Rubens Barrichello witnessed a rare Ayrton Senna just days before the latter suffered a horrific crash that ended his life in Italy. The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix is one of the most infamous races in F1 history. Apart from Senna’s fatal crash, this particular race weekend also saw Roland Ratzenberger’s pass away due to a crash. In fact, Barrichello himself crashed that weekend. That, according to Barrichello, left Senna absolutely devastated.
Barrichello said as quoted by Tom Rubython in The Life of Senna: The Biography of Ayrton Senna, “The first face I saw [after the crash] was Ayrton’s. He had tears in his eyes. I had never seen that with Ayrton before. I just had the impression he felt as if my accident was like one of his own.”
Barrichello suffered an accident on Friday when he clipped a curb and crashed his Jordan at the Variante Bassa chicane in Imola. The speed of his crash was over 225 kilometers per hour [140 miles per hour]. Following the crash, the former Brazilian driver saw an emotional Senna, a rare sight in the paddock.
Fortunately, Barrichello turned out to be lucky as the crash was not deadly. Nevertheless, Senna went on to set the fastest lap in that session after the crash. Senna also went on to take P1 in the same session where Ratzenberger lost his life.
Ayrton Senna feared for his life despite being fearless
Ayrton Senna was often known to be fearless and fast. Despite this, he also had fear for his life as revealed by Gerd Kremer in Tom Rubython’s biography book on Senna. This was primarily because of the removal of driver-aids during the later part of his career.
Speaking on this, Kremer said, “The last time I saw Ayrton was in Brazil, at the Grand Prix. It was his birthday and he told me he was worried. He was afraid something would happen to him. He was frightened for the young drivers.”
Admittedly, Senna opposed the driver aids when he was driving for McLaren initially. But his stance over it changed as he came to Williams. However, the FIA decided to ban it despite all the opposition citing the safety issues and to make the races more exciting.
