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Ayrton Senna
Introduction | Crucial elements | Alternative theories | Silver linings? | Find out more
Alternative theories
Given Ayrton Senna's status within Formula 1, and given that there had been two deaths at Imola on that weekend in May 1994, it is hardly surprising that it took no time at all for the journalists, motor-racing experts, fans and conspiracy theorists to come up with possible reasons for Senna's accident.
Some of these theories were outlandish and were dismissed almost immediately. One, which focused on the steering column, was central to the manslaughter case brought against the Williams team.
Sabotage
Conflicting reports were made about the state of the two black-box data recorders carried in Senna's car. One claimed that, apart from a few scratches, the boxes were intact. Another stated that one recorder, belonging to the Williams team, had been severely damaged and contained no data.
Debris
A second theory was that the crash had been caused by debris left on the track from an earlier incident at the start of the race. A small piece of debris could be seen in a photograph, but racing experts concluded that it was unlikely that Senna would even have noticed it, and he would certainly not have swerved to avoid it.
Loss of consciousness
Perhaps the most outlandish theories concerned Senna himself. An erroneous report in the British press suggested that Senna had passed out at the wheel. Perhaps, journalists speculated, he had taken drugs or was ill. One reporter even suggested that he had been holding his breath to heighten concentration and had passed out that way. In any case, the loss of consciousness theory was discarded once it was established that Senna had been braking and steering right up to the moment of impact.
The steering column
When investigators took apart Senna's car, they found that the steering column had snapped at a point where it had been altered by the Williams team engineers. Senna had requested that the steering column be made longer, so a section of 18-millimetre tube had been grafted into the column and welded at both ends.
However, the car's black-box data recorder measured, among other things, the twisting force that was applied to the steering column. This data showed that, right up to the time of impact, force was being applied to the steering wheel. This meant that the column must have snapped on or after impact, rather than before.
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Introduction | Crucial elements | Alternative theories | Silver linings? | Find out more
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