In the aftermath of Ayrton Senna’s shocking 1994 death at Imola's infamous Tamburello corner while leading the San Marino GP, the F1 fraternity was shaken to its core. Once again new technical regulations were imposed to slow the cars and improve driver safety, but even with the first driver fatalities in a dozen years, the show went on, as it always has.

The beginning of the current era in Formula One is marked by a single day: 1 May 1994.
But once again, the roots of the transition reach back further, to the 1991 Belgian GP at Spa, where young German Michael Schumacher burst onto the F1 scene by qualifying 7th in his first Formula One start for Team Jordan, moving on just one race later to Benetton. With the absence of Mansell and the now-retired Prost from F1 for the 1994 season, there was only Schumacher to take on Ayrton Senna and make the new F1 cars — running under revised FIA specifications once again, designed to encourage more competition between drivers rather then between money and computers — a true test of driver mettle.



And new the cars were. After focusing on their active components for years, F1 designers were hard pressed to meet the new specifications, and most of the paddock was not delivered in time for much winter testing before the season's first race at Interlagos in Brazil. As Senna prophetically told a pre-season interviewer,

"It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen."

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The relatively brief reign of turbocharged engines in F1 witnessed some of greatest raw horsepower ever unleashed on the famous circuits, coupled with personal rivalries among champions that continue to affect the sport today.

With the benefit of hindsight, one can now say confidently that ground effects were less important to the long-run development of F1 technology than turbocharging — although both were introduced initially in the 1977 season, and both eventually banned.

While Lotus were developing the ground-effect principle, Renault re-entered Formula One with the turbo RS01, driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille. The first turbo was remarkably quick, although suffering from "turbo lag" under acceleration, but very unreliable, and it would be a year before the Renault finished a Grand Prix. (The 1977 season also saw the introduction of radial tires, first by Michelin, then followed by Goodyear and Pirelli.)

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Related Articles: Imola 1994 - Formula 1's Blackest Day | French Grand Prix: Facts & Stats

The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy, was a race marred by tragedy.
On 30 April, 31-year-old Austrian novice driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a high-speed crash during a qualifying session.


The following day Brazilian Ayrton Senna died during the race itself when his car spun off the track at the Tamburello curve.

The Williams-Renault star - considered one of the finest Formula One drivers of his generation - was mourned by racing fans around the world.


See the Video here


The Death of Ayrton Senna: How it Happened

1. Accident Mystery

The causes of Ayrton Senna's fatal crash in the San Marino Grand Prix on 1 May, 1994 will probably never be known.
Italian prosecutors blamed steering failure, but the Williams team’s two design chiefs were acquitted at the original trial and a subsequent appeal.

This is what was discovered from the car’s on-board computer.

2. Fateful Decision

The crash happened on the second lap after a re-start. Senna took a tighter line at Tamburello to ease the car’s travel over bumps that upset it on the first lap.
But at 191mph, he was going faster than the previous lap.

Combined with the altered trajectory, that more than doubled the cornering forces on the car from 1.5G to 3.27G.

3. Problems Start

The car’s rear tyres began to slide as it hit the first of two sets of bumps.
This happened, Williams say, because the airflow under the car was disrupted, combined with the higher G-forces.

The cornering speed of F1 cars is strongly dependant on aerodynamics. Any disruption dramatically reduces grip, and can cause a loss of control.

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