Formula 1 ace Ayrton Senna died 30 years ago. The Miami Grand Prix honors him this week
Auto racing’s biggest month of the year begins with the 30th anniversary of the shocking death of one of its greatest drivers, a death that is being remembered at the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix by art.
The race’s race control building will be decorated with a mural by Brazlian artist Eduardo Kobra that celebrates his countryman and three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna. The work will be unveiled Thursday afternoon, 30 years and a day after the May 1, 1994, San Marino Grand Prix.
Senna started on pole as the fastest qualifier for the 65th time in F1, almost twice as many as then-second place Jim Clark. On the seventh lap, Senna went into Imola Circuit’s left hand Tamburello corner at 192 mph. Senna’s Williams car didn’t turn left. He smashed into a concrete barrier.
Aryton Senna de Silva was 34.
Senna’s death cast a pall over all racing that month, especially after the death of Roland Ratzenberger in San Marino qualifying the day before. The fatalities, F1’s first in 12 years and the last for 20, felt like a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s, when rarely a season passed without serious injury or death. Numerous safety changes ensued in F1. Italian courts and some studies blamed a faulty steering column, but there’s never been complete agreement on what happened.
Brazil declared a three-day national mourning period for the driver who not only succeeded Brazilian world champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet, but exceeded their achievements. After success with Team Lotus, Senna slid to McLaren, where he and Alain Prost fueded and dominated the late 1980s. Senna won world titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991, his yellow helmet becoming the symbol of breathtaking speed.
For those who love to wallow in speed, May brings heaven. Formula 1’s signature race, Monaco, ends a month of three Grands Prix, the first of which will be Sunday in Miami Gardens. NASCAR runs at Kansas Sunday, then goes to its roots for races at Darlington and North Wilkesboro before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
And, on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, after Monaco and before the Coca-Cola 600, the world’s biggest single day sporting event, the race that gave the IndyCar series its name: the Indianapolis 500.
A week before, there’s qualifying for the Indy 500. Two weeks before the bigger race, there’s what some fans call “Twisty Indy,” the Sonsio Indy GP on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course originally built for Formula 1.
