Hard to believe that we're so close to 20 years since that dark weekend. Those who had the misfortune to watch that weekend unfold don't need me to try explain how F1 fans around the globe felt, we were united in grief. Rest in peace Roland and Ayrton. I pray we never see another weekend like it.
There's no way I could watch Senna again after seeing it the first time. Glad I wasn't around then. But I did watch the 2011 Malaysian MotoGP and it made me shut myself in my room for ages and cry. It was the first and only death I've ever seen in motorsport live, in fact only death I've ever seen full stop. I can't even begin to imagine those sorts of emotions going through millions of people twice in one weekend. RIP Roland and Ayrton.
I watched the MotoGP too, it's just sickening to watch, truly horrible. I'm glad safety in F1 has always been very good whilst I've been watching.
It was a wierd time and just a bizzaire weekend as its almost unprecedented to have so many incidents in a single race weekend. It was like someone decided that F1 had become too complacent so it got hit hard in one go. I remember there being a school assembly on the monday after the race and it was brought up. Quite poignant.
I thought the closest we got, were Massa in Hungary and Webber in Valencia 2010 and Schumacher in Abudhabi 2010. F1 has come a long way in terms of safety. To be able to survive impacts of nearly half the speed of passenger airliners. Amazing, not to forget Kubica in Canada also.
Safety has moved along light years since '94... Massa was incredibly lucky though. He was an inch from death. Unfortunately it's only a matter of time before tragedy hits again. We just have to hope it's many many years away yet.
I'm pretty confident no F1 driver will ever die in the cockpit again. With the advances is safety and the car behaviour becoming more predictable, it has thankfully made death unlikely. R.I.P. Ayrton and Roland.
I thought that by '94 too... These cars still have open cockpits , and you only have to look at what happened to Henry Surtees to realize that these guys are still vulnerable to a freak accident. I agree with you that it's way less likely now, but we've had a number of close calls and been thankfully dodging bullets for 19 years in F1.
Very true about Surtees. Saw that live and you knew it was bad straight away. Several drivers have been lucky not to have their heads taken off (Alonso at Spa), but these incidents are relatively rare and it is impossible to make the cars 100% safe. At the end of the day they are 200mph projectiles carrying 150kg of highly flammable fuel. In military terms, they are basically a missle.
