Roland Ratzenberger died on the fateful weekend of 1994 at the 1994 San Marino GP, on the Imola circuit during qualifying. He crashed at over 300 km/h at the “Gilles Villeneuve” curve and had no escape. Twenty-four hours later, fate would also call Ayrton Senna. In the opening VIDEO the story by Fabio Tavelli
30 YEARS WITHOUT SENNA AND RATZENBERGER: THE INITIATIVES
Imola, Saturday 30 April 1994. Roland Ratzenberger he is 34 years old, he is not one of the “young” people in Formula1. He arrived in the top flight late, unknown to most, with effort and very little money. He is trying to qualify the Simtec motorized Fordundoubtedly one of the worst single-seaters of the Circus of that season. Just being able to be on the grid would be a success for him who pays out of his own pocket to be there, to race, for a fee for now, with the greats of Formula 1.
At the Villeneuve curve the crash occurred at over 300 km/h
On that sunny Saturday afternoon, however, something goes wrong, dramatically wrong at the worst time and in the worst place, after the Tamburello which in Imola until ’94 was done at full throttle and then always arrived at full throttle in the dive of the curve named after the immortal Gilles Villenueve. The Austrian driver’s Simtec is unable to exit that curvethe wing gives way and the single-seater, uncontrollable, crashes into the track wall over 300 per hour with an impossible impact angle.
That movement of the helmet and the darkest weekend in F1
The cockpit is literally torn apart and from the movement of the red and white helmet which bends to the side, it is immediately clear that there is nothing that can be done. “The other”, Roland Ratzenberger from Salzburg, dies in Imola on the spot, at 34 years old, trying to demonstrate that he too can be among the greats of Formula 1. The next day is historystill dramatic and terrible, which we all know.
