What about Roland?
Discussion
Jordan are carrying Ayrton Senna's face on their engine covers (put on by their Bahrain GP sponsors) and Minardi are carrying the Brazillian flag on the side of theirs. F1-ITV are running a Senna special before the race tommorow.
But what about Roland Ratzenberger, apart from a couple of mentions he's hardly talked about.
But what about Roland Ratzenberger, apart from a couple of mentions he's hardly talked about.
Andy Mac, you obviously haven't seen that many crashes then - what about Rindt's at Monza, Villeneueve's at Zolder, Moore's at Fontana, Williamson's at Zandvoort, Von Trips' at Monza or Levegh's at Le Mans- all extremely violent accidents, some resulting in much worse consequences than Ratzenberger's.
Very few fatal accidents are NOT violent. I actually thought that Ratzenberger's looked fairly innocuous. He was killed because his head struck the wall or the side of his car - many drivers had escaped worse impacts in previous years.
Very few fatal accidents are NOT violent. I actually thought that Ratzenberger's looked fairly innocuous. He was killed because his head struck the wall or the side of his car - many drivers had escaped worse impacts in previous years.
Eric Mc said:
Andy Mac, you obviously haven't seen that many crashes then - what about Rindt's at Monza, Villeneueve's at Zolder, Moore's at Fontana, Williamson's at Zandvoort, Von Trips' at Monza or Levegh's at Le Mans- all extremely violent accidents, some resulting in much worse consequences than Ratzenberger's.
Very few fatal accidents are NOT violent. I actually thought that Ratzenberger's looked fairly innocuous. He was killed because his head struck the wall or the side of his car - many drivers had escaped worse impacts in previous years.
I stick to my opinion, and say that ratzenburgers wa s ONE ( I'll make those big letters so you understand what I am saying) of the most violent crashes. Don't know who Moore is, and not seen much le mans... Obviously i shall bow down to your obvius pedantic streak
As for Ratzenburger not being Senna, it was only meant as he never had the stature that Senna had, no matter what his talent was. Ratzenburger was a reletive newcomer to F1, and Senna had been an Icon fr years.
>> Edited by Andy mac on Monday 26th April 14:42
I do not want to belittle the awfulness of Ratzenberger's accident. It was indeed a high speed, violent accident - but so were so many others.
Greg Moore's happened at almost the same speed - with the car flipping through the air and Moore taking the impact with the infield wall full on the top of his helmet LeVegh's Mercedes car was launched at over 150 mph over the back of Macklin's Austin Healy. The car took off, hit a grass embankmaent, disintegrated and exploded, hurling its engine, drivetrain and back axle into the packed crowd - who were mown down like skittles. The footage of LeVegh's crash is probably the most shocking piece of motor racing film you'll ever see.
I feel that the shock element of both Ratzenberger's and Sennas's accidents was not down to the violence of the accidents themselves, but more to the fact that death in such accidents had become so rare, and we had almost forgotten about the inherent dangers of motor racing. And, they were on live TV. Most of the accidents I mentioned happened outside the glare of the modern media (with the exception of Roger Williamson's crash at Zandvoort and Greg Moore'sat Fontana - which were both shown live in many countries).
Greg Moore's happened at almost the same speed - with the car flipping through the air and Moore taking the impact with the infield wall full on the top of his helmet LeVegh's Mercedes car was launched at over 150 mph over the back of Macklin's Austin Healy. The car took off, hit a grass embankmaent, disintegrated and exploded, hurling its engine, drivetrain and back axle into the packed crowd - who were mown down like skittles. The footage of LeVegh's crash is probably the most shocking piece of motor racing film you'll ever see.
I feel that the shock element of both Ratzenberger's and Sennas's accidents was not down to the violence of the accidents themselves, but more to the fact that death in such accidents had become so rare, and we had almost forgotten about the inherent dangers of motor racing. And, they were on live TV. Most of the accidents I mentioned happened outside the glare of the modern media (with the exception of Roger Williamson's crash at Zandvoort and Greg Moore'sat Fontana - which were both shown live in many countries).
Eric Mc said:
I feel that the shock element of both Ratzenberger's and Sennas's accidents was not down to the violence of the accidents themselves, but more to the fact that death in such accidents had become so rare, and we had almost forgotten about the inherent dangers of motor racing. And, they were on live TV. Most of the accidents I mentioned happened outside the glare of the modern media (with the exception of Roger Williamson's crash at Zandvoort and Greg Moore'sat Fontana - which were both shown live in many countries).
Absolutely. When you think back to some of the huge accidents witnessed in F1 between 1986 (DeAngelis) and 1994 it's amazing that there weren't more fatalities to be honest. Think luck played a large part in that though - remember Martin Donnely's qualifying crash at Jerez in 1990? I think we were also exceedingly lucky not to lose Hakkinen in 1995.
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