Ayrton Senna’s death: Imola 1994, Roland Ratzenberger and what changed after

What happened on 1 May 1994

Senna started from pole, the 65th and last of his career, and was leading the race. On the second lap after the safety car came in, his Williams left its line at the Tamburello corner and hit a concrete wall on the edge of the bed of the River Santerno. Senna was flown by helicopter to the Maggiore hospital in Bologna, where he died the same day. He was 34.

It was the third round of the 1994 season and Senna’s third race for Williams. In the first two, in Brazil and at the Pacific Grand Prix, he had also started from pole but retired both times.

The race continued to the finish. Michael Schumacher won in a Benetton, Nicola Larini (Ferrari) finished second and Mika Häkkinen (McLaren) third; Senna’s team-mate Damon Hill was sixth. The full results, with grid positions, are on the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix page.

How the weekend at Imola unfolded

Over three days at Imola two drivers died, and three more incidents injured a driver, spectators and mechanics.

Sources give different numbers of injured spectators and mechanics, and we have not found an official count, so no figures are given here.

Who was Ayrton Senna?

A three-time world champion: he won his titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991 with McLaren. Senna was born on 21 March 1960 in São Paulo and raced in Formula 1 from 1984, for Toleman, Lotus and McLaren, and in 1994 for Williams. He won his first race at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix.

His 65 poles remained the record until 23 April 2006, when Michael Schumacher took his 66th, also at Imola, at the San Marino Grand Prix. The history of that record is in the article “Pole position in F1”. His whole career is on Senna’s page, and his rivalry with Alain Prost in the comparison of the two champions.

On 24 November 1994 Senna’s sister Viviane and the family founded the Ayrton Senna Institute. Its aim is a good education for children and young people in Brazil’s state schools. Senna’s life in Formula 1 is the subject of the 2010 documentary “Senna”, covered in the article “Best F1 movies”.

Who was Roland Ratzenberger?

An Austrian driver from Salzburg: he was born on 4 July 1960 and died at 33. The 1994 season was his first in Formula 1, with the new Simtek team, alongside David Brabham.

Ratzenberger came to motor racing relatively late: he only made a name for himself at 23, in Formula Ford, and in 1986 he won the prestigious Formula Ford Festival. Then came British Formula 3 and, in Japan, sports prototypes, touring cars and Formula 3000. His best result at the Le Mans 24 Hours was fifth place in 1993.

Ratzenberger had three entries in Formula 1. In Brazil he failed to qualify; at the Pacific Grand Prix on 17 April 1994 he finished 11th, his only start; and at Imola he died in qualifying. All his results are on Ratzenberger’s page.

According to Formula 1, Senna carried a rolled-up Austrian flag in his cockpit, in memory of Ratzenberger.

What the Italian courts decided

No one was convicted over Senna’s death: five defendants were acquitted, and the case against the sixth was closed because the limitation period had expired. The court of first instance named a steering column failure as the cause of the accident. The case went through the courts from 1997 to 2007.

The investigation was led by the Bologna prosecutor’s office, into both Senna’s and Ratzenberger’s deaths. At the prosecutor’s request, the case over Ratzenberger’s death was closed without a trial. In Senna’s case, six people were tried on a charge of causing death by negligence:

• Frank Williams, head of the Williams team, technical director Patrick Head and chief designer Adrian Newey: the charge concerned a modification to the steering column of Senna’s car.
• Two circuit executives and an FIA inspector: according to the prosecution, the race had been allowed to go ahead on a track that did not meet every safety requirement.

In quashing the 1999 decision, the Court of Cassation found a contradiction in it; here and in the list below, the court’s wording is given in our translation. In one place the 1999 decision calls the steering column failure an undoubted cause of the accident, and in another it says that doubt about this remains. The new bench of the Court of Appeal was asked to answer four questions:

1. Whether the steering column had been modified wrongly or inadequately, and by whom.
2. Whether that modification caused the column to break, or whether the break had another cause.
3. Whether the column failure caused the loss of control of the car, or was itself a consequence of that loss of control and of the impact that followed.
4. If the failure did cause the loss of control, whether any other causes acted together with it or were enough on their own to cause the accident.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the Court of Cassation’s 2007 judgment held that in 2005 the Court of Appeal had been justified in finding that the steering column failure caused the accident. It also held that the column broke because of a modification that was badly designed and badly executed: the court’s words as quoted by the newspaper, in our translation.

What changed in safety

After Imola, over several years, the FIA changed its requirements for circuits, cars and drivers’ equipment. Before that, no driver had died at a championship event for 12 years: the last had been Riccardo Paletti, at the start of the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. The main steps, according to the FIA and Formula 1:

According to Formula 1, after Imola the drivers revived their association, the GPDA. At their insistence, a temporary chicane was installed at Barcelona in time for the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix; at the next round, in Montreal, a chicane was added on the back straight.

According to the FIA, after the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger the federation’s president, Max Mosley, began a wide-ranging reform of safety. He also set up an expert committee in which leading motor sport specialists looked for solutions to the main safety problems. It was chaired by the neurosurgeon Sid Watkins, Formula 1’s medical delegate.

The next fatal accident at a championship event came 20 years later: Jules Bianchi crashed at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix and died on 17 July 2015. After his accident, the FIA introduced the virtual safety car from 2015.

How the Imola circuit changed

In 1995 the circuit was rebuilt. The fast Tamburello corner was replaced by a slower chicane, the Villeneuve corner was also slowed with a chicane, and the Acque Minerali, Rivazza and Variante Bassa sections were reworked.

According to Formula 1, both corners where Senna and Ratzenberger crashed lie right against the River Santerno. There was no room to extend the run-off there, so they were turned into chicanes with large gravel traps. The lap became shorter: 4.895 km in 1995 instead of 5.040 km. Maps of the circuit before and after the rebuild are on the Imola page.

The San Marino Grand Prix was held at Imola until 2006, and in 2020–2022, 2024 and 2025 the circuit hosted the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.