Exclusive: Rubens Barrichello opens up on the near-fatal Formula 1 crash he suffered on the same weekend that Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed at Imola
Rubens Barrichello cannot remember the Formula 1 crash that nearly killed him – because the impact of the 140mph smash was so hard. The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend is known as one of the darkest in the sport’s history as two racers lost their lives.
First, Roland Ratzenberger was killed in a crash during qualifying. Ayrton Senna was one of those who had watched those scenes in horror but chose to race the following day, which proved to be an ill-fated decision as, on lap seven, the steering column of his Williams snapped and he hit a concrete wall at 131mph.
But there could have been a third fatal crash that weekend, two days earlier. During practice, Barrichello lost control at the Variante Bassa corner and, after striking the kerb at around 140mph, his car was dramatically flung up into the air before smashing into the top of the tyre barrier.
The Jordan-Hart car rolled several times and came to rest upside down. F1’s medical team, headed by Professor Sid Watkins, rushed to his aid. Barrichello had a couple of broken bones but, had Watkins not been quick enough to move his tongue, which was blocking his airway, he would have died.
“The crash was so hard that I lost my memory,” Barrichello, now 53, told the our free Pit Lane Chronicle F1 newsletter. “I don’t recall myself being in the cemetery carrying Ayrton’s coffin [four days after the crash].”
Being spared those memories and the associated trauma helped Barrichello, who was just 21 years old at the time and only in his second F1 season, to not be deterred from continuing his racing career despite that hefty crash and also the loss of his great friend and mentor.
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“I think that was a positive, that the sky just cleared my mind and I was able to get back in the car,” he said. “I don’t remember the crash, either – I kind of remember the impact. I just said, ‘Oops,’ and then it was such an impact.
“But I was able to clear that and I was able to go forward and just drive nuts. When I got to the car in Silverstone, I was driving nuts either to crash again or to see if my love for [racing] was intact. The love for that was intact. I was just flying.”
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Barrichello went on to enjoy a 19-year F1 career which yielded 11 wins and 68 podiums in 322 race starts. He never became World champion despite several trophy-laden years as Michael Schumacher’s team-mate at Ferrari, and racing for Brawn GP alongside Jenson Button during that fairytale 2009 season, but insists he is “absolutely” satisfied with his achievements.
He said: “I was just a little boy from Interlagos trying to live day by day and be happy with it. So, if you think like that, what I conquered – I had the longest Formula 1 career for such a long time. I’ve got to be happy and proud of what that little boy from Interlagos, dreaming big, has achieved.”