Imola 1994, the San Marino Grand Prix, held in the weekend of 30th April would change the Formula One completely. There is only one word needed to describe this Grand Prix weekend… horrible! What happened in 1994 was something never seen in modern Formula One. In 1982 the last fatality happened with the dead of Riccardo Paletti in the Osella, just a few weeks after Gilles Villeneuve sadly died.
Imola 1994 what did you do with the Formula One? Why did you do it? Was it a sign? Was a reason to become clear to ourselves? We will never know exactly why faith decided that two drivers had to die, while Rubens Barrichello had a freaking accident just in the free practice on the Friday with his Jordan. Thank god, he only broke his arm and would later win races for Ferrari, to end up as one of Formula one’s experienced drivers.
At that time, I was just four, so I can’t clearly remember I saw it on the television, while I was watching F1 at that age. It could be my dad just changed channels on both Saturday and Sunday. Imola 1994 why did you take the life of Roland Ratzenberger? In my opinion he was one of the last true race drivers. What he did… he made from uncompetitive cars competitive cars somehow. He is one of those drivers that fought its way in the Formula One after years of competing in lower series with less finance.
The Journey started in late February 1994 with Simtek, Simtek rang if you were free to ride for Simtek that season in the Formula One? The S941 was not a bad car, if the team had just more money; you probably qualified yourself for the Brazilian Grand Prix. You finished 11th in Pacific. Now was time to move towards San Marino, Imola 1994, the horror Grand Prix, the sun was shining but it would be a black weekend. The weekend that changed Formula One for once and ever. During the qualification sessions, you went a bit to rude over the curbs, damaging your front wing. The next round your Simtek crashed badly in the Villeneuve Curva, yes named after Gilles Villeneuve.
While you let your life in the Villeneuve Curva, there was no reason to discontinue the Grand Prix weekend. Imola 1994 would show us a day later what fucked up weekend it would become, there was one guy questioning if it was better to stop the race weekend rather than continue it. This was Ayrton Senna, the number one driver of Williams having a horrible season so far with his Williams.
One the first of may.. just one day later.. he would die in his Williams, crashing in the Tamburello curva…
