Roland Ratzenberger-25 years

[skycafe]

This is the 25th Anniversary of the death of Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. A terrible component to a weekend that became even worse the following day with Senna's death.

[Aysedasi]

25 years. Unbelievable.....

[S griffin]

I know, it’s a long time ago. How quickly tragedies like that can be easily forgotten

[Tourer]

Wonderful person, talented driver and so tragic the way it ended. Astonishing that it has been 25 years - RIP Roland.

[AndrewCherry]

Roland Ratzenberger is part of probably my earliest identifiable racing memory, of him winning the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. I remember the finals day was running behind schedule because of various accidents and it was getting dark and gloomy - and my dad was only going to be able to keep me out so late too! We watched the last race from the banking outside of Clearways (where the Foulston centre - is it still called that? - is now) so that we could make a quick getaway to what was then the muddy field full of cars.

I don't remember too much of the race, but I remember the commentator saying he'd won as he crossed the line (couldn't see from where we were). In those days, if you won the festival you were pretty much certainly destined for great things - and he was, but they were taken away from him tragically. 25 years... (and rather more since that childhood Sunday). Drive well, Roland.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I know, it’s a long time ago. How quickly tragedies like that can be easily forgotten

I suspect that very few of us who were watching motor racing at that time will ever forget that weekend. I certainly won't.

[chillibowl]

25 years ago.

RIP

[S griffin]

If there's one good thing, it has helped make F1 even safer today. RIP Roland

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I suspect that very few of us who were watching motor racing at that time will ever forget that weekend. I certainly won't.

Ditto.

It was like we were waiting for the next accident.

Awful awful weekend of motorsport.

[S griffin]

I see what you mean. That was not a good time. What happened that weekend, it just all seemed to happen at once for some reason

[S griffin]

It was a weekend that just seemed to go wrong from the beginning. No wonder so many rule changes for safety were bought in after

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Ditto.

It was like we were waiting for the next accident.

Awful awful weekend of motorsport.

That year, 1994, started badly with two deaths during Daytona Speedweeks. My boss had been at the Speedway both days, and had been a longtime friend of one of the drivers. I did not realize how much she was following Motor Racing until that Monday morning after San Marino when she came to my desk and hugged me with tears in her eyes, knowing that I was a road racing fan and that I had had a bad weekend of following my world of racing. It was not long after the San Marino weekend then we were stunned by the Wendlinger crash at Monaco. Fortunatly Wendlinger recovered, but his accident and initial condition further took the oxygen away from the room.

[S griffin]

Well it was a bad time. Motor racing hadn’t quite reached the right level of safety, although it was probably a bit more enjoyable at the time. Certainly more accessible. That weekend, as I said everything went wrong. And Wendlinger did have a lucky escape. Although it did pretty much end his F1 career. Thankfully F1 got progressively safer after that

[S griffin]

It was a wake up call though. Suddenly more work needed to be done. Ok so there were a few knee jerk reactions, but safety changed for the better

[275 GTB-4]

Motor Racing is Dangerous! End of story...

I'm sure that the current crop of drivers are well aware of that...and don't drive with abandon thinking they are immune from injury in their "safety cocoons"...

[S griffin]

You're right there. It's safer, but not 100% safe

The unexpected can still happen and as long as cars are still being pushed to the limit, it will always be dangerous