Roland Ratzenberger

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Roland Ratzenberger
Nationality  Austrian
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1994
Teams	Simtek
Races	3 (1 start)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last race	1994 San Marino Grand Prix

Roland Ratzenberger (July 4, 1960 – April 30, 1994) was an Austrian racing driver who died during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the same event that saw the death of three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Racing in Britain 1.2 Le Mans 1.3 Racing in Japan 1.4 Formula One 1.5 Tragedy at Imola 2 Complete Formula One results 3 References 4 External links

[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

In 1985 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, whom 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 raced in other formulae than single seaters, once finishing second in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship driving 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 Motorsport 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 a BMW M3.^[1]

This paved the way for a return to Formula 3000 in the Japanese championship with the Stellar team in the 1992 season. The year began poorly but, when the team upgraded their two year-old Lola for a new model, Ratzenberger won twice to finish seventh overall. He remained in the series in the 1993 season, 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] Tragedy at Imola

Roland Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit on Saturday 30 April, 1994. Suffering front wing-damage on the previous lap, the high speed on the backstraight, and therefore high wind pressure, finally broke the wing off, sending it under Ratzenberger's car. His car failed to turn into the Villeneuve Corner and struck the outside wall at 314.9 km/h.^[2] 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 broken his neck.

The cause of death was a basal skull fracture, the same injury suffered by NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500.

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 Ratzenberger's death was overshadowed to some extent by Senna's loss barely 24 hours later, his tragic accident nonetheless had one lasting legacy. On 1 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; In 2001 the FIA mandated the use of the HANS device, designed to prevent the type of injury suffered by Ratzenberger.

When track officials examined the wreckage of Senna's racing car, they found a furled Austrian flag. Senna had planned to raise it after winning the race, in honour of Ratzenberger.^[3]

FIA President Max Mosley attended the funeral of Ratzenberger, despite the overwhelming attention on Senna's funeral, both in the world of motorsport and worldwide. In a press conference ten years later Mosley said, "'Roland had been forgotten. So I went to his funeral because everyone went to Senna's. I thought it was important that somebody went to his."^[4]

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

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	PAC 11	SMR DNS	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS	33rd	0

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Roland Ratzenberger - Memorial website (German)
• F1 Rejects - a further tribute to Ratzenberger
• F1 Fanatic Who's Who: Roland Ratzenberger

Sporting positions
Preceded by Johnny Herbert	Formula Ford Festival Winner 1986	Succeeded by Eddie Irvine
Preceded by Elio de Angelis	Formula One fatal accidents April 30, 1994	Succeeded by Ayrton Senna