Death Formula 1 Drivers Carbon -cased gearbox (2004, BAR 006) V-keel front suspension (2005, Renault R25) Down is the list of drivers who died during some racing event. All drivers on this list raced at least once in an unofficial Formula One race or in official Formula One World Championship race. Drivers with their names marked in red died at an official Formula One Championship race. The Indianapolis 500 was part of the FIA World Championship from 1950 through 1960. Drivers competing at Indy during those years were credited with World Championship points and participation. On this list are only the drivers who competed on Indianapolis 500 plus at least one FIA World Championship race. The modern era of safety in Formula One began with the death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the San Marino GP in 1994. The tragic loss of one of the F1's greatest driver was a wake up call for the Formula One community. Sorted by the year: As addition to my list, there is a list made by London-based data visualization agency infogr8.

They researched and visualized the trends in driver fatalities and subsequent safety features in Formula One since the championship began in 1950. infogr8 manager Richard Silvester said: "The sport and the levels of safety have changed unrecognizably in the recent decades. Just three drivers have died in the last 32 years, however there were occasions in the past where multiple deaths occurred on a yearly basis. By visualizing a range of data sets including previous race results, the team they were racing for, the track that they were racing on and the percentage of the races they completed, we can see some fascinating trends and are reminded how much these drivers were willing to risk to be crowned champion." There are some interesting details hidden in the list. Despite being a round on the F1 calendar for only a decade, it is the Indy 500 that has claimed the most F1 lives, with seven fatalities since 1950. The legendary "Green Hell" of the Nurburgring, in contrast, has claimed five, while three F1 drivers lost their lives at Monza and two died at Spa-Francorchamps. But here are limits on infrogr8 data set.

Data set used only includes those F1 drivers who died in practice, qualifying, or while racing in a Formula One event. As a result, some big names are excluded from the list. For example, Jim Clark is one of notable omissions from the analysis. Click here for the full image as a PDF All together 81 drivers died in 65 years of Formula 1 World Championship To know more about safety in Formula 1, development in safety after incidents and tragedies, check article about general safety. Formula 1 is now in its seventh decade and it was only when reflecting on Webber's accident at European GP at Valencia 2010 race that I realized that the 2000s decade was the first decade in which no-one died in an F1 car, which is a massive achievement in Formula 1 safety. The Red Bull driver somersaulted and landed upside down after running into the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus . Webber said: "I'm happy. After accident I was just having a shower and thinking, 'Mate, you're lucky to be in one piece.' "It was a nasty incident. I was surprised by what happened.

I'm a little bit tender here and there but the car did a great job." Sadness in Formula 1 Part 1 Sadness in Formula 1 Part 2 FATAL CRASHES IN F1 PART 1 FATAL CRASHES IN F1 PART 2 Books to read Some useful links: - f1technical.net , a great site with a lot of technical information’s and explanations. Site is updated daily with news from F1 word. - autosport.com , This site is a legend. A bible for racing lovers. News from all around the word. Unfortunately, to get access to all news, interviews and to open the site completely you should be subscribed to Autosport magazine. Anyway, great read. - JA.F1 site (or blog) ovned by ITV Sport’s lead commentator on Formula 1 James Allen - joesaward is the Joe Saward official blog about Formula 1 world. Joe is an journalist, who write primarily about politics in and around motorsport, specifically on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship - vitalf1.com/ is another great site for Motor Sports fan’s like me. Site is relatively new, but great fun, with great discussion forum , Formula 1 news and forum .

- f1.gpupdate.net , Site with fresh news from Formula 1 - planetf1 , another site with many different articles, news and statistics. Biased toward British teams, but anyway good read. - gurneyflap.com , Great history site. You can learn a lot from this site. Pictures, cars and many many more. Great. - 4ormula1 is a database of Formula 1 history and statistics of drivers, teams, grand prix, and all results since 1950 - Racecar Engineering , an online magazine with a lot to learn from, a lot of technical information’s and explanations - fia.com , La Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, representing the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. Head organisation and ruler in auto sport. - wikipedia.org , I don’t believe that I have to tell you anything about this site. It’s not about Formula 1 technology, but you can learn a lot about that too. - carbibles.com , a great site for normal car users. Here you can find explanations of almost everything about your car and how it works. Technical reviews and explanations of some in-car gadgets.

- Daretobedifferent.org Susie Wolff and UK governing body of UK motorsport have joined forces to launch Dare To Be Different, a high-profile new initiative which is about increasing female participation, not just on the track but in all aspects of the sport. BBC ON THIS DAY | 1 | 1994: Formula One's 'blackest day' 1994: Formula One's 'blackest day' The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy, was a race marred by tragedy. On 30 April, 31-year-old Austrian novice driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a high-speed crash during a qualifying session. The following day Brazilian Ayrton Senna died during the race itself when his car spun off the track at the Tamburello curve. The Williams-Renault star - considered one of the finest Formula One drivers of his generation - was mourned by racing fans around the world. Your memories I saw that all on Brazilian TV. My brother was with me. At the time, I was 23 and my brother 13. Senna was a hero for our people.

I couldn't explain what he represents for us.That day will be in our mind for the rest of our existence. He was and will always be simply the best. Rest in God's arms tenderly. Francisco Azevedo, Brazil I and my son were watching that fateful day when Ayrton went into the Tamberrello and crashed into a wall. As the car came back into view my son said the wheel has hit him and the car came to rest. I saw his head move once more and knew we had lost him. I and my son went and drove to Brands Hatch where we met other fans all united in grief over the loss of the greatest driver of our time. Missed but not forgotten - Ayrton Senna da Silva. Barry Amis, England I was watching that race that day and saw the horrifying crash that ended Senna's race - and ultimately his life. He was a great driver and is sorely missed. Scott Lawson, UK I have followed formula one since 1971. I have seen many great drivers throughout the years but no one can be compared with Aryton Senna. He is to me the greatest driver in my time.

Senna made great records during his career - most of them today beaten by Schumacher. But I have not seen any race or driver since Senna that captured and fascinating. Fantastic races and great entertainment. Peter Johansson, Sweden I was watching the race that fateful day he left the track but couldn't envisage the fact that later on that day he'd no longer be with us. Disbelief in the numbness I was feeling, sadness in that I'd never see him drive again. The biggest compliment I can pay to Ayrton Senna is that along with Elvis Presley and John Lennon I can remember what happened like it was yesterday. Gary Jame, UK While I was never a huge fan of Senna the man, I thought he was a great driver, and if I could cite a specific example, it would be his win at Donnington 1993, in the wet, in an inferior car. F1 and the world were robbed that day of incredible battles to come between an up-and-coming Michael Schumacher and a grizzled veteran by the name of Ayrton Senna. I think I know who would have come out on top, at least until his retirement.

Scott Lang, US I remember it vividly; as soon as his car hit the wall, I said "He's dead", you just knew. Murray Walker's reaction was exactly the same, it was a devastating moment in motor racing history. I still have copies of the sports pages from the following day, I couldn't throw them away. Alex B, Birmingham, UK If you were Brazilian you felt like somebody from your family had passed away Elaine, Brazil Even if you were not a Formula One aficionado, if you were Brazilian, you felt like somebody from your family had passed away. That was the general feeling all over the country. Not even winning the World Cup later that year helped, despite the beautiful homage by the team who together held up a strip dedicating the win to Ayrton. Elaine, Brazil (living in US) I was watching the race with my three boys playing nearby and asking questions about the race every few minutes. I was not a fan of Ayrton but always admired his talent and his aggressive driving. At the time of the crash my sons suddenly stopped playing like they knew something really bad had just happened.

My oldest one, six at the time, told me "Daddy, I think he is..." - you get the picture. I will never forget that moment. Otto, US I was embarrassed to say that the death of someone I never knew could upset me so much Edward Motler, Leamington Spa I can remember it like it was yesterday. Some moments after the Williams stopped I saw Senna's head twitch and I knew he was dead. The next day I was sat in the park with my girlfriend and I couldn't explain why I was so miserable and upset. I was embarrassed to say that the death of someone I never knew could upset me so much. But it did and still does when I think about it. Senna was just too good for this world, and he took his magic with him. Edward Motler, Leamington Spa, UK 1 May 1994 was a beautiful day and I recorded the race while I attended a barbecue, with no inkling of the horrific events unfolding in Italy. At 6pm my brother stumbled into the kitchen to tell me Senna was dead. Stunned and disbelieving, I watched the race, I felt like I had to somehow. It was purgatory.

The accident was bad enough, but watching Sid Watkins and the other paramedics struggling to save him, when I knew their efforts had been in vain, was beyond awful. Yet I sat through it, unaware of the tears streaming down my face. Formula One changed forever that day, and me with it. Andrew Duff, UK My dear friend, we still miss you and the races are not the same. Only now, almost ten years after your departure am I regaining interest in F1. Ayrton, you truly were one of the greatest! Antonio Zavaleta, US It was only a couple of months ago that I finally managed to go on holiday to Brazil. I took the opportunity to pay my respects in Sao Paulo to, in my opinion, not only the greatest racing driver of all, but the most incredible human being. Standing at his grave, a simple affair with flowers laid by followers, friends and a steady trickle of people paying respects, one felt a strong sense of peace - an air of contemplation as the man himself would have wished. Martin, UK The awful memories of that fateful weekend in May 1994 will never leave me.

Formula One fans had a great season to look forward to: Senna, fresh from a sabbatical, was back in a leading team. An incredible and unique talent lost forever Stuart Rowland, UK Fans who followed Senna detected something different in 1994: a more relaxed, fair and complete man, although still driven to win. I will never forget Murray Walker's sombre address, two hours or so after the race had finished, when it fell to him to report to BBC viewers that Senna had passed away. Viewing the subsequent scenes in Brazil and around the world one sensed we had not just lost a racing driver, but someone we all felt we knew and relied upon to shape the F1 world. An incredible and unique talent lost forever. Stuart Rowland, UK It's simple - still the greatest, nine years on. Never to be forgotten by those who witnessed true genius behind the wheel. Duncan, UK I remember sitting watching the race, the sun coming through the window, remember the impact and then the most hollow feeling... You knew it was over. The driver you loved or loved to hate was gone and F1 still has not recovered.

Simon, England Senna was and will remain one of the greatest racing drivers in the history of motor sport. I met him briefly at Silverstone in 1992 and saw a different Senna to the one that is predominantly portrayed in the media. It is these memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life. We can only speculate on what he would have achieved by now David Borg, Malta Unfortunately, as happens to the very best, he was taken away from us and we can only speculate on what he would have achieved by now, had he walked away from that horrible accident at Tamburello. His demise, in my opinion, also signalled the slow but steady decline of Formula One as a spectator sport. Schumacher may go on to break all the records that exist in F1 but he will never replace Senna in the hearts and minds of true, passionate F1 aficionados. David Borg, Malta I was working at a show with other colleagues and we heard the news filter through. By the time we got back to the hotel it was all confirmed. As we all worked for a motor racing magazine, we decided to watch the highlights in someone's bedroom together.

From the moment the TV was switched on and Steve Rider introduced the programme, to the end of the entire broadcast, not a word was spoken by anyone. All 26 of us sat stunned in silence unable to speak or comprehend what had happened. G, England I still remember the day Ayrton Senna died as if it were yesterday - it's hard to believe it was nine years ago. At 14-years-old it was one of those life changing moments when you realise we are all mortal - if he could die any of us could. There will never be another like him and he will never be forgotten Claire, England It took a long time to get over it and reading everyone else's memories brings it all back. Whenever I look at the picture of him on my wall I remember what a great hero he was, there will never be another like him and he will never be forgotten. Claire, England I remember sitting in front of the TV, watching the race with my mom. We saw him crash in the wall, we didn't speak for at least 15 minutes. Then my mother started to cry, as did I. An hour later we phoned our family in Brazil.

In Brazil there was complete turmoil, people crying in the streets. Schumacher would never have won if we still had Senna. He was, is and forever will be the greatest race car driver ever to grace the sport. Juliao Martins, The Netherlands I was at the next Grand Prix in Monaco and it was a very emotional moment when all the drivers stood on the start line for a minute's silence, with Rubens Barrichello at the front with the flag... What a great loss. Will, UK Though I was only eight-years-old, the horror of the race to me was still apparent. I had watched Grand Prix since I was five, and Ayrton was the inspiration. He was and forever will be my favourite driver, and by far and away betters any achievement Schumacher may achieve. Matt, England The greatest driver of them all. From the great duels with Prost to the astonishing qualifying laps, he was simply the best. Chris Schnauz, US I was inconsolable for the next two days Yorick, UK They say that you can remember the place where you where when famous people died.

I am now 21 and the only significant death that I remember from those years is Ayrton Senna da Silva - the greatest, most noble and talented racing driver that was and will be. I was inconsolable for the next two days, sitting at the bottom of the garden on my swing wondering why the one genius of the sport that made F1 alive for me could be so tragically taken. To this day there is a large photo of him on my wall. Ayrton Senna, the greatest, may he RIP. Yorick, UK I remember the race vividly. The sombre mood at the beginning of the race was added to by the huge smash at the start involving two cars. Perhaps the thing that sticks in my mind most of all is the drained voice of Murray Walker, who had to keep commentating despite seeing a friend die in an awful accident, and the tears of Michael Schumacher, Nicola Larini and Mika Hakkinen on the podium at the end of the race.

Sean Murray, UK Everyone had that 'What happened?' look in their eyes Muhammad Hussein, Brazil Since the death of the president Tancredo Neves in 1985 there hasn't been such a dark and sad day in Brazil. Everyone had that "What happened?" look in their eyes. No-one wanted to believe in what was going on. It was about 1614, a sunny afternoon in Sao Paulo, when the news came: Ayrton Senna was dead. All TV [channels] instantly turned programmes into specials about Senna. In the morning after, the whole city stopped. Muhammad Hussein, Brazil I remember it vividly. It was the first Grand Prix I had missed for ages - my parents and I were house hunting at the time. I remember flicking the TV on in the evening, still a bit shocked after Roland Ratzenberger had been killed the previous day, only to be greeted by a very sombre Steve Rider explaining the terrible events of that day. I had to listen to every news bulletin the following day - even though they were all saying the same thing, as I just couldn't believe he was gone.

David Turner, UK I feel F1 died on that day Paul Fitzsimmons, England It was a beautiful day. I decided to go for a bike ride and tape the Grand Prix. I can remember cycling along the banks of the River Mersey thinking how the race was going. When I got home my wife said your best friend (Senna) has had a crash and is possibly dead, I couldn't believe the scenes I was watching on TV. He is the greatest F1 driver I have ever watched and I feel F1 died on that day - the sport has never been quite the same. Paul Fitzsimmons, England I remember the day well - I had seen Roland Ratzenberger, the young Austrian driver whose rise to Formula One I had followed, killed instantly in practice preceding the race. With pictures of a driver receiving heart massage in vain fresh in my mind, I decided instead of watching the race to go to a classic car show in Birmingham. Just before I caught the bus home I called to find out the results. My mother told me the news that Senna was dead and I thought she was joking. When I realised, I told my partner and we sat on the bus home in silence.

When I got home, I watched the highlights, but the accident and the aftermath were never shown. I've had to turn to the internet to see it. What a shock - for one of the few races I've missed watching, to end in such tragedy. There will never be another Senna. Flash Wilson, UK I had watched Grand Prix races for many years and had finally convinced my girlfriend to sit and watch and entire GP. It was certainly one to remember but for all the wrong reasons, as this was the last race of the great Ayrton Senna. Amazed, shocked and stunned, we sat watching a sad turning point in GP history. Jonathan Holmes To me Ayrton was invincible Helen, Scotland This was the day that changed my world. To see one's hero die on live television is something that nobody should have to witness, but at 11-years-old it was the toughest thing I had ever had to deal with. To me, Ayrton was invincible. He still is. No matter what Schumacher does, or how many records he breaks, he will never have that little special "something" that our Senna had.

Helen, Scotland I remember watching the race live on the BBC, like any other Sunday. I had watched Senna in many races, but this was a feeling that it was going to be a season dominated by Ayrton. He had just joined Williams, clearly the best team and car available that year, and he was arguably the most gifted driver ever to grace a racing track. Williams had it all that year and lost it. When Ayrton went around Tamburello throughout the race the car stuck like glue, but, when he crashed it was as if he had just let go. The car left the track before he had even pushed it to maximum grip. Paul Henderson, Ireland Never have I felt such emotion as that day - I missed two days of school. He was a true hero, my idol - the determination and skill. I still miss him. MK, UK I will never forget Moira Stuart saying on the evening news that Ayrton had died - I could not believe it, I sat stunned and in tears all evening. My mother had died in the February and now, in May, my absolute hero was killed. I still can't read stuff about the crash and his death without tears in my eyes.

Debs, Scotland Like many others I sat and watched in disbelief. A strange feeling of numbness surrounded the whole episode. Like many others out there probably agree, the man was certainly one of the best F1 drivers to have drawn breath and I would have loved to see him cross swords with the likes of Schumacher and co. Alas, that will not be. Leon, England I remember where I stood, to the second, when I heard on the radio the news that Ayrton had died at Imola. Having read all the comments in this tribute to one of the greatest F1 dirvers, I believe he would be very proud of the everlasting impression he left on us all. Kevin Barvich, Australia I was in Tokyo, Japan, as part of the Philippine Airline International Crew for flight 432 which had a lay-over stay in Tokyo. The night before that fateful day, I noticed a large group of football players at the lobby and when I saw the Brazilian flags and colors in some of their outfits then it was easy to figure out that they were part of a Brazilian delegation fo soccer players perhaps on an invitational game in Japan.

This struck me because the day after as I was watching the coverage of the crash in Imola, I immediately remembered Ayrton's compatriots who I had seen the previous night having fun at the lobby, clueless to the fate that came upon their hero, the late, great Ayrton Senna da Silva. May you rest in peace my great champion.Simplicimente Il Migliore! Simply the best! James Vergara, Philippines Senna: Sundance Review | Hollywood Reporter Senna: Sundance Review COMMENTS Fine documentary about one of auto racing’s greats will please fans and make some new ones. TWITTER PARK CITY -- (World Documentary) The precocious, handsome, religious and thoughtful Brazilian Ayrton Senna was one of boldest and most exciting race car champions of all time. He was also the last Formula One driver to be killed on the track, in 1994 at age 34, and his dramatic life story merits the attention it receives in this unexpected and very good documentary.

Comprised entirely of archival news, TV and home movie footage, without talking heads, the Universal release from Working Title feels lavish by normal documentary standards and will have great appeal in such F1 hotbeds as Europe and South America, with domestic prospects less certain. An upper class boy with adoring parents, Senna raced go-carts as a youth and there is even footage of him competing in the tiny vehicles in Europe as early as 1978. To the end, he regarded this entry-level tier of the sport as the purest; “It was real racing,” he said, without the politics, teams, sponsorship, money and technological issues of the professional realm that often plagued him. Outstanding racing footage, often from the point of view of the driver himself, courtesy of in-car mini-cams, provides dynamic, even thrilling perspectives rivaling anything possible in feature films.

It also puts the viewer exactly where one needs to be to witness the key moments of his meteoric rise in the competitive ranks, from his startling 1984 second-place finish in his first race at Monaco to his incredible victory, coming back from 16th position, to win the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix and, with it, the first of his three world championships. “He would take the car beyond its designed capabilities,” one admirer explains, while numerous clips reveal Senna’s audacious talent for slipping through the narrowest of openings to overtake other cars. The natural core of the story lies in his developing rivalry with, and eventual hatred of, the French champion Alain Prost. Initially fellow members of the McLaren team in the mid-‘80s, the world’s numbers one and two drivers inescapably generated a competitive tension that developed into a “war,” as Prost puts it, especially after a 1989 incident in Japan that controversially cost Senna the championship and a six-month suspension.

The enmity continued into the ‘90s as they jumped from team to team, although they eventually patched things up to the extent that the Frenchman can be seen serving as a pallbearer at Senna’s funeral. In numerous vintage interviews, the lean, pensive young man analyzes his career as it unfolds, while also expressing love for his family and country (a feeling always wildly reciprocated by his fellow Brazilians) and his certainty that God’s presence was with him. A bit frustratingly, the film skirts any exploration of Senna’s private life, although footage of him with the Brazilian star Xuxa and other beautiful young women suggests he had no shortage of companionship. For the benefit of non-racing fans, Asif Kapadia, a dramatic fiction director making his first documentary, might usefully have included some discussion of what of what separates the truly great drivers from the legions of the merely excellent. What is tragically clear, however, is that Senna’s fatal accident, at San Marino on May 1, 1994, was no fault of his own but due rather to questionable equipment in a car he was very uncomfortable with at a time when F1 engineering was in great flux.

Technical and musical aspects are first-rate. Although much of Senna’s commentary is in perfectly decent English, there is a fair amount of subtitled French and Portuguese in the film, including quite a bit from the subject’s parents and sister. Venue: Sundance Film Festival, World Documentary A Universal release Production: Working Title in association with Midfield Films Director: Asif Kapadia Producers: James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner Executive producers: Kevin Macdonald, Manish Pandey, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin Music: Antonio Pinto Editors: Gregers Sall, Chris King No rating, 105 minutes From the Vault: the tragic death of F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger in 1994 | Sport | The Guardian From the Vault From the Vault: the tragic death of F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger in 1994 The 33-year-old was killed during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix on 30 April 1994, the day before Ayrton Senna died Roland Ratzenberger preparing for his Formula One debut on 17 April 1994 in Japan.

He finished 11th in what would be his only Grand Prix start. Photograph: Sutton Images/Corbis Thursday 1 May 2014 10.13 EDT First published on Thursday 1 May 2014 10.13 EDT Share on Messenger Close On the morning of the San Marino Grand Prix on 1 May 1994, Ayrton Senna placed an Austrian flag in his racing car. The great Brazilian champion had planned to wave the flag as he passed the finishing line in victory. Senna wanted to share the moment of triumph with his fellow driver, Roland Ratzenberger, the young Austrian who died on the Imola track the day before. Senna never made it to the chequered flag. Like Ratzenberger, a Formula One novice who crashed and died while trying to qualify for only his second Grand Prix, Senna's life was cut short on that fateful weekend in the spring of 1994.

Yesterday we published a collection of tributes to Senna , and today we want to remember Ratzenberger by republishing the three articles below: the report filed from Imola on the day of his death, an interview with Simtek founder Nick Wirth from July 1994, and Frank Keating's observations from the San Marino Grand Prix of 1995. Motor racing driver Roland Ratzenberger dies at 200mph Maurice Hamilton reported for the Observer on the death of Roland Ratzenberger, who died on 30 April 1994 during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola track. Grand Prix racing is dangerous enough without the swirling emotion which gathered strength here yesterday afternoon following the news that Roland Ratzenberger had succumbed to injuries he received when he crashed during practice for today's San Marino Grand Prix. The first fatal accident for 12 years involving a grand prix driver initially brought with it a stunned reaction, intensified by the spectacular incident on Friday when the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello emerged with comparatively minor injuries after losing control of his Jordan and crashing at more than 120mph.

Both incidents heightened an awareness of the sport's inherent dangers, masked in recent years by massive strides in technology and on-board safety, but now exposed by the violence of Ratzenberger 's collision as his Simtek struck a concrete retaining wall at close to 200mph. Once the initial shock had subsided in the paddock, the search for a scapegoat embraced a range of issues with the same misinformed reasoning which frequently accompanies the death of a boxer in the ring. The claim that the cars are too fast and too dangerous had a simplistic and familiar ring to it, but beneath such an emotional response lay genuine concern raised by the apparent cause of Ratzenberger 's crash. The 31-year-old Austrian, attempting to qualify for only his second grand prix, was accelerating hard in sixth gear when part of the car – believed to be a nose wing – became detached. Whether or not he had partly dislodged the wing against a kerb earlier in the lap may never be known, but the effect of its absence was an indictment of the latest technology, which relies heavily on downforce – the effect of air passing over the car and its aerodynamic appendages.

Without one or both of the nose wings, a car becomes virtually undrivable and refuses to respond as the driver turns the steering wheel. Whatever the precise cause of Ratzenberger 's problem, the Simtek failed to take a right-hand curve which, under normal circumstances, would not present a problem, the car being forced on to the track by between two and three tons of aerodynamic load. Ratzenberger was helpless as the car slammed into the wall, the wreckage travelling 300 yards to Tosa corner. It is believed that, despite desperate attempts by the medical team to revive Ratzenberger, the initial impact may have broken his neck. The tragedy has deeply affected the Simtek team, based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and embarking on their first season of Formula One racing. Although a novice, Ratzenberger was extremely popular with all who knew him, particularly among the drivers who had progressed through the ranks with the Austrian when he lived a hand-to-mouth existence while racing in Britain.

Even though his condition was not known at the time, Williams and Benetton chose not to continue their battle for grid positions, the mark of respect leaving Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher to share the front row, with Damon Hill having claimed fourth fastest time shortly before the accident. The decision by Ferrari to resume practice in a bid to get on the front row was considered insensitive under the circumstances, but Gerhard Berger later gave an eloquent defence of his actions as he discussed the fate of his fellow countryman. "I was sitting in my car, watching the pictures on the portable TV screen," said Berger. "I could see how bad it was. I knew how critical the situation looked. For the first time, I found myself shaking after an accident. In our job you have to be prepared to see situations like this. But because the driver was Austrian and a personal friend, it was worse. "You shouldn't differentiate between drivers like that, but this does affect you in a different way. I felt sick. I got out of the car and went to the motorhome, where I was still shaking. You ask yourself whether you want to drive or not.

The question is about racing it is not related to this afternoon and it would not make any difference to Roland. "But, yesterday, when I saw Rubens Barrichello's accident, it made me realise how close we are to life and death. So you ask these questions. Then you say: 'Yes, I am going to race on Sunday.' So you go out and try to concentrate on the job. It was difficult it was very hard." There was an ironic footnote to Berger's carefully chosen words. Five years ago, he was exceptionally lucky to survive a fiery accident at a spot not far from where Ratzenberger ran into trouble. Berger's Ferrari had ploughed straight into the wall in the opening laps of the race. It was later discovered that a nose wing had come off the car, leaving Berger as exposed as his more unfortunate protege yesterday afternoon. For some time now the FIA, the sport's governing body, and leading teams such as Williams have talked about the need to reduce the huge amount of downforce generated by cars in their current guise. If Ratzenberger 's accident was caused by a broken nose wing, then the terrible consequences may accelerate an overdue investigation into such an overdue move.

In a statement issued several hours later, the Simtek team said: "He was a true all-rounder whose brave driving style and delightful character will be sadly missed by so many around the world." Pinterest Fighting back from the pits of tragedy Four months after Ratzenberger's death, Maurice Hamilton interviewed Simtek founder and car designer Nick Wirth, who spoke of the agony he felt about losing his friend at Imola. Nick Wirth celebrated his 28th birthday in Brazil last March. This was his first grand prix as a team owner and, contrary to popular expectation, the gangling, bespectacled founder of Simtek Research had not fallen flat on his smiling face. One of the Simtek-Fords driven by David Brabham had actually qualified for the opening race of the season. Wirth, his small team and their main sponsors, MTV and Russell Athletic, were in a splendid mood. But they were under no illusions. The task before them would be made even more difficult by inexperience and a budget that amounted to 15% of the financial backing enjoyed by the likes of Williams and Benetton. Simtek neither expected nor received any favours – their arrival had been studiously ignored by the rest of the pit lane.

Wirth could cope with that. What no one envisaged, however, was the vicious and unrelenting tragedy that, four weeks later, would overwhelm the team. It began during final qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. Roland Ratzenberger, a Formula One novice, was killed outright when his Simtek veered off the track and smashed into a concrete wall at 180mph. It was the first fatality at a grand prix meeting for 12 years. Wirth had watched the catastrophe swiftly unfold on a television monitor. "I'll never, ever forget it," he says. "To see Roland lying on the grass receiving a heart massage ... your body behaves in very strange ways at times like that. You suddenly find that you can no longer function as a normal person. You literally lose control your legs turn to jelly and you feel you want to throw up, not because of the detail of what you've seen, but because of the emotions surging through you. "When they finally brought the car back on a truck, I just didn't want to look at it. I had to force myself.

There was a massive hole in the side of the monocoque [chassis] where the left-front wheel had been forced inwards. In Senna's accident the following day, the wheel came up towards the driver's head with ours, it stayed low, which is what the FIA want it to do. Our car is one of the strongest in that area but, unfortunately, the impact with the wall was so severe that the wheel punched its way through the monocoque and into Roland." The strength of all Formula One cars has since been improved in that area. The actual cause of the accident was a failure of the nose wing structure, probably weakened by Ratzenberger clouting a kerb on a previous lap. If nothing else, this was a graphic indictment of the limitation placed on the number of laps completed by each driver during qualifying. Had Ratzenberger not been under pressure to make the most of each lap rather than waste two of them by making an unplanned call at the pits, he would probably have chosen to stop and have the car checked over. Wirth's agony was compounded by the fact that he is unique among team owners in that he also designs the car.

"I didn't even know that the wing had fallen off and yet I immediately felt guilty. I don't think people realise the responsibility associated with designing a racing car until this sort of thing happens. I somehow managed to sleep that night, but when Senna died the next day, even though it was not directly related to me, I cried and cried. I was an emotional basket case. "That's when I began to question it all. You ask if it is worth going through all of this emotion. But you have to pick up the pieces and carry on. The sponsors were absolutely 100% behind us – fantastic support. And most touching of all was that Roland's personal sponsor, Barbara Behlau [founder of Barbara MC, a Monaco-based sports management agency] was so impressed by the way we had coped with the tragedy that she wanted to put more money into the team for the rest of the season. That helped us greatly, both practically and emotionally." Wirth's biggest problem has been deciding precisely what to do with the relatively small amount of money he has available.

While Wirth would not divulge the extent of his budget, as a rule of thumb a top team would expect to spend a minimum of £20m, including the luxury of a deal with a major manufacturer whereby engines are supplied either free or for a nominal sum. The less well-off teams have to struggle along on as little as pounds £7m. '"Do you spend it," he asks, "on engines, or wind-tunnel work, more mechanics, better equipment or more track testing? I guess we are going to spend another $3m to $4m this year. Now if we had another million on top, we could achieve a great deal. It sounds a lot – it is a lot – but when you consider that you need around £25,000 for each engine rebuild, it soon goes. "A day's testing costs something like £25,000, but the amount you learn is unbelievable. That million could give us perhaps 10 days of testing, plus enough to build the bits from what you learn, and that would probably put us a long way up the grid. I want to qualify and run ahead of some of the established teams such as Lotus.

We have the knowledge and the drive to do that. It's just this tragic sequence of events which has set us back." The catalogue of horror continued through until the end of May. During practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, Ratzenberger 's replacement, Andrea Montermini, lost control of his Simtek and crashed headlong into a wall. Wirth's anguish was aggravated by the increasingly naive comments being directed his way. "There was one particular individual in the media who suggested that our car shouldn't have fallen apart like that. Where did he think the energy was going to go? I was trying to keep calm because, for about an hour after his accident, I thought Andrea had died as well and the same emotions that I had been through with Roland came back even stronger than before. Then to have this jerk make these suggestions really tested me." The Simtek, along with every car on the grid today, had undergone a mandatory crash test which does not come close to the 133mph impact suffered by Montermini in Spain. The fact that he survived with minor injuries to his feet was the greatest tribute to the integrity of the Simtek.

On the other side of the ledger, however, yet another written-off car brought the bill for replacements alone to £600,000. "It's bloody hard," says Wirth, reflecting on a lifetime of emotion crammed into four months. "The only thing that makes it easier is that you knew it was going to be hard. People expect you to go tits up. You have to show them that you are fighting on." Formula One drivers observe a minute of silence to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of fellow dirvers Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger moments before the start of the F1 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola on 30 April 1995. Photograph: Jeannot Lapeyre/AFP/Getty Images One year on from the nightmare On the first anniversary of the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, Frank Keating visited the Imola track to report on the mourning within the Formula One community.

With harrowing, unrepentant exactitude it is a year to the weekend that the garish and tearaway business of motor racing was grotesquely freeze-framed into an eerie Pompeian stillness the moment its champion of cold-eyed invincibility and single-minded grandeur Ayrton Senna died in a 190mph crash in the name of sport. For a year motor racing has remained stunned, all involved unable to erase from their own heads that silence only interrupted by the dread flutter flutter flutter of the ambulance helicopter. Yesterday friends were still telling of the moment with blank stares as they remembered it. Senna's car crashed into the concrete wall here at Imola at Sunday lunchtime last May Day. This week the still chastened sport has returned to Imola. Tomorrow, if it passes without serious mishap, will represent the end of official mourning and the discordant hurdy-gurdy of the fairground can be turned up again to full volume and the old merry tunes on the cash register. The two successive top-lick curves on the course – where Senna and the day before, in a grim prophetic preface, Roland Ratzenberger died – have been significantly slowed by lower-gear chicanes and gravel traps.

Well separated now from the new tarmac track, the fencing above the low white wall that Senna's car hit (it was a steel suspension arm from the front axle that fatally speared the driver's right temple) is now a shrine garlanded with wailing Latin graffiti, flowers and favours, many in the green and yellow of his country. The barrier at which Ratzenberger died is only seconds from there at screaming full pelt, or a few minutes' stroll. The younger driver's parents have been given permission to erect a small memorial plaque at the spot. The cataclysmic weekend a year ago was presaged by a first horrific smash at practice out of which debris Rubens Barrichello mercifully and absurdly walked unwounded. Yesterday the young man talked confidently about Imola and racing again tomorrow. He knows he is lucky to be alive but shrugs. "The crash became part of my past within days," he says. "Coming back is difficult only because of Ayrton. In racing I am professional and my feelings cannot be human ones." The show goes on.

And at last tomorrow Nigel Mansell steps back on to the scary rollercoaster after missing two seasons in the United States as well as, ludicrously, the first two South American races of this new Formula One season because the new McLaren they built for him had too small a seat for the wide-haunched veteran West Midlander. Mansell was courted back, apparently, for £7m by sponsors desperate to give the sport the sense of character and oomph suddenly perceived to be lacking. Probably lacking 12 months to the day. While he has been away and garlanded with greenbacks Mansell has lost none of his chippily wary Brummie directness and, even, grudgingly sounding charm. More than ever Mansell is like Ambridge's self-made Jack Woolley ('but Caroline, do you actually think a jacuzzi is really Grey Gables?') and yesterday he described his small seat as "just a design cock-up, really". The alterations to his carbon-fibre chassis have been only 25mm by 20mm but he says he is now far less cramped in his cockpit – "although don't expect too much I haven't yet had time to make the car anything like driver-friendly".

Once he strangles it into friendship, the sport will wait to see how he gets on with his new team-mate, the apparently brilliant young Finn Mika Hakkinen. Mansell certainly adds the colourful headlines which are part of the exercise and, if towards the end of the season Hakkinen is surging ahead, then here we go again: "Oh Caroline, I honestly suspect they're giving him more preferential treatment well, Peggy thinks so anyway." Even the Italians are not bad at attempting a reasonable Bremnerish impersonation of our Nige's vowels. They have much affection for him here in this motor racing area after his years as il leone, also giving it his best roar when he drove for Ferrari. At last that marque, the old prancing horse from nearby Maranello, looks as if it might have a serious chance tomorrow for a first home victory in 12 years. Suddenly, they say, speed and reliability have come together. Certainly the possibility is already clogging up the roads all around – and a famous home victory would end the long and lamenting year of mourning at, and for, lovely Imola. Roland Ratzenberger in 1994.

Photograph: Sutton Images/Corbis Read other stories From the Vault and share your memories below Life On The Limit: Formula One's deadliest crashes - Telegraph The Filter Life On The Limit: Formula One's deadliest crashes As a new film charting the history of safety in Formula One is released, from the fatal 1970s through to the present, Daniel Johnson looks at some of the sport's most dangerous episodes Ayrton Senna prepares for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He was killed on lap 7 while leading the race By Daniel Johnson , F1 Correspondent 11:53AM GMT 10 Jan 2014 Comments Formula One from the 1960s to the early 1980s could not adequately be described as mere "sport"; it was high-stakes theatre, in which men gambled with their lives every time they drove out onto the track. Like gladiators who almost half-expected to be killed, the drivers were going faster than ever before, but, with regards to safety, the design of the cars and the circuits stood still.

The result was the death of 19 Formula One drivers between 1967 and 1982, with horrific and life-changing injuries to scores more. 1: Life On The Limit , a new documentary by Paul Crowder, narrated by Michael Fassbender, charts this tragedy-laden era through to the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994 and beyond, with interviews from the current crop of drivers, such as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, for whom matters of life and death are not a regular consideration when they step into a Formula One car. Building on the phenomenal success of Senna , the feature length documentary about the Brazilian legend’s life in the sport, and Rush , which focused on James Hunt and Niki Lauda’s rivalry in the 1976 season, including Lauda’s horrific crash at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, which nearly cost the Austrian his life, Life On The Limit is partly the story of two other men, neither of whom are drivers, and their pursuit of a safer sport.

Related Articles Ayrton Senna: driven man 02 Jun 2011 Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have both attracted publicity for not exactly positive reasons, but this film presents their genuine determination to stop Formula One being a sport where the public tuned in to watch their heroes die, having lost friends and colleagues in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of course, as told in the film, this was not a simple or straightforward task, as the untimely deaths of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger and Senna himself in the same weekend at Imola in 1994 show; the first fatalities at a race meeting for 12 years. But as Martin Brundle ’s accident two years later in Melbourne - which is used to as the opening and climax of Life On The Limit - demonstrates, Formula One could be and was becoming safer, as a whole host of huge accidents since have shown. No Formula One driver will have died for 20 years this May, and Life On The Limit is the compelling - if at times slightly uneven - tale of how a sport no longer stood for its competitors and chief attractions having to play Russian roulette with their lives.

1: Life On The Limit is in cinemas on January 10th. A digital release follows on March 7th, with a Blu-ray and DVD release on March 17th ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Clark - Hockenheim, 1968 The death of Jim Clark, the darling of Formula One, who many believed was on his way to to becoming the greatest ever before his death in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim, Germany, marked the beginning of the sport's most dangerous period. As his fellow drivers express in the film, before Clark's death, many believed that while others crashed and died, it wouldn't happen to them, because there was always some explanation as to why they had crashed. But when Clark, the best in the paddock at the time, died, the realisation dawned on the other drivers that it could happen to any of them. With no barriers around the edge of the track, Clark's Lotus veered off and crashed into the trees. He broke his neck and fractured his skull, dying before he reached hospital, marking what became an almost permanent state of mourning in the Formula One paddock over the following decade.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jochen Rindt - Monza, 1970 Jochen Rindt’s death during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix in 1970, capped a bleak and tragic year in the history of Formula One, with several other drivers losing their lives in the same season. His death was made all the more heartbreaking by his wife’s plea in a television interview for Jochen to stop racing shortly before his death. At the extremely fast Monza circuit just before the final corner, the Parabolica, the brake shaft on Rindt’s Lotus failed and the car swerved right then violently left, ploughing into a barrier which gave way, tearing the car's nose off. In the habit of not wearing the car’s crotch straps, so he could get out of the car quickly in case there was a fire, Rindt slid under the belts and suffered fatal injuries. He became the only posthumous world champion in the history of Formula One, with the trophy presented to his widow, Nina.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Williamson - Zandvoort, 1973 British driver Roger Williamson 's death is one of the most distressing of the period, simply because it exposed how inadequate Formula One's approach to safety was at the time. After crashing at Zandvoort, Holland, and his car becoming engulfed in flames, fellow driver David Purley stopped at the side of the track, and desperately tried to free his friend from the inferno. But he received no help whatsoever from other marshalls or people, who simply watch him singlehandedly try and lift the car over. He frantically waves to his fellow racers as they drive past, but the race continues seemingly as normal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Niki Lauda - Nurburgring, 1976 At the Nurburgring Nordschleife, a track measuring more than 20 kilometres and widely regarded as one of the most dangerous in the history of Formula One, three-time champion Niki Lauda came close to death after inhaling hot toxic gases and suffering severe burns.

For those who have seen Rush, the context of Lauda’s rivalry with the flamboyant James Hunt, as well as his remarkable return to racing just six weeks later, will be familiar. A week before the 1976 meeting Lauda had urged his drivers to boycott the race because of the Nurburgring’s safety arrangements, and on the second lap at a very fast left kink, his Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment and burst into flames, leaving the Austrian inside the inferno. He lost most of his right ear and suffered extensive scarring but miraculously survived, winning the championship the following year and once more in 1984. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gilles Villeneuve - Zolder, 1982 Gilles Villeneuve was one of the sport’s most exciting and popular drivers at the time of his horrific, harrowing accident in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in 1982. With around 10 minutes of the final qualifying session remaining, Villeneuve caught the back of another car travelling around 140 mph, and was launched into the air.

His Ferrari was airborne for more than 100 metres before crashing into the ground and somersaulting along the track. Villeneuve’s helmet was torn from his head by the crash as he was thrown a further 50 metres from his destroyed car into the fencing around the edge of the circuit. He died of a fatal neck fracture and was pronounced dead in hospital that evening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayrton Senna - Imola, 1994 Although many years after Formula One's deadliest period in the 1970s, Brazilian Ayrton Senna's death marked the unthinkable. The sport's greatest driver at the time - and in many people's eyes, the greatest to have lived - whose appeal extended well beyond motorsport, died on television in front of millions of people, in an era when fans did not expect drivers to die in the name of sport. His death marked a particularly black weekend for the sport. It is often forgotten that Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died in qualifying the day before at Imola, Italy, and that Senna's Brazilian protege Rubens Barrichello was lucky to survive a crash in Friday practice.

For the 1994 season, the electronic aids which helped drivers were banned, making the cars instantly more unpredictable and uncontrollable, while the construction of the chassis had not kept pace with the phenomenal cornering speeds the cars could now achieve. The exact reason for Senna's crash has been hotly debated, but whatever the cause, the three-time world champion plunged into the wall at Tamburello at around 145 mph. A piece of the suspension assembly penetrated his helmet visor, and he died of fatal skull fractures. To this day, no driver has been killed in a Formula One car since. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given the above, it seems all the more remarkable that the three crashes below resulted in no injuries to the drivers whatsoever. Martin Brundle (at 0:28) even jogged back to the pitlane to hop into the spare car, to the astonishment and delight of the Melbourne crowd.

Martin Brundle - Melbourne, 1996 Jules Bianchi Dead: Formula One Driver Dies From Crash Injuries, After Months In Coma Jules Bianchi Dead: Formula One Driver Dies From Crash Injuries, After Months In Coma 07/18/15 AT 12:42 AM Close French Formula One racing driver Jules Bianchi died Saturday, after sustaining serious injuries during a race last year, which left him in a coma for the nine months he survived afterward. Bianchi, who was 25 and drove for the Marussia team (since renamed Manor), sustained major head injuries at the rain-soaked 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. In the slippery conditions, his car flew off the circuit and struck a large tractor -- which was recovering another car -- at high speed. In a statement posted on Bianchi's fan club page on Facebook, his family said: “Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end. The pain we feel is immense and indescribable.

Former Marussia Formula One driver Jules Bianchi, who died Saturday, after spending months in a coma, as the result of injuries sustained in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Photo: Getty Images “We thank Jules’ colleagues, friends, fans and everyone who has demonstrated their affection for him over these past months, which gave us great strength and helped us deal with such difficult times. Listening to and reading the many messages made us realize just how much Jules had touched the hearts and minds of so many people all over the world.” Formula One drivers stand in respect for their injured colleague Jules Bianchi, of the Marussia F1 Team at the Sochi Autodrom circuit in Russia, October 12, 2014. Photo: Getty Images His team also reacted to the news of the driver's death, saying on Twitter : “We are devastated to lose Jules after such a hard-fought battle.

It was a privilege to have him race for our team.” Related Stories Royal Dutch Shell, Gordon Murray Making A City Car Bianchi's death is the first time a Formula One driver has died as a result of injuries suffered while racing since 1994, when three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, and Roland Ratzenburger died in separate incidents during the San Marino Grand Prix weekend. A report published by the Accident Panel of the FIA, Formula One's governing body, on the crash in December 2014 concluded that, before the accident, Bianchi "did not slow sufficiently to avoid losing control," BBC reported . Formula One's organizers, however, also introduced new technology in the aftermath of the accident, a so-called “virtual safety car” -- a system of track-side lights that imposes a speed limit and a ban on overtaking -- to be used when recovery vehicles of the kind involved in Bianchi's accident are on track. While Bianchi is the first driver to lose his life in Formula One in over two decades, there have been other fatalities related to the sport during that period.

In 2013, a track-side safety marshal was killed at the Canadian Grand Prix after falling under the wheels of a mobile crane , which was recovering a crashed race car. In 2001, two marshals were killed after being struck by wheels and debris flying off cars that had crashed at high speed. Roland Ratzenberger: The Tragedy Formula 1 Forgot After Ayrton Senna's Death | Bleacher Report Roland Ratzenberger: The Tragedy Formula 1 Forgot After Ayrton Senna's Death By Matthew Walthert , Featured Columnist Apr 28, 2014 Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories Getty 2 Comments When Roland Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, he became the first Formula One driver to die during a grand prix weekend since Riccardo Paletti at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix. The next day, during the race itself, Ayrton Senna was also killed. Although Senna and Ratzenberger were born less than four months apart, their career paths were completely different.

For Ratzenberger, a 33-year old Austrian, the race at Imola was only the third grand prix of his career, having spent a decade slowly climbing the ladder from Formula Ford to F1. Senna, in contrast, was in his 11th F1 season, already a three-time world champion and universally regarded as one of the greatest racing drivers ever. Understandably, if somewhat unfairly, the Brazilian champion's death overshadowed that of his lesser-known colleague. Now, 20 years later, I spoke with two drivers who knew Ratzenberger well to get their memories of the man: Anthony Reid , who raced against Ratzenberger in Japan, most notably in the 1993 Japanese Formula 3000 season, and David Brabham , son of Australian triple world champion Jack Brabham and Ratzenberger's teammate on that terrible weekend at Imola. * * * Reid got to know the Austrian during the early 1990s, when they both had their sights set on F1. For the European drivers in Japan at the time, "It was quite a close-knit community, compared to, say, racing in Europe," Reid remembers.

"We used to meet up and go out for meals together—a whole group of us." Ratzenberger, Reid said, "was a really nice, approachable guy. Very affable...a very sociable guy. We used to talk about racing, or life back in Europe. We enjoyed going night-clubbing together, and stuff like that." Mike Hewitt/Getty Images But Reid remembers Ratzenberger for a much more poignant and personal reason: In 1992, the Austrian saved his life. "I'd just won the Japanese Formula Three championship and because of my success, I was given an opportunity to test in Japanese Formula 3000. And so we were all at Fuji for a big test in between the races. I was out there trying to prove a point...but I overcooked it, coming into a corner that's called 100R, down around the back of the pits. It's an extremely fast corner with hardly any run-off, and if everything's just perfect, you might take it flat...at around 150 to 160 mph.

"Halfway through the corner, I got what we call a 'tank-slapper', where the car became unstable and started to spin, and I hit the barrier so hard it knocked my crash helmet off...and the car shot 25 feet into the air and turned over. "The guy immediately behind me was Roland, and he had to swerve to avoid being crushed by my car as it came down on the track upside-down, with me without a crash helmet. And my head actually skimmed the road at 150 mph. ... There was a lot of blood on the circuit, and when the dust settled after the accident, the Japanese marshals didn't bother moving to get me out of the car because they just assumed I was dead. "But it was Roland Ratzenberger and Paulo Carcasci, the two cars behind me, who stopped...and got me out of the wreck and organised an ambulance. I woke up halfway to the hospital.

"I wrote a letter with that story to Roland's parents after he died at Imola, just explaining how he'd helped save my life." Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images The next year, Reid and Ratzenberger raced in Japanese F3000 before Ratzenberger signed a deal with the new Simtek F1 team for the 1994 season. "He was a very fast racing driver; very accomplished," Reid told me, "But the odds of making it to F1 are incredibly slim. You have much more chance of winning a lottery." Reid never saw Ratzenberger again after the F3000 season finished, as his friend embarked for Europe holding that winning lottery ticket: An F1 race seat. * * * "I didn't know him that well before we actually became teammates," David Brabham said. "When we were signed together, I went to Monaco and spent some time with him and we trained together and developed that relationship before the season. "We got on very well...it was a good relationship.

We tried to help each other because we were in a difficult situation with the team being brand new, and not enough money and just starting out, really." In the first two races of the 1994 season—in Brazil and back in Japan, for the Pacific Grand Prix—the Simtek team struggled. Brabham finished 12th in Brazil and Ratzenberger was 11th in Japan, the only grand prix he would ever finish. Robert Cianflone/Getty Images "He was a talented driver; we knew that before he signed up," Brabham remembers. "The car wasn't competitive, so unfortunately neither of us got an opportunity to shine, but it was the first step in what was hopefully going to be a long career for both of us." Although the Austrian rookie had failed to qualify for the first race, "He was getting there in terms of pace," Brabham told me.

"I remember at Imola he had some issues with the brakes and the team asked me to drive his car the day before his accident, just to get it back-to-back to see whether the brakes were OK or not...I drove his car and found that the brakes were bad, so they changed them, and then his pace actually picked up, right to the point where we were only a 10th or two apart, leading up to his accident." Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying when his previously damaged front wing broke and launched the car head-on into a concrete barrier. Fernando Alonso had a similar accident at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2013, although thankfully a gravel trap stopped his car before he could hit anything. "It's really difficult to know what to do next or what to think next, so that evening, we were all in a state of shock," said Brabham. "The question needed to be raised, 'Are we going to continue racing on Sunday or not?' And it was basically down to my decision. "I wasn't really sure what to do, but what I did suggest was that I do the warm-up, see how that goes and then I'd make the decision.

"I got in the car and, up to that point, did our best...we were middle of the order instead of down the back, where we normally were. So the warm-up had actually gone better than I'd ever done, relative to other people. "Whether the team put me on empty tanks to make us feel fast, I have no idea. It was all a bit of a blur back then. Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images "What I did notice when I came into the pits was this heavy, thick, black cloud that was around the team had slightly lifted. It gave people something else to focus on and put a little bit of energy back into the team and I just made my decision then that I had to race for the team. I had to try to pick things up again quickly, and the only way for me to do that was to make the decision to race." Brabham would retire less than halfway through the race, but not before, tragically, Senna was killed in another high-speed crash. From that point on, Ratzenberger's death became something of a footnote to Senna's.

"It's just the nature of the beast, really, that more people will gravitate towards Senna than they will towards Roland, except the people who were very close to Roland," Brabham said. "They'll see it differently, but in terms of people who are in love with F1, Senna touched everybody's heart and soul, so it's inevitable that people will be thinking more about the loss of Ayrton than they will Roland. "Whether that's fair or not, it's not for me to judge. It's just the way it is." However, following the two deaths, renewed calls for increased safety measures ultimately had a very positive impact on F1. No driver has been killed at a race weekend since 1994. "It's one of the gifts that those two drivers gave the sport," Brabham told me. "Their passing made it much safer for racing drivers around the world." * * * I asked Brabham if there was one thing in particular he remembered about his Austrian teammate. "His smile," he responded. "When I say that, I mean he was thoroughly enjoying life at the time. He was a good-looking guy; the women loved him.

He was strong, he was confident, he was fit. He was what you'd call an ideal model of a racing driver." Follow Matthew Walthert on Twitter:

Question: In 1994 who was the last Formula One driver to be killed in a racing accident on the track?
Answer: AYRTON SENNA