MARK GALLAGHER @_markgallagher PICTURES
A POIGNANT ANNIVERSARY IS ON THE WAY
Martin Brundle doesn’t often take to social media since, with over a million followers across the main platforms, he understands both its importance and pitfalls. Particularly as the sport’s pre-eminent English-language commentator.
When he does post something, it’s usually an insightful comment or column worth reading. So it was when a 2 November photograph of him kneeling by Ayrton Senna’s graveside appeared on my phone.
“I visited Ayrton’s grave to pay my respects,” he wrote, adding, “It’s Dia dos Mortos in Brazil and the Cemitério do Morumbi Park was serene and beautiful. He must surely be resting in peace here.”
In the first months of our New Year many more will join Martin in reflecting on the 30 years that have passed since the twin tragedies which robbed us of Ayrton and Roland Ratzenberger during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend.
Considering that 35 drivers were killed while driving Formula 1 cars in world championship events, non-championship races and tests between 1950 and that fateful weekend in Italy, the sport’s safety record since then is nothing short of remarkable. Jules Bianchi’s death following injuries sustained in the 2014 Japanese GP came as a complete shock to a generation of F1 personnel, media and fans who imagined that such things had been consigned to the history books.
This should not have been the case, of course.
Not only do the risks inherent in racing cars at 200mph remain, Maria de Villota’s premature death in 2013, a year after her testing accident in a Marussia at Duxford Aerodrome, had ultimately been attributed to the neurological injuries she had sustained. The safety revolution championed by Max Mosley, supported by Bernie Ecclestone and executed by figures including Professor Sid Watkins, Charlie Whiting and Peter Wright can never be taken for granted.
While complaints about the size and weight of contemporary cars are all too common, no one
