The scene of the crash which claimed the life of Ayrton Senna is marked on the trophies which will be awarded to the top finishers in today’s race at Imola.
Formula 1 has returned to the circuit where the three-times world champion died during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, for the 13th round of this year’s world championship.The trophies for the top three drivers and race-winning constructor are modelled on the modern Imola layout, which was extensively revised following the deaths of Senna and Roland Ratzenberger during the 1994 grand prix weekend.
Tamburello, the flat-out left-hand corner where Senna crashed at over 210kph, was turned into a slower chicane following his death. The location of Senna’s crash is marked on each of the trophies by a 0.14 carat diamond, and the plinths carry the message “Dedicate ad Ayrton”.
Lewis Hamilton, who was nine years old when Senna died, said passing the scene of his childhood hero’s crash was a “harsh reminder” of his untimely death.
Senna, widely regarded as one of Formula 1’s greatest drivers, was 34 years old when he died. He was leading the race for Williams at the time.
2020 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix trophy
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2020 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
1st November 2020, 9:16
Is it really just me, or is this getting weird?
on the one Hand this sort of over-fixation in everything senna, and then on the other this particular example just feels,….. i dunno, kinda in poor taste, marking a crash Site on a trophy?
anon
1st November 2020, 9:44
I do have to agree that it is a bit macabre to fixate so heavily on Senna and his accident in that way.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st November 2020, 9:58
Agree, and they overshadow other drivers.
Mike
1st November 2020, 10:03
Agreed, this should not be there. Are we going to be putting dots on every corner of every track that a driver passed? Senna was a good driver, does not make him a more important human being than all the others.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
1st November 2020, 10:08
This is very crass in my opinion
BasCB (@bascb)
1st November 2020, 14:50
I agree that this is not a great idea at all. I would respect it if they included a tribute to Senna in the race buildup. Even if they would have visited the place with all drivers.
But this just seems like a cheap way to monetize his death.
Niefer (@niefer)
1st November 2020, 15:25
I’m glad I’m not alone in this. Two things that disgust me from 94’s legacy: this bizarre cult over Ayrton and the imposed haunting over Imola. There is absolutely no need for two variantes in succession. And actually, Tamburello as it is today is just as dangerous as it was back then: one failure at full speed and you’re done.
cduk_mugello (@cduk_mugello)
1st November 2020, 9:20
All for memorials but this is just weird.
Bradders (@bradders)
1st November 2020, 9:33
Poor Roland.
Pedro Andrade
1st November 2020, 9:41
A bit in poor taste, I think…
Red Andy (@red-andy)
1st November 2020, 9:45
First we have Hamilton raising Schumacher’s helmet like it was the head of some vanquished medieval rival, and now this.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st November 2020, 9:59
I thought that was fine.
Nell (@imabouttogoham)
1st November 2020, 10:08
Anything to hate on Hamilton? Schumacher’s son gave it to him as a token after beating Michael’s record. But sure, keep imagining reality through the lens of some fictionalised medieval world
Red Andy (@red-andy)
1st November 2020, 15:59
Oh, grow up. I thought it was a nice gesture from the Schumacher family and Hamilton was clearly paying tribute to Michael. The image was just pretty funny.
MaddMe (@)
1st November 2020, 11:41
I far from a Hamilton fan, but, passing the helmet over as a drivers record is passed is perfectly acceptable.
When all said and done, Hamilton had equalled a landmark achievement and the raising of the helmet was in honour of Schumacher and his achievements.
I do feel that if they are marking the trophy in memory of Senna, they should also have the location that Ratzenberger tragically crashed too.
John H (@john-h)
1st November 2020, 11:59
Yet again someone turns it into something wrong that Hamilton has apparently done.
Anyway, for what it’s worth my view is the same as others, this is all too much and what about Ratzenberger?
Jabberwock
1st November 2020, 9:48
It’s the American influence now Liberty Media holds the reins. They have to boost interest in F1 especially in the US to make their money back, hence all the BLM and mawkish over-sentimentality we’re seeing now. “Motor racing” is rapidly becoming “virtue signalling racing” – with, I regret to say, one Hamilton, L., leading the charge.
John H (@john-h)
1st November 2020, 11:59
What has this got to do with Senna. Go write this somewhere else.
Jonathan Parkin
1st November 2020, 9:50
I don’t think circuit diagrams should ever be trophies. It should be a cup or something similar
Bradders (@bradders)
1st November 2020, 11:55
They’re a darn sight better than the Heineken star, or the Santander flame thing.
Kasim
1st November 2020, 18:39
True, but the circuit layout trophies are becoming almost as common.. and bad tbh lol
I have to say i miss wreaths given to the winners. And im not an old motersport fan. Or atleast a wreath for the championship winner when the title is won. Plus a spot on that races podium when the title is sealed.
Anyway… most trophies nowadays just aren’t trophies
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
1st November 2020, 9:52
This is a bit too much. This just feels wrong.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
1st November 2020, 9:56
Doesn’t feel right, does it?
In a way it feels like everything they do has to have a Senna reference of some sort. But this one just feels wrong.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
1st November 2020, 9:57
To quote one wise horse: “No Sir, I don’t like it.”
KaIIe (@kaiie)
1st November 2020, 10:01
Oh jeez… why?
Nell (@imabouttogoham)
1st November 2020, 10:09
Memorial to Ayrton aside, it’s a very unsightly trophy.
I get the sentiment, but maybe not on the trophy…?
GeeMac (@geemac)
1st November 2020, 10:11
This is a well meaning gesture I know, but we are at risk of letting the loss of Roland Ratzenberger become a footnote on F1 history and in my book that is absolutely not on. Obviously Senna was the star, the legend, the champion of a nation and the champion of so many of our hearts so his loss is naturally remembered by more people, but Ratzenberger was a larger than life character with a back story which is filled with stories dripping in skill, joy, determination and hilarity. He deserves to be remembered better.
Ayrton and Roland were tied together by the tragic events of Imola 94 and you have to mention both in order to truly mark the events of that fateful weekend. If the sport does not remember both men when gestures like these are made it takes away from the sense of loss everyone felt on 30 April 1994, a loss that Senna felt deeply and which he was clearly reflecting on while sitting in his car before the race. Why else would he carry a small Austrian flag with him in the car on race day?
F1 needs to say the name Roland Ratzenberger whenever it mourns the loss of Ayrton Senna.
P.S. – If you haven’t already, I urge you to seek out the piece that Sky F1 did a few years back called “Remembering Ratzenberger”, it’s a fantastic film. Listening to the likes of Nick Wirth and David Brabham speak about Roland is fantastic. The second part can be found in the link below…if you don’t get a lump in your throat at 9:40 you have no soul…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6LyfdxKMg
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
1st November 2020, 10:44
@geemac Thank you for the link.
Bradders (@bradders)
1st November 2020, 11:57
Comment of the day.
John H (@john-h)
1st November 2020, 12:01
Thanks @geemac
Niefer (@niefer)
1st November 2020, 15:32
You know, it’s on situations like this that we behold the real truth behind those virtue-signalling people in the sport. They have time to push for agendas but when it’s time to honour fallen comrades the remembered is solely the “privileged” one. Those people thrive in publicity and that is all they care about. They are full of crap, rotten to the core.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
1st November 2020, 10:24
It comes across as very odd to me, a diamond on the spot that he died? Roland died just a few hundred metres up the road, it’s weird more than anything. I don’t think anyone needs a diamond to mark Senna’s passing, least of all by putting it on a map of the track where he hit the wall. It seems to fall under the ‘tat rich people buy’ category.
Ben (@scuderia29)
1st November 2020, 10:31
Looks like a brake caliper, and to have a dot locating the scene of someone’s death? is it too late to design a new trophy?
Sham (@sham)
1st November 2020, 10:38
Two people died that weekend. Incredibly tasteless to do this in the first place but, even if you must be so macabre, to ignore the second driver?
Fritz (@fritzoos)
1st November 2020, 11:28
Remember them for the way they lived.
René (@)
1st November 2020, 13:53
Who’s idea was this? Super weird.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
1st November 2020, 14:51
What a stupid and disrespectful idea. Senna is not the only pilot who lost his life in Imola.
stefano (@alfa145)
1st November 2020, 18:56