F1’s Senna was a game-changer

It’s difficult to accept that yesterday marked 30 years since the death of Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna. His death, aged just 34, at Imola on 1 May, 1994, was expected to be the beginning of the end of Formula One but, instead, it pushed the sport to drastically improve safety for their drivers.

Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola on consecutive days in 1994, no driver died during world championship events for more than 20 years, until Jules Bianchi’s death in 2015, from injuries sustained during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

British F1 driver and former Williams team-mate Damon Hill said of Senna: “Every era has someone who changes the sport and I think he was one of those people. He changed the sport. He was far more aggressive and far more committed, to the point of almost craziness. But he had such self-belief and that inspired people.”

 In his prime, many regarded Senna as the best F1 driver. He won the F1 world championship three times and set numerous records. Had that fateful day at Imola not happened, who knows what he could have achieved?

Senna will forever live on in our memories.

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