The three brutal accidents and the foreboding call that could have prevented the death of Ayrton Senna, a milestone in the history of Formula 1

In an environment as competitive and tough as Formula 1, it is difficult for drivers to end up being friends. But there was a relationship between two elite runners that marked an era and that was the one between Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, who on April 23, 1989 was reborn after a horrifying accident at the Tamburello curve at the Imola circuit, the same one where five years later the Brazilian lost his life. After the Austrian clash, the bond between the two began to grow thanks to their concern to improve safety.

Beyond her fighting spirit on the track, where she always left 110 percent, Senna always had camaraderie and took care of her colleagues, particularly when it came to the conditions of the circuits. At about the same age, Senna (21/03/1960) and Berger (27/08/1959) met in Formula 3 races and made their debut in the Máxima in 1984. 33 years ago Gerhard rubbed shoulders with death aboard his Ferrari 640, the first F1 car to use a semi-automatic seven-speed gearbox, which was designed by John Barnard and then developed by Argentine Enrique Scalabroni.

In the fourth lap of the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix held at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari Autodrome in Italy, Berger suffered a front wing failure, which folded under the front wheel and turned it into a “ski” that took Berger straight against the wall. The red machine almost disintegrated and the flames gave it a frame of drama.

Motorsport revealed that Barnard and his design team did not take into account the driving style of Berger, who went deep for pianitos (N. of the R: elevations in the curves that tell drivers the limits of the track), and their calculations were more focused on the forces that were transferred in the downward direction, rather than the forced upward trajectory when hitting each piano. The clash of the Austrian caused an impact by the fire that was seen by millions live and live and changed history in the construction of fuel tanks.

Gerhard suffered burns on his hands and due to his recovery he was absent in the next race held in Monaco. In that pause he received Senna's call. “After my accident, Ayrton called me to ask about my condition and I told him that someone would kill himself there, because the wall is too close to the track,” he confessed in an interview with SportWeek. “You're right,” Senna told him.

A month later they got together on the Italian circuit to look for alternatives to improve safety in that corner, where, during the 1987 tests, there was already a serious warning with a brutal crash by Nelson Piquet, who managed to cushion the shock because his Williams spun before impact. But when they arrived they noticed a detail close to Tamburello: “We looked out and realized that there was the river. Senna died five years later at exactly that point,” he recalled.

But what happened in Tamburello marked Berger. It was a before and after in his career and in his life. “I returned even without being recovered, in Mexico I quit after 16 laps and with pain in my hands, I always tried to do my best, but over time I realized that after the accident in Imola, I was never able to return to the same level of driving that I had before the accident in San Marino,” he acknowledged.

Third warning and a friendship.

The Tamburello curve, in its previous format, had the complexity of being the fastest sector, where F1 cars exceeded 300 km/h, and it had the concrete wall very close, barely separated from the track by a few metres of grass in the Piquet and Berger incidents.

In 1991 there was a new accident in the same place and it was with Michele Alboreto, who collided squarely with his Footwork. The Italian, who came down with a limp, ended with some blows and the big scare as happened to Piquet. There were already three precedents that the International Automobile Federation (FIA) had to modify that curve, but it did not take any action.

At that time Senna and Berger were already teammates at McLaren and strengthened their friendship. “My chemistry with him was fabulous: same organization, same spirit and equal interests. The only problem is that in the car he was a monster. I can simply say that it made me better,” he said about the three years in which he was teammate with the Brazilian.

“At the level of results, he was the teacher and the rest, his shadows. Including Alain Prost. My friendship with the Brazilian was born when we were already challenging ourselves in F.3. He was fast and, above all, complete: focused, intelligent, physically tough and with great mental strength,” he says.

“We share vacations, confidences... He took great care of his image. If you had to see women the day before a race, I would do it through the front door of the hotel, but he did it through the back,” Berger confessed.

“One summer we tried to deceive Ron Dennis (the team leader), sportingly speaking. He asked me how much money should I ask him annually and I replied that, being the best, seven million would be fine. He asked for fifteen, although they eventually left him in one per race. That was Ayrton,” he said.

But beyond the synergy between the two, there was a key point: Berger always knew what his limitations were and never sought to compete with Senna, who in his F1 decade won three titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991, ran 161 races, scored 65 pole positions, 41 victories, 80 podiums and 19 lap records. The Austrian played 210 competitions, won 10 wins, 12 poles, 48 podiums and 21 fastest laps.

On a visit by Senna to Argentina, he suffered a joke from Berger in an anecdote that was remembered by journalist Felipe McGough in an interview with Infobae. “It turns out that when Ayrton came in 1992 he gave me his passport and the immigration person who attended me told me 'the front page is missing. ' I walk back and Senna looked at me sideways. And he said 'yes I know, it was the son of... de Berger, who ripped it off before I got on the plane in Australia. It was a joke. But I didn't get into trouble because they're going to let me in in Brazil.” I went back to migrations and talked to the same person and begged 'please let it go. It's Ayrton Senna! ' He replied 'yes, I know it's Senna... All right, let it happen, but get out of here. ' And there I take the plane to Sao Paulo. We got out and we were able to interview him.”

But Tamburello wasn't the only tragic place in Imola. The next bend, Saturday 30 April 1994, claimed the life of Roland Ratzenberger. This variant was named “Villeneuve Curve” in 1980, because of a crash the remembered Gilles suffered with his Ferrari. Although the Canadian had a spin before the blow caused by the break of the right rear rubber and caused him to slow down before impact. However, the images are strong and only a miracle allowed Villeneuve (father of Jacques, 1997 world champion) to emerge unharmed. A while earlier, the Italian Vittorio Brambilla, had also crashed into the same place with his Alfa Romeo. But for 14 years that sector remained the same and nothing was done to slow down in that area.

On Sunday, May 1, 1994, Senna broke her Williams' steering column and crashed into the Tamburello wall at more than 300 km/h. Later Berger went to see him at the Maggiore Carlo Alberto Pizzardi hospital in Bologna, where the Brazilian was clinically dead. There he discovered that Ayrton carried an Austrian flag in his pocket to wave it if he won to pay tribute to Ratzenberger. Josef Leberer, historical physiotherapist in Ayrton, recalled: “The death of my compatriot entered (Senna) his soul. He was a timid philosopher full of passion,” he also said in dialogue with Sportweek.

Gerhard never forgot what he experienced that afternoon: “In the hospital I was able to get to the front of the emergency room, I asked if I could see him while from a distance I could see that the doctors were focusing on his head, with great surprise I could see his legs, particularly his feet. I was there for a couple of minutes and when I saw the color of his feet, I was sure for the first time that Ayrton would not make it out of it alive. A doctor came up to me and told me that he had already died, that was the last moment I saw him, I left the hospital and while returning to my hotel the official announcement of Ayrton's death was given.”

Tragedies that changed history.

But the river next to Tamburello was not an impediment. There was a variant to reduce speed and it was used in 1995 by removing the curve and replacing it with a chicane towards the inner side. While before reaching the Villeneuve variant, the circuit was also modified and a curve was made to reduce speed. These changes persist in the current circuit.

Apart from Imola, other layouts were modified, as they had to be transformed to adapt to a safer motorsport in the face of the advance of speed in the cars, which in turn also had improvements. This is why historic racetracks such as Monza, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps are worth so much, which, although they underwent changes, did not change their essence or lose their charm and today are part of the Máxima calendar.

Two deaths in 24 hours was a dagger for F1, all motorsport and sport in general. But it also had an impact on a social level because it influenced road safety, as stated by Max Mosley, who was president of the FIA between 1991 and 2009, in an interview reproduced by Reuters: “Two or three accidents would have ended badly if it weren't for the work done after Senna. If you say, 'what did F1 give society? F1, and unfortunately Ayrton and Ratzenberger too, gave a change to road safety that affected the lives of thousands. That's not a maybe, it's for sure.”

The frustrated driver, founder of the March team and English leader who died in 2021, admitted that “Imola's weekend was a turning point for changes. Senna was the number one driver, everyone appreciated him. If it had not been Ayrton, we would certainly have continued the same way and there would have been some death in a while longer. Security advances would have occurred, but it probably would have taken another 15 or 20 years. Meanwhile, thousands of people who could have died today are alive. And that's what really matters.”

Advances in safety in 1994 in F1:

-All the mechanics involved in the detention in the pits must have worn fireproof clothing.

-The FIA appointed a team of experts to develop new technologies to make F1 safer and used computer analysis to identify the 27 most dangerous curves on the calendar.

-Tests were done on tire dummies to contain shocks. These became stranded.

-Changes were made to the circuit designs and several of them were slower.

-The speed on the pit lane was reduced to 80 km/h. The production of helmets was standardized.

-The development of the side protections to the cockpit (the place where the pilots go) began to be developed, as they were installed in 1996.

The San Marino Grand Prix was an excuse for Italy to have two races (Monza joined). Since 2020 it began to be called the Emilia Romagna GP and there this weekend F1 disputes its fourth date. It runs again in Imola, which always generates something special with an atmosphere of nostalgia and unforgettable memories. The corrections at that racetrack were unfortunately late for Senna and Ratzenberger, but their deaths were not in vain and today it is a safe circuit for Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and company.

VILLENEUVE AND BERGER ACCIDENTS

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