Roland Ratzenberger
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Roland Ratzenberger | |
Nationality | Austrian |
---|---|
World Championship Career | |
Active years | 1994 |
Team(s) | Simtek |
Races | 3 |
Championships | 0 |
Wins | 0 |
Podium finishes | 0 |
Pole positions | 0 |
Fastest laps | 0 |
First race | 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix (DNQ) |
First win | - |
Last win | - |
Last race | 1994 San Marino Grand Prix (DNS) |
Roland Ratzenberger (July 4, 1960 – April 30, 1994) was an Austrian Formula One driver who died during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the same event that saw the death of three-times world champion Ayrton Senna.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Born in Salzburg, Austria, Ratzenberger often claimed 1962 (rather than 1960) as his birth year, wanting to appear younger to extend his racing career. He began racing in German Formula Ford in 1983, and in 1985 won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships[1].
[edit] Racing in Britain
That year he also entered the prestigious Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival, finishing second. He returned in 1986 and won it before graduating to British Formula Three the following season[1]. While in the UK he briefly gained fame for the similarity of his name to that of TV puppet Roland Rat, which he appeared alongside in an edition of TV-am.
Two years in British F3 yielded two twelfth places in the championship with West Surrey Racing and Madgwick Motorsport respectively. He also moved into forms of racing besides single seaters, finishing second twice in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship in a Team Schnitzer BMW M3[1].
In 1989 he entered the British Formula 3000 series, finishing third overall[1].
[edit] Le Mans
The same year he raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time. The Brun Porsche 962 he shared with Maurizio Sandro Sala and Walter Lechner retired in the third hour.
He raced in the next four Le Mans, with Brun again in 1991 and with the SARD team in 1990, 1992 and 1993. His highest finish came in 1993, when he, Mauro Martini and Naoki Nagasaka finished fifth in a Toyota 93 C-V[1].
[edit] Racing in Japan
In the nineties Ratzenberger switched to Japanese racing. He won one race each in 1990 and 1991 in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship with the same SARD team he drove for at Le Mans. He also returned to touring car racing in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, finishing seventh in 1990 and 1991 in an M3[1].
This paved the way for a return to Formula 3000 in the Japanese championship with the Stellar team. The year began poorly but, when the team upgraded their two year-old car for a new model, Ratzenberger won twice to finish seventh overall. He remained in the series in 1993, finishing eleventh[1].
[edit] Formula One
In 1994 he finally achieved his ambition of becoming a Formula One driver, signing a five-race deal with the new Simtek team[1] run by Nick Wirth.
His campaign got off to a poor start at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos where he failed to qualify. But he got onto the grid for the next round at the TI Circuit in Aida, Japan, as his experience of the track from his touring car days meant he was the only driver in the race who had driven at the venue before. He finished eleventh[1].
[edit] Death
Roland Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit on Saturday 30th April, 1994. He struck a wall at the Villeneuve corner at around 300 km/h. After the car carried on down the track, spinning around and stopping at the next corner, Ratzenberger's lolling head was revealed; he had clearly received massive head injuries. Data from the car suggested he had had an off-track excursion on the previous lap and it was widely suggested that a front wing failure linked to this caused the crash.
He was the first racing driver to die at a Grand Prix weekend since the 1982 season, when Riccardo Paletti was killed at the Canadian Grand Prix, coincidentally at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He was the first driver to die in an F1 car since Elio de Angelis during testing in 1986.
The day after Ratzenberger's death, three-time world champion Ayrton Senna was killed in another accident that brought the sport of Formula One under international scrutiny. The double tragedy was marked before the start of the next race in Monaco, with the front row of the grid left empty and the two slots painted with a Brazilian and Austrian flag.
While Roland's death was overshadowed to some extent by Senna's loss barely 24 hours later, his tragic accident nonetheless had one lasting legacy. On 1st May 1994, during the customary drivers' briefing, the remaining drivers agreed to the reformation of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, with Senna, Gerhard Berger and Michael Schumacher as its first directors. The Association subsequently pressed for improvements to car and circuit safety in the wake of Imola and other serious crashes during the 1994 season.
[edit] Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WDC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1994 | MTV Simtek Ford | Simtek S941 | Ford V8 | BRA DNQ |
PFC 11 |
SMR DNS |
MON |
ESP |
CAN |
FRA |
GBR |
GER |
HUN |
BEL |
ITA |
POR |
EUR |
JPN |
AUS |
- | 0 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Who's Who: Roland Ratzenberger. F1Fanatic.co.uk (2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-21.
[edit] External links
- Roland Ratzenberger - Memorial website (German)
- F1 Rejects - a further tribute to Ratzenberger
- F1 Fanatic Who's Who: Roland Ratzenberger
Preceded by Elio de Angelis |
Formula One fatal accidents April 30, 1994 |
Succeeded by Ayrton Senna |