Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Death of a Star

Alain Prost was providing his share of unpredictability as Ron Dennis tried to persuade him to drive for McLaren in 1994. Throughout the winter the press had speculated that since Senna was at Williams, Prost may come out of his 3 month-old retirement and drive a Formula One car again. Theoretically he was still tied to a Williams contract in '94, so any decision to go with McLaren would need Frank Williams' permission. Eventually, Prost test-drove the new Peugeot engined McLaren MP4/9 at Estoril declaring: "For me, there is no question of doing a couple of races. If I do something, I'll do it with 100% commitment. It will be zero races or 16 Grands Prix." After the test he confirmed he would not race F1 again. "With racing in particular, there is considerable risk of an accident. I've taken that chance throughout my career and, after four world titles without a serious accident, I don't want to tempt the devil forever."

McLaren decided to take Martin Brundle with them for the first Grand Prix at Interlagos. Along with Hakkinen, the pair were expected to struggle a little in the first few races as the McLaren and Peugeot developed their new relationship but Damon among others thought they would be strong in the second part of the season. Ferrari, with their new John Barnard designed car were also thought to be major contenders, but the only man considered fast enough to challenge the Williams - and beat Senna was the 25 year-old Michael Schumacher. Benetton would be powered by the new Ford Zetec-R- V8, had a new tobacco company sponsor (as did Williams), and had been testing their car continuously since December. Schumacher had driven a full season more than Damon and now appeared to have the car and posture to make a successful bid for the title. At Brazil, Damon, under the most trying circumstances, managed to collect six Championship points. He arrived in Sao Paulo suffering from a cold, on Friday a fire extinguisher went off in his car's cockpit and after that had been mopped-up, his engine cut-out with electrical problems. Not surprisingly, he was no faster than seventh at the end of Friday's session.

Saturday arrived and so did the rain, yet Damon improved sufficiently to claim fourth grid place behind Senna, Schumacher and Alesi. When the lights turned green, Hill made a better job of it than Schumacher and was alongside him as they approached the first corner. Having the advantage of the inside line, and as it turned out, a lighter fuel load, the German rounded Curva One ahead of Hill but behind Senna and Alesi. Schumacher swapped places with Alesi on the second lap and after that, he and Senna were away by themselves in front. Damon passed Alesi when the Ferrari became the first of the front runners to pit for fuel and tyres. When Senna and Schumacher stopped for fuel on lap 21, it was the Benetton team that were quicker, perhaps because their V8 engine demanded less fuel than the Williams. Anyhow, Senna saw his lead disappear as he sat in the pit lane. Hill's refuelling took place 19 laps later - by now, Damon was positive that his fuel strategy was the wrong one. The leaders came in on laps 44/45 for their second top-up, having just lapped Damon. They continued their, what appeared to be, private race for another ten laps, when Senna, amazingly, lost the rear end of his car on the climb out of the last corner, stalling it in front of his home crowd. A few minutes later, Damon had to rapidly correct his car as it started to swing it's rear at exactly the same point Senna's had.

The Williams was obviously suffering from some problems, especially in low speed corners. Finishing a lap down on Schumacher was a humbling experience for Hill, but he had finished and earned more points than his venerable team mate. "Naturally I'm disappointed for Ayrton but pleased to have got a second place and a good basis to start the Championship from. I never really found a set-up I was happy with so I took a bit of a gamble in the race and made one stop. I don't think I'll be doing that again. I was surprised to see how quickly Michael and Ayrton went away at the start. They opened up a gap very quickly and I knew then it was going to be a difficult race. It was a bit demoralising to be lapped by Michael but the most important thing was to collect some points." The picture most will remember from this race though, was that of Jos Vertappen, driving his first race for Benetton, somersaulting his car over Eddie Irvine and landing on the back of Martin Brundle's McLaren. Irvine, driving for Jordan was fined and banned for three raced for forcing the Dutchman onto the grass verge which caused him to swerve with such dramatic results.

Hill joined the Williams team at Jerez, near Seville in Spain for more testing on the FW16, in the hope that they could catch up with Benetton and also eliminate the understeer that handicapped the pair in Brazil. Another problem highlighted at Interlagos was the way the car handled bumps. With an active car, the computer would compensate to give a near constant ride height but passive would require either an aerodynamic or mechanical suspension solution. The racing moved to uncharted waters in April, when the Formula One circus moved to the Tanaka International circuit near Aida in Japan - a privately owned track, previously un-visited by Grand Prix cars. Damon was fastest during the first acclimatisation session on the Thursday, while on Friday, he turned in a time quick enough for third on the grid. The track was much slower on Saturday, but Hill was the fastest man on the circuit, although over one second slower than his Friday's time. Senna had gained his 64th pole position but when the race began, it was Schumacher leading the flock with Senna scrambling behind. Hakkinen, frolicking his way up the order, nudged the Brazilian's gearbox at the first corner, which was then scooped off the track by Larini's Ferrari leaving both stranded in the gravel trap. Damon, in third, followed Mika Hakkinen for a couple of laps, but was soon becoming frustrated at what he saw as winning possibility being frittered by the red and white car obstructing his progress. Trying to squeeze his Williams between the kerb and Hakkinen on a tightish left-hander, the Finn presented Hill with a fait accompli - either ruin the shape of his front wing on the McLaren or mount the kerb and spin. Damon chose the latter and lost six places instantly. During the next seven laps, he regained five of those lost positions by passing in places previously thought to be impossible.

When Barichello paid a pit visit for necessary requisites, Damon thrust his way to second, Hakkinen having stopped with a hydraulics problem. Hill's only hope was a Benetton breakdown, for Schumacher had an uncatchable lead. After running second for eighteen laps, it was car zero that gave up the ghost with transmission troubles. A bad day for the Williams team. This was to be the first Grand Prix since Italy 1988 that neither Williams or McLaren had scored a point. To cap it all, it was Frank Williams birthday - some present! Schumacher duly collected another ten points with Berger and Barrichello 2nd and 3rd. Hill lay third in the Championship stakes while Williams was a measly fourth in the Constructors league. Bookmakers were now making Schumacher favourite at 8-11, Senna at evens and Damon at 12-1. Williams' days, and for that the whole world of motor racing were to get darker still as the entourage moved to Europe and the San Marino GP at Imola. Formula One was making headlines with accusations that Ferrari had used a banned driver aid and that Benetton had traction control - not the scandal needed so early in a season. The Williams outfit were pulling out all the stops at their Didcot base to draw level with the Benetton's performance. Adrian Newey, their aerodynamicist admitted that the FW16 had understeer and grip problems through slow corners, but "in medium and high-speed ones it is pretty good".

On the way to Imola, the team stopped at the Nogaro track in S.W. France to test some of the changes made, but rain made driving impossible. So the first opportunity to try the car would be practice day on Friday. The pressures on Senna were already building. Not scoring a single point from the first two races was going to make a title bid difficult. Schumacher looked strong enough to surpass both Senna's and Hill's efforts. The fact remained that only two drivers had won the first two rounds of the Championship and not gone on to win it. Ayrton would have to produce something at Imola as the circuit theoretically suited the Williams more than the Benetton. The next race, at Monaco, on the other hand looked ideal for Schumacher. The racing at Imola, that weekend of 29 April - 1 May 1994 is already a distant triviality in the memories of those that looked on. Although the result stands as a victory again for Michael Schumacher, even he was not celebrating after what seemed like a weekend in hell. Damon, still finding his sea-legs in the revised car, spun twice on Friday and ended the day only seventh fastest. Rubens Barrichello was fortunate to escape with his life when his Jordan, travelling at 140mph, launched itself on the kerb at the Variante Bassa chicane, the car appearing to fly about four foot from the ground until it met with the catch fencing. The Brazillian was knocked unconscious, but later recovered in hospital with just a fractured nose and cuts to his mouth.

On Saturday, Hill improved his time to fourth quickest, before the session was stopped. Roland Ratzenberger in a Simtek car had ploughed into the concrete side wall at the Villeneuve kink, just before Tosa. He was taken to hospital where he later succumbed to the injuries sustained in the crash. This was the first driver fatality at a Grand Prix for twelve years and for practically all the drivers present, it would be their first reminder that they are not immortal when they step into their cars. Senna had already set the pace for qualifying though, and when he and Damon - along with some other teams, decided that out of respect they would not drive again that day, it was apparent that Senna would be on pole for Sunday's race. Ratzenberger's death affected all drivers - some more deeply, Senna being one of them. Every driver had to be clear in their own mind whether they would drive again, now that the risks had been exposed for all to see. All decided to go ahead, but there was already a feeling that things were not quite right. Damon observed: "There seemed to be cars going off everywhere. It did occur to me that there are more accidents than last year, but it would be impossible to put your finger on anything. I believe the cornering speeds are in excess of what the circuits are now capable of taking."

As Senna led Schumacher, Berger and Hill away from the grid, behind them, still on the grid was JJ Lehto's stalled Benetton. Unsighted by others attempting to avoid the stranded car, Pedro Lamy ran his Lotus into the back of Lehto's. Neither driver was injured but bodywork was strewn across the track and a severed tyre bounced high into the grandstand, injuring eight spectators and a policeman. Why the race officials did not stop the race remains a mystery, but instead despatched the 'safety car' which was to lead the bunched up pack around while the debris was cleared. Five laps later, it pulled off allowing Senna and Schumacher to pinch a lead over Berger and Hill. Next time round, Senna's car, witnessed by hundreds of millions of viewers world-wide, left the track at Tamburello, failing to negotiate the left-handed curve. The Williams collided at about 165mph with the concrete wall, having barely touched the gravel trap. The right hand side of Senna's car was battered and we now know that it was one of the front suspension members, having broken free on impact, swung up to hit the driver. The race was red-flagged while a medical team attended Senna who was helicoptered away.

Nobody's heart was in the restarted race. As the afternoon wore on, hope that the Brazillian had survived the crash faded. The Williams team was devastated and Damon's decision to drive without knowing if it was a mechanical fault that had caused the crash, must be described as brave at the least. On the first lap of the restarted race, Damon touched Schumacher's Benetton and broke his own front wing, requiring him to pit for a new nose. Re-joining last, Hill eventually brought his car home in sixth place, one lap down on the winner, Schumacher. It was nearly two hours after the subdued presentation ceremony that the announcement came from Bologna hospital that Senna was dead.

Tragedy and irony, hand-in-hand once again, accompanied Senna's death. That the driver recognised as the greatest ever, should have only that weekend been discussing the re-creation of the GP Driver's Association in an attempt to improve race safety. The world was in shock. Martin Brundle observed that "When you think about it, he was one of the most famous men in the world". For Damon, it must have rekindled some of the emotions he had spent the last twenty years trying to forget since his own father's death. Almost unable to speak after finishing the race, he admitted that "I raced on, as did the other's thanks to the 'safety sheen' in which racing drivers are able to focus on a race. It takes a weekend like this to scrape away that very thin veneer of apparent safety." Hill and Frank Williams attended the funeral in Sao Paulo where it seemed, the whole of Brazil had come to pay their respects to their country's greatest hero. While he was there, a number of people came up to Damon and said they would be watching him now. "I didn't take that to mean they were switching allegiance in any way, I think it was an emotional response and I feel a responsibility to the team, myself and Ayrton to make the best job of this year that I possibly can."

The thought in most drivers minds, Hill's included, was what would it be like next time they sit in an F1 car. Will the confidence be there, will they drive flat out or hold back. Gerhard Berger, a close friend of Senna's, articulated the decision thus: "Drivers are at risk of death every time they drive a racing car. The circuits and driving mistakes are not the main cause of accidents - 80% are from technical reasons. It doesn't matter if you're flat out or off the pace - the results can be the same." Put bluntly, once you have made the decision that you want to drive, it's in for a penny, in for a pound'. Any less commitment would be pointless and unfair to one's family. That did not mean that it was easy to drive again, as Damon explains. He and David Coulthard tested at Silverstone a week after Imola: "The Monday before Monaco was the first time I could drive a car again at my own pace and I admit on the first lap I was trying to imagine the consequences of an accident at any given point, because it's important for me to understand that. But it doesn't take long for the desire to drive and the enjoyment of driving on the limit to let you put that out of your mind and do what comes naturally - getting on with improving the car and trying to win races. What happened at Imola, happened. It would be impossible to forget and I hope it never happens again."

"There have been many times when I've thought is this worth it? I have unfortunately experienced in my period of growing up, my father's friends dying. Every time you ask yourself, is it worth the risk and then you get into a car again and you get such an amount of satisfaction from doing it that you think to yourself 'I want more of this'. There may be a time when I decide I've had enough but I still want more, I still feel there are things to do. I want to show more of what I am capable of doing. Ayrton Senna would not have been Ayrton Senna if it had not been for motor racing. We might never had known about Ayrton Senna. He gave his life to the sport - he'd have preferred not to, I'm sure, but he got a lot of enjoyment out of it and so do we. We can't just stop doing it." Following a public outcry over the safety of Formula One, Max Mosley, FIA President found it necessary to defend the sport's principals: "It's a fundamental point of personal liberty. If people want to participate in a dangerous sport, they should be free to do so. If you start prohibiting, you have to prohibit everything - rugby, hang-gliding, mountaineering and so on.

Safety was under the spotlight though, and a number of changes were to be introduced for the Monaco Grand Prix. Although the Senna crash overshadowed all, there had been another serious incident towards the end of the San Marino GP, when a Minardi lost a rear wheel while accelerating out of the pit-lane - a number of pit crew were badly injured. To minimise the risks, a pit-lane chicane would be introduced in order to slow the cars and further, more draconian measures were promised by the FIA. From now on too, the drivers would be taking a stronger line on safety, demanding changes to circuits where they were thought dangerous. Damon felt a little guilty that he and his fellow drivers had not acted sooner. "We all went to Imola and tested earlier in the season but although there were certain fears, there wasn't the impetus to do anything."

The Williams team were unable to fully explain what had happened to Senna, as the Italians had impounded the crashed car. Knowing what had happened was obviously important to Hill as well. If part of his car was going to fall off, he wanted to know about it. From the telemetry, they did know that Senna had braked for almost a second before impact and Schumacher, who was close behind remembers seeing Ayrton's car step out of line several times before it went off. Under-inflated tyres, faulty steering, wrong set-up, driver-error were all suggested as possible causes, although the last seemed most improbable. Williams had also to face the problem of finding a replacement driver. As a mark of respect, Damon would be their only entry at Monaco, but they intended to run two cars in the Spanish GP. A top-liner, preferably an ex-World Champion was desirable, but Prost had vowed never to sit in an F1 car again and Mansell was driving Indycars. Patrese and Coulthard were both considered possibilities, although neither matched the ideal person specification.

Monaco arrived this year with a dull thud. Damon, elevated to stand-in team-leader would have to carry the additional burden of front-of-house man and general team spirit raiser. A win here would bolster both his confidence and regain a little of the team's lost enthusiasm. Hill would require great sense of character to pull Williams through the next few weeks and although Damon has often been accused of being a personality-free zone, he can conjure up some of those marvellous, understated morale-boosting phrases, just like his father before him did. He may not have in public that, almost theatrical aura about him, but he admits to having, even a slightly 'mad' sense of humour in more private moments. He has inherited that same strong sense of purpose as Graham, but I suspect not just a little of this has come from his mother. Qualifying on the Friday was not good for Damon, only achieving sixth place, 2.4 seconds astray of Michael Schumacher.

Saturday came and Damon found another 2.5 seconds, but Schumacher had also found more. Fourth grid place was the best Hill could do behind a Benetton, McLaren and Ferrari. "I would give anything to be trying to catch Ayrton here at Monaco." Hopes that Monaco would pass without incident were shattered when Karl Wendlinger's Sauber thumped the barriers when he left his braking too late on the tunnel exit. Unconscious, he was taken away to hospital where he was to remain in a coma for the next nineteen days. Luckily, he has now recovered almost fully, but at the time, the memories of Imola were too fresh for comfort. The front row of the grid was left vacant in memory of Senna and Ratzenberger and a minute's silence was held before the race. When the green light shone, Damon made a good getaway as Hakkinen shifted to the right of the track. When they approached Sainte Devote however, the Finn re-aligned his car - on Damon's trajectory. The McLaren's race was over at the first corner and Damon, with damaged suspension and steering, hobbled to Mirabeau where he stopped.

Williams could pack up early and hope for better at Spain. Meanwhile, Schuey was running the race as his own, finishing forty seconds ahead of Brundle and Berger another forty behind him. Schumacher now had a thirty point lead on Berger and 33 on Damon. Things were not going to be easy. Hill's confidence could not have been improved with the news that Frank Williams had offered Jordan $10 millions for their driver Rubens Barrichello to replace Senna. A similar approach to Lotus for Johnny Herbert undermined Hill's hopes that he would inherit the number one driver's position at Williams.

Copyright 1994 & 2000 Mike Baldock