RIP Roland Ratzenberger 30 years on

On this day 30 years ago, Austrian Formula 1 driver Roland Ratzenberger tragically lost his life at Imola.

A broken front wing saw Ratzenberger suffer a horrific 314.9km/h and 500g crash in his Simtek at Villeneuve Curva.

It took place during qualifying on the Saturday of the dark 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, with the legendary Ayrton Senna also tragically passing the following day.

The Austrian was only 33, competing in just his third Grand Prix race weekend. He was the first driver to lose their life at a Grand Prix for 12 years since Ricciardo Paletti passed away at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix.

Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. Image: Motorsport Images

Ratzenberger’s Simtek teammate was Australian David Brabham, who wrote an exclusive column for AUTO ACTION at the time and revealed his emotions behind the the helmet during the saddest of events.

What a black weekend Imola was. One I’d rather forget but I know I won’t.

Two precious lives wasted and it brings you back to the realities of this sport we work in. I lost a good friend and a genuinely nice person in my teammate Roland and the sport lost one of the biggest stars of my generation, perhaps of all time when Ayrton crashed at Tamburello.

The weekend was a little strange from day one even though we thought it was business as usual when Rubens had his monumental accident and walked away from it.

On Saturday Roland and I had a bit of a misunderstanding as we went flat chat down towards Tosa. I went one way to go past him, and he went the same way.

Ayrton Senna followed by Roland Ratzenberger during the horrible weekend at Imola.Image: Motorsport Images

When he moved over he pointed to let me pass without realising I was on the other side now and could not see his hand. As I tried to pass on the inside he pulled over again.

In the end I ran out of road and went straight over the grass and into the sand trap. Fortunately there was nothing but bruised egos. We both messed-up and ended up on the same section of track at the same time when we shouldn’t have been. That just shows the type of trouble you can get into at these speeds – even when you’re trying to help each other.

I was pleased to have got away with it because that is the quickest section of the track. Through Tamburello you are just in sixth gear but you arrive at Villeneuve on the rev limiter in top gear, close on 200mph so any accident there is a mighty big one.

Saturday afternoon I was out on the track, when Roland’s accident happened. I saw a few bits here and there as I came around Villeneuve and for some reason I just knew it was Roland. Don’t ask me why.

I went around the corner saying to myself over and over ‘I hope that’s not Roland’. As I got closer I realised the awful truth. I can’t describe my feelings. The marshals wouldn’t let us stop and when I got back to the pits everyone was crowded around the television monitor trying to find out.

David Brabham with his Simtek team mate Roland Ratzenberger.

The great thing about Roland was that he loved his racing. 

He had such enthusiasm and he worked very hard at it, He studied everything. He really thought about his racing a lot – and he was a nice guy with it, a real gentleman.

When we went away he would ring up out of the blue and ask how we were. He was one of those guys that if you were in trouble at three o clock in the morning, he would be the first to help out. We will miss him badly.

Main Photo by Rainer Schlegelmilch

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