“I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton’s death”– Adrian Newey feels guilty about his mistakes which possibly affected fatal crash of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994

Tanish Chachra | 30/01/2022
"I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton’s death"– Adrian Newey feels guilty about his mistakes which possibly affected fatal crash of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994

Ayrton Senna lost his life after a tragic accident during a race in Imola, and Adrian Newey, in his book, reveals how he was possibly at fault too.

Formula 1 lost one of its biggest heroes when Ayrton Senna crashed at Imola and later succumbed to the injuries. It is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the sport’s history.

At that time, Senna was driving FW16, and Adrian Newey, one of the most skilful designers in F1’s history, was the architect behind it. No matter how reliable Newey was and will remain, he thinks he had a hand in the crash too. Though, he is not sure how certain that claim is.

In the book written by Newey- “How to build a car”, Newey discusses how his mistakes, along with Patrick Head, could have affected the fatality of the crash.

Speaking about the crash in the book, Newey described the incident blamed “two very bad pieces of engineering” which “Patrick [Head] and I were responsible for”.

“Regardless of whether that steering column caused the accident or not, there is no escaping the fact that it was a bad piece of design that should never have been allowed to get on the car.

Also read: Ayrton Senna’s representation asks an NFT page to take down his image from the collection

What Adrian Newey feels most guilty about when it comes to Ayrton Senna?

Newey even claimed that he feels a degree of responsibility for Senna’s death. He reveals that his modifications in the car in 1993 made the car aerodynamically unsustainable.

“What I feel the most guilt about, though, is not the possibility that steering column failure may have caused the accident because I don’t think it did, but the fact that I screwed up the aerodynamics of the car,

“I messed up the transition from active suspension [in 1993] back to passive and designed a car that was aerodynamically unstable, in which Ayrton attempted to do things the car was not capable of doing.”

“Whether he did or didn’t get a puncture, his taking the inside, faster-but-bumpier line in a car that was aerodynamically unstable would have made the car difficult to control, even for him.

“I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton’s death but not culpability,” said Newey.

Also read: Lewis Hamilton bids heartfelt tribute to Ayrton Senna before Brazilian Grand Prix

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Adrian Newey Ayrton Senna Williams

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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