F1: Ayrton Senna's Crash not caused by Steering Failure ?
A.H. Henry
The latest issue of Autosport (10th November) reports on new
claims about the causes of Ayrton Senna's crash at Imola.
Roberto Causo, a lawyer appointed by the FIA to represent Williams
at the accident inquiry, claims that there is strong evidence that the
accident was not caused by steering failure. Adrian Reynard, who is
acting as a technical consultant for Senna's family, has confirmed this.
Causo said, "Two weeks ago I was at the aeronautical centre which has
conducted tests on the steering column and they cannot say that the
column was broken prior to impact. We have traces which show that it
was working. Experts investigating the case at the University of
Bologna did not accept our telemetry at first and asked Renault and
Magnetti Marelli to supply theirs. It showed the same."
If the accident was not caused by a steering failure, what was the
cause ? Most of the F1 drivers find it inconceivable that Senna could
have made a simple mistake at the Tamburello corner. Causo suggested
that the Senna may have run over debris from the startline accident.
He explained, "Something that surprised me and Patrick Head [Williams
Technical Director], came from reviewing the film of the cars following
the safety vehicle. Ayrton was following it directly, while Michael
Schumacher was close to the pit wall. I think that is where Ayrton
took on some debris.
"When I saw the accident, my immediate reaction was a tyre failure from
the debris. But it doesn't appear to have been because the telemetry
shows that the car was level. It was running a little low, but not much."
Causo also said that Senna had warned his team mate, Damon Hill, that
he should not drive on the very inside line through Tamburello because
bumps in the surface would upset the car. When he studied evidence
about the accident Hill was surprised to see that Senna had driven over
this part of the track.
The in-car video camera that Senna was looking down into the cockpit
just before he left the road. "On the in-car video, you normally see
the `Nacional' decal on the lower part of his helmet," Causo explained,
"but this time you see his visor - as if he was looking down. He could
have been looking at the steering wheel, or he could have been checking
the whereabouts of Michael Schumacher behind him. Who knows ?"
In any case, the final verdict of the investigation into the cause of
the accident is expected by the end of this month. Depending on the
results, Frank Williams, Patrick Head and up to six other members of
the Williams team could face charges from the Italian courts. To be
convicted under Italian law, the judge would have to prove `negligence,
imprudence or lack of expertise.'
--
The rec.autos.sport Frequently Asked Questions list v1.3: Andrew Henry
ftp://mgu.bath.ac.uk/pub/rec.autos.sport A.H....@bath.ac.uk
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bspahh/rasfaq.html University of Bath, UK
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bspahh/gilles/gilles.html Sempre Gilles
Mr CB Bayliss
: The in-car video camera that Senna was looking down into the cockpit
: just before he left the road. "On the in-car video, you normally see
: the `Nacional' decal on the lower part of his helmet," Causo explained,
: "but this time you see his visor - as if he was looking down. He could
: have been looking at the steering wheel, or he could have been checking
: the whereabouts of Michael Schumacher behind him. Who knows ?"
Has loss of consciousness before the crash due to physical causes
been ruled out? eg. brain haemmhorage. Presumably this would be
difficult to diagnose after the crash?
Dr Joseph Scoppa
>A.H. Henry (mb...@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk) wrote:
>From what I heard a few months ago, telemetry showed that Senna braked heavily>before hitting the wall so I assume he was conscious before the crash.
>
>I just watched a small tribute piece on Senna that was on tv here and I
>realised that I still haven't fully accepted his death. I still just can't
>believe he's gone - sometimes I think this is all a big dream, that it has to
>be - I admired him so much.
>I am not a religious person but whoever is running the show up there is going
>to have to do some pretty heavy explaining when I join Senna and the others -
it's just so unfair (I guess life is - Senna's accident really hammered that
home for me) that he (and others such as Jim Clark, Villeneuve, the list goes
>on) was robbed of the chance to exploit his full potential - God, he was only
34 (people say look at the young-gun Hill but Hill is actually older than Senna!).
Cheers,
Matt
I am not asking for comments - I was just writing down what was in my head -
it's just an opinion, it's not right or wrong.
--
M D J Scoppa
University of Sydney
jsc...@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
Vale, Ayrton
David Brower
>A.H. Henry (mb...@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk) wrote:
If he'd been unconscious, he probabbly wouldn't have been able to
brake from 190 mph to 130mph at the point of impact. That actions
suggests he was pretty well active and in as full control as
circumstances allowed.
-dB
--
Formerly PMTS INGRES RDBMS development, IETF RDBMSMIB |
editor, Posix threads balloter. | da...@acm.org
|
"So long, and thanks for all the fish!" |
Beau E. Cox
: Has loss of consciousness before the crash due to physical causes
: been ruled out? eg. brain haemmhorage. Presumably this would be
: difficult to diagnose after the crash?
I have been wondering the same thing since I saw the crash. On the tape,
I could not see any attempt by Senna to turn or break (even though I have
read reports that he was breaking). Tamborello (sp?) does not seem to be
reguarded as a "hard" corner, but rather a flat-out flick to the left.
We may never know why we lost such a great driver...
Aloha - Beau.