What breaks my heart the most is that Senna had an Austrian flag in the cockpit with him that he planned to wave after the race as a tribute to Roland Ratzenberger who died in qualifying.
I think his body language said it all. The way he tilted his body to the left... The way he tried to steer a wheel that did not respond. That’s total loss of control over the machine. A mechanical issue.
@@milkshakemuncher He never had that ride. Only tested. Senna had to punt Prost off the rode to beat him for the championship. Senna very over rated. Prost better. The British press created the mystique about Senna.
@@milkshakemuncher One year later, when the title is on the line sure. As David Hobbs said that the mystique of Senna was a creation of the British press, and that all of the F1 drivers disliked him and shunned him, and Prost is funny looking and(horrors) French!
So it's the fastest corner in all of motorsports and there's no tires or anything on the wall? Only a hundred feet or so of sand and a concrete wall to stop you from going 190 mph? That seems perfectly safe.
@@beenusirimanne A fast curve and a corner are different. Parabollica in Monza is considered a fast curve not a corner like in most circuits. Same with the curve in Imola.
It was a different era: we live and learn...or we don't live long. The FIA made a large number of safety changes: wheel tethers, tire barriers (they have save a LOT of lives).
+spaceweed10 Same as in the case of Jim Clark's crash that was caused by the failure of the rear suspension. But officially, Firestone took the blame for a "flat tire". People first hand at the scene saw that no tires had deflated before impact but the tire company took the blame anyway.
It's not at all clear. The video uses for demonstration extreme cases of skid corrections where the driver actually reverses the steering, but a driver that is skilled enough to catch the skid as it starts to happen can just ease up slightly on the turn without turning in the opposite direction. You can see this slight easing at the point where there is static in the video if you look carefully, as well as the turn rate slowing. Then the second bump causes the front of the car to go loose, eliminating steering control, and all that was left was the brakes. Senna alway pushed hard, and had started pushing really hard in the previous couple of years when ABS and traction control made the car more forgiving. With the banning of such "driver aids" in 1994, he was pushing too hard for what the cars had become. He had already failed to finish either of the previous races of the season.
Because locked up wheels brake less efficiently than wheels that are nearly locked up (still rolling, in other words, hence why ABS shortens the braking distance). Senna was an extremely skilled and experienced driver, and would most likely be capable of braking without locking up the wheels :)
ABS also allows you to steer while braking to the max too. Locked up wheels won't steer a car. Skilled as they are, suddenly finding no steering control could itself cause a delay. Race car drivers still get themselves into trouble they can't get out of. How many times do you see a Nascar driver save the car in a spin vs. wrecking into the wall or sliding down the track? Just using it as an example not comparing F1 to Nascar. They almost always wreck with a certain amount of yaw.
PGTMR2 Suddenly finding yourself with no steering, while expecting it would likely cause him to have applied less pressure to the brake pedal than otherwise, because he would expect the car to turn, thus reducing the amount of grip for braking.It's perfectly possible to brake and steer at the same time without ABS (assuming you avoid locking up the wheels), it's just harder to control, especially in unexpected situations. Nascar drivers getting into spins is not comparable at all, because they drive on extremely inclined tracks, and their cars are set up "unbalanced" as a result (so that they will be balanced on an inclined racetrack, but as soon as the incline changes (direction of the car changes relative to the track) the car is unbalanced, and thus almost impossible to save). "flat track" race-cars are far easier to catch from a loss of traction (by no means easy compared to a road car, but far easier than "inclined track" race cars none the less), because the setup of the car is balanced, because it is supposed to react the same way turning left, as when turning right, and the cars reaction is therefore easier to anticipate. As an example look at Le Mans race cars, they all end up in more or less controlled slides at some point during the race, but most of them manage to control the drift, and avoid spinning out and/or crashing into something/someone.
Professional mechanic here... dude's steering column failed. it's plain to see. Senna was a master at correcting in low traction conditions. Look how he performed in the rain. Can't correct with a broken steering column, though... RIP Ayrton Senna
Professional mechanic my ass!! and i am donald duck...everyone knows how to wiki like you clearly did, and your language ALSO tells that you are far from a fucking mechanic, punkass clout chaser
I remember a rule change that was made just prior to this race. The cars wheel base was shortened which would probably affect the length of steering shafts. I noticed on the first replay of his in-car camera that the wheels failed to turn, and knew right then that the shaft had been improperly welded or had just snapped.
You're absolutely right. Got it first-hand, from a metallurgy professor at the university of Bologna, who was part of the team who made the forensic analysis in 1994. The cross section of the broken column showed, that where the metal had been soldered back together, the material had begun degrading and cracking under the stress before finally snapping, probably when he drove over the bump on lap 7.
For who like me was watching the race at the time, there was a clip taken from helicopter, never shown again, where you can clearly see Senna hands turnong the steering wheel several times to the left but the tyres kept being straigth.
Yes i remember that fatal weekend very clearly and the replays shown live when Ayrton crashed. We who remember and understand racing all saw Ayrton turn the wheel with no reaction from the car.
Grim Bonkers By the way, I don't think you know how cars work. I'll put it simply, when you turn the wheel right for a split second and back to the left, the car won't start going straight until it hits the wall. If a mistake happened, the car would rather spin, not go on straight to the wall.
***** Yep,I think you are right.Just before footage cuts off before the crash you can see that in bottom right corner his steering wheel-you can see part of his glove and left steering wheel lamp.Just before the crash both hand and that light disappear as if steering wheel went too far to the left when it broke.Senna knew it was broke and you can see him sit up straight to brace for impact.During whole corner you don't see him sit up but leaning into the corner,he sits up just prior to impact(helmet visible)just when he knew something broke and he lost control of the car.If Williams theory was right than other cars would've crashed at that same spot too,they were all under safety car and prob all entered that long corner under same speeds.Whole fucking week was terrible there,Senna wasn't himself neither,crashes really took a toll on him psychologically.He shouldn't have driven that day.Most haunting of all is that he stood on that same spot 2 weeks prior and said that corner was too unsecure and if car was to hit that wall it will end drivers life.And no one put tires there or anything.
Yes and this video tells the truth how steering is broke, exactly you are right that williams pays even national geo chanel to lie people to keep it people believing wrong thats it, Ceo s are always shit they never care who dies but just think for their self.
I believe the steering column broke, I am no expert, I agree, but he was to good at driving, will the truth ever come out!!!! No, but I believe certain people know the truth.!!!! 🇬🇧🐩🐩🐩🐩
@@martinrollins4471 Spot on. Senna requested the steering column be lengthened because he was unhappy with it. Unfortunately, back in those days, adjustments like that weren't factory-built and they just welded an extension on. This is believed to be the cause of the accident.
Having worked in Aerospace, automotive, as well as with Metals for a long career. It is my considered opinion, I'll be up with some experience, that the steering shaft had been extended improperly. The method used was to cut the shaft take another shaft and put it in between them with stubs that fit into both shafts and then it's welded around the perimeter. Any flaw in that well whatsoever, or any crack that begins will broadcast all the way through that weld. This is what occurred. The way you properly links on a shaft in a series of three each. Each hole is usually about 120 degrees from the other. And you stagger them about a half an inch or more apart. So that you now have the six holes in line with the tube at 60 degrees from each other. You plug weld the shaft to the underlying connector so that each weld is an independent well. If it fails it doesn't broadcast that failure to the next weld. You can still weld the perimeter of the shaft, for added comfort. That is the procedure used in Aerospace to connect a shaft which must articulate. Although, in the case of most Aerospace connections for such things, it's done with rivets, usually do the fact that it must be able to be disassembled for depot level maintenance. I believe that the reason for the narrower portion of the shaft was also to reduce some of the impact broadcast back through the steering system to the hands. As the 18 mm portion of two would twist a bit more than the 22 mm section of tube. Made it a little easier on the hands and imparted less fatigue. I remember watching that on live TV. There was no sign in the multiple replays they showed of it that he was out of control in any way except that he drove directly into the wall. The argument that he was trying to adjust to the car being out of sorts, does not comport with my memory of the event or the videos of the event. I had always believed that it was a loss of steering control.
Most Aerospace machine shops have a magnaflux department to check for cracks and integrity. If the shaft modification was done in the racing trailer workshop a proper certification surely could not have been done. I had custom brake caliper spacers made with material removed for duct attachments and I brought them in to a company I do electrical work for them and had them tested.
Of course Senna's accident was a mechanical failure. It's impossible to wreck in Tamburello in that time and configuration of the circuit without some mechanical breakdown. I think it's a shame that Williams evaided their responsibility of the accident... I mean have anyone EVER wrecked in a slight curve like Tamburello in 1994 without something break in a car? I can't remember anyone.
@@DaveFazzinoit's been awhile since your response, but let me point out that all the testing in the world does not fix an improper procedure. Magnafluxing, and even several other tests could it be performed that might have showed no issue. Once you apply stressors, and even the austenitic zone of a weld begins to fail, it will propagate throughout the piece unless you have properly staggered the stress risers so that should one fail there's still at least five others to take up the slack. You can actually increase that to where if one fails you have nine others to take up the slack. Testing does not ensure your life. Which is why the man died, I watched that race in real time and I knew what the problem was the moment it occurred. It was clear the very first time I saw it in actual time that he had no control over steering or he was dead before he ever hit the wall and that didn't happen
I was at Cosworth at the time, we were supplying the new Zetec-R engine to Benetton. The consensus was that the steering column had broken, and that the Williams demo of available steering wheel movement was disingenuous to the point of comedy.
Williams doctored the 'black box' and the video, to wipe evidence of telemetry and visual evidence the moment the steering column broke. The poetic justice is that Williams receded into oblivion and are now no more. Frank Williams is an utter disgrace and he should be struck from the history books - he will pay the ultimate price for his cover up.
Before this "documentary" from Nat Geo you could see the whole video of the on board camera and I remember in the video it shows Ayrton turning the wheel to the left as hard as he could and the car going on a straight line to the wall.
That's what I remember too. He definitely steered left hand down buy the wheels didn't turn. I also remember thinking that the 'black box' data recorder on board the car would go missing or become damaged and unusable if the car went straight back to the Williams garage before anyone else could retrieve the telemetry data. Frank Williams who made regular appearances on camera in the pits or interviewed before or after races completely dissipated from our screens after Senna's crash.
so I'm not the only one who remember this crash this way. I believe that in the race time, the footage showed on TV SKY sports I think was a bit longer . They never replayed it. I believe he was turning the wheel right and left quite freely in the end before the car left the track and hit the wall
he also had "airway insufficiency" but it took him hours to die without air…it is all just a little too coincidental. broken drive shaft with fatigue, delayed call of death which delayed the evidence to be given to proper authorities. missing film, and damaged film at the most critical moments.
Conspiracy reborn. I've noticed something dangerous in our times, this concept of "Intellectual property". Nat geo buys the rights and makes their version of history? Could be! Then no one can use the evidence they've deemed their intellectual property. For this reason a lot of bad police cases documented on the old TV series Unsolved Mysteries (in the USA) won't be further investigated because the people who would bring attention to the crimes of the police can't have access to the evidence or the story in general. Bought and sold like everything else in this world. Its evil.
It wasn't the impact that killed him. I watched the Senna movie and the person who took pictures of his body said that there were minor bruises. It was the suspension component that went into his head that killed him. If it was positioned a couple of centimetres higher or lower, he would've survived.
You are looking for the words, control arms, upper and lower. Also pretty sure this accident is why they bolt them down to the chassis now with high tensile strength cord.
His head was also hit by a wheel & tyre. Senna sustained three severe head injuries where the pathologist said any one of them in isolation would have been fatal.
"It is perhaps a fitting legacy to a great man" - How I hate statements like that. The man died, his legacy was what he did in life not what consequences his tragic death may or may not have had. What would have been fitting was for him to grow old.
Senna wasn't the grow old type .he gladly put his life on the line every lap of the race.his wasn't just winning he wants to go faster on the edge thats where he was happiest.
I didn’t notice that at first. But you are right. Obviously what they were trying to say is his death wasn’t in vain. Safety improved because of his death. But it comes off as if Senna would have been happy to sacrifice his life for the safety of the sport.
raulv04 I know this is a late response, but F1 driver Max Mosely attended Ratzenberger’s funeral instead of Senna, as he didn’t want Senna’s passing to overshadow Ratzenbergers. (And to be fair, Senna was a national hero who dedicated his life and his fortune to bettering his home country of Brazil. To them and to the world, it wasn’t just the loss of a driver but also the loss of an incredible human being.)
The numbers also tell the story. The yellow g number is the side g force it is round 2 in the corner and then increases to over 3 before immediately falling to zero. This is consistent with turning hard and then a sudden snap as it cant handle the force and then zero force will be experienced because it has snapped and the wheels are no longer turned. The yellow number in top right window seems to show steering input, and it shows a large input and then suddenly zero, even though we can clearly see him turning the wheel after this. check the numbers. ( And also the blue g number is acceleration and deceleration and if you see 5:19 the top right yellow number hits zero input (broken) and the blue g hits zero - he has released the throttle, thereafter the blue g's are negative, he is emergency braking.)
we no forget him but we forgot many other from past.1st how to be better human like he did and stop lying to our selves !! ! @ @@ That 1st of may was cursed !!
My Mum watched that race with me and she said Senna wasnt coming out of that corner sometimes it takes a big Accident for us to realize that things can and will go wrong Rip Senna and my Mum. It seems like yesterday that they passed. Look after your loved ones and stay safe.
Damn Williams for trying to cover it up. It is clear that they knew damn well what caused the crash. The only good thing that came out of this was increased awareness of driver and car safety.
Ivan A. The guy's a pretty rubbish racing driver. He's only in because of all those big Venezuelan oil dollars. He won't amount to anything other than keeping teams financially afloat and providing us all with amusing jokes about how he professionally crashes F1 cars.
Röss Lämönt is at this point that formula 1 this below other categories as indycar. drivers that run in Formula 1 just to give money to team really annoy me ...
Eduardo Sousa There is an argument to be made that without them, the sport would struggle to carry on. It is arguably the most expensive sport to be involved in. New tires, fuel, R&D development costs, buying the car parts, wages, transportation costs etc. It all adds up to be financial suicide. These drivers are needed now with so many teams struggling to stay in the competition. In a way, it allows the better drivers to have the opportunity to race. There are still more good drivers than cash cows in the sport though, Maldonado's lot are not all that common.
In a way, Williams never recovered after that accident. I understand they had the Renault engines until 1997 and Hill and Villeneuve won in 96-97. But once the Renault engines left, Williams have been in the dumps for over 20 years. It’s 2019 and they’re by far the worst team in F1. Their reputation is tarnished now.
Letting Adrian Newey go was the real beginning of the end for them. After that, they had a couple of decent years with the BMW partnership, but once BMW wanted more control and found a Sauber team willing to give him said control (The Williams family was notoriously hands-on), Williams was basically left as a midfield team and never recovered since.
Senna always said: Politics, politics, politics. If the race would have been cancelled due to Ratzenberger's death, Senna would be alive today. Williams and FIA have blood on their hands. Great documentary, great facts. I totally agree. RIP Ayrton. If Senna wouldn't die then, Schumacher would not be the Greatest of all time. Not even close.
Steering column broke, and the car hit an unprotected wall at around 130-140mph. The angle of impact caused the right front suspension assembly to fly straight into Senna's head. Some pieces pierced his helmet and caused severe bleeding, others hit his head so hard be suffered blunt force trauma. If the angle of impact was 1 degree more or less, he'd most likely be alive...if the suspension parts hit him a couple inches lower, or higher, he would be survived...
Sometimes I think that he somehow knew that he will die in F1. Look at his face some minutes before. He was hard believer. Maybe his God sad to him: "Believe in me and I´ll make you immortal. I will take your life but you will save much more lives" . I mean all protective things in F1, his money after death for charity and so on.
@@heamorhoidhe did. Before the race he claimed in his own words “it would be surprising if someone does not get hurt this season” and “someone is going to crash for sure” and I think 4 or more incidents occurred relating to mechanical failure or just crashes in itself
I was 8 years old when this most unfortunate accident happened. I remember how sad people were even here in Finland which is quite far from Brazil and not so close to Italy either. It was in the news for several days. Even though Senna was a brazilian and 'only a motorsport driver' his influence still spanned across the world. He was very loved even in here a rather small country like Finland. Senna possibly was a bit special to us because he was a teammate for our own Formula 1 star Mika Häkkinen. Such a dratic disaster Senna's death was. He would have had so much to give to the world even after his racing days.
As a Brazilian, I'm happy to know how loved he is still around the world, I've always known that he was admired in Japan, Latin America and Europe, but I didn't imagine he was so much.
Finns love rally and have the biggest F1 ratio of population to drivers in the category history. As the contrarian I am, I detested him in his heyday and have no love lost for him even today.
Another thing that points that the steering column broke is his head right after he starts going straight. It looks like he's trying to lean to the left as if to steer, but that's obviously not happening.
Y.., I once was saying the same in serveral video(s). He tries to take the corner with all might in his mind (head movement to the left side shows that), but front tires don't react anymore.
Peter Nový I didn't even notice that but it makes perfect sense. He probably has incredibly good muscle memory and knows very well when you turn your car hard left at that speed its going to throw you to the right hard, so he throws himself to the left but the car never moves at all.
Very well. When I saw it I thought that Senna was pushing his head to the left (to counter the lateral Gs in the corner) and the car suddenly went straight on, to Senna's surprise. This caused his head to move to the left, as he was still attempting to take the corner, but the car going straight = lateral Gs 0.
That is half of the "real cause". 2nd half, actually. The 1st half is "why did he run straight onto the wall?" . The answer is: "because the steering wheel, WHICH HAD BEEN BADLY WELD PREVIOUSLY TO THE RACE, broken loose at the weld point, turning Senna into a passenger of his uncontrolled car"
I'm sure it wasn't the 1st time a "bad weld" caused a crash in motorsports..For some to call the team "murderers" is ridiculous..If Senna had lived, this wouldn't have even been a story. It was an unfortunate accident caused by a piece of flying metal that killed Ayrton, not a bad weld..I'm surprised nobody has blamed the helmet designer!
I remember Jackie Stewart at the time saying something to the effect of if something breaks on the car there is a moment of hesitation while you work out what has gone wrong, with one exception, steering. You know immediately and brake as hard as you can.
I was watching that fatal accident on tv. still seems like yesterday. And then cried a lot. I will never forget him. I;m honored to be a fan of such a great man. Love you Ayrton may your beautiful soul rest in peace
Thank you for all your live lessons Ayrton. I still learn and use it today after seeing multiple interviews and documentary's about you. I was 3 when god decided you to come to him. Much love and respect from me 18 years later. Your my hero stil Aytron, we miss u down here.
The charges focused on the car's steering column, which was found to have sheared off at a point where a modification had been made. A 600-page technical report was submitted by Bologna University under Professor of Engineering Lorenzini and his team of specialists. The report concluded that fatigue cracks had developed through most of the steering column at the point where it had broken.
The woman holding his helmet then leaning her head into it destroyed me. That's when the tears came and I hurt. Brought back many memories of riders, friends and racers I lost in the past. I'm 54 now and retired from all racing however my battle continues. I have terminal cancer......
"The back of the car stepped out." What? Plain as day in the crash footage the car goes straight as if it had a front tire go flat. Hell, if the back had stepped out, Senna would have spun, or at least hit the wall at a different angle.
Absolutely tragic, still so emotional to watch this. I was there at Imola on that day and I think we all knew he had passed away well before the helicopter took off for Bologna, the air of tragedy hung heavy over everyone - as it had done for most of the weekend. I could see his plane parked alone at Forli airport from the balcony of my flat for weeks, as if to emphasise the loss...
I remember watching the race and thinking that Senna's impact on tamburello wasn't a big deal, that he'd jump off the car, angry right after it stopped completely...
no need to get angry and insult. Senna crashed at about 200 kph which is a lot for a normal car but should be sustainable for a F1, considering that the year before I saw Zanardi with Lotus and Berger with Ferrari crashing at probably much higher speed and jumping out "fresh as new" from the cockpit. Ratzenberger the day before crashed at the Villeneuve corner at 320 kph, his car actually taking off due to the loss of the front wing, and that impact itself was fatal. Senna had his skull cracked and his neck and throat snapped because he was hit on the head by the front right wheel and its support, which perforated his helmet's visor. At that time F1 and its circuits were unsafe, but Senna was very very unlucky, dying like this
The tire bounced off the wall and hit him in the head, otherwise he would have walked away. This is according to the autopsy, so start the name calling it makes you look like what you are.
telemetry showed that the brakes were fully on just before the crash proving that the steering wheel was broken if senna lost control he would have tried to correct it not step on the brakes
The steering column broke in the crash. If it was broken before whe he corrected the slide which telemetry shows he did the car wouldn't have responded in the way it did.
I have actually seen the photos taken of Senna's helmet. There is a very clearly visible puncture mark in the top of the visor, in line with his eyebrow. There was also a MASSIVE amount of blood and a pinky grey substance. He was ABSOLUTELY speared in the head by a control arm connected to the wheel. So although Senna may have suffered a basal skull fracture, he was already dead before then, or at least mortally wounded, so wouldn't have made a difference
absolutely correct, hence why in the corner Senna was already turning his head to the left in the cockpit through the corner during the in car video footage as he was going through a reaction of the upper control arm being embedded in his head and as the car is being transported back to the pits his right seatbelt appears to be saturated in blood. The pinky grey substance you refer to I believe is his brain
Dont know whether to believe wikipedia, but according to them. They arrived at the hospital and restarted his heart. Thwy had the opportunity to restart his heart again, but they didnt. But looking at this accident, I think he probably would have died either way.
Ayrton Senna RIP used his fame and stardom to help so many people and his foundation still does to this day. More "stars" and celebrity actors etc should help the needy the way Ayrton helped people, especially children. He was a incredible human in the true sense of the word, RIP Ayrton Senna :(
El más grande, el mejor, Ayrton. Cómo argentino y rival a los brasileros en todo deporte lo reconozco, un genio, un talento único, valiente. Grande Senna, descansa en paz😓
What most people do not understand is that the the front wheels do not turn the car. The front wheels only influence where the rear wheels are going. If the front wheels lose influence the car will go wherever the rear wheels are pointed...In Senna's case, the wall.
I was saying that back in 94 when it happened. Fist time I saw the crash I thought something broke. There was just no reason for him to just go straight like he did. Still got the old vhs tape from back then.
UniversalSoljrr on senna's trial what was the verdicyt afterall? driver's error or mechanical failure? its obviously the second but did the team pay or they covered it up?
Indeed. It's uncontested fact that the steering column was modified (lengthened) at the track at Senna's request because he didn't have enough clearance between the steering wheel and the monocoque. The team didn't have an option to do a safer or more permanent fix at the track, although they obviously would have done so once back at the factory, probably after Monaco. That's the kind of risk that drivers run all the time. You want to wait for a longer steering column to be manufactured and fitted before you will drive the car again? Fine, you miss two rounds of the championship. I don't know if the welded joint failed and caused the crash, but if it did, I don't think it's a crime. I think it's a risk that team and driver took together and Senna got very unlucky.
@ TheS50b30 - the engineering consensus was that the steering wheel failed due to poor mechanical welding. The problem was that the prosecution wanted Frank Williams etc found guilty of manslaughter, rather than lesser charges. Both FISA and Ferrari placed immense pressure on the Italian government regarding this court case, and given the history of the Italian judicial system in general (rather corrupt!), I have no doubt that the decision that was handed down was to appease Ferrari and FISA, i.e. politically and financially motivated.
I'm not an F1 fan, but a drag racer. However, I remember this day like it was yesterday. It would be the equivalent of losing our sports Tony Schumacher. Not knowing much about the sport or the teams, I knew how big of an impact this was. I, as many fans of motorsports in general stopped to say a prayer for his soul, family and team.
if you go and watch the longer version on board of this race (2 laps or so before the crash) you can clearly see the steering wheel play get progressively worse and worse leading up to the crash. concentrate on the yellow button on the wheel and it shows not only violent up and down play, but what looks like in and out (front to back) play as well. and near the end, the yellow button on the wheel sort of gets darker and less visible, in my opinion because the steering wheel is actually getting pushed in deeper to the front of the car. combine the absurd amount of steering wheel movement, the lack of corrective tire steering movement, the lack of reference point twitch movement, and hard sudden body lean, has me 100% convinced the steering column broke. on such a high speed high grip corner, the amount of steering input torque is at its absolute highest.
Please excuse my ignorance, but I also find it odd that THIS driver would accept a welded connection/increase in such a vital component? He was too much of a perfectionist, I just find it hard to believe he wouldn't have demanded the entire assembly be replaced, the only way to ensure maximum strength?
euroaaRON1 If that was the case Senna must have been aware of it. He would have been aware of the increasing "play" in the steering system. One would have thought that he would have pitted the car.
thehistorywatcher and give up the lead? i dont think the glory days racers from back then thought like todays racers(all out attack vs conservation of engine fuel and tires). especially senna who would do absolutely anything in his power to secure a win.
The Williams team did not want to go public with their feelings of annoyance to what the called arrogant driver. The steering graft was faulty and that aspect of "improving steering by personal request" was not mentioned, until there was discovered and questioned in court. Ayrton was passionate about doing the best that he could with understanding of his vehicle and the road surface. I cried for him like I lost a love. God bless him for pushing integration of comprehension of traction and velocity to push the limits.
2:45 He realised that he was unable to do anything when the stearing wheel broke and eventually knew his end was near, panicked and moved his head infront (if u freeze, clearly can see him moving from the back to the front). Realizing how he felt that moment and from the posture of his body, I shudder and grieve.. R.I.P Legend, always and forever the greatest of all time.
I've only ever heard the accusation that Senna asked for the steering column to be lengthened in this video. Sounds like a bunch of crap. It is far easier to adjust the seat position if he wanted to be closer to the wheel. I have heard it reported that the steering column was modified such that it had two different diameters. The modified piece was a few mm narrower than the rest of the shaft. Why would the inserted piece be smaller in diameter if it was only to make the shaft longer?? What you see in the video is Senna's hand movement doing exactly what you would expect to see when he's holding a load, pushing with a specific force on the wheel to the left, when suddenly all resistance to his push is gone. Resulting in an erratic movement of his hands to recover the connection he felt was lost. The steering shaft broke. Nat Geo made a critical error assuming that the potentiometer would go to zero indicating no force on the shaft. The wheels are still connected to the shaft and even with no steering wheel connected, the uneven road surfaces would still apply a force back through the column. It's how drivers "feel" the road. The car, designed by Adrian Newey and assembled under Patrick Head, broke due to the small diameter shaft not able to sustain integrity from multiple sheering-force hits from the road surfaces (metal fatigue). With no plan to change the part out, it would have failed at the next session, the next race. There was nothing unique to Imola, Senna, or the ride height that caused the failure. What's amazing is that Rubens Barrichello survived.
DarkMadder Too bad the seats are rather fixed in those cars. You wouldn't adjust the seating position because that would shift the weight balance of the car. It is better to bring the wheel and pedals to the driver versus doing the opposite.
ah the differences in viewpoints from someone using a real name online to someone with a profile picture of cartman from south park. just for the record i know you're right.
The footage from Schumachers car shows it all @ 2:41 Steering column failure also Frank Williams interview he basically admitted he and his team let Senna down and did not follow the correct procedures when modifying it..
What really makes me angry about it all was that Bernie and others hid the fact that Senna and Roland had died on the circuit and they also removed the on board computer.
It was actually a choice by Senna to lengthen the steering column that was reluctantly performed by his engineers who reinforced the hell out of it, because it was a last minute, short term fix. Senna was equally culpable for his own crash (if it was caused by a broken steering column).
Senna (the doc) explained it most accurately by pointing the root cause: disassembling the active suspension, which forced the Williams team to continually tweak the steering during each race, turning his car into a death trap at racing speeds.
Clear as day, the steering column broke and the car goes straight off the track. The video evidence is very striking, this is one of the simplest accidents to explain.
+10DKJUMP The FW16 car suffers low aerodynamic pressure (Senna is out of race - slide at corner in Interlagos circuit). At Imola, the car had understerring, Senna fix it, but the sterring column broke... (my opinion, sorry the bad english)
I'd love to hear more about it from your point of view I was born in 2001 and I just recently got to know about Him I wish I could see him with my own eyes :(
@@biggerinofudge My cousin and I were watching the race live, Ayrton goes straight off, it looked strange even in the brief moment it was happening. He hits the wall, and the camera zooms in on his car. He was motionless, so we knew he was unconscious, but just as the track personnel were gathering around him, his body did a large twitch/lurch and we realized that something very bad had happened. The track marshals got in the way of the cameras and then we knew it was extremely serious. The rest is history. I took 20 years away from F1 after watching Senna die.
@@ckarjala i cannot get my mind around the idea of watching that happen live i saw christen eriksen get a cardiac arrest live and i couldnt sleep for the atleast two nights i cannot fathom seeing that happen to him live thank you so much for sharing that with me
look at 6:07 Senna steers a little extra, just after that he goes straight in the barriers. you can see by the reaction of the car that something of his steering broke.
I still watch his videos almost every day. Man how we still miss you ayrton! Legend maybe in a parallel universe he is alive and never died. His loss was greatest in 20th century and felt by every nation , he was ahead of our time
The data showing senna was applying full brakes in the corner also contradicts the claim that he was trying to catch oversteer. If the car was oversteering, a driver of sennas caliber would never apply full brakes since that would severely exasperate the oversteer. The only time a driver would apply brakes in a flat out full speed corner like that would be if the car was severely *understeering* - and the only time a driver of sennas caliber would apply *full* brakes in that situation was if the front was unresponsive and the car was headed straight off.
***** Does this mean that the technicians should have done a improper job.? Whey did not they say NO ,if it was not possible to do it properly. How could they take this responsibility? Senna most probably created a big pressure on them however, a good technician can convince the pilot with reasons. At the end he is not stupid.
Ender Conka Sorry, but in racing, there is no "proper job", you do what you can to get the car running fast & on the track in time to race! At the track, there is not time or opportunity for safety testing of design changes. A passenger vehicle steering column design change would take a year of design, analysis, testing and vehicle crash testing before going into a production vehicle. The racing teams & drivers do not choose to not race because they anticipate a safety concern! If they did, no race car would ever take the green flag ... under the best conditions, its dangerous, humans are involved, who try their best under the conditions, its part of the accepted risk.... no one can be blamed for Senna's death, it's racing,
wayne burgess Not necessarily, it's hard to explain since it comes so naturally but you wouldn't necessarily turn away from a wall if you were heading towards it, especially not if you didn't feel the grip to do so. Take Schumacher's accident where he broke his legs, he drove the car straight into the wall since he didn't have the grip to turn.
Even 'IF', the skid pad underneath the car touched the ground reducing the downforce and grip, the wheels would still have turned on Sennas steering commands and the car would not have suddenly veered straight off ahead, perfectly in a straight line as it did. There was no influence from the steering wheel to the wheels and they automatically returned to the centre position, and that would only happen from a broken steering column. Maybe William's are now where they belong to be, in the back and forgotten shadows of Formula One, where they hold no right to great praise and glory. William's, you did this man and great driver, a great injustice.
You totally convinced me. I thought I wouldn’t but it was so straightforward (no pun intended) and so pedagogic that it amazed me. You should do this for a living…. Explain complicated things that is.
the truth will never truly be known but some sneaky stuff was done at Williams to cover there arses. I believe the steering failed & it was a perfect storm of bad things. a day I'll never forget. there will never be another Senna.
Death finds reasons ..weather steering , tires or head injury .We miss the legend and i still remember Schumacher was asked winning the same numbers of grand prix after lot of years ..he simply had tears .I love and miss you
I still remember the interview a few months before his death. He said,"You have to live, breathe, EVERYTHING, driving, because one mistake and it's over." 😢😢🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️❤️
Great analysis. Your points are valid and well documented (if not too much, c.f. sparks in the 4/5 vid). I'm a welding specialist (IWS) and was taught that in critical structures, welding should be avoided if possible. A point to be made is that Senna was reckless; he was extremely fast because he was talented but not only. There were multiple times where he got away with pushing the envelope and that last time... Murphy caught back to him, unfortunately. R.I.P., he was still a nice guy nonetheless. p.s. I wish luck to all who are racing out there !
Something mechanical broke on that turn, and it points to the steering mechanism, if you have any knowledge of driving or racing cars you can see it in the vid by the non-movement of the front wheels in the turn.
One thing to remember was Sienna had crashed this same car in the two races before this crash took his life! Who is to say that it was not the previous crash that weakened the steering column
Williams took you away from us Senna but your spirit wasn't destined for this world. You were too good and were needed elsewhere. RIP to the greatest F1 driver ever to grace the sport. You will never be forgotten.
The Williams team killed Ayrton Senna with a failed steering fix and this is just another BS cover story. We will never forget. Now it’s the pace car did it.
Can definitely see his attempt to steer the car harder in his left wing mirror. As the steering breaks and the car begins driving straight for the wall he uses his entire body to try and steer the car to the left. Such an unfortunate accident
I think this video gets to the logical conclusion, that the steering column broke. Unfortunately Senna had something to do with this, as he was the one demanding the change to the column. I always wondered why the in-car footage always stopped before Senna's car started to leave the track. Obvious conclusion, they didn't want to show the car not being turned into the spin. However, everyone in F1 knows every shot the team gets is being recorded, so the exclusion of that video pointed to a conspiracy not to show that footage.
It is silly to suggest that Senna had anything at all to do with the steering column failure. True, he did ask for adjustments to the position of the steering wheel but he didn't actually carry the changes - the Williams technical team did. It would be like if took your car into your mechanic complaining of a wheel imbalance and then the wheel subsequently falls off on the highway after the mechanic fixed the problem, then somehow you are partially responsible for that! This was not Ayrton's fault at all.
tor378a Look, you and I both liked Senna. But Senna was smart enough to know every little thing that was happening to the car. If he asked for a change to the steering column, he would have asked the mechanics how they were going to accomplish this. If they didn't have a shorter column laying around, he would have asked about cutting and welding it. Then he probably wanted to see what they had done afterwards. Senna was desperate to finish a race at the beginning of the season, as he had not yet done so. Also getting pole was a big deal. He probably knew there was a risk and took the chance. No way is Senna dropping the car off at the local mechanic, and saying fix it. He was a pro after all, and looked after every detail. He took a chance and it bit him.
John G. Hill no they in any motorsport don't show crash unless it is happening while recording race so they gone to overview so crash is seen plus we would never see crash if camera wasn't on senna car just cuz senna wasn't moving same as bianci they never showed it only some ppl got video but fia never showed from cameras
Before the race he had the steering wheel raised by 2" this would have entailed cutting the stem and sleeving it with a weld at each end. Now the original stem would almost certainly be made of t45 or similar chromoly tubing the sleeve or spigot would have needed to be the same material then heat treated to normalize it after welding unless it was brazed here is the problem, if this is not done, and it is doubtful they had facilities at the circuit, the area around the weld would become very brittle and prone to crack. I think the pressure on the stem going into tamburello was enough to fatally fracture the makeshift modification....maybe.
When watching another video from the cockpit view in real time in his documentary, you can see that it looks like the steering wheel is turned to the left the whole time and than (sort of) snaps. left with car going to the outside. It was not a driver error.. RIP Ayrton
every other time the rear end kicks out, reaction is to take the foot of the throttle to counter. There was no feedback from the car to the driver, to me seemed like something snapped
Fantastic series charrotest.The way you've covered this incident was amazing.It was all so well done with actual evidence and logic. Thank god driver safety has come so far and become so,so much better The death of Ayrton was a dark day in the sport and the loss of f1's biggest legend scarred it and changed it forever.The way the whole NatGeo documentary was presented was disgustingly filled with propaganda to save Williams' blushes.I doubt I'd ever be able to respect them as a team or wish them the best now.There is still a lot of details and evidence that has been covered up and hidden so well,which is absolutely disgusting.People deserve to know what really happened.We need closure and the shambolic reasoning given to us by the FIA and Williams race team is pathethic.I'll always have these sense of remorse/regret for i wish i was born earlier to see Ayrton ripping it up on track in his prime and I wish i could've met him.He must've been the best sight to see on a race track for an era.The race going through after Roland's tragic death was wrong and what happened with Ayrton was the dark hand of fate and lady luck. The world of motorsport lost two amazing drivers that day and two amazing human beings.A lot has been left unanswered in terms of what actually happened and what could've been if things were different.How much more could they have achieved? How many races could they have won? How many more titles could Ayrton have won? And how long would they have gone on for? Would it have been Ayrton and not Schumacher with the most no. of titles now? We,ll never know. All we can do is wish these two amazing people the very best wherever they are.Keep rippin it Ayrton and Roland. Rest easy now guys.
I had never seen this National Geographic documentary before. For a company with some degree of an appreciation for genuine science, it's painful to watch how much they got so completely wrong. My guess is that, having no idea that someday their documentary could be examined over and over by anyone with a personal computer, they could just make up any old B.S. they felt like and make some easy money selling ad time. They also probably weren't expecting millions of people to use their computers to run a free video program with the ability to quickly pause (almost as fast as frame by frame), then quickly rewind and start over. I never did understand why, for so long, there seemed to be a large amount of time where Senna's car just disappeared from camera view. I always thought, "Damn, of all the times for the director to switch cameras". Now it makes sense: Williams and the FIA literally deleted part of the tape. I also have wondered about the camera "glitch" from Schumacher's car at the exact moment we might have seen something telling from the video evidence. I wonder if that glitch was another part of the cover-up for the Italian courts?
I agree. Theres no possible way that both 'just happen' to switch off and glitch. I think it's clear they dont want anyone to know but the fact is, someone does know what happened. Theres no possible way for there not to be someone on the williams/fia teams that doesn't know what really happened to Senna
The National Geographic Channel is majority owned by the Fox Network. Always bear that in mind when watching the "documentaries" on the channel. Nat Geo in fact has little to do with the content.
Neither Williams nor the FIA have anything to do with the video. F1 owns it. You need to understand how racing is organized. FIA is the umbrella organization under which all other racing organizations reside, including NASCAR, SCCA, Indycar, etc. (you can tell I'm from the USA Lol). But in this particular case F1 owns all of the video. F1 controls all the video and then provides the video feed to the networks. Someone at F1 happened to switch the video from Senna's car to the Tamburello shot at a moment that makes complete sense for a casual fan watching the race. It's just unfortunate that he or she chose that moment to do it. The question I have is: Was Senna's in-car feed only accessed by the person controlling the feed to the networks or was it recorded separately? I imagine that it was NOT recorded separately, otherwise it would have come out at the hearing.
@@SRFDriver In those days, no TV companies had the facilities to record all their cameras, they recorded just the live feed. Nowadays things are different, especially since most programs are now stored on hard disc.
I've always strongly suspected that his steering column was sabotaged, guaranteeing that it would fail in the race. Obviously we'll never know, but given the intense feelings involved in the rivalry with Prost and the extreme competitiveness of these drivers, well, let's just put it this way: if someone could devise a way to eliminate Senna and make it look like an accident, it was gonna happen.
what´s indeed weird is that professionals like Head and Newey were okay with such a crappy solution and Senna complained about the weird behaving car. Which Hill didn´t. And because only Senna had the modified steering column, this should have raised alarm bells. For some strange reason, this didn´t happen. That should definitely rise eyebrows, because it seems a bit too unprofessional.
I don't think the crash happened due to a slide. 1. It's very unlikely that a driver reacts fast enough so you don't see a slide (especially at this speed) 2. When the front suddenly grips you see a turn into the opposite direction or even a slide but there is nothing like that which would be impossible at this high speed. 3. Why is there no slide one lap before when the car was lower? 4. Everybody was touching the ground in this corner at this particular place so why is there not even one car sliding there? Because these cars doesn't slide there. 5. Senna already drove through this corner many times (Practice or Qualifying). When the car was set up that low that this corner creates problems why hadn't he had any problems in the previuos sessions? For me it's obvious that something broke because the reaction of the car simply exists out of the fact that it doesn't react to the steering anymore. The tyres are still working so it's not the suspension which broke. Additional to that there is no slide so there is no failure at the rear. For me it can only be the broken steering column which was found in the wreck afterwards. As far as I know the steering column wasn't one piece how it's supposed to be. It was welded so I think it's possible that it was weakened after the hard bump in lap 6 so the still hard bump in lap 7 was enough to let it break. I'm no specialist but for me it seems to be the only possible explanation.
The reason no one slid there the lap before is they took Tamburello at a slow enough speed so they wouldn't slide. The next lap Senna tried to go around the corner just a little bit too fast. Damon Hill certainly thinks so and he was the only other person driving that exact same car around the corner on that day. He went too fast and slid off the track period.
Tamburello has been a corner in which you could easily go flat out. So I don't get the point of the difference compared to a lap before. That doesn't make sense at all
***** "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control." - Italian court
Senna and Dale Earnhardt, two men who admired each other very much, both died of the same injury. 6 men were killed in NASCAR due to that same injury within a 2-ish year span in the late 90s and early 2000s. Driver safety has come so far, but there is always more to be done
here in Brazil, the documentary of the brazilian tv was that: before the race started, there was a modification in the car's steering system, and the constant hits with the ground caused such maintenance to fail, breaking the column that connects the wheels with the steering wheel, causing him to lose control of the car. it looks like it was instant death as part of the car impaled his head.
Very interesting stuff . I've watched it over and over again and it certainly looks like something broke in the car I don't see any evidence of driver error or it being a situation of a lack of downforce or the chassis bottoming out
+dill doe a If you watch his onboard cam video of the last moments, you'll see a weird white thing (smoke?) coming out of the bushes to the right of the track. Right next you can see part of his helmet (which never shows up on cam, we can only see his hands), as if he becomes unconscious and his head falls to the left.
+piratesephiroth do have a link ? I haven't found anything on RUclips. But what could hit through a helmet that won't even break if a tank is driving over it ?
icewhite69: What are you talking about? The helmets back then were made of fiberglass with padding in them. They were essentially the same thing you can buy at any race shop. Helmets these days are made of carbon fiber which makes them lighter and stronger. But neither type will prevent penetration of a sharp object if that object has enough force.
It wasn't that the steering was the cause of the accident it was the way the car was lowerd too much it played amajor part in the control of the car the plate under wore quicker and cause more vibration to the car a senna r I p
So much respect for the editors for never showing the moment that people watching live saw that we knew Ayrton was dead. I have watched many doco's & none have shown the 2 seconds of footage from the crane camera that looked directly down onto Senna's car that was switched to just as the car came to a stop. He twitched & fell limp in the cockpit. It almost seems like divine intervention that nobody has ever turned up with a full video copy of the broadcast recorded at home on VHS or Beta video tape. I'm glad, I have it burned into my memory and don't need to see it again
Difference in these half headed examples is the speed involved. Tamburello you’re pulling almost 200mph through it. Look at what happens when the back steps out on an Indy Car on an oval for a more relevant comparison. Senna lifted a fraction over a bump as the back stepped out on him, which dipped the front wing outside of its operating window and it stalled. Newey has even admitted this. The FW15C was based around active suspension where the aero surfaces are much more static. He made a mess of the FW16 and the front wing was prone to stalling when it got too near to the track. The same was true of the diffuser, but to a lesser extent because of the sidepod design. The car would oversteer and understeer often at the same time. In this case the back gripped back up again as the front lost grip, the balance shifted and the car veered off to the right. It was equipment failure, but not the steering column. It’s amazing how even people like Alboreto were not aware that an aero stall can look just like an actual mechanical break in terms of how a car behaves…
What breaks my heart the most is that Senna had an Austrian flag in the cockpit with him that he planned to wave after the race as a tribute to Roland Ratzenberger who died in qualifying.
Was it that same turn?
When I saw that turn I thought its done this before I bet. Now I hear somebody else died that weekend?
@@nopefranks1154 no it was a different turn later on in the lap from where senna died. It was the day before in qualifying as well.
@@AliAljoubory it was at the Villeneuve corner after Tamburello.
@@nopefranks1154 there was actully 4 crashes that weekend 2 of them were fatals was a horrible race
Who was the guy who had his car jump up and smash into a wall? Lucky guy to survive it, but forget his name
I think his body language said it all. The way he tilted his body to the left... The way he tried to steer a wheel that did not respond. That’s total loss of control over the machine. A mechanical issue.
why wouldn't he try to turn left? what does this prove??
@@Akiak7 Bro he literally pit his whole body into turning left, and it didn't work. Are you that slow?
@@cisztheoriginal2911 i get that, i'm just saying that's kinda obvious that he would do that? what else is he supposed to do lmao
@@Akiak7 because the steering column broke.
The sniper theory was made because when senna went straight his head had a movey movement as people thought that he had been shot
This guy achieved greatness by turning corners at speeds faster than anyone else.
This was equipment failure
Except when Michael Andretti was 1 second faster than Senna in Senna's car at Donington.
@@stevepulvers2133 so how did Michael Andretti go in the race?
@@milkshakemuncher He never had that ride. Only tested. Senna had to punt Prost off the rode to beat him for the championship. Senna very over rated. Prost better. The British press created the mystique about Senna.
@@stevepulvers2133 are you forgetting Prost punting Senna off at Suzuka 89? Suzuka 90 was revenge.
@@milkshakemuncher One year later, when the title is on the line sure. As David Hobbs said that the mystique of Senna was a creation of the British press, and that all of the F1 drivers disliked him and shunned him, and Prost is funny looking and(horrors) French!
So it's the fastest corner in all of motorsports and there's no tires or anything on the wall? Only a hundred feet or so of sand and a concrete wall to stop you from going 190 mph? That seems perfectly safe.
It isn't a corner. It is a fast curve
@@chrisanagn.3584 It isn't flying. It's falling with style.... Did you read your comment out loud before you posted it 😂
@@beenusirimanne A fast curve and a corner are different. Parabollica in Monza is considered a fast curve not a corner like in most circuits. Same with the curve in Imola.
That's exactly what Senna had said in the days before.
It was a different era: we live and learn...or we don't live long. The FIA made a large number of safety changes: wheel tethers, tire barriers (they have save a LOT of lives).
It's clear what happened - Senna was killed because his steering broke, and Williams tried to cover it up. Simple.
+spaceweed10 Same as in the case of Jim Clark's crash that was caused by the failure of the rear suspension. But officially, Firestone took the blame for a "flat tire". People first hand at the scene saw that no tires had deflated before impact but the tire company took the blame anyway.
doesnt it say so in the video??
WHAT U SAID!!!!
It's not at all clear. The video uses for demonstration extreme cases of skid corrections where the driver actually reverses the steering, but a driver that is skilled enough to catch the skid as it starts to happen can just ease up slightly on the turn without turning in the opposite direction. You can see this slight easing at the point where there is static in the video if you look carefully, as well as the turn rate slowing. Then the second bump causes the front of the car to go loose, eliminating steering control, and all that was left was the brakes.
Senna alway pushed hard, and had started pushing really hard in the previous couple of years when ABS and traction control made the car more forgiving. With the banning of such "driver aids" in 1994, he was pushing too hard for what the cars had become. He had already failed to finish either of the previous races of the season.
and what about the brakes ? he had no brakes either.
His steering broke. If he lost control he would correct it, not hit the brakes.
yea thats true because he knew he was going straight on and not steering but why didn't wheels lock up
Because locked up wheels brake less efficiently than wheels that are nearly locked up (still rolling, in other words, hence why ABS shortens the braking distance). Senna was an extremely skilled and experienced driver, and would most likely be capable of braking without locking up the wheels :)
ABS also allows you to steer while braking to the max too. Locked up wheels won't steer a car. Skilled as they are, suddenly finding no steering control could itself cause a delay. Race car drivers still get themselves into trouble they can't get out of. How many times do you see a Nascar driver save the car in a spin vs. wrecking into the wall or sliding down the track? Just using it as an example not comparing F1 to Nascar. They almost always wreck with a certain amount of yaw.
PGTMR2 Suddenly finding yourself with no steering, while expecting it would likely cause him to have applied less pressure to the brake pedal than otherwise, because he would expect the car to turn, thus reducing the amount of grip for braking.It's perfectly possible to brake and steer at the same time without ABS (assuming you avoid locking up the wheels), it's just harder to control, especially in unexpected situations.
Nascar drivers getting into spins is not comparable at all, because they drive on extremely inclined tracks, and their cars are set up "unbalanced" as a result (so that they will be balanced on an inclined racetrack, but as soon as the incline changes (direction of the car changes relative to the track) the car is unbalanced, and thus almost impossible to save). "flat track" race-cars are far easier to catch from a loss of traction (by no means easy compared to a road car, but far easier than "inclined track" race cars none the less), because the setup of the car is balanced, because it is supposed to react the same way turning left, as when turning right, and the cars reaction is therefore easier to anticipate.
As an example look at Le Mans race cars, they all end up in more or less controlled slides at some point during the race, but most of them manage to control the drift, and avoid spinning out and/or crashing into something/someone.
Ben Conway locked wheels means you basically can’t turn
Professional mechanic here... dude's steering column failed. it's plain to see. Senna was a master at correcting in low traction conditions. Look how he performed in the rain. Can't correct with a broken steering column, though... RIP Ayrton Senna
😂😂😂😂😂
@@BB-ft8fjwhy laugh at a tragedy?
Professional mechanic my ass!! and i am donald duck...everyone knows how to wiki like you clearly did, and your language ALSO tells that you are far from a fucking mechanic, punkass clout chaser
I remember a rule change that was made just prior to this race. The cars wheel base was shortened which would probably affect the length of steering shafts. I noticed on the first replay of his in-car camera that the wheels failed to turn, and knew right then that the shaft had been improperly welded or had just snapped.
You're absolutely right. Got it first-hand, from a metallurgy professor at the university of Bologna, who was part of the team who made the forensic analysis in 1994. The cross section of the broken column showed, that where the metal had been soldered back together, the material had begun degrading and cracking under the stress before finally snapping, probably when he drove over the bump on lap 7.
For who like me was watching the race at the time, there was a clip taken from helicopter, never shown again, where you can clearly see Senna hands turnong the steering wheel several times to the left but the tyres kept being straigth.
mark883nm hmm wonder wgy its not shown then...
Yes i remember that fatal weekend very clearly and the replays shown live when Ayrton crashed. We who remember and understand racing all saw Ayrton turn the wheel with no reaction from the car.
Hmmm… I still have the complete race on VHS somewhere in my basement!
Maybe I’ll look for that.
@@kurtnowak8895 That would be so great if you found it. Reply back to us if you do please
@@kurtnowak8895 cool! I remember watching the race, and may be a false memory, but the footage from the cockpit seemed to be uncut back then.
His steering broke. Done. No question about it. The Williams team know they're guilty for this and will haunt them for life.
Grim Bonkers Please get a woman? LMAO, that's the best you can do? xD
***** I really cringed at the "get a woman" thing. ugh, so bad xD
Bushwick Bundy Yeah me too, lmao.
Grim Bonkers By the way, I don't think you know how cars work. I'll put it simply, when you turn the wheel right for a split second and back to the left, the car won't start going straight until it hits the wall. If a mistake happened, the car would rather spin, not go on straight to the wall.
*****
Yep,I think you are right.Just before footage cuts off before the crash you can see that in bottom right corner his steering wheel-you can see part of his glove and left steering wheel lamp.Just before the crash both hand and that light disappear as if steering wheel went too far to the left when it broke.Senna knew it was broke and you can see him sit up straight to brace for impact.During whole corner you don't see him sit up but leaning into the corner,he sits up just prior to impact(helmet visible)just when he knew something broke and he lost control of the car.If Williams theory was right than other cars would've crashed at that same spot too,they were all under safety car and prob all entered that long corner under same speeds.Whole fucking week was terrible there,Senna wasn't himself neither,crashes really took a toll on him psychologically.He shouldn't have driven that day.Most haunting of all is that he stood on that same spot 2 weeks prior and said that corner was too unsecure and if car was to hit that wall it will end drivers life.And no one put tires there or anything.
100% his steering broke. End of story. Williams has spent the past decades covering it up.
Yes and this video tells the truth how steering is broke, exactly you are right that williams pays even national geo chanel to lie people to keep it people believing wrong thats it, Ceo s are always shit they never care who dies but just think for their self.
they didnt cover anything up it was told in court what they had done as senna was not happy wity the length of the steering ffs.where you been ffs.
I believe the steering column broke, I am no expert, I agree, but he was to good at driving, will the truth ever come out!!!! No, but I believe certain people know the truth.!!!! 🇬🇧🐩🐩🐩🐩
@@martinrollins4471 Spot on. Senna requested the steering column be lengthened because he was unhappy with it. Unfortunately, back in those days, adjustments like that weren't factory-built and they just welded an extension on. This is believed to be the cause of the accident.
Yes, but that’s not what killed him. The tire killed him.
Having worked in Aerospace, automotive, as well as with Metals for a long career. It is my considered opinion, I'll be up with some experience, that the steering shaft had been extended improperly. The method used was to cut the shaft take another shaft and put it in between them with stubs that fit into both shafts and then it's welded around the perimeter. Any flaw in that well whatsoever, or any crack that begins will broadcast all the way through that weld. This is what occurred. The way you properly links on a shaft in a series of three each. Each hole is usually about 120 degrees from the other. And you stagger them about a half an inch or more apart. So that you now have the six holes in line with the tube at 60 degrees from each other. You plug weld the shaft to the underlying connector so that each weld is an independent well. If it fails it doesn't broadcast that failure to the next weld. You can still weld the perimeter of the shaft, for added comfort. That is the procedure used in Aerospace to connect a shaft which must articulate. Although, in the case of most Aerospace connections for such things, it's done with rivets, usually do the fact that it must be able to be disassembled for depot level maintenance.
I believe that the reason for the narrower portion of the shaft was also to reduce some of the impact broadcast back through the steering system to the hands. As the 18 mm portion of two would twist a bit more than the 22 mm section of tube. Made it a little easier on the hands and imparted less fatigue.
I remember watching that on live TV. There was no sign in the multiple replays they showed of it that he was out of control in any way except that he drove directly into the wall. The argument that he was trying to adjust to the car being out of sorts, does not comport with my memory of the event or the videos of the event. I had always believed that it was a loss of steering control.
Most Aerospace machine shops have a magnaflux department to check for cracks and integrity. If the shaft modification was done in the racing trailer workshop a proper certification surely could not have been done. I had custom brake caliper spacers made with material removed for duct attachments and I brought them in to a company I do electrical work for them and had them tested.
Of course Senna's accident was a mechanical failure. It's impossible to wreck in Tamburello in that time and configuration of the circuit without some mechanical breakdown. I think it's a shame that Williams evaided their responsibility of the accident... I mean have anyone EVER wrecked in a slight curve like Tamburello in 1994 without something break in a car? I can't remember anyone.
@@DaveFazzinoit's been awhile since your response, but let me point out that all the testing in the world does not fix an improper procedure. Magnafluxing, and even several other tests could it be performed that might have showed no issue. Once you apply stressors, and even the austenitic zone of a weld begins to fail, it will propagate throughout the piece unless you have properly staggered the stress risers so that should one fail there's still at least five others to take up the slack. You can actually increase that to where if one fails you have nine others to take up the slack. Testing does not ensure your life. Which is why the man died, I watched that race in real time and I knew what the problem was the moment it occurred. It was clear the very first time I saw it in actual time that he had no control over steering or he was dead before he ever hit the wall and that didn't happen
I was at Cosworth at the time, we were supplying the new Zetec-R engine to Benetton. The consensus was that the steering column had broken, and that the Williams demo of available steering wheel movement was disingenuous to the point of comedy.
Do you have the torque graph of 1994 Benetton? I read it was 796HP, with high mid's.
Williams doctored the 'black box' and the video, to wipe evidence of telemetry and visual evidence the moment the steering column broke. The poetic justice is that Williams receded into oblivion and are now no more. Frank Williams is an utter disgrace and he should be struck from the history books - he will pay the ultimate price for his cover up.
@@spaceweed1025 he was in the senna documentary...the cheek
@@spaceweed1025 Probably not his call. FIA probably had alot of sway
@@spaceweed1025 correct!!!! 🇬🇧🐩🐩🐩
Before this "documentary" from Nat Geo you could see the whole video of the on board camera and I remember in the video it shows Ayrton turning the wheel to the left as hard as he could and the car going on a straight line to the wall.
That's what I remember too. He definitely steered left hand down buy the wheels didn't turn.
I also remember thinking that the 'black box' data recorder on board the car would go missing or become damaged and unusable if the car went straight back to the Williams garage before anyone else could retrieve the telemetry data.
Frank Williams who made regular appearances on camera in the pits or interviewed before or after races completely dissipated from our screens after Senna's crash.
so I'm not the only one who remember this crash this way. I believe that in the race time, the footage showed on TV SKY sports I think was a bit longer . They never replayed it. I believe he was turning the wheel right and left quite freely in the end before the car left the track and hit the wall
he also had "airway insufficiency" but it took him hours to die without air…it is all just a little too coincidental. broken drive shaft with fatigue, delayed call of death which delayed the evidence to be given to proper authorities. missing film, and damaged film at the most critical moments.
Conspiracy reborn. I've noticed something dangerous in our times, this concept of "Intellectual property". Nat geo buys the rights and makes their version of history? Could be! Then no one can use the evidence they've deemed their intellectual property. For this reason a lot of bad police cases documented on the old TV series Unsolved Mysteries (in the USA) won't be further investigated because the people who would bring attention to the crimes of the police can't have access to the evidence or the story in general. Bought and sold like everything else in this world. Its evil.
+Bo Huggabee Straight out of the CIA's playbook
It wasn't the impact that killed him. I watched the Senna movie and the person who took pictures of his body said that there were minor bruises. It was the suspension component that went into his head that killed him. If it was positioned a couple of centimetres higher or lower, he would've survived.
You are looking for the words, control arms, upper and lower. Also pretty sure this accident is why they bolt them down to the chassis now with high tensile strength cord.
that’s incredible do think considering the impulse from the momentum of that impact
His head was also hit by a wheel & tyre. Senna sustained three severe head injuries where the pathologist said any one of them in isolation would have been fatal.
@@derkaturkaactually those are all suspension components...
@@user-wz7er7kn9y actually?
He told his crew the car wasn't right and they told him to drive and he knew it was wrong and it cost him his life. RIP LEGEND!!!!😢🏎
¿negro que?
Have you read Adrian Newey's book on it?
Yes kinda sounds like the team knew something was going to break.
source?
Stop talking shit. Muppet
"It is perhaps a fitting legacy to a great man" - How I hate statements like that. The man died, his legacy was what he did in life not what consequences his tragic death may or may not have had. What would have been fitting was for him to grow old.
Indeed
Well said, for him to continue would have been ideal.
@@colinm1325 yes. but i guess they mean the mourning was fitting. Not his death
Senna wasn't the grow old type .he gladly put his life on the line every lap of the race.his wasn't just winning he wants to go faster on the edge thats where he was happiest.
I didn’t notice that at first. But you are right. Obviously what they were trying to say is his death wasn’t in vain. Safety improved because of his death. But it comes off as if Senna would have been happy to sacrifice his life for the safety of the sport.
Everybody remembers Senna and everybody forgets about Ratzenberger
raulv04 I know this is a late response, but F1 driver Max Mosely attended Ratzenberger’s funeral instead of Senna, as he didn’t want Senna’s passing to overshadow Ratzenbergers.
(And to be fair, Senna was a national hero who dedicated his life and his fortune to bettering his home country of Brazil. To them and to the world, it wasn’t just the loss of a driver but also the loss of an incredible human being.)
I don't forget Roland Ratzenberger .That weekend has been very sad.
not everyone forgets Roland.
The current drivers say that senna is the best driver ever thats why everybody remembers senna eventough ratzenberger was also bad
I will never forget Roland Ratzenberger...
The numbers also tell the story. The yellow g number is the side g force it is round 2 in the corner and then increases to over 3 before immediately falling to zero. This is consistent with turning hard and then a sudden snap as it cant handle the force and then zero force will be experienced because it has snapped and the wheels are no longer turned. The yellow number in top right window seems to show steering input, and it shows a large input and then suddenly zero, even though we can clearly see him turning the wheel after this. check the numbers. ( And also the blue g number is acceleration and deceleration and if you see 5:19 the top right yellow number hits zero input (broken) and the blue g hits zero - he has released the throttle, thereafter the blue g's are negative, he is emergency braking.)
You can also notice that when the G force changes, his head comes to left as that was direction that he was putting the neck effort.
good explanation on the numbers cause i didnt even know what i was looking at
Anyone else here 2019! R.I.P Senna never forgotten ❤🇧🇷
Loved watching him race. A true and deserving legend.
Never forgotten!
Always the best ever!
R.I.P.
What this does it gives a logical explanation.....you cant steer a car that is not in contact with the road....
we no forget him but we forgot many other from past.1st how to be better human like he did and stop lying to our selves !! ! @ @@ That 1st of may was cursed !!
My Mum watched that race with me and she said Senna wasnt coming out of that corner sometimes it takes a big Accident for us to realize that things can and will go wrong Rip Senna and my Mum. It seems like yesterday that they passed. Look after your loved ones and stay safe.
she will stay with you in spirit
much love to you stay safe!!
Wow that ending was unexpected
R.I.P.
Damn Williams for trying to cover it up. It is clear that they knew damn well what caused the crash. The only good thing that came out of this was increased awareness of driver and car safety.
course, today we have more security, but lose the greatest driver in history is a very high price to pay..
Eduardo Sousa We also have Pastor Maldonado ruining general safety in F1 racing... Sorry had to i know its not all his fault but still..
Ivan A. The guy's a pretty rubbish racing driver. He's only in because of all those big Venezuelan oil dollars. He won't amount to anything other than keeping teams financially afloat and providing us all with amusing jokes about how he professionally crashes F1 cars.
Röss Lämönt is at this point that formula 1 this below other categories as indycar. drivers that run in Formula 1 just to give money to team really annoy me ...
Eduardo Sousa There is an argument to be made that without them, the sport would struggle to carry on. It is arguably the most expensive sport to be involved in. New tires, fuel, R&D development costs, buying the car parts, wages, transportation costs etc. It all adds up to be financial suicide. These drivers are needed now with so many teams struggling to stay in the competition. In a way, it allows the better drivers to have the opportunity to race.
There are still more good drivers than cash cows in the sport though, Maldonado's lot are not all that common.
Today should have been your 54th Birthday. You were a hero and a role model for us growing up. Love and Respect forever.
you probably forgot about this comment
you probably don't know what he did for children here in Brazil. I'm sorry for you Johan...
HE is still a hero. and will ever be.
another autistic screech, but you retracted your statement, at least you dare to own up i have to give you that
0 points in 1994! What a driver he was! :D
In a way, Williams never recovered after that accident. I understand they had the Renault engines until 1997 and Hill and Villeneuve won in 96-97. But once the Renault engines left, Williams have been in the dumps for over 20 years. It’s 2019 and they’re by far the worst team in F1. Their reputation is tarnished now.
Letting Adrian Newey go was the real beginning of the end for them. After that, they had a couple of decent years with the BMW partnership, but once BMW wanted more control and found a Sauber team willing to give him said control (The Williams family was notoriously hands-on), Williams was basically left as a midfield team and never recovered since.
Senna always said: Politics, politics, politics. If the race would have been cancelled due to Ratzenberger's death, Senna would be alive today. Williams and FIA have blood on their hands. Great documentary, great facts. I totally agree. RIP Ayrton. If Senna wouldn't die then, Schumacher would not be the Greatest of all time. Not even close.
Steering column broke, and the car hit an unprotected wall at around 130-140mph. The angle of impact caused the right front suspension assembly to fly straight into Senna's head. Some pieces pierced his helmet and caused severe bleeding, others hit his head so hard be suffered blunt force trauma.
If the angle of impact was 1 degree more or less, he'd most likely be alive...if the suspension parts hit him a couple inches lower, or higher, he would be survived...
Sometimes I think that he somehow knew that he will die in F1. Look at his face some minutes before. He was hard believer. Maybe his God sad to him: "Believe in me and I´ll make you immortal. I will take your life but you will save much more lives" . I mean all protective things in F1, his money after death for charity and so on.
@@heamorhoidhe did. Before the race he claimed in his own words “it would be surprising if someone does not get hurt this season” and “someone is going to crash for sure” and I think 4 or more incidents occurred relating to mechanical failure or just crashes in itself
I was 8 years old when this most unfortunate accident happened. I remember how sad people were even here in Finland which is quite far from Brazil and not so close to Italy either. It was in the news for several days.
Even though Senna was a brazilian and 'only a motorsport driver' his influence still spanned across the world. He was very loved even in here a rather small country like Finland. Senna possibly was a bit special to us because he was a teammate for our own Formula 1 star Mika Häkkinen.
Such a dratic disaster Senna's death was. He would have had so much to give to the world even after his racing days.
As a Brazilian, I'm happy to know how loved he is still around the world, I've always known that he was admired in Japan, Latin America and Europe, but I didn't imagine he was so much.
Finns love rally and have the biggest F1 ratio of population to drivers in the category history.
As the contrarian I am, I detested him in his heyday and have no love lost for him even today.
I sat there as a teenager and watched every second of this incident .Ill never forget you ayrton .R.I.P Never forgotten 💔
I’m here in 2021. My favorite hero.
Another thing that points that the steering column broke is his head right after he starts going straight. It looks like he's trying to lean to the left as if to steer, but that's obviously not happening.
Y.., I once was saying the same in serveral video(s). He tries to take the corner with all might in his mind (head movement to the left side shows that), but front tires don't react anymore.
Absolutely. It's obvious @ 4:55
Peter Nový
I didn't even notice that but it makes perfect sense. He probably has incredibly good muscle memory and knows very well when you turn your car hard left at that speed its going to throw you to the right hard, so he throws himself to the left but the car never moves at all.
Yeah, it's pretty obivous. So, we can rule out the point that he was unconscious, like others said around here.
Very well. When I saw it I thought that Senna was pushing his head to the left (to counter the lateral Gs in the corner) and the car suddenly went straight on, to Senna's surprise. This caused his head to move to the left, as he was still attempting to take the corner, but the car going straight = lateral Gs 0.
Why doesn't anyone mention the real cause of death? His helmet was pierced by a broken piece of his front suspension, which entered his skull. :-(
This is the truth I remember (without having to look it all up again).
That is half of the "real cause". 2nd half, actually. The 1st half is "why did he run straight onto the wall?" . The answer is: "because the steering wheel, WHICH HAD BEEN BADLY WELD PREVIOUSLY TO THE RACE, broken loose at the weld point, turning Senna into a passenger of his uncontrolled car"
I'm sure it wasn't the 1st time a "bad weld" caused a crash in motorsports..For some to call the team "murderers" is ridiculous..If Senna had lived, this wouldn't have even been a story. It was an unfortunate accident caused by a piece of flying metal that killed Ayrton, not a bad weld..I'm surprised nobody has blamed the helmet designer!
Perhaps, Gaucho, but that is not a crime. It is a mistake. Unless the bad weld was deliberate (and I am sure that it wasn't), no crime was committed.
that's not quite true, it could have been negligent homicide I'd presume - if the work was grossly negligent
I remember Jackie Stewart at the time saying something to the effect of if something breaks on the car there is a moment of hesitation while you work out what has gone wrong, with one exception, steering. You know immediately and brake as hard as you can.
I was watching that fatal accident on tv. still seems like yesterday. And then cried a lot. I will never forget him. I;m honored to be a fan of such a great man. Love you Ayrton may your beautiful soul rest in peace
Thank you for all your live lessons Ayrton. I still learn and use it today after seeing multiple interviews and documentary's about you. I was 3 when god decided you to come to him. Much love and respect from me 18 years later. Your my hero stil Aytron, we miss u down here.
The charges focused on the car's steering column, which was found to have sheared off at a point where a modification had been made. A 600-page technical report was submitted by Bologna University under Professor of Engineering Lorenzini and his team of specialists. The report concluded that fatigue cracks had developed through most of the steering column at the point where it had broken.
Nobody with as much experience as Senna would go off the track like that riding the brakes unless there was literally nothing else he could do.
The woman holding his helmet then leaning her head into it destroyed me. That's when the tears came and I hurt. Brought back many memories of riders, friends and racers I lost in the past. I'm 54 now and retired from all racing however my battle continues. I have terminal cancer......
Jim Hiscott
Senna was a champion. He died a champion. I only hope that I could end my life in that way, doing the thing I loved most.
@@bassmith448bassist5 I agree, ending my life by way of a race accident would be a hell of a lot better then this cancer bullshit!
A failure of technology can cost us lives even today, respect to the legend.
"The back of the car stepped out."
What?
Plain as day in the crash footage the car goes straight as if it had a front tire go flat. Hell, if the back had stepped out, Senna would have spun, or at least hit the wall at a different angle.
Absolutely tragic, still so emotional to watch this. I was there at Imola on that day and I think we all knew he had passed away well before the helicopter took off for Bologna, the air of tragedy hung heavy over everyone - as it had done for most of the weekend. I could see his plane parked alone at Forli airport from the balcony of my flat for weeks, as if to emphasise the loss...
Absolute legend who was head and shoulders above anyone else on the track.
Hopefully he is full throttle with Sabine somewhere now.
amen
I remember watching the race and thinking that Senna's impact on tamburello wasn't a big deal, that he'd jump off the car, angry right after it stopped completely...
All fake...
ur fake!
no need to get angry and insult.
Senna crashed at about 200 kph which is a lot for a normal car but should be sustainable for a F1, considering that the year before I saw Zanardi with Lotus and Berger with Ferrari crashing at probably much higher speed and jumping out "fresh as new" from the cockpit. Ratzenberger the day before crashed at the Villeneuve corner at 320 kph, his car actually taking off due to the loss of the front wing, and that impact itself was fatal.
Senna had his skull cracked and his neck and throat snapped because he was hit on the head by the front right wheel and its support, which perforated his helmet's visor. At that time F1 and its circuits were unsafe, but Senna was very very unlucky, dying like this
The tire bounced off the wall and hit him in the head, otherwise he would have walked away. This is according to the autopsy, so start the name calling it makes you look like what you are.
same but for dale earnhardt.
telemetry showed that the brakes were fully on just before the crash proving that the steering wheel was broken if senna lost control he would have tried to correct it not step on the brakes
Proves nothing
@@zebunker If you're braindead with no knowledge about cars yeah sure it proves nothing
The steering column broke in the crash. If it was broken before whe he corrected the slide which telemetry shows he did the car wouldn't have responded in the way it did.
Still makes me cry when I see this RIP Ayrton
I have actually seen the photos taken of Senna's helmet. There is a very clearly visible puncture mark in the top of the visor, in line with his eyebrow. There was also a MASSIVE amount of blood and a pinky grey substance. He was ABSOLUTELY speared in the head by a control arm connected to the wheel. So although Senna may have suffered a basal skull fracture, he was already dead before then, or at least mortally wounded, so wouldn't have made a difference
absolutely correct, hence why in the corner Senna was already turning his head to the left in the cockpit through the corner during the in car video footage as he was going through a reaction of the upper control arm being embedded in his head and as the car is being transported back to the pits his right seatbelt appears to be saturated in blood.
The pinky grey substance you refer to I believe is his brain
Heartbreaking
Dont know whether to believe wikipedia, but according to them. They arrived at the hospital and restarted his heart. Thwy had the opportunity to restart his heart again, but they didnt. But looking at this accident, I think he probably would have died either way.
Ayrton Senna RIP used his fame and stardom to help so many people and his foundation still does to this day. More "stars" and celebrity actors etc should help the needy the way Ayrton helped people, especially children. He was a incredible human in the true sense of the word, RIP Ayrton Senna :(
It's terrifying to think that regardless of raw talent mechanical issues can be the difference between life and death 💀
El más grande, el mejor, Ayrton. Cómo argentino y rival a los brasileros en todo deporte lo reconozco, un genio, un talento único, valiente. Grande Senna, descansa en paz😓
Ainda mais ele, humilde e benevolente descanse em paz
Rip Senna
25 years now
Steering broke,.. car went straight to the right, no fishtail...End of Senna, End of story :-( Williams can say all they want.
What most people do not understand is that the the front wheels do not turn the car. The front wheels only influence where the rear wheels are going. If the front wheels lose influence the car will go wherever the rear wheels are pointed...In Senna's case, the wall.
I was saying that back in 94 when it happened. Fist time I saw the crash I thought something broke. There was just no reason for him to just go straight like he did. Still got the old vhs tape from back then.
Won't be long before this all comes out in the wash.
Mechanical failure are part of the risk also? Why do they try to hide it?
+SGDeGalvez Check this video out Senna: Schumacher was cheating and this video Senna The Truth Behind Imola
UniversalSoljrr on senna's trial what was the verdicyt afterall? driver's error or mechanical failure? its obviously the second but did the team pay or they covered it up?
Simple to save their assess
Indeed. It's uncontested fact that the steering column was modified (lengthened) at the track at Senna's request because he didn't have enough clearance between the steering wheel and the monocoque. The team didn't have an option to do a safer or more permanent fix at the track, although they obviously would have done so once back at the factory, probably after Monaco. That's the kind of risk that drivers run all the time. You want to wait for a longer steering column to be manufactured and fitted before you will drive the car again? Fine, you miss two rounds of the championship. I don't know if the welded joint failed and caused the crash, but if it did, I don't think it's a crime. I think it's a risk that team and driver took together and Senna got very unlucky.
@ TheS50b30 - the engineering consensus was that the steering wheel failed due to poor mechanical welding.
The problem was that the prosecution wanted Frank Williams etc found guilty of manslaughter, rather than lesser charges.
Both FISA and Ferrari placed immense pressure on the Italian government regarding this court case, and given the history of the Italian judicial system in general (rather corrupt!), I have no doubt that the decision that was handed down was to appease Ferrari and FISA, i.e. politically and financially motivated.
I'm not an F1 fan, but a drag racer. However, I remember this day like it was yesterday. It would be the equivalent of losing our sports Tony Schumacher. Not knowing much about the sport or the teams, I knew how big of an impact this was. I, as many fans of motorsports in general stopped to say a prayer for his soul, family and team.
Seems to be a brilliant work, I appreciate making and posting this video!
if you go and watch the longer version on board of this race (2 laps or so before the crash)
you can clearly see the steering wheel play get progressively worse and worse leading up to the crash.
concentrate on the yellow button on the wheel and it shows not only violent up and down play, but what looks like in and out (front to back) play as well.
and near the end, the yellow button on the wheel sort of gets darker and less visible, in my opinion because the steering wheel is actually getting pushed in deeper to the front of the car.
combine the absurd amount of steering wheel movement, the lack of corrective tire steering movement, the lack of reference point twitch movement, and hard sudden body lean, has me 100% convinced the steering column broke.
on such a high speed high grip corner, the amount of steering input torque is at its absolute highest.
Sad, but true
Please excuse my ignorance, but I also find it odd that THIS driver would accept a welded connection/increase in such a vital component? He was too much of a perfectionist, I just find it hard to believe he wouldn't have demanded the entire assembly be replaced, the only way to ensure maximum strength?
euroaaRON1 If that was the case Senna must have been aware of it. He would have been aware of the increasing "play" in the steering system. One would have thought that he would have pitted the car.
thehistorywatcher and give up the lead? i dont think the glory days racers from back then thought like todays racers(all out attack vs conservation of engine fuel and tires). especially senna who would do absolutely anything in his power to secure a win.
euroaaRON1]]]
The Williams team did not want to go public with their feelings of annoyance to what the called arrogant driver. The steering graft was faulty and that aspect of "improving steering by personal request" was not mentioned, until there was discovered and questioned in court. Ayrton was passionate about doing the best that he could with understanding of his vehicle and the road surface. I cried for him like I lost a love. God bless him for pushing integration of comprehension of traction and velocity to push the limits.
2:45 He realised that he was unable to do anything when the stearing wheel broke and eventually knew his end was near, panicked and moved his head infront (if u freeze, clearly can see him moving from the back to the front).
Realizing how he felt that moment and from the posture of his body, I shudder and grieve..
R.I.P Legend, always and forever the greatest of all time.
Thank you for this amazing video. The examples and footage made it much easier to understand. Keep up the good work
steering column linkage broke. I'm convinced. Senna forever! you were let down by your team.
Let down by his team? He was the one that insisted the steering column be modified.
I've only ever heard the accusation that Senna asked for the steering column to be lengthened in this video. Sounds like a bunch of crap. It is far easier to adjust the seat position if he wanted to be closer to the wheel.
I have heard it reported that the steering column was modified such that it had two different diameters. The modified piece was a few mm narrower than the rest of the shaft. Why would the inserted piece be smaller in diameter if it was only to make the shaft longer??
What you see in the video is Senna's hand movement doing exactly what you would expect to see when he's holding a load, pushing with a specific force on the wheel to the left, when suddenly all resistance to his push is gone. Resulting in an erratic movement of his hands to recover the connection he felt was lost.
The steering shaft broke. Nat Geo made a critical error assuming that the potentiometer would go to zero indicating no force on the shaft. The wheels are still connected to the shaft and even with no steering wheel connected, the uneven road surfaces would still apply a force back through the column. It's how drivers "feel" the road.
The car, designed by Adrian Newey and assembled under Patrick Head, broke due to the small diameter shaft not able to sustain integrity from multiple sheering-force hits from the road surfaces (metal fatigue). With no plan to change the part out, it would have failed at the next session, the next race. There was nothing unique to Imola, Senna, or the ride height that caused the failure.
What's amazing is that Rubens Barrichello survived.
DarkMadder Too bad the seats are rather fixed in those cars. You wouldn't adjust the seating position because that would shift the weight balance of the car. It is better to bring the wheel and pedals to the driver versus doing the opposite.
You can adjust everything on these cars.
ah the differences in viewpoints from someone using a real name online to someone with a profile picture of cartman from south park. just for the record i know you're right.
The footage from Schumachers car shows it all @ 2:41 Steering column failure also Frank Williams interview he basically admitted he and his team let Senna down and did not follow the correct procedures when modifying it..
What really makes me angry about it all was that Bernie and others hid the fact that Senna and Roland had died on the circuit and they also removed the on board computer.
Do you know the name of the Frank williams interview?
Frank Williams should be in jail. He was convicted and found guilty. Unfortunately, it was too late; the statute of limitations had passed.
It was not Frank Williams fault, it was infact a choice by Adrian Newey and Patrick Head to shorten the steering column.
It was actually a choice by Senna to lengthen the steering column that was reluctantly performed by his engineers who reinforced the hell out of it, because it was a last minute, short term fix. Senna was equally culpable for his own crash (if it was caused by a broken steering column).
Senna (the doc) explained it most accurately by pointing the root cause: disassembling the active suspension, which forced the Williams team to continually tweak the steering during each race, turning his car into a death trap at racing speeds.
I’m now the same age as Senna was when he passed away. Wow he was taken away young. I feel like my life has just started.
Clear as day, the steering column broke and the car goes straight off the track. The video evidence is very striking, this is one of the simplest accidents to explain.
+10DKJUMP The FW16 car suffers low aerodynamic pressure (Senna is out of race - slide at corner in Interlagos circuit). At Imola, the car had understerring, Senna fix it, but the sterring column broke... (my opinion, sorry the bad english)
I remember watching that race live and seeing the accident. I always wondered why it never looked like he lost control do to a slide.
Thank you for putting this together. I remember the crash like it was yesterday. What an incredible talent lost.
I'd love to hear more about it from your point of view
I was born in 2001 and I just recently got to know about Him
I wish I could see him with my own eyes :(
@@biggerinofudge My cousin and I were watching the race live, Ayrton goes straight off, it looked strange even in the brief moment it was happening. He hits the wall, and the camera zooms in on his car. He was motionless, so we knew he was unconscious, but just as the track personnel were gathering around him, his body did a large twitch/lurch and we realized that something very bad had happened. The track marshals got in the way of the cameras and then we knew it was extremely serious. The rest is history. I took 20 years away from F1 after watching Senna die.
@@ckarjala i cannot get my mind around the idea of watching that happen live
i saw christen eriksen get a cardiac arrest live and i couldnt sleep for the atleast two nights
i cannot fathom seeing that happen to him live
thank you so much for sharing that with me
I still cry till this day, what a loss
RIP Great Ayrton Senna. Get well soon Great Schumi!
look at 6:07 Senna steers a little extra, just after that he goes straight in the barriers. you can see by the reaction of the car that something of his steering broke.
Elite Soulfly you could even see it with his head. He’s looking to the left likely as a reaction or habit.
I still watch his videos almost every day. Man how we still miss you ayrton! Legend maybe in a parallel universe he is alive and never died. His loss was greatest in 20th century and felt by every nation , he was ahead of our time
Thank you for sharing this with us.👍. R.I.P
The data showing senna was applying full brakes in the corner also contradicts the claim that he was trying to catch oversteer. If the car was oversteering, a driver of sennas caliber would never apply full brakes since that would severely exasperate the oversteer. The only time a driver would apply brakes in a flat out full speed corner like that would be if the car was severely *understeering* - and the only time a driver of sennas caliber would apply *full* brakes in that situation was if the front was unresponsive and the car was headed straight off.
The steering on that car was not working you can see that.
***** Does this mean that the technicians should have done a improper job.? Whey did not they say NO ,if it was not possible to do it properly. How could they take this responsibility? Senna most probably created a big pressure on them however, a good technician can convince the pilot with reasons. At the end he is not stupid.
Ender Conka Sorry, but in racing, there is no "proper job", you do what you can to get the car running fast & on the track in time to race! At the track, there is not time or opportunity for safety testing of design changes. A passenger vehicle steering column design change would take a year of design, analysis, testing and vehicle crash testing before going into a production vehicle. The racing teams & drivers do not choose to not race because they anticipate a safety concern! If they did, no race car would ever take the green flag ... under the best conditions, its dangerous, humans are involved, who try their best under the conditions, its part of the accepted risk.... no one can be blamed for Senna's death, it's racing,
Ender Conka No, there was a huge investigation afterwards, Williams was found to be completely blameless.
watch after he turns into the slide. He cant turn the wheels back to the left because the steering isn't working.if it was he would have tried.
wayne burgess Not necessarily, it's hard to explain since it comes so naturally but you wouldn't necessarily turn away from a wall if you were heading towards it, especially not if you didn't feel the grip to do so. Take Schumacher's accident where he broke his legs, he drove the car straight into the wall since he didn't have the grip to turn.
Even 'IF', the skid pad underneath the car touched the ground reducing the downforce and grip, the wheels would still have turned on Sennas steering commands and the car would not have suddenly veered straight off ahead, perfectly in a straight line as it did. There was no influence from the steering wheel to the wheels and they automatically returned to the centre position, and that would only happen from a broken steering column. Maybe William's are now where they belong to be, in the back and forgotten shadows of Formula One, where they hold no right to great praise and glory. William's, you did this man and great driver, a great injustice.
You totally convinced me. I thought I wouldn’t but it was so straightforward (no pun intended) and so pedagogic that it amazed me. You should do this for a living…. Explain complicated things that is.
the truth will never truly be known but some sneaky stuff was done at Williams to cover there arses.
I believe the steering failed & it was a perfect storm of bad things.
a day I'll never forget.
there will never be another Senna.
Death finds reasons ..weather steering , tires or head injury .We miss the legend and i still remember Schumacher was asked winning the same numbers of grand prix after lot of years ..he simply had tears .I love and miss you
I still remember the interview a few months before his death. He said,"You have to live, breathe, EVERYTHING, driving, because one mistake and it's over." 😢😢🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️❤️
Great analysis. Your points are valid and well documented (if not too much, c.f. sparks in the 4/5 vid).
I'm a welding specialist (IWS) and was taught that in critical structures, welding should be avoided if possible.
A point to be made is that Senna was reckless; he was extremely fast because he was talented but not only. There were multiple times where he got away with pushing the envelope and that last time... Murphy caught back to him, unfortunately. R.I.P., he was still a nice guy nonetheless.
p.s. I wish luck to all who are racing out there !
Something mechanical broke on that turn, and it points to the steering mechanism, if you have any knowledge of driving or racing cars you can see it in the vid by the non-movement of the front wheels in the turn.
One thing to remember was Sienna had crashed this same car in the two races before this crash took his life! Who is to say that it was not the previous crash that weakened the steering column
not the same car. they change it.
"if you have any knowledge of driving or racing cars" - which you clearly don't. Idiot
@@mylanmiller9656 Because it broke at the weld?
Williams took you away from us Senna but your spirit wasn't destined for this world. You were too good and were needed elsewhere.
RIP to the greatest F1 driver ever to grace the sport. You will never be forgotten.
The Williams team killed Ayrton Senna with a failed steering fix and this is just another BS cover story.
We will never forget.
Now it’s the pace car did it.
Can definitely see his attempt to steer the car harder in his left wing mirror. As the steering breaks and the car begins driving straight for the wall he uses his entire body to try and steer the car to the left. Such an unfortunate accident
I think this video gets to the logical conclusion, that the steering column broke. Unfortunately Senna had something to do with this, as he was the one demanding the change to the column. I always wondered why the in-car footage always stopped before Senna's car started to leave the track. Obvious conclusion, they didn't want to show the car not being turned into the spin. However, everyone in F1 knows every shot the team gets is being recorded, so the exclusion of that video pointed to a conspiracy not to show that footage.
It is silly to suggest that Senna had anything at all to do with the steering column failure. True, he did ask for adjustments to the position of the steering wheel but he didn't actually carry the changes - the Williams technical team did. It would be like if took your car into your mechanic complaining of a wheel imbalance and then the wheel subsequently falls off on the highway after the mechanic fixed the problem, then somehow you are partially responsible for that! This was not Ayrton's fault at all.
tor378a Look, you and I both liked Senna. But Senna was smart enough to know every little thing that was happening to the car. If he asked for a change to the steering column, he would have asked the mechanics how they were going to accomplish this. If they didn't have a shorter column laying around, he would have asked about cutting and welding it. Then he probably wanted to see what they had done afterwards. Senna was desperate to finish a race at the beginning of the season, as he had not yet done so. Also getting pole was a big deal. He probably knew there was a risk and took the chance. No way is Senna dropping the car off at the local mechanic, and saying fix it. He was a pro after all, and looked after every detail. He took a chance and it bit him.
John G. Hill I don't understand why F1 would allow a steering column to be cut and welded!
John G. Hill you are right
John G. Hill no they in any motorsport don't show crash unless it is happening while recording race so they gone to overview so crash is seen plus we would never see crash if camera wasn't on senna car just cuz senna wasn't moving same as bianci they never showed it only some ppl got video but fia never showed from cameras
It is so obvious that the steering column broke. There's not a millimeter of tire twitch as the steering wheel moves left and down.
"An explosion of sparks" oh boy this is going to be dumb
Before the race he had the steering wheel raised by 2" this would have entailed cutting the stem and sleeving it with a weld at each end.
Now the original stem would almost certainly be made of t45 or similar chromoly tubing the sleeve or spigot would have needed to be the same material then heat treated to normalize it after welding unless it was brazed here is the problem, if this is not done, and it is doubtful they had facilities at the circuit, the area around the weld would become very brittle and prone to crack.
I think the pressure on the stem going into tamburello was enough to fatally fracture the makeshift modification....maybe.
@xellossaxon I didn't say otherwise, I believe that is true.
Even birds on the threes knows that steering columne broke, theory that senna understeer and cold tires is stupid.
When watching another video from the cockpit view in real time in his documentary, you can see that it looks like the steering wheel is turned to the left the whole time and than (sort of) snaps. left with car going to the outside. It was not a driver error.. RIP Ayrton
every other time the rear end kicks out, reaction is to take the foot of the throttle to counter. There was no feedback from the car to the driver, to me seemed like something snapped
Great video. I really understand so much more about Senna's accident after seeing this.
I'm impressed because you had access to new information like, i didn't see any of the Schumacher's cockpit view ou Senna's cockpit.
Fantastic series charrotest.The way you've covered this incident was amazing.It was all so well done with actual evidence and logic.
Thank god driver safety has come so far and become so,so much better
The death of Ayrton was a dark day in the sport and the loss of f1's biggest legend scarred it and changed it forever.The way the whole NatGeo documentary was presented was disgustingly filled with propaganda to save Williams' blushes.I doubt I'd ever be able to respect them as a team or wish them the best now.There is still a lot of details and evidence that has been covered up and hidden so well,which is absolutely disgusting.People deserve to know what really happened.We need closure and the shambolic reasoning given to us by the FIA and Williams race team is pathethic.I'll always have these sense of remorse/regret for i wish i was born earlier to see Ayrton ripping it up on track in his prime and I wish i could've met him.He must've been the best sight to see on a race track for an era.The race going through after Roland's tragic death was wrong and what happened with Ayrton was the dark hand of fate and lady luck.
The world of motorsport lost two amazing drivers that day and two amazing human beings.A lot has been left unanswered in terms of what actually happened and what could've been if things were different.How much more could they have achieved?
How many races could they have won? How many more titles could Ayrton have won? And how long would they have gone on for? Would it have been Ayrton and not Schumacher with the most no. of titles now? We,ll never know.
All we can do is wish these two amazing people the very best wherever they are.Keep rippin it Ayrton and Roland.
Rest easy now guys.
I had never seen this National Geographic documentary before. For a company with some degree of an appreciation for genuine science, it's painful to watch how much they got so completely wrong. My guess is that, having no idea that someday their documentary could be examined over and over by anyone with a personal computer, they could just make up any old B.S. they felt like and make some easy money selling ad time. They also probably weren't expecting millions of people to use their computers to run a free video program with the ability to quickly pause (almost as fast as frame by frame), then quickly rewind and start over. I never did understand why, for so long, there seemed to be a large amount of time where Senna's car just disappeared from camera view. I always thought, "Damn, of all the times for the director to switch cameras". Now it makes sense: Williams and the FIA literally deleted part of the tape. I also have wondered about the camera "glitch" from Schumacher's car at the exact moment we might have seen something telling from the video evidence. I wonder if that glitch was another part of the cover-up for the Italian courts?
I agree. Theres no possible way that both 'just happen' to switch off and glitch. I think it's clear they dont want anyone to know but the fact is, someone does know what happened. Theres no possible way for there not to be someone on the williams/fia teams that doesn't know what really happened to Senna
The National Geographic Channel is majority owned by the Fox Network. Always bear that in mind when watching the "documentaries" on the channel. Nat Geo in fact has little to do with the content.
Neither Williams nor the FIA have anything to do with the video. F1 owns it. You need to understand how racing is organized. FIA is the umbrella organization under which all other racing organizations reside, including NASCAR, SCCA, Indycar, etc. (you can tell I'm from the USA Lol).
But in this particular case F1 owns all of the video. F1 controls all the video and then provides the video feed to the networks. Someone at F1 happened to switch the video from Senna's car to the Tamburello shot at a moment that makes complete sense for a casual fan watching the race. It's just unfortunate that he or she chose that moment to do it.
The question I have is: Was Senna's in-car feed only accessed by the person controlling the feed to the networks or was it recorded separately? I imagine that it was NOT recorded separately, otherwise it would have come out at the hearing.
@@SRFDriver In those days, no TV companies had the facilities to record all their cameras, they recorded just the live feed. Nowadays things are different, especially since most programs are now stored on hard disc.
2020 crazy year. Still missing Senna R.I.P
I've always strongly suspected that his steering column was sabotaged, guaranteeing that it would fail in the race. Obviously we'll never know, but given the intense feelings involved in the rivalry with Prost and the extreme competitiveness of these drivers, well, let's just put it this way: if someone could devise a way to eliminate Senna and make it look like an accident, it was gonna happen.
what´s indeed weird is that professionals like Head and Newey were okay with such a crappy solution and Senna complained about the weird behaving car. Which Hill didn´t. And because only Senna had the modified steering column, this should have raised alarm bells. For some strange reason, this didn´t happen. That should definitely rise eyebrows, because it seems a bit too unprofessional.
I don't think the crash happened due to a slide.
1. It's very unlikely that a driver reacts fast enough so you don't see a slide (especially at this speed)
2. When the front suddenly grips you see a turn into the opposite direction or even a slide but there is nothing like that which would be impossible at this high speed.
3. Why is there no slide one lap before when the car was lower?
4. Everybody was touching the ground in this corner at this particular place so why is there not even one car sliding there? Because these cars doesn't slide there.
5. Senna already drove through this corner many times (Practice or Qualifying). When the car was set up that low that this corner creates problems why hadn't he had any problems in the previuos sessions?
For me it's obvious that something broke because the reaction of the car simply exists out of the fact that it doesn't react to the steering anymore. The tyres are still working so it's not the suspension which broke. Additional to that there is no slide so there is no failure at the rear.
For me it can only be the broken steering column which was found in the wreck afterwards. As far as I know the steering column wasn't one piece how it's supposed to be. It was welded so I think it's possible that it was weakened after the hard bump in lap 6 so the still hard bump in lap 7 was enough to let it break.
I'm no specialist but for me it seems to be the only possible explanation.
I agree with you.
Thats the most plausible explanation I've heard both from media and personal opinion
The reason no one slid there the lap before is they took Tamburello at a slow enough speed so they wouldn't slide. The next lap Senna tried to go around the corner just a little bit too fast. Damon Hill certainly thinks so and he was the only other person driving that exact same car around the corner on that day. He went too fast and slid off the track period.
Tamburello has been a corner in which you could easily go flat out. So I don't get the point of the difference compared to a lap before. That doesn't make sense at all
***** "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control." - Italian court
Senna and Dale Earnhardt, two men who admired each other very much, both died of the same injury. 6 men were killed in NASCAR due to that same injury within a 2-ish year span in the late 90s and early 2000s. Driver safety has come so far, but there is always more to be done
Senseless loss of life.. it seems hard to comprehend this was nearly 30 yrs ago. RIP 😢
here in Brazil, the documentary of the brazilian tv was that: before the race started, there was a modification in the car's steering system, and the constant hits with the ground caused such maintenance to fail, breaking the column that connects the wheels with the steering wheel, causing him to lose control of the car.
it looks like it was instant death as part of the car impaled his head.
I'm Brazilian. But Senna belongs to the World. A great human being and F1 GOAT
Very interesting stuff . I've watched it over and over again and it certainly looks like something broke in the car I don't see any evidence of driver error or it being a situation of a lack of downforce or the chassis bottoming out
+dill doe a If you watch his onboard cam video of the last moments, you'll see a weird white thing (smoke?) coming out of the
bushes to the right of the track. Right next you can see part of his helmet (which never shows up on cam, we can only see his hands), as if
he becomes unconscious and his head falls to the left.
+piratesephiroth do have a link ? I haven't found anything on RUclips. But what could hit through a helmet that won't even break if a tank is driving over it ?
+dill doe Check this video out Senna: Schumacher was cheating and this video Senna The Truth Behind Imola
icewhite69: What are you talking about? The helmets back then were made of fiberglass with padding in them. They were essentially the same thing you can buy at any race shop. Helmets these days are made of carbon fiber which makes them lighter and stronger. But neither type will prevent penetration of a sharp object if that object has enough force.
It wasn't that the steering was the cause of the accident it was the way the car was lowerd too much it played amajor part in the control of the car the plate under wore quicker and cause more vibration to the car a senna r I p
So much respect for the editors for never showing the moment that people watching live saw that we knew Ayrton was dead. I have watched many doco's & none have shown the 2 seconds of footage from the crane camera that looked directly down onto Senna's car that was switched to just as the car came to a stop. He twitched & fell limp in the cockpit. It almost seems like divine intervention that nobody has ever turned up with a full video copy of the broadcast recorded at home on VHS or Beta video tape. I'm glad, I have it burned into my memory and don't need to see it again
Difference in these half headed examples is the speed involved. Tamburello you’re pulling almost 200mph through it. Look at what happens when the back steps out on an Indy Car on an oval for a more relevant comparison. Senna lifted a fraction over a bump as the back stepped out on him, which dipped the front wing outside of its operating window and it stalled. Newey has even admitted this. The FW15C was based around active suspension where the aero surfaces are much more static. He made a mess of the FW16 and the front wing was prone to stalling when it got too near to the track. The same was true of the diffuser, but to a lesser extent because of the sidepod design. The car would oversteer and understeer often at the same time. In this case the back gripped back up again as the front lost grip, the balance shifted and the car veered off to the right. It was equipment failure, but not the steering column. It’s amazing how even people like Alboreto were not aware that an aero stall can look just like an actual mechanical break in terms of how a car behaves…