of whether the steering column caused the accident or not, there is no escaping the fact that something bad should never have gone into the car,” said Newey in the book “How to Build a Car.” free). “What makes me feel the most guilty, however, is not the possibility that the failure of the steering column could have caused the accident, because I don’t think so, but rather the fact that I complicated the aerodynamics of the car.”
How was Senna’s accident?
The tragedy that killed Senna happened on one of the most violent weekends in the history of F-1. The day before, during one of the GP training sessions, the young Austrian Roland Ratzenberger had died in a serious accident on the same track. On Friday, Rubens Barrichello risked death in a spectacular and frightening crash, which took him out of Sunday’s race. There has not been a death in the category since 1982.
On Sunday, the race had already started with a dangerous crash involving drivers Pedro Lamy and JJ Lehto. The race only resumed on the sixth lap, with Senna in first place. On the next lap, the Brazilian lost control of his Williams at the start of the fast Tamburello Curve, one of the fastest in F-1. Telemetry data shows that he started the curve at 309 km/h. He hit the wall at 216 km/h after heavy braking and 4G deceleration.
Several experts, involved in the investigation led by the Italian Court, pointed out that the broken steering bar or column broke while still on the track, causing Senna to lose control of the car. The steering column is the link between the steering wheel and the front suspension and transmits the movement of the drivers’ steering hands to the wheels. Upon impacting the wall, the right front suspension shattered and one of its “arms” hit Senna’s head like a spear, penetrating the brain, at the height of the visor, above the right eye.
The blow threw Senna’s head back with such force that it caused fractures at the base of the skull and cervical vertebrae, leading to the three-time world champion’s death. The Brazilian, who suffered hemorrhage, was revived on the track, including a tracheostomy procedure, which left marks of blood at the scene. Four hours later, doctor Maria Teresa Fiandri announced his death, from the entrance of the Maggiore Hospital, where Senna had been taken by helicopter, in the city of Bologna.
Adjustments to Senna’s car and controversies
The steering column became the main target of investigations because it underwent a change at Senna’s request. The Brazilian claimed discomfort inside the car because his hands scraped the edge of the cockpit when turning the steering wheel. The solution found, then, was to reduce the height of the column, leaving the direction further away from Senna’s body.
The controversies start here. Williams always claimed that the column change had been carried out in the most professional way possible, still at the team’s factory. There are allegations, however, that the adjustment had been made on the GP weekend itself and in a crude manner. Investigations by experts showed that it was precisely when the bar was welded that the column broke, due to “material fatigue”. The vibration of the car on the track, the movement of the steering wheel at each curve and the high speed itself put pressure on the bar, which did not resist.
In an interview with Veja magazine, in 1995, a technician who took part in the material’s laboratory tests stated that the adjustment had been made improvised. “I myself was very surprised by what I found, because when I heard about Formula 1 I always thought about sophisticated technology. And what I saw was nothing like that”, declared the expert, who was not identified in the report.
In their defense, Williams and Adrian Newey himself pointed to alleged ripples in the asphalt and a possible puncture in one of the car’s tires as possible causes of the instability that would have caused Senna to lose control of his Williams. To this day, journalists and former English drivers point to an alleged drop in tire pressure to justify the accident. For the British team, the steering column broke only when it hit the wall. None of this has been proven.
Another controversy concerns the moment of Senna’s death. European newspapers at the time raised the hypothesis that the Brazilian had already suffered brain death at the time of the blow to the head. The same could have happened with Ratzenberger on Saturday.
In an interview with Estadão, journalist Roberto Cabrini said that Senna himself had made an important revelation to him that weekend. “He confided in me ‘off the record’ that Ratzenberger had died on the track, but that this could not be disclosed because, according to Italian law, the event had to be immediately suspended. So a lot of people believe and I have several testimonies in this sense that this also happened to Senna”, said Cabrini, one of the Brazilian reporters who followed the idol’s tragedy on site.
The controversy ended up being fueled by Bernie Ecclestone. According to Senna’s biography, “Ayrton, the revealed hero”, by journalist Ernesto Rodrigues, the F1 boss at the time would have told Leonardo Senna, Ayrton’s brother, that the driver was dead, even during the GP. Ecclestone later denied the information by explaining that he had not said “He is dead” (he is dead, in English), but rather “It’s in the head”, with a similar pronunciation, but totally different meaning: “It was in the head” , in reference to the injury suffered by the pilot.
After years of investigating the case, the journalist believes that there was no one directly to blame for the accident. But he points to repeated attempts to hide information from the public at the time. “What I can say is that it is unquestionable that there has always been an attempt to manipulate data. It is not possible to say that this or that aspect was omitted, but it is possible to question everything due to the nature of Formula 1, where the marketing side often prevails to the detriment of the truth.”
