“It’s the day I hated Formula 1. Having seen Ayrton “leave” like that was painful, devastating.” Erik Comas he will use the verb to leave several times, in an extreme need for modesty. Today he is 60 years old, but he lives again on May 1, 1994 condemned to a very personal Groundhog Day. Since 2022 he has divided his time between Oman (a lot) and Biella (a little), where he met his wife Raffaella Serra and dedicates himself to his beloved, extraordinary, historic cars. That day in Imola he drove a Larrousse LH94 and was the last driver to see Ayrton Senna alive. The connection between the two, between life and death, however, had already been born two years earlier. Spa Circuit, Belgian GP, 28 August 1992. “Friday morning free practice – recalls Erik – We went with a full tank to better evaluate the set-up: 175 liters of petrol. A lot. Third lap, blind curve to the left, that is, beyond 300 per hour, and on the track I find gravel everywhere. My Ligier goes straight, hits the guardrail, crosses the escape route again to stop on the destroyed track…”.
“A lot, but I don’t remember anything about that day, they told me what I’m saying. I had lost consciousness, hit by the front wheel which had come off on impact, with my foot on the accelerator at 13,000 rpm. That’s where Ayrton arrives: he sees my head tilted to the left, the noise of the engine and he immediately understands. The stewards intervened but Senna, on the other hand, gets out of his McLaren, runs towards me, looks for the main switch and saves my life. He knew full tank of petrol, the car could have exploded shortly thereafter.”
The birth of a friendship.
“I’ll be honest: no. Only my fault, not his. He had been my idol, I had extreme respect for him and I was never able to show him my gratitude, I still can’t say why. In ’84 I had seen him for spectator in Montecarlo, sitting on the Rocher in the rain, I was already 21 years old and had never yet been in a single-seater. In ’90 we found ourselves in the Marlboro team, he in F1 and I in Formula 3000. I won the World Championship which was then. called Intercontinentale and he, who had already won everything, came to congratulate me. This made me even more in awe, we saw each other on race weekends, but for us young drivers he remained the God of motorsport”.
We arrive at May 1st.
“The worst weekend of my life. On Saturday Roland Ratzenberger died. On Sunday morning we had the briefing on the first floor of the Marlboro tower. Everyone was shaken by what had happened. Since De Angelis, in 1986, no one had died, we had the carbon shells no longer made of aluminum and the protection on the legs was also much improved, perhaps not Ayrton. I find myself sitting right next to him, and he says to me: “Érik I’m coming to visit you in London – I lived there then -. we have to do something about safety before Monte Carlo.” Those were the last words we said to each other.”
“Then the race, immediately a contact at the start, Safety Car. During the Safety we go like an accordion to warm up the tires and the car following me gives me a blow. The race starts again and I feel a vibration, I stop at the lap later the accident occurs, they change the wing and let me start again. The means of communication were few then, the team perhaps already knew about the red light, but the race had just started and what if I was there. on the track, I could have shown up again at the start. In short, I went: that’s how life is, there are things you do and you don’t know why. I immediately see the helicopter, I obviously slow down, the ambulance, Ayrton’s car and there I understand. I hurry up and he is lying on the grass. Three doctors stop me, it’s better if I don’t come closer, they say… Well, it was a trauma from which I never recovered: seeing the person who saved you leave without anything. I can’t do anything. I’ve never been a good believer, but that day I felt a radiation, Ayrton’s soul leaving. I went back to the pits, told my parents that it was over for me and ran off to the airport.”
“Yes, I didn’t want to race in F1 anymore. I missed a few GPs, I came back, I finished the season and the following year I started competing in GT in Japan, first Toyota then Nissan: 11 years and two championships won. When I stopped as a professional in 2006 I was 43 years old. Afterwards I dedicated myself to rallies with the cars that had made me dream as a kid, the Alpines and the Lancia Stratos”.
The Stratos, an all-encompassing passion.
“I was born in France, in Romans-sur-Isère, where one of the special stages of the Monte Carlo Rally takes place. At 16, in ’79, I saw Darniche win, and I fell in love with that car. Once I finished racing, I had set up a team of Alpine A110s, I had 15 of them and I rented them to over 50 year olds who, like me, had dreamed of being a pilot as kids: a turnkey programme, from the car, to assistance, to the hotel, with historic events around France. I already had two Stratos and in 2013 an idea came to me: it was exactly 40 years since Munari’s first great victory in the Firestone Rally in Spain, a three-year period of great successes would follow, but Fiat wouldn’t. he seemed to have the intention of celebrating it. I said: I created a site – imagine, the domain was free – and also a book because there weren’t any in French head to make the Stratos win again in the historic races”.
More than a passion, an obsession?
“But also obstinacy and a lot of research. I didn’t have anyone to put the money into it, I went to Zenith, the watch company. It has nothing to do with cars, but they had the intellectual property of the Stratos name. You wouldn’t believe it. They had sponsored the skydiver Baumgartner who had jumped from 39 thousand meters, the famous stratospheric jump: an exceptional feat and for this reason they had registered the trademark. They said yes, a three-year agreement in which I won the Italian championship, the historic hundredth edition of the Targa Florio,. finally the European Championship”.
“I follow it, but I haven’t been to the GPs for years. Great steps forward in terms of safety: it is unthinkable that we would emerge alive from an accident like Grosjean’s in 2020, and yet it happened. The result of years of efforts by the FIA, hats off. There is again, finally, also some good competition, although only behind Red Bull. I think Ferrari will win again, I would like it to be Leclerc and I can’t wait to see him in Monte Carlo, but overall I enjoy it more. see the MotoGP. We have gone from too many teams, with 26 single-seaters at the start and only 6 scoring points, to a grid of just 20 riders. Liberty has done an extraordinary job but from a sporting point of view it is not a healthy championship cars means a lack of opportunities for young drivers, it has gone back to being a sport for the few, where your parents decide to put you in a kart at 8 years old. I did my first race at 18: my parents didn’t want it , I had to wait until I was of age, buy a second-hand kart, pay for the driving school, and yet I raced in F1. Today it would not be possible, et bien”.
Does the memory ever wake you up in the night?
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“A wound will never heal, I don’t think I was the same man after that May 1st. My family, my friends could attest to it, but every year it’s a little better. I owe a lot to Raffaella, with her in the 2015 I went to the Morumby cemetery in Sao Paulo: it was difficult, but necessary. He left me alone with him, and I finally said thank you.”
