Bernie Ecclestone revealed how the death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, during the blackest of weekends at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, might've marked the end of Formula 1 as a sport but instead triggered a boom in interest.
Thirty years ago at Imola, Rubens Barrichello survived a death-defying crash during Qualifying on Friday, when he lost control of his Jordan at the Marlboro Chicane (Bassa Variant) doing over 200 kph and needed 20 minutes to be extricated from the wreck and treated before being hospitalised. That already set an uneasy tone for the weekend ahead.
On Saturday, during Qualifying for what was the third round of that year's F1 World Championship, Roland Ratzenberger lost his life when he crashed his Simtek at high speed when entering Variante Villeneuve.
Under a massive shadow of the Ratzenberger tragedy, the show had to go on and on Sunday it was race day in Italy. On the formation lap, Michelle Alboreto suffers an electrical failure on his race Minardi and is forced to start from the pitlane.
For the third time in a row that season, the field lined up behind Senna's Williams on pole. The start is shortlived as Pedro Lamy's Lotus slammed the back of JJ Lehto's Benetton in a terrifying incident that injured spectators and a policeman on duty. The car flew 200 metres before the fencing caught it and prevented the carnage.
A final Safety Car for Senna to follow
The safety car is deployed at that point, with Senna leading the field until the end of Lap 6. The field is green-lighted with Senna leading, stalked by the Benetton of Michael Schumacher. On Lap 7, heading to Tamburello at over 300 kph. The end of Senna.
And the world erupted, well beyond the world of F1, news of the death of Senna resonated around a world before the internet, and the man best placed to recall the aftermath of that tragic weekend at Imola than Ecclestone, who with his partner FIA President at the time Max Mosley, ruled F1 with an iron fist during that era.
Speaking to British media on the occasion marking 30 years since Senna died, 94-year-old Ecclestone recalled: "Max said to me afterwards that he believed it would be the end of Formula 1. I said: I think you are wrong and we will have to see. We hoped it wouldn’t cause what Max had suggested might happen.
"But it was just a disaster. It wasn’t a good weekend, and it seems to me a lot longer than 30 years. He was just so unlucky to die in that accident," ventured Ecclestone.
The entire incident was captured live on TV from the Tamburello tarmac
Those witnessing the scenes at Imola or live on TV where Senna's death played out to the entire viewership tuned in that day. As his fellow drivers drove past the wrecked Williams and medics working to save the Bazilian. We all saw his head move so fractionally for the last time.
But the show carried on despite the catastrophe unfolding on the tarmac. It’s 2:17 p.m. At 2:35 p.m, with Senna airlifted to the Maggiore hospital in Bologna, the Grand Prix is restated.
Martin Brundle was driving McLaren at the time and recalls how angry drivers were as “we raced past a pool of Senna’s blood for 55 laps."
Ecclestone reasoned: "Should we have stopped the race? I don’t think so. It wouldn’t have helped him (Senna) in any way, shape or form. When these things happen, they all happen so quickly that you don’t really have that much time to think."
Ecclestone: Legally the race should have been stopped
Ecclestone continued: "Legally, it should have been stopped, because we now know he died at the circuit. But in the end, it came down to commercial problems, people who would have wanted refunds and all these sorts of things. And the other side of it wasn’t really taken into consideration.”
The death of Senna ironically did not cause F1 to end as Mosely had predicted on that shocking day as Ecclestone observed: "Formula 1 became more popular after Senna’s death. It got so much worldwide publicity that people who had not watched Formula One before became interested.
“But I hope we will never see something like that again, and I think today, with the way everything has improved with safety, thank God, the chances are so much smaller," added Ecclestone, making one wonder how F1 would cope with such a tragedy today.
For the record, Michael Schumacher won the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in his Benetton, with Ferrari driver Nicola Larini second and McLaren's Mika Hakkinen third.
Big Question: What if a triple F1 World Champion and an F1 Rookie were killed on track in this era, live on TV, on the same weekend...?
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