Damon Hill says Ayrton Senna was known for not yielding from a fight and he himself was responsible for his death.
Ayrton Senna suffered a horrific crash in Imola in 1994 that cost him his life at the age of 34. Damon Hill, Senna’s Williams teammate at that time believes that there was nothing wrong with the car that they both were driving.
After missing the first two races of the 1994 season, Senna declared that the race in Italy was where his season would start. However, on the seventh lap, Senna’s Williams left the racing line and hit the concrete barriers at around 233km/h.
He was immediately airlifted to the hospital but the Brazillian racing driver did not survive the crash.
Talking about his teammate’s death, Hill, as reported by BBC, said, “I am convinced that he made a mistake, but many people will never believe that he could. Why not? He made many mistakes in his career.”
“Ayrton Senna was as frail and vulnerable as you and I” – Hill
Senna crashed at the Tamburello corner which was considered to be relatively straightforward at the Imola track. Hill feels that his teammate took the corner a bit too fast for the conditions at that time.
“I have listened to and read endless theories about why, or how, he could have crashed on such a ‘simple’ corner like Tamburello,” the Briton said.
“No one other than Senna and I know what it was like to drive that car, through that corner, on that race day, on cold tyres.”
Hill added, “He was identified with pushing to the limit and beyond. He would often prefer to crash into his opponent rather than be defeated. It was not the fault of anyone else that he kept his foot flat when he could have lifted.”
“These opinions are sacrilege in the world of driving gods,” he said. “Ayrton was a great driver and a man with enormous humanity. He was not a god. He was as frail and vulnerable as you or I.”
