SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: The Modern Formula One Circuits

We are once again showing exclusive images from the upcoming Ralph Hummerich's 2004 F1 carset produced for EA's F1 Challenge '99-'02. The Imola lap shown here is run in Jenson Button's BAR Honda sponsored by Lucky Strike. It is an honor for SimHQ to have an exclusive Beta version of Ralph's carset to be able to use for its screenshots. Many thanks Ralph! If you wish to try his 2003 add on please use this link to his page.

The Track’s Tragic History

While Imola has only been a part of the Formula One calendar since 1980 (a non championship F1 race was held there in 1979, but paid no points), perhaps no other circuit on the current Formula One calendar carries the weight of so much tragedy as Imola. It was there in 1982, amidst an embarrassing race boycott by the British-based FOCA F1 teams, that the bitter feud between Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi began. This almost Shakespearean feud ended tragically two weeks later with Gilles’ death at Zolder –– a death certainly precipitated by Gilles’ lingering and entirely justified anger at Pironi for disobeying Ferrari team orders and deceitfully snatching away a race win from Gilles.

But there was a single race weekend in late April and early May of 1994 that sadly has become synonymous with Imola. First, a young, soon-to-be-famous Brazilian driver named Rubens Barrichello (regarded by Ayrton Senna as his protégé) suffered a horrific crash at the Variante Bassa (“variante” is Italian for “chicane”) that left him unconscious for several minutes. Then another young driver, a popular Austrian F1 rookie named Roland Ratzenberger, slammed his Simtek into a wall and was killed.

Finally, on May 1st, only a few laps after the San Marino Grand Prix was restarted because of a red flag brought out when J.J. Lehto stalled his Benetton on the grid, the great Ayrton Senna lost control of his Renault-powered Williams FW16 entering the ultra fast left-hand kink at Tamburello and drove head-on into a concrete wall. Telemetry later showed that Senna was able to get on the brakes sufficient to slow his car from over 190 MPH entering Tamburello to around 140 MPH just before it collided with the wall, but the force of the impact was still unimaginable. Part of the car’s front suspension pierced Senna’s helmet and he died a short time later.

Senna’s death was not only emotionally devastating to millions around the world, but it was also fraught with intrigue –– as well the usual hand wringing from dilettantes over the safety and saneness of motorsports in general. Senna’s death also produced a troubling a host of conspiracy theories over the cause of the crash, many of which persist. But perhaps the most melancholy overtone stemming from Imola in 1994 was Senna’s serious emotional reticence to even race that weekend. Only the night before the race, Senna, badly shaken by the injuries to Barichello and the death of Ratzenberger, promised to his girlfriend that he would not race. Even the much esteemed and respected race doctor Syd Watkins suggested Senna retire before the race. And before the season had had begun, Senna, after noting the safety deficiencies of the track at Imola to race officials, chillingly predicted that 1994 would be the year that a high-profile F1 driver would lose his life and finally prompt the necessary safety changes to all of the Formula One race circuits.

And the intrigue has hardly abated. Just this year, previously secret telemetry from the Williams F1 Team prompted Italian authorities to reopen the inquiry into the cause of Senna’s death –– marking the third time that the matter has been argued in the Italian court system since Senna’s death less than 10 years ago (under Italian law, formal court proceedings are mandatory for any unexplained death). Senna’s death, along with the similarly untimely death of the great Jim Clark at Hockenheim in 1968, were among the most deeply felt moments in the long history of the sport (ironically, Clark also didn’t wish to run the race in which he was killed, a meaningless Formula Two race at Hockeheim –– a track Clark despised).

Immediate safety changes were made as a result of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, including a pit lane speed limit brought about as a result of another incident occurring at that same 1994 race when Michele Alberetto’s Minardi lost a wheel exiting the pits. At that time, without a pit lane speed limit, F1 cars could reach speeds of up to 130 MPH on pit exit. Thus, the wheel came off Alberetto’s Minardi with great force and ploughed through both the Lotus and Ferrari pit boxes, injuring several crew members. This incident also led to the rule requiring that team crew members remain in the team garage until the lap that team’s car enters the pits.

But the most obvious change made as a result of Imola was the adding of chicanes to nearly every Formula One track in an attempt to slow the cars down. At Imola, the famous Tamburello corner was made into a much slower three-turn chicane. The well-known Formula One writer Nigel Roebuck has noted the irony that as a direct result of Senna’s death, more chicanes –– which Senna despised –– have been added to Formula One tracks. Many of these chicanes even bear his name. Perhaps it is even more tragically ironic that had the current Tamburello complex existed in 1994, Senna’s crash might well have been survivable.

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