Question about Senna's crash at Imola 1994

[330tr]

Bottom post of the previous page:

@kals During the trial, the Williams defense showed a video, where Coulthard play with the steering wheel. Should be this..


Ps. If I offended someone I apologize (maybe I express myself badly and abruptly), but when I hear someone to say that senna "made a mistake THERE" I go MAD (and sad..)..

[erwin greven]

What makes me sad is that some people think Senna was god. Senna made more mistakes than most of his extreme fans can accept. Monaco, Mexico, Japan, Interlagos... In the Tamburello he could have made a mistake too. There was a huge bump on the inside of the corner. Most drivers went around it.

[330tr]

I don't know anyone who thinks that Senna was God.
Senna was a driver, who committed a lot of mistakes; but, as many, many, many professional drivers have said (I'm italian I can testify for Martini, Alboreto, De Cesaris ecc) that in THAT place was simply impossible. Flat out, no accelerations, no braking. What kind of mistake???
I can understand some kind of instability (but...no. The car was simply perfect on 6th lap), mistake there..absolutely not.

It was a mistake exactly like Jim Clark (or Depailler) in Germany.

This is my opinion.

[kals]

He was a driver that was volatile and impulsive. Ayrton being treated as a god is born from the way he departed this world and the fact he was either loved or detested. It's a romance not everyone buys into, certainly those of us of similar ages who saw him race at the time.

[330tr]

I've always believed the cause of Senna going off the circuit was down to diffuser stall, caused by the ride height being to low on his car from low tyre pressures after running behind the safety car. I had never really believed the broken steering column theory up until this point - I accepted that the column had been modified and had broken during the crash, but had not actually broken while on circuit. However a few days ago I saw a video on Youtube which made me rethink this - its posted by 'saggit76' which I think is 330tr who posts on here sometimes, and is a regular on gpx.it. He has put together some very interesting (and in my opinion, very accurate) computer simulations in the past on Villeneuve and Bandini's shunts. His video below I believe contains the raw onboard camera footage that is available with the overlaid data that was put together by an Italian company for the court trial, but 330tr has added an overlay of the steering wheel at the end of the video to better highlight the movement of the steering wheel just before the camera feed ends. Judge for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3xbZBd9SrA

I see only now this..
Thank you for the quote!
I made an superimposition between the steering wheel positions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; according to Pilcher testify in trial the steering wheel has no changes in position.
I made a video for Hill too, only for the begin of 7th lap; compared to Senna's his car is very nervous.

Then, following what was done by the University of Bologna (CINECA), I measured the movement of the steering wheel of Senna's Williams in the last few frames.
My results was 8 cm. (3 inch); i read later in the book of Santoro that CINECA in the trial measured 7 cm; after that, the defensers of Williams brought to the court the Coulthard's video with the "springy" steering wheel..

Do you believe that those movement are possible?

[erwin greven]

yes.

And that his car was nervous was because he was overdriving the car.

[330tr]

The column is in steel, fixed to the..centring (I'm not sure of the term) by 2 bolts, free length of deflection 22 cm (8,6 inch).







Can steel bend 7 cm (2,7inch)?
It was fixed by springs?

[330tr]

Here the superimposition.
Grey: warm up lap
purple: Tamburello, 6th lap
red: last lap until the end

[Ian-S]

I don't want to pour petrol on a smouldering fire but I did know several people close to the team around that time who were, in private, convinced the steering column failed at some point during the accident, but there was also a veil of secrecy within the team over what happened and as it was put to me, they'll go to their graves with that knowledge.

There is certainly enough cloak and dagger activities surrounding the accident from both the FIA and Williams to cast doubt on the 'official account of what happened' from them.

[330tr]

Yes, I agree, I think exactly so. What pains me is this veil of uncertainty that continues to persist, regard to an event that seems obvious to me, a simple mechanical failure!
I understand it was chosen a line of defense (fault of a trial that should not be done), and now they have to keep it, but we are in 2018!
Year 1994, in "Worldvision". It seems to speak about the Ascari crash, which did not even have an image nor a testify!!
Furthermore, I really appreciate Head's silence, instead of Newey's half-assertions..
About Hill, I read something of him very interesting, I got a personal idea which has to do with psychology and self-conviction.

[330tr]

Here a small excerpt from is autobiography, very interesting. Translated english/italian,/english.. if someone got the original..thanks!

"I had to convince myself that I really understood what had happened or otherwise I would never have gone back to Williams. I loved my family too much."
https://thewastegate.wordpress.com/2017 ... biografia/

Newey and the "fatigue"
"There’s no doubt that the steering column failed and the big question was whether it failed in the accident or did it cause the accident? It had fatigue cracks in it and it would have failed at some point. There is no question that its design was very poor. However, all the evidence suggests the car did not go off the track as a result of steering column failure"
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/ ... enna-death

[Michael Ferner]

So, you're going to present your "evidence" to Mr. Newey?

[330tr]

[LaraCroft2016]

Well, that's what Damon Hill says in his book, "Senna was pushing so hard his Williams trying to be ahead of Schumacher without knowing Schumacher's benetton was lighter in fuel, so it was an unnecessary push to start with and with that push lost the control of his car." but Damon Hill is the same guy that doesn't know where Senna and Schumacher took one second of difference in qualifying.
There're people who still believe Senna was alive after the crash even the fact the autopsy says it was instant death, the same for Ratzenberger, anyway.

[330tr]

Well, that's what Damon Hill says in his book, "Senna was pushing so hard his Williams trying to be ahead of Schumacher without knowing Schumacher's benetton was lighter in fuel, so it was an unnecessary push to start with and with that push lost the control of his car." but Damon Hill is the same guy that doesn't know where Senna and Schumacher took one second of difference in qualifying.
There're people who still believe Senna was alive after the crash even the fact the autopsy says it was instant death, the same for Ratzenberger, anyway.

Thanks!
Then he belives:
1) Piquet and Berger made a mistake @ Tamburello
2) Senna was pushing too hard and he too made a mistake there..


Piquet: "A tyre of his Williams FW11B failed, which resulted in a violent impact against the wall".https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Sa ... Grand_Prix

Berger: "..the car was to make it ungovernable state of detachment ' front wing"
https://www.livegp.it/en/memories/77-ra ... l8OyRHcntI

I'd like to ask Damon how was possible push more than "flat out" in a straight curved to face at maximum power.
All cars in 1994 went flat-out there. I made some recordings in there (that V12 Ferrari..I'm shivering till now!)

[Antonov]

Damon mentioned in his autobiography that he took a slightly wider line through Tamburello to avoid two bumps - Senna tackled them straight-on.