Taboo Survival

Sunday’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix brought back memories that nobody in the sport would actually admit it brought back.

While Lewis Hamilton won the race to become the first black driver to ever win an F1 event, it was overshadowed by the horrific crash of Poland’s Robert Kubica on lap 27. Luckily, Kubica, who’s car came apart and rolled a half dozen times while he was still in it, was alright, suffering merely a broken foot.

He’s lucky because if Ayrton Senna, arguably the greatest driver of all time, hadn’t died 13 years ago, Kubica could have died too.The Brazilian was the unquestionable king of Formula 1 before the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Although he had been off to a slow spring, failing to finish in either of the first two races, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the three-time world champion and winner of 41 F1 races got rolling.

His genius behind a wheel may have best been shown in the rain at Donington in 1993.

Senna started fifth. By the end of the first lap, he was in first, on his way to yet another win. Senna passed four cars in five turns, picking them off one-by-one in what was probably the greatest lap ever raced.

1994 was his first season driving for Williams-Renault, having spent the previous six years for McLaren. Senna entered San Marino with points to make up.

On Friday Qualifying, Senna’s fellow countryman Ruben Barrichello was knocked unconscious after his car hit a restraint at 140 mph and then rolled, just like Kubica’s did Sunday. But they kept going.

In fact, Barrichello’s escaped with only minor injuries, making F1 seem to be too safe to ever suffer another death.

However, Saturday qualifying resulted in the first F1 death in 12 years.

Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, forever forgotten as the guy who died the day before Senna, failed to turn his car at the Villeneuve corner and smashed into the wall, breaking his neck. The official cause of death was Basilar skull fracture, the same injury that would claim Dale Earnhardt’s life less than seven years later.

Senna contemplated pulling out of the race and retiring for good, but decided against it. However, he and the other drivers agreed to reform the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, which dealt with safety concerns.

Unfortunately, no changes could be made before Sunday’s race, or really, before the following season. And it was this fact that ended Senna’s life.

Senna had qualified for the poll position, the remarkable 65th of his career. But on the fifth lap, Senna lost control at the Tamburello corner, the site of two major accidents over the previous seven years. The car left that track at 193 mph and in less than two seconds, Senna was able to slow it down to 135.

Then the car hit the concrete wall. It didn’t bounce off or do anything really at all. The front right wheel came off and the suspension to it pierced Senna’s visor. The car slowly drifted back towards the track.

It was 2:17pm on an otherwise beautiful afternoon.

The yellow flags immediately came out and medical crews rushed to Senna’s side. He was motionless.

Then the red flags came. The race was stopped.

Senna was airlifted to a hospital, but it was no use. In the early evening, he was declared dead, with the time of death being 2:17pm.

Ayrton Senna, the greatest race car driver of all time, had been killed instantly.

But the story that should be told is that Robert Kubica is alive because of something nobody in the sport wants to talk about.

Video of the Senna crash at YouTube has received hundreds of comments since this Sunday’s race, as Kubica’s crash still today brings back memories of Ayrton Senna. But only a couple of news reports even mention Senna’s 1994 death, and none would attribute it to the reason Kubica is still alive today.

The day after the event, some newspapers called for banning auto racing. Although that did not happen, safety changes occurred almost immediately.

At San Marino, Tamburello corner was changed from a high-speed left hand curve to a slow-speed chicane. Numerous other tracks followed suit, altering their more challenging turns due to safety concerns.

But most importantly, the F1 car was radically changed.

The cars were made narrower and required to ride higher off the track. Slick tires were banned and all tires were required to have grooves. And tires had to be attached with cables to prevent them from flying off.

And this was because rookie Roland Ratzenberger and three-time world champion Ayrton Senna died.

Had Senna not died, had only Ratzenberger died, it is unlikely such swift changes would have occurred. But because the greatest had died, just like with Dale Earnhardt in NASCAR, F1 had no choice.

Over the last 13 years, not a single person has died in Formula 1. Over the last 13 years, because of safety changes, accidents such as Robert Kubica’s have not been fatal when before, they very well could have been.

On that first Sunday in May 1994, Michael Schumacher won the restarted race under very bittersweet circumstances. It was his third win in three races that year and fifth of his career. He would go on to win the first of his seven world championships that year.

While Schumacher would go on and accomplish more than Senna on the track, he couldn’t come close to accomplishing what Senna did in dying.

Nobody at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix wanted to think about Ayrton Senna, even though that was the first thing that came to everyone’s mind when Robert Kubica careened into the wall.

Even though Ayrton Senna is the reason Robert Kubica is still alive.

It may be taboo to say something like that, but it has to be said. It has to be remembered.

It has to be remembered for the sport and for the lives that Ayrton Senna saved in dying.