Imola forced all of us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if it was worth it

DAMON HILL EXCLUSIVE 30 YEARS ON FROM THE DEATHS OF SENNA AND RATZENBERGER

BY

AS Damon Hill strapped himself into his Williams for the restart of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, he had no idea his team-mate Ayrton Senna was dead.

He knew it was the Brazilian who had suffered a horrifying crash at high speed, seven laps into the Imola race, held 30 years ago this week.

But neither he nor any of his fellow drivers knew at the time the suspension on Senna’s car had penetrated his helmet.

The triple world champion, aged just 34, most likely died instantly.

And very quickly, in just his second full season as a Williams driver, Hill was thrust into the role of Williams team leader while still dealing with his own grief.

The situation was eerily similar to what his father Graham went through 26 years earlier, as he had to lead the Lotus team after Jim Clark’s death.

Danger is an inherent part of motorsport, but that Imola race weekend was the darkest in F1’s history. A day before Senna’s fatal crash on May 1, 1994, Austrian racer Roland Ratzenberger was killed when he also hit a concrete wall at high speed.

And, on the Friday, Rubens Barrichello had been lucky to survive another terrifying smash - saved by medical team leader Professor Sid Watkins who pulled the Brazilian’s tongue from his throat.

But, for Hill, the losses of Ratzenberger and Senna drove home how necessary it was for F1 to change.

He said: “The Imola weekend forced all of us, from drivers to organisers to TV commentators to fans, to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if this was all worth it.

“No one wanted to be ‘entertained’ by a sport that blithely allowed its stars to be killed as if this was just an occupational hazard.”

Professor Watkins headed up the FIA’S taskforce set up in the aftermath of the deaths and sweeping safety improvements were made, both to the Imola circuit itself and the sport as a whole.

Hill added: “For all his faults, (FIA president at the time) Max Mosley acted swiftly and decisively to change the whole sport for the better in respect of our approach to safety.

“Romain Grosjean is living proof that this sport can be dangerous but safer. Nothing will bring back Ayrton and Roland. But maybe they did not die in vain.”

The safety improvements made have saved the lives of dozens of F1 drivers and Jules Bianchi, who died from injuries sustained in a 2014 crash, is the only driver since Senna to die while competing in the world championship.

But that didn’t help anyone through their grief in the days after the loss of the immensely popular three-time F1 champion.

His loss was felt most keenly in his homeland. Senna remains a revered national hero in his native Brazil and Barrichello knows how much Senna had meant to his fellow countryman.

He said: “Out of all the Brazilian drivers, Senna, apart from being such a big winner, he was also someone who showed passion to Brazil.

“Whenever he could, he would fly back to Brazil and stay there and also he had the Brazilian flag with him all the time.

“He has left a big legacy and also a big hole.”