tnord

my good friend who got me into this whole sharade of motorsports sent me a video of a tribute to Ayrton Senna.......for those of you who know who he is (probably me, mark, and bbp), i advise you search for it on Kazaa or whatever you have. it's just titled Ayrton Senna tribute and is only like 1.5 minutes long, but i have to admit, is actually quite moving.

DSC

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adey

It's funny you bring him up... way back when I was in middle school, I wrote a short story (uh... really short) about my grandmother being a race-car driver, and competing against Ayrton Senna. I never knew (and still don't know) just how good he was, but have memories of his name being announced over and over at races and what not (all on TV, of course).

I'll look it up!

HippoSleek

Thanks for the new search ideas.

Moment of irony (the alanis kind): last week in a "post your baby pic thread" I was deciding whether I should post a pic of Senna or Prost. I chose Prost. Senna would have been more coincidental, in retrospect.

Mark - who thinks Ayrton or Alain would make great first names for my offspring.

Bbandit

i've watched f-1 since i was in elementary school... right after ayrton senna's awful incident... i stopped watching f-1 until recently..
back then.. michael schumacher is just one of those newbies who gets dnf a lot

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ralphyboy

Senna used to really upset me because I worshipped Prost. When I found out he got killed in practice I was devasted. I dont think F-1 has been the same since. In retrospect I loved watching those races because you had 2 drivers both capable of winning but different driving styles and you had a rivalry. They both drove for Willams too. How cool would that be to have that again. NASCAR is the only form of racing that has it right now. Whats up with the carbs on those things? Sorry for the long post just had to get that out.

Jsquared

I watched F1 races before i was in kindergarten. Ayrton was my hero. F1 has not been the same since, and it never will be the same...


(it's still good though, but someone should kick bernie in the nuts)

onebadm5

Senna died on the 7th lap of the San Marino GP at Tamburello (remember the big pile up on the 1st lap?) His car bottomed out and he went straight into the wall at 190 mph...

ralphyboy

I don't remember that at all, thats weird that I filed it away as a practice session? O-well I am wrong all the time if you ask my G\F

http://www.ayrton-senna.com/s-files/start.html here is an interesting site to lokk at if you are interested..

THX1138

Yes, Senna died in the race itself, but it was a really bad weekend for F1 even before his crash. Rubens Barrichello crashed during Friday practice and swallowed his tongue; if he hadn't gone off near the pit entrance, so close to the medical team, he very well could have died. During Saturday qualifying Roland Ratzenberger ran over a curb and damaged the front wing on his Simtek, but didn't know it until the wing collapsed as he was braking for the Villeneuve corner. He did not survive the wreck.

There has never been anything conclusively proved to be the cause of Senna's wreck. Theories include broken steering column (tests inconclusive on whether it broke before or during the impact), tire cut on debris from startline pile-up, and bottoming caused by low tire pressures from running several laps under yellow. When he left the track, he was doing about 190, hit the wall around 160ish. When the right front corner hit the wall the suspension broke off, some of it still attached to the wheel. I don't know if the wheel/tire itself hit Senna, but the fatal injury was caused when a tie rod went through his helmet visor and punctured his skull just above his right eyebrow.

That was a crappy birthday.

onebadm5

actually, there was a very informative documentary about Senna's death on the learning channel a few weeks ago. They mentioned the steering wheel theory (williams actually designed the steering column to have up to 18 cm of adjustment since senna complained of its position), but another one they presented seems the most plausible and the most interesting.

The SMGP started off with a huge crash that involved most of the field around lap 3? or so. anyway, the safety car came out and paced the cars for 3 laps. During this time, senna's tires, which are normally designed for peak grip during hot laps, has lost a lot of temp due to the fact that they were running so slow. This caused the tire pressures to drop pretty low. Since the tires had less air, the car was a fraction of an inch lower than it should have been. When they restarted, the cars got back up to race speed, and as senna reached tamburello, his car was running dangerously low, which severely affected the effectiveness of the undertray and limiting the amount of downforce supplied to the car. (There is also room for speculation from amateur video taken that day that the car was so low that it actually bottomed out entering the turn.) Without the much needed downforce, senna's car couldnt make the easy turn, and he plowed into the wall at 190mph.

From The Senna Files

The findings of the autopsy on Senna's death were read out in court. The report confirmed Senna's injuries were compatible with a massive blow above the right eyebrow. Pathologist Carrado Cipolla, said that Senna died not from the impact itself, but from a "blow to the head from a blunt object," indicating a photograph apparently showing a section of the front suspension.



The following picture shows Ayrton Senna's visor was pierced by something, certain experts believing he was killed almost immediately. The round aperture shown in the top of Senna's helmet is a vent hole, the plug assumedly knocked out during the crash.



The blow was said to have crushed the front part of Senna's brain killing him instantly, although his heart and lungs continued to work assisted by a life-support machine, which was eventually turned off. The official time of Senna's death was therefore given as 14.17, although 'cardiac death' came at 18.40.

It was reported that most likely part of the suspension, with the wheel still attached, speared through Senna's visor entering his skull. The picture below shows the helmet was certainly subject to forcible impact, but did this occur at the same time as the damage to the visor?