Ayrton Senna RIP - 15 years on!

dcr22B

Legend of a man, still remember vividly the day he died and the shock that I got:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/3605323.stm

brendanuk

15 years already! Great driver.

elmolesto

I miss Ayrton.
The fastest driver on a single lap and a fantastic human being who gave millions to charity without telling anybody.

mickdw

I heard a story of a time he came to mondello as an unknown, jumped into a single seater for a race and shamed all the seasoned mondello racers. Would love to see that.

HighWire

Remember seeing the crash, the horrible image of the medics all around his car mangled on the track.

Jesus though what a Legend.
That yellow and green helmet with the brown eyes staring out and you
just know he's gonna fly around the track.

He'd put Hamilton to shame for moaning about pressure, probably turn around to him and say, here lad, look this is what you do see this is how you drive a car.

RIP.
Hope we see a new Senna in F1 next season.

BrianD3

I vividly remember the crash and the aftermath. Another thing I remember is going to school the next day (may have been the tuesday due to a bank holiday) and anyone who was known to be a F1 fan was taunted over Senna's death.

Senna's death was a bit of a freak occurence with a suspension part piercing his helmet causing his death. The crash itself wasn't that bad, he would normally have walked away from a crash like that. Ratzenberger's crash was a more severe and higher speed crash.

1994 could have ended up even worse than it did - in the same year Karl Wendlinger was badly injured at Monaco and Pedro Lamy was badly injured at Silverstone. Jos Verstappen was engulfed in flames when fuel spilled. Martin Brundle was lucky not to be decapitated on two occasions in 1994 :eek:

rua1972

Don't forget Barrichello jumping the armco that same may weekend, Senna was one of the first the visit him in the medical centre. To loose his own life the next day. I saw the crash and thought by myself "Senna doesn't die" sadly I was wrong. I remeber watching his funeral on Eurosport, impressive.

BrianD3

BrianD3 wrote: »

I vividly remember the crash and the aftermath. Another thing I remember is going to school the next day (may have been the tuesday due to a bank holiday) and anyone who was known to be a F1 fan was taunted over Senna's death.

That shocks me utterly. I remember so many people who had next to no interest in F1 being touched by his death. And taking a morbid interest in the sport for a period.

There is actually an excellent book on the sheer emotional shock that was his death by Richard William....Aptly titled "The death of Ayrton Senna"
It vies with Nigel Mansells autobiography for my best motorsport related read.

I can't believe that is 15 years past.

BBC red button is airing a documentary today.

walshb

Unquestionably the fastest driver to ever enter a F1 car.
One can talk of all the wins and records etc, but man against man in the
SAME car and it is Senna who gets the most from the car.

Remember the Monaco pole in 1988? Wow, he was 1.4 secs ahead of Prost
in an identical car. That is unreal!