The world of F1 was shaken and heartbroken to its very core when the Brazillian F1 legend met his terrible fate at Imola in 1994.
The roads of Brazil were crowded and multiple well-known personalities came to honour the 3-time world champion at his funeral.
Senna’s accident in 1994 can be seen as a racing incident but at the time Williams and its designer Adrian Newey were charged with manslaughter by the Italian courts.
Patrick Head, who co-founded the Williams Racing team once said that Senna’s death in Imola led to the decline of the Williams team.
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Ayrton Senna and Williams’ decline
Speaking to the BBC in 1991, Head explained that the 1994 Imola put conservatism into the sport which was proper.
But it took the Williams F1 team 5 years to get cleared by the Italian courts from the charges of manslaughter.
Head revealed that it wasn’t until the 1999 season that he and Adrian Newey were finally rid of the charges. With these cases looming over their heads, Williams still dominated most of the 1990s but ever since 1998, the team has only struggled.
At first, they lost Newey to Mclaren then their deal with Renault collapsed as the French company decided to drive away from F1.
Head conceded that the team was so focused on winning the 1996 and 1997 championships that they missed out on the research and development part.
What happened at the 1994 San Marino GP?
The Brazillian had not won a single of the two opening races in the 1994 season when he headed into the San Marino Grand Prix. During the weekend, he had said that this is where his season would begin.
On Saturday afternoon of the qualifying session, Rubens Barrichello met a terrible accident that broke his arm and nose leading him to withdraw from the event.
Later on the same date, another driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed when he plugged his car into the concrete barriers at 310km/h. The next day, Senna rounded the high-speed Tamburello corner at about 307km/h and ran straight into the concrete.
