For those that have never heard of him, he was probably the greatest Formula One driver ever and was truly amazing on the track. In seeing the news on Dale Earnhardt, I decided to check out what the web had on Senna, only to discover that was killed in an accident in May 1994 at Imola, Italy.
I think I probably missed the news because I was graduating from college at that time and had minimal access to news.
At any rate, there was considerable controversy surrounding his death because of a few things. First, a German racer, Ratzenberger, was killed prior to the race in trials (I think) and may have died instantaneously at the track. If that was the case, the race should have been cancelled, but it was not. Also, the turn that killed Senna was known to be dangerous, with a short buffer between the track and a concrete wall, which is what he hit doing 208 km/h. Lastly, and most importantly, it was determined that one of the causes of the accidents was the failure of a weld on the steering column of the car. I haven't read all the information yet, but it was speculated that the weld failed, and the steering wheel came off in Senna's hands before impact. The weld had been made very recently by Senna's crew at his request to give him a better view of the dash.
The only good thing is that he probably felt very little in the crash, which took a total of 1.8 seconds and ended with severe head trauma for Ayrton. What a tremendous loss to the world of Formula One (the coverage for which is appallingly poor in the U.S.).
Now we have another highly regarded racer, on a different circuit, dying as well. What a shame.
I think I probably missed the news because I was graduating from college at that time and had minimal access to news.
At any rate, there was considerable controversy surrounding his death because of a few things. First, a German racer, Ratzenberger, was killed prior to the race in trials (I think) and may have died instantaneously at the track. If that was the case, the race should have been cancelled, but it was not. Also, the turn that killed Senna was known to be dangerous, with a short buffer between the track and a concrete wall, which is what he hit doing 208 km/h. Lastly, and most importantly, it was determined that one of the causes of the accidents was the failure of a weld on the steering column of the car. I haven't read all the information yet, but it was speculated that the weld failed, and the steering wheel came off in Senna's hands before impact. The weld had been made very recently by Senna's crew at his request to give him a better view of the dash.
The only good thing is that he probably felt very little in the crash, which took a total of 1.8 seconds and ended with severe head trauma for Ayrton. What a tremendous loss to the world of Formula One (the coverage for which is appallingly poor in the U.S.).
Now we have another highly regarded racer, on a different circuit, dying as well. What a shame.
(on the news, didn't have satellite back then) 
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