Ratzenberger Day. The first death in F1 in 11 years, before Senna

At the time of 1994, more than 11 years have passed since the last fatal accident in Formula 1-from the tragedy at the 1982 Grand Prix, in which Riccardo Palti was killed. This long period without fatal cases was perceived as encouraging progress in increasing security. But the cloudy weekend of San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 became a painful reminder of the danger of vehicles.

On Friday, 33-year-old Roland Ratzenberger sat behind the wheel of the car, Simtets, holding only the third weekend in Formula-1. The Austrian reached the royal race quite late, and his team did not belong to the tops. In the first race of the season in Brazil, he did not even qualify – 28 cars competed for 26 seats on the starting grate.

Nevertheless, Ratzenberger became a favorite in Paddok. Its history is an example of how an adult realizes a child’s dream, in parallel with the title struggle between Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

The same weekend Ratzenberger witnessed Rubens Barrikello’s terrible accident in the last sector of the highway in Imola. The Brazilian miraculously avoided serious injuries. But the next day, on Saturday during the qualification, the fate itself was much cruel to Ratzenberger.

In the turn of “Vilnev” at high speed, his car brought off his car, and the Austrian unmanagedly crashed into the concrete wall. The blow was so strong that he completely destroyed the car. The helmet of the pilot leaned sideways after the impact – the first sign of a critical condition.

Doctors tried to save the riders, but unsuccessfully. Roland Ratzenberger has died of injuries-the first deadly accident in Formula-1 since 1982. However, the weekend decided not to stop.

On Sunday, pilots still went out. Ayrton Senna had a small Austrian flag in cockpit, and, according to assumptions, was about to lift it at the finish line – in honor of the dead colleague. But he was not destined to do so.