What Actually Happened To Ayrton Senna!!!

[GT40racer]

The earlier incident that caused to pace car to come out and let the tires cool, contracting 4-5mm brought the car dangerously close to the ground, on approach to the corner the metal skids scraped the ground, stopping the low pressure airflow under the car, taking downforce away, the rear end broke away towards the outside of the turn, using his millisecond-quick reflexes he counter-steered the car, milliseconds later, the front end regained grip, and the car was careening toward the wall, the brakes were fully applied by now, he impacted the wall at nearly 160 mph, but this impact was not the thing that killed him, the tire after braking off the suspension had become wedged between the car and the wall, it popped up, hitting Ayrton in the head, this was the factor that killed the great driver.

 

[Pupik]

The eternal F1 mystery. We all know God needed yet another racing driver...right?

You get 50 answers to the reasons why his car crashed. There's only one reason why he died (impaled).

Some say he pushed to car too fast, and the car lost grip.
Some say the steering column failed because it was soldered together improperly.
Others say the car bottomed out.
The debris theory is thrown around.

All I know is that F1 was sent into design chaos, and the racing has hardly been the same since due to all the knee-jerk safety reactions.

 

[Bollocks#999]

Originally posted by pupik
The eternal F1 mystery. We all know God needed yet another racing driver...right?

You get 50 answers to the reasons why his car crashed. There's only one reason why he died (impaled).

Some say he pushed to car too fast, and the car lost grip.
Some say the steering column failed because it was soldered together improperly.
Others say the car bottomed out.
The debris theory is thrown around.

All I know is that F1 was sent into design chaos, and the racing has hardly been the same since due to all the knee-jerk safety reactions.

the last statement is right on the money

 

[freerider]

Originally posted by GT40racer
The earlier incident that caused to pace car to come out and let the tires cool, contracting 4-5mm brought the car dangerously close to the ground, on approach to the corner the metal skids scraped the ground, stopping the low pressure airflow under the car, taking downforce away, the rear end broke away towards the outside of the turn, using his millisecond-quick reflexes he counter-steered the car, milliseconds later, the front end regained grip, and the car was careening toward the wall, the brakes were fully applied by now, he impacted the wall at nearly 160 mph, but this impact was not the thing that killed him, the tire after braking off the suspension had become wedged between the car and the wall, it popped up, hitting Ayrton in the head, this was the factor that killed the great driver.

Apperently this is the official ruling as seen on The Learning Channel documetary. Strange this was the first F1 race to use a safetycar. Sh#t happens!

 

[kristof]

From photo's you can see where the supspension strut on the wheel pierced Ayrtons helmet. The steering column was intact until impact as telemetry from the car has shown that pressure was applied right until the point of impact, if the column had snapped there would have been no pressure at all.

 

[Pupik]

Originally posted by kristof
The steering column was intact until impact as telemetry from the car has shown that pressure was applied right until the point of impact, if the column had snapped there would have been no pressure at all.

Not necessarily, if the measurements were taken from the steering wheel input, instead at a point at (or below) where the column broke. So telemetry could be faulty in that respect.

TLC had a documentary on it? Wish I had cable again for that alone; all I've heard were bits and piaces over the net and the occasional tidbit on the race shows over the months after the accident.

We may never really know; the Williams boys may have been content with hiding information in order to save their necks from a potentially mailicious Italian magistrate...for example, absolutely no in-car footage "still exists" up to 1 second before inpact of Senna's car hitting the wall. (Me thinks it was destroyed.)

 

[GT40racer]

Actually, there was some up until hit hit the wall and he was sterring he wheel as much as he could,
I have no idea how TLC got their hands on it

 

[f1king]

I dont know about you guys, but that show on TLC was pretty good about explainning what happened.