On April 30, 1994, Formula One suffered its first fatal accident since Elio de Angelis perished during a test session at Paul Ricard on May 15, 1986. Austria’s Roland Ratzenberger died during qualifying of the San Marino Grand Prix, on a gloomy week-end that also claimed the life of Ayrton Senna the following day during the race.

Roland Ratzenberger’s death would be forever overshadowed by his more famous colleague’s, with only four F1 drivers attending his funeral. The Austrian was 33 at the time of his death and was gearing up for only his third Formula One race. When he exited the Tamburello corner, which would claim Senna’s life 24 hours later, the front wing of his Simtek car broke while at 200 mph (322 km/h) and sent him head on into a concrete wall at the Villeneuve Curve.

Every year on May 1, Senna is remembered, but very rarely Ratzenberger is mentioned. The contrast between the two unfortunate drivers has been big from the beginning: Senna was the greatest star of Formula One, while Ratzenberger was an F1 rookie. Furthermore, three million people attended Senna’s funeral, compared to only about 250 people that were present in Salzburg for Ratzenberger’s burial.

Among them was Johnny Herbert, a close friend of the Austrian since 1985, when both competed in the Formula Ford Festival in England. “I always think about Roland. I miss him even now. I think about him at certain points particularly at the European races. Monaco’s always one,” Herbert told CNN.

“The year before he died we had a nice dinner there – then he was trying to get into F1. He was a good friend, and we’d spoken of our dreams for many years. I’d got to F1 before him but that season it was great to see him. He had this very happy face, he had that ‘I got there’ face,” the three-time Grand Prix winner reminisced.

Sadly for Ratzenberger, his lifelong dream was short lived. After the Austrian’s fatal accident, Senna was deeply distressed. A day later, in the cockpit of the Brazilian’s shattered car, marshalls found the Austrian flag…

By Dan Mihalascu

Story References: CNN , Opening photo via Documenting Reality

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