Paletti was the second fatality in Formula One that year. Five weeks earlier, Gilles Villeneuve had a fatal crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Paletti was the last driver to be killed at a Grand Prix meeting until the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying and triple world champion Ayrton Senna during the Grand Prix itself. In 1986 Elio de Angelis was killed during testing at Circuit Paul Ricard three days after the 1986 Monaco Grand Prix.