At 14:18 on May 1, 1994, at the Tamburello curve of the F1 San Marino circuit, the FW16, which was speeding at 300 kilometers per hour, suddenly broke off the established track and crashed into the concrete parapet in an instant, the yellow-green helmet hanging aimlessly aside, and the blood spread rapidly in the narrow single-seat cabin...
Elton Senna was born on March 21, 1960 in São Paulo, Brazil. Senna started driving a karting at the age of 4, racing at the age of 13, and began his F1 career with Formula One Durman in 1984, winning the F1 world championship three times in 1988, 1990 and 1991.
In the 1990s, a series of tragic events took place at the Imola circuit in San Marino. First Jordan's Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello was injured in a crash in Friday's practice session; Then there was Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberg who was killed in an accident during Saturday's practice session; On the same day, the cars of the other two drivers collided, and the body fragments flew into the audience, injuring 8 spectators; In an official match on Sunday, three-time world champion Aden Senna was killed in a crash. The race was won by Michael Schumacher.
10 years later, Philip Brunel, a reporter for the black May One newspaper, remembers every scene that took place in Imola: the surprisingly hot weather, the ominous foreshadowing, the last battle of the Senna. Instinct was always urging him to give up.
"The track is slippery and doesn't have enough heat dissipation", "This car is difficult to drive and extremely unstable", he mentioned his concerns more than once before the race to his family, the team and the media. However, quitting is unimaginable for too many people. TV channels, sponsors, Ecclestone... The inextricable commercial interests seem to have blocked the way back, and withdrawing from the game means confessing one's fears and fading Senna's legend.
As soon as he was killed by a novice Lanzenberg during a test drive, he rushed to the corner of the accident and talked to the witnesses at the time, grief and dazedness clearly written on the plain and serene face.
A day later, with his eyebrows furrowed and his face pale, he was still sitting in FW16, constantly swinging the yellow-green helmet, and the movement of his right index finger toward the sky seemed to summon the God who would always show him direction in a pinch.
Senna was taken to the hospital helicopter, where blood poured from his nose, mouth, and ears. Head trauma, bursting arteries, blood transfusions, tracheostomies, and heart massages are just a drop in the bucket. In the process, Senna's eyes were never extinguished, dark and bright, but the car god Senna had left everyone.
With so many tragedies at the Imola circuit of the San Marino race, especially the death of the car god Senna, this track should be closed and the corresponding rules of F1 races should be changed. But nothing has changed. It is also suspicious that Senna's death was postponed to the time of his journey to the hospital, deliberately covering up the truth of the instant death.
Some people say that God is playing a game of death, and the death of the nameless Lanzenberg does not impress the hearts of some people who are blinded by profit, so he chooses to sacrifice the unique Senna in order to awaken some people's little conscience.
Senna is a legend, the legend should have been extended, but at the age of 34, the legend suddenly stopped, too cruel.
Senna said: "Racing has always been a mixture of supreme happiness and extreme pain. "As the fastest, most exciting and most dangerous race in the world, when everyone is waving the flag and the sponsors are burning money, who knows the drivers sitting in an F1 car. No matter what the weather, what the car is like, what the track is, they have to drill in and face the test of death.
Senna is the king on the track, driving a car that approaches his opponents in the corners countless times, sometimes just a few centimeters away, and his car is like a saber-toothed tiger with fangs, fierce and manic. But after the game, he was often so weak; Moments ago it was the determination to fight to the end, but after stepping out of the cabin, it looked so fragile. The remarkable champion has been seen many times struggling to lift his trophy on the podium, pale and silently drooling with tears.
Before the race, the car handed to Senna had not been fully tamed, and Senna had no choice but to sit inside and drive. Such a car, which can have problems at any time in the case of normal driving and no mistakes, is driven onto the track like this, which is simply crazy.
Teammate Damon Hill said after test driving the car: "I can't believe that Senna can drive this car so fast, my car is as structured as his car, and I think this guy can't drive it!" ”
In 1996, Michael Schumacher switched to Ferrari Team for a hefty annual salary of $25 million (later rose to $31 million), becoming the world's highest-paid athlete after basketball star Michael Jordan. If Senna hadn't died, his annual salary would have been high. But F1 is not just about racing, experience, money, but also about the youth of the drivers who will never come back.
Soon, Michael Schumacher was also overtaken. Damon Hill won the Japan leg, beating Michael Schumacher to win the individual championship, and he and his father Graham Hill became the first pair in F1 history to each have won the drivers' championship. The Williams team won, and no one can become a winning general, and so does Schumacher.
Michael Schumacher has excelled in F1 and is widely regarded as the most outstanding F1 driver today. His dominance in F1 even surpasses that of basketball "flyer" Michael Jordan in the NBA.
However, Schumacher has not been in the world since he was a child like some F1 drivers, and he only began his racing career in 1987 at the age of 18. Before, he was a car repairman who was already happy with a salary of less than $1,000 a month. I never dreamed that after 15 years, he was already a 5-time world champion with an annual salary of 50 million US dollars.
Schumacher broke a series of bizarre records, winning 7 championships and announcing his retirement in 2006.
Many drivers, including Schumacher, are actually the beneficiaries of Senna. Senna's remarkable achievements, superb driving skills, forced other drivers to constantly catch up with him, creating personal limits. Senna is an angel who swears with her life the preciousness of life.
