Photo Credit: Martin Lee, London, UK, used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).
April 30, 1994 – The Day We Lost Roland Ratzenberger
The weekend at Imola had already taken a dark turn in 1994, on Friday, Rubens Barrichello had crashed.
Everyone held their breath that day, but thankfully, he was alive.
Still that moment left a strange feeling hanging over the circuit, as if something was not right.
Then came Saturday, before the world lost Senna, it lost someone else, quietly and without warning, Roland Ratzenberger.
For a moment; dream came true for Roland Ratzenberger
Roland Ratzenberger was not famous, but he was living dream, he was not backed by big sponsors or racing royalty, just his own determination.
At 33, he was older than most rookies in F1.
He had spent years fighting his way up through smaller racing series, competing in Japan and even at Le Mans.
Formula 1 was his goal, and in 1994, with the small Simtek team, he finally made it to F1.
The car was slow, but that did not matter for Roland Ratzenberger, all he wanted is; F1.
He has there, two weeks earlier, it was his debut, and he finished 11th, a quiet, solid debut, now at Imola, he wanted to do better.
Ferrari drivers clash at Imola – Villeneuve vs Pironi
The last lap of Roland Ratzenberger
During Saturday’s qualifying, he was pushing hard, halfway through the lap, he ran wide at Acque Minerali.
The car bounced over the kerbs, nothing that looked too serious, but according to some reports, it was, the front wing was cracked.
In reality, every driver, enters the pit, and Roland should have done the same, but he did not.
He was not aware of it probably did not know how bad it was, maybe he thought he could finish the lap, he wanted to proved he belonged to the sport.
Moments later, as he approached the Villeneuve kink at over 300 km/h, the front wing broke, the car lost control and went straight into a concrete wall.
In that part of the circuit, the corner is not tight and nobody expect to go out of the track, there was no tire barrier.
The impact was strong, that moment, Roland Ratzenberger lost his life.
Silence in the Paddock
The news spread quickly, the track went quiet, but soon after qualifying resumed, even as many inside the paddock were still in shock.
Senna rushed to the medical center, when he learned what happened to Ratzenberger.
According to some reports, Sid Watking told Senna to stop racing that weekend, but Senna replied ‘I can’t, I hve to on’.
The Next Day
The race day at Imola, everyone was sad, especially Senna as you can see before the race started.
The race went ahead, the lights went out, and history repeated itself.
Ayrton Senna, crashed at Tamburello, two drivers, two days, one circuit.
That day F1 lost one of the best drivers in history of the sport, the world cried for the legend, Ayrton Senna.
Yet Senna had not forgotten, inside his car, he had placed an Austrian flag, to wave in Roland’s honor if he finished the race, he never got the chance.
The Change That Followed
Ratzenberger’s crash was the first real wake up call that weekend at Imola in 1994.
After Imola, the FIA launched a fully safety overhaul.
The HANS device, which later became mandatory, was designed to prevent the type of fatal head injury Roland suffered.
Imola layout was changed, especially tamburello, cars became stronger, cockpits safer and helmets better.
Roland Ratzenberger’s death was not in vain, he may not have been a star, but his passing helped save lives.
He was the quiet hero of Imola, the one the world almost forgot.
