Ayrton Senna's last lap...

So it's been fourteen years since Ayrton Senna perished in a Williams at the San Marino GP. Senna was the last man to die in F1. A great deal of this fact can be attributed to good old Max Mosley.

News report of Senna's death:


Speaking of Max, I read an interesting quote a few weeks ago that made me think a bit more of him than I already do (and I do respect Max even if he has pissed me off plenty in the past) it pertains to the "Black Weekend" in which Roland Ratzenberger and Senna died (Ratzenberger died a day before Senna at the same track) anyhow the Mosley quote was this: "I went to Ratzenberger's funeral because everyone went to Senna's. I thought it was important that somebody went to his."

I thought that was nice.

It's sort of ironic that of all the crashes that resulted in death that weekend fourteen years ago today that it was Barrichello's crash that was the most spectacular in sheer violence and he's still racing today.

Barrichello's crash:


I just liked this pic below of a young Senna with a rare glimpse of Lauda's burned head:


Lastly, at the Italian GP in 2000 Michael Schumacher tied Senna's record in win's and broke down and wept on live TV. Schumi had a pretty hard exterior and the impact Ayrton had on racing is pretty much summed up for all with the seven times world champion's tears...


Thanks Ayrton. You drove your car well.