Villeneuve warns Senna-style F1 tragedy could still happen today

While motorsport has become complacent over the years, deaths at race tracks still occur but with less frequency than in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, modern F1 as the pinnacle of motorsport is arguably the safest of all.

But there was a time when this was not the case. Every May Day - Senna Day - preluded by the memory of Roland Ratzenberger who perished a day earlier during Imola Qualifying, is a stark reminder of not only the pair we remember this week but the countless other racing drivers - almost forgotten by the mainstream - and many F1 pilots whose lives were cut short.

1 May 1994. Two F1 drivers - a Brazilian and an Austrian in their early thirties - on the opposite spectrum of fame, wealth and F1 achievements, were killed during a couple of mad days in Italy.

Senna's accident at the wheel of the Adrina Newey-designed Williams FW16 resulted from a failure which an Italian court ruled at the time was caused by “a break in a hastily adapted steering column."

Villeneuve takes up the story: "A piece of the wheel suspension penetrated his helmet. That could still happen today. He was just unlucky. Look at [Felipe Massa] Massa in Hungary (in 2009). He just got lucky that the spring from the car in front didn’t pierce his brain."

Massa survived the horrific crash. Jules Bianchi did not when his Marussia speared into a safety vehicle and resulting in the death of the Frenchman. The motorsport world was again jolted by the death of Anthoine Hubert during the Formula 2 race supporting F1 at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.

Villeneuve explained how things have changed for race drivers over the years: "The safety of cars now allows average drivers to be competitive. They don’t need to really feel where the limit or the edge is.

"They get trained on the simulator, they get on the track and just repeat it without really knowing how close to the danger zone they could be. They don’t have to respect it. You used to have to go through a corner multiple times to get the feel. That kind of thing has gone now.

"But it has gained other things. The sport has never been as good as it is now. You can’t reminisce and think the past was amazing. It wasn’t amazing. It is just our memory of it that is amazing. There’s good in modern F1 as well," insisted Villeneuve.

The lifespan of racing drivers increased dramatically over the years, with the safety lowering the acceptable age of drivers contesting the sport at all levels. There are more youngsters in the sport than there has ever been. But, one could argue if two or three kids died every week racing, how many parents would be living the racing dream.

Referencing the dark era of motorsport, Villeneuve recalled: "Back then you were happy to reach the end of the season without having broken something. And happy if you hadn’t died. Now you are surprised if you break a finger! That’s how safe they are and that’s them being as fast as they have ever been," added the 1997 F1 World Champion.

When Jacques was ten, his father the great Gilles Villeneuve died during Qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying at Zolder. Driving for Ferrari that day.

Villeneuve said of Imola 1994 and the aftermath of the Ratzenberger and Senna tragedies: "That weekend was probably the one that hurt the most because that was when there was the most human damage."

As for the loss of his father Gilles so early in life, JV said: "For me the worst weekend was the death of my Dad. So I have a hard time thinking about something that might have been bad for F1. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. What matters is for the people who are left behind.

"We shouldn’t bother worrying about F1. It is not a living entity. F1 is a business. You have to think about those left crying behind, those who were hurt," declared Villeneuve.