Friday 29 April - Ayrton The Magic!

If a person has no more dreams, no longer has any reason to live. Dreaming is necessary, even if in the dream goes glimpsed reality. For me it is one of the principles of life.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

Rich people cannot live on an island surrounded by an ocean of poverty. We all breathe the same air. You have to give everyone a chance.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

You'll never know how it feels when a driver wins. That helmet hides incomprehensible feelings.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

I'm a privileged, I have always had a very good life. But all I got from the life I gained with the commitment and the strong desire to achieve my goals, to win in life, not as a pilot. So let me tell you that whoever you are in life, whether you are at the lowest level, or higher, you have to have a great strength and great determination and have to face anything with great love and faith in God and one day will reach the your goals and you will succeed.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

The most important thing is to be yourself, not to let anyone hinder you, without being different because someone wants you to be different. You have to be yourself. Many times you make mistakes because of your personality, character or interference that you can find along the way. But you can just learn from your mistakes. And this is the main thing: use your errors to learn. I believe in the ability to deeply concentrate on it in order to make progress and even more.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

You can never change the world alone. But you can do your part to change a bit of it. What I really do for poverty I'll never say to anyone. F1 is a miserable thing compared to this tragedy.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

You think you have a limit, so you try to touch this limit. Something happens and you can immediately run a bit faster. Thanks to the power of your mind, your determination, your instinct, and the experience you can fly very high.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

Running, competing, it's in my blood, it's a part of me, it's a part of my life; I always use to do this and it comes before all the rest.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

Whoever you are in life, whether you are at the lowest level, or higher, you must have great strength and great determination and have to face anything with great love and faith in God and one day you will reach your goals and you will succeed.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

I have no idols. I admire hard work, dedication and competence.

Ayrton Senna da Silva

Friday 29 April 1994

On Friday afternoon, April 29th, Ayrton begins the second free practice session; it is a windy day, and many drivers feel this discomfort.
During the morning he obtains the fastest time of the track with 1: 21: 598 while Damon Hill, his teammate, is outstrip by more than a second.

The sun shines on the William's iron body in the pits and calm reigns all over. Ezio Zermiani, historical RAI senior reporter, walks with his microphone in front of the British pits, hunting for a statement of the Brazilian about the first two disastrous races of the season: a spin and a retreat; not just the results you would expect from a three times world champion.

The initial shyness towards the runway is dissolved almost immediately when various drivers start to spin, including Morbidelli, Martini and Bernard, while the wind blowing seems to be less annoying in comparison with the thrilling roar of engines.
Ayrton comes down the track and his car is nervous as his state of mind; during the morninghe doesn’t spare bad words for nobody, neither for his compatriot, Fittipaldi.

That young german boy, Schumacher, seems too good and his car is too perfect. Where everyone lose grip he goes without any kind of problem; Ayrton knows that it's impossible and that car has something different from the others. Maybe in the first year in which active suspension were banned, the Schumacher’s Benetton has some electronic device? No one wants to open an investigation.

Probably these are his thoughts while he closes his first round with 1: 22: 430. Then he exceeds the Tamburello corner at full speed when the attention of viewers moves to another part of the circuit: they heard a very bad sound which remembers a crash.
It's Rubens Barrichello, who finished the first two races of the season with a promising fourth and third place.

It’s about 01:14 p.m. o’clock : Rubens drives too fast at the entrance of the Variante Bassa. Rated speed: 230 km/h. His car, aided by the failure of the left rear suspension, widens the trajectory and, when Barrichello tries to correct it, the car crashes above the row of tires.

Red flag: Sid Watkins, the FIA medical historian, gets on track and tries to remove the pilot from the cockpit. Rubens seems to have lost his senses and, with the help of the medical staff, he is transported to the emergency room of the circuit.

After just 15 minutes of free practice, all drivers are in the boxes to reflect on what is just happened.

Ayrton Senna is shocked by the incident. Back to the Williams pits, he removes his helmet and runs to the emergency room of the circuit. Surrounded by reporters he says these exact words, which will be his last public statement:

"He's fine, he's fine, he took a scare. It 'a bit shocked but he's fine. There's nothing broken, he speaks normal ... "

Click to read Saturday, 30th April 1994 !