Going critical || Ayrton Senna

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Ayrton Senna

Introduction | Crucial elements | Alternative theories | Silver linings? | Find out more

Silver linings?

Racing circuits around the world were redesigned following Ayrton Senna's fatal accident in May 1994. Changes started at Imola, where the sweeping bend of Tamburello was altered so that it is now a left-right chicane. The difficult twist forces drivers to slow down as they take the corner, instead of hurtling around it at breakneck speed.

In addition, the FIA, Formula 1's governing body, implemented emergency rules to slow cars down. It introduced mandatory pit speed limits, limited the wing sizes of cars and increased the openings of cockpits, allowing drivers to escape from their vehicles more quickly. It also insisted that the bottoms of cars be 'stepped' in order to reduce downforce.

Yet the rules of Formula 1 remain controversial. It was at the beginning of the 1994 season that the FIA insisted that electronic driver aids be removed from cars, since these expensive gadgets gave the biggest teams the likes of Williams an unfair advantage. The removal of driver aids may have made Formula 1 more exciting, but it also made it more dangerous, as Ayrton Senna himself remarked soon before his tragic death.

'It was a great error to remove the electronics in the cars,' he said. 'The cars are very fast and difficult to drive. It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen.' Electronic driver aids have not been re-introduced to the cars.

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Introduction | Crucial elements | Alternative theories | Silver linings? | Find out more

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