Imola crashes (part 2)

July 16, 2007 - Retro

Part 1, you might remember covered some massive accidents but none of them had anything - other than the track - in common. This brings us on to the second and final installment of our round-up of crashes at Imola. All these have one thing in common, they all happen at the fearsome corner, Tamburello.

Nelson Piquet, 1987
Like a ghost of the future Nelson's crash is almost a mirror image of Senna's in 1994. Hitting the wall backwards is probably what saved this Brazilian's life but it looks none the less shockingly violent.

Gerhard Berger, 1989
With Senna leading the race, Berger is chasing Patrese on Lap 3 when he leaves the track straight on. Impacting on the right-front, the car continues along the wall before coming to rest facing the wall at the exit of the corner. No sooner has he come to a halt when fire engulfs the car. Reminiscent of crashes in the past where drivers have died in post accident fires all eyes turn and hope that the marshals arrive to extinguish the flames. Within a few moments they arrive and a few moments after that the flames are out. Berger survives – with burns - thanks to luck and some fast marshals.

Ayrton Senna, 1994
Formula 1’s blackest day ever happens that this very corner. After a turbulent weekend that led to the death of Roland Ratzenberger and a massive accident for Barrichello, Senna is on pole and led from the start whilst behind Lehto and Lamy collide leaving car parts everywhere. With the pace car out to help clear the debris, the track is soon cleared and the pace car is back in. One lap later Senna looses control and plunges off the track head first in to the wall.

The crash

His last lap

Posted by Jules at July 16, 2007, 3:29 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: formula one, formula1, f1, imola, senna, crash, gerhard, berger, nelson, piquet, 1994, 1989, 1987

Monaco laps

May 20, 2007 - Retro

Monaco is the kind of track that sorts the men from the boys. The rogues drivers from the boring drivers. Dirty tricks are can be employed liberally  almost without anyone noticing.  Think Schumacher's qualifying lap in 2006 or Senna holding off Mansell for 3 laps until the end of the race.

Despite all this I decided to look into some single laps - I'll get to the others another time.

Martin Brundle, 1989
Despite being a Brabham-Judd, Brundle qualified it 4th on the streets of Monaco. Ultimately ending up a respectable 6th 2 laps behind winning Senna. This lap has Brundle commentating on what he was doing through the lap which ended in a spin just after the swimming pool complex.

Ayrton Senna, 1990
Probably the most famous footage of a lap of Monaco ever. Senna pilots his McLaren around the track to secure pole position and in the end the race win - for the second year in a row.




Micheal Schumacher, 2000
Monaco genius or track blocker? Either way this is Schumacher on his way to secure pole for in the 2000 race.


Ralf Schumacher, 2005
Who could have Monaco without Ralf Schumacher stuffing it into the barrier. Toyota new boy made a new boy mistake at Tabac trying to qualify. Whilst Ralf complained of a headache we laughed at yet another dismal qualifying performance.

Posted by Jules at May 20, 2007, 10:28 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: ferrari, mclaren, judd, brabham, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2005, monaco, brundle, senna, schumacher, f1, formula1, formula one