AUSSIES COULD BE LIONS
RUGBY UNION CRASH STILL HAUNTS F1’S SIR FRANK
to move this wall because one day somebody is going to die there”.
He agreed. The next time we were in Imola at lunch, Ayrton and I walked out from the pit-lane and down to the Tamburello corner.
We looked over the wall and behind it there is a river.
We both looked at each other, and said there isn’t anything we can do.
We didn’t think about putting in a chicane to slow the cars down and just accepted it for what it was.
That was the place where he would die a few years later. After Roland’s death, we came out of the briefing on Sunday morning before the race and Ayrton said to me that next week we need to do more to make this sport safe.
We went to the grid, and Ayrton was on pole. I was driving for Ferrari.
I was out of the car, I remember looking at him and he was laughing underneath his helmet. That was my last eye contact with him.
We started the race and Michael Schumacher was behind Ayrton, and I was behind Michael.
I remember exactly when Ayrton started to go off the track. He crashed and I thought g he had hit the wall at a good angle and there would be no problem.
They stopped the race and I saw Bernie Ecclestone, who said Ayrton was out of the car. I thought that meant he was OK, so I didn’t ask anything else about it and restarted the race. On lap 16, I retired with a mechanical failure.
I was in the Ferrari garage when someone came up to me and told me Ayrton was fighting for his life.
I arranged a helicopter to Bologna hospital. Professor Sid Watkins, the F1 doctor, told me it didn’t look good, but asked if I wanted to see him.
I went in and they were doing something with his head as it was covered, but he was already dead.
I went home and considered quitting. But, then two days later, I decided I had to keep going.
But there were times when I would think, “Imagine if Ayrton was still in the Williams when Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve won their titles?”
Had he been alive, I don’t think anyone other than Ayrton would have won the championship for the next five years. TWENTY-FIVE years on from F1’s darkest weekend, Sir Frank Williams and his family are still haunted by the tragic death of Aryton Senna.
The Brazilian three-time world champ suffered a fatal 190mph crash at the San Marino GP while driving for Sir Frank’s famous Williams outfit.
What stands out most for Claire Williams, Frank’s daughter and deputy team principal of the British team, is that her dad was blamed for it.
“About a year later, I remember being in a pub,” she said. “I don’t know how he knew who I was, but a complete stranger came up to me and said, ‘Your dad is a murderer’.
“It hadn’t really sunk in about how people might feel about the accident.”
Senna, competing in only his third race for Williams, speared off the track and hit the concrete wall at Tamburello corner. He died instantly.
Sir Frank (above), who had long dreamt of signing the superstar, was cleared of manslaughter charges in 1997.
“Frank never spoke to anyone about it,” added Claire. “That isn’t his personality. He isn’t one for therapy, or having long conversations. He internalises and keeps it all in.
“That is how he has been brought up, but you can see the pain in his eyes every time he thinks about the accident.”
Sir Frank, 77 and consigned to a wheelchair for more than three decades after a road accident in 1986, saw his dreams shattered.
“Ayrton was a god in our house and was for many years, decades even,” said Claire.
“Dad always wanted to put him in his race car. His wish then came true, but it ended in the worst possible way.”
Senna was on the grid laughing. It was my last eye contact with him
AUSTRALIAN-BORN Super League stars Lachlan Coote, Blake Austin and Jackson Hastings could all be considered for this year’s returning Great Britain tour.
St Helens full-back Coote is a Scotland international while half-backs Austin and Hastings qualify through heritage rules. Coote (left) and Hastings have already indicated their availability, and the trio have been among the stand-out performers this season.
RFL rugby director Kevin Sinfield said: “If they come forward and say they want to do their British heritage proud, we’ll consider them.”