Erik Comas was the last driver to see Ayrton Senna after his crash at the 1994 San Marino GP and he felt horrible being unable to do anything.
Brazillian racing driver, Ayrton Senna crashed into the pit in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and passed away. The previous day Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger had died when his car crashed during qualification for the race.
Erik Comas, who drove Larrousse at the time and was present on the track that day, said that a kind of paralysis fell upon him when he witnessed the accident. He parted ways from F1 after that season.
Talking about the unfortunate event in an interview, Comas said, “There I was standing next to a man who, two years earlier, had saved my life, and I couldn’t do anything to help him, and that felt horrible.”
In 1992, Senna had saved Comas’ life at the Belgian Grand Prix. Comas crashed into the wall during the qualifying race and immediately fell unconscious. Senna who came right behind him stopped his car and shut off the engine of Comas’ car to reduce the risk of fire.
Recalling the day of Senna’s death, Comas said that he was sitting next to Senna during the pre-race briefing for the first time. There had already been a lot of incidents at that particular weekend.
“We were all in a very peculiar state of mind. There had been Ruben’s[Ruben Barrichello] crash, the death of Roland Ratzenberger the day before.”
“We were all in a state of shock, what had happened felt like it was not real,” he further added.
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Even after the accident that killed Roland Ratzenberger and the crash of Ruben Barrichello, the governing bodies did not take any action.
When asked if Senna was also touched by the events that unfolded, Comas said, “yes, Senna remarked that something had to be done to prevent that from happening.”
However, he does not believe that a certain emotional weakness is what caused Senna’s death. Comas said, “Simply put, we were all traumatised because there would be one of us missing on the grid.”
Furthermore, speaking about Senna’s accident, Comas narrated the event: “When I came to the Tamburello corner the medical helicopter, the ambulances, Ayrton’s car were all already there.”
“I saw Ayrton was already put on a stretcher so I stopped my car. I was in the middle of the track a few feet away from the drama. It felt like an atomic bomb just exploded at Tamburello. There truly was a heavy atmosphere hanging over the area and without knowing any details, I knew it was very bad.”
“He saved my life and I came too late, and I am not a doctor, in any case, he was in worst shape than I was. his accident was different to mine. But to find me at his side feeling so powerless was such a horrible experience that after 10 years I have only recently been able to talk about it.”
“For me, that was really the end of the book on F1,” he further added.
Moreover, Comas also believes that the governing bodies should have stopped the race. He said that the celebrations at the end of the race were absolutely scandalous and unacceptable.
