Roland Walter Ratzenberger was born in Salzburg, Austria, on 4 July 1960.[1] When he was seven, his grandmother took him to a local hillclimb race at Gaisberg. Ιn 1969, the Salzburgring opened near his home.[2] As a teenager, he discovered that racer and Formula Ford team owner Walter Lechner was based nearby and, while studying at a technical school, began to hang around the workshop. On finishing his education at eighteen, he joined Lechner, who was at this time opening a racing school at the Salzburgring.[2]
In the winter of 1991, in Monaco, and after what Adam Cooper described as "a whirlwind courtship", Ratzenberger married the former partner of another driver, becoming stepfather to her son from a previous relationship. They were divorced early in 1992.[2]
Career
Roland Ratzenberger's helmet.
Ratzenberger began racing in German Formula Ford in 1983, and in 1985 won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships.[3] In 1985, he entered the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in England, finishing second. He returned in 1986 to win the event, before graduating to British Formula 3 the following season.[3] While in the UK, he briefly gained fame for the similarity of his name to that of TV puppet Roland Rat, with whom he appeared in an edition of TV-am; the TV-am branding appeared for a time on his car.[4]
This paved the way for a return to Formula 3000 in the Japanese championship, with the Stellar team in the 1992 season. His year began poorly but, when the team upgraded their two-year-old Lola for a new model, Ratzenberger won once to finish seventh overall. He remained in the series in 1993, finishing 11th. That year, he achieved his highest finish at Le Mans, as he, Mauro Martini, and Naoki Nagasaka finished fifth in a Toyota 93 C-V.[3]
Formula One
Roland Ratzenberger on his last day (30 April 1994) at Imola during the San Marino Grand Prix. Later that day, Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying.
Ratzenberger greatly desired to race in Formula One, especially as former rivals in F3000, such as Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert, had managed to reach the top level while he had not.[5] He came very close to securing a drive with the Jordan team for their inaugural season in 1991. Negotiations were at a very advanced stage when Ratzenberger lost the financial support of a "major sponsor". In the end, Bertrand Gachot got the seat.[6]
In 1994, he achieved his ambition of becoming one of the few Austrian Formula One drivers. After gaining a sponsor in a wealthy German, Barbara Behlau, who negotiated a deal over the 1993-4 winter, Ratzenberger signed a five-race deal with the new Simtek team, partnering David Brabham.[5]
With a very uncompetitive car, Ratzenberger failed to qualify for the first race at Interlagos. However, the next round at the TI Circuit in Aida went much better, as he not only managed to qualify, but finish in a very commendable eleventh place, even considering that he was the only driver who had raced at the venue before.[7]
The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola would have been Ratzenberger's third race in Formula One. During the first qualifying session on Friday 29 April, he asked the more experienced Brabham to test his car out; the Australian vindicated Ratzenberger's assessment of the brakes, which had been troubling him at the previous races.[5] According to Brabham, the issue was soon resolved to the satisfaction of both.[7] The session was overshadowed when Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello hit a kerb at the Variante Bassa corner; his car, travelling at 225 km/h (140 mph), was sent airborne, and collided with the tyre barrier.[8] Having received injuries to his nose and arm, Barrichello was transferred to a nearby hospital, and took no further part in the weekend.[9]
The next day, the second qualifying session proceeded as normal until the moment of his accident. Early in the session, Ratzenberger went off the track at the Acque Minerali chicane.[10] With his sponsor in attendance for the first time, and at the halfway point of his contract, he decided to carry on, after checking the car to the best of his abilities.[5] Unknown to him, the minor incident had damaged his front wing; after a spin at the Tosa hairpin the previous lap, as he tried to turn into the high-downforce Villeneuve corner, it broke and became lodged under the car, which crashed into the outside wall at 314.9 km/h (195.7 mph).[11]
Ratzenberger was transferred by ambulance to Imola Circuit's medical centre, then by air ambulance to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. He had suffered three individually fatal injuries: a basilar skull fracture, which was named as the official cause of death; blunt trauma from the front-left tyre penetrating the survival cell;[12]
and a ruptured aorta.[13]
Ratzenberger was the first racing driver to lose his life at a grand prix weekend since the 1982 season, when Riccardo Paletti was killed at the Canadian Grand Prix. Ratzenberger was also the first driver to die as a result of a crash in a Formula One car since Elio de Angelis during testing for the 1986 season.
Villeneuve Curva, the location of Ratzenberger's fatal crash. Ayrton Senna was killed the next day at the previous bend.
Bernie Ecclestone personally delivered the confirmation of Ratzenberger's death to the stunned Simtek team. Grieving, Brabham made the decision to compete on Sunday:[14]
Everyone was in a state of shock. Nobody could comprehend what had happened ... I don't remember much until the evening when the team sat me down and told me that the decision was up to me whether we continued to race ... I thought I have to pick this team up and continue what we're doing. I decided to race, really for the guys.
Ayrton Senna commandeered an official car to hurry to the medical center; he learnt of Ratzenberger's death from friend and neurosurgeon Sid Watkins. Watkins suggested to the inconsolable Senna that he withdraw from the following day's race and go fishing instead, and asked him if he wanted to stop racing. Senna famously responded "I cannot quit, I have to go on," and, having returned to his garage, decided to withdraw for the remainder of qualifying.[8]
Ratzenberger's spot on the starting grid was left empty. Paul Belmondo was reported to have been offered the final position on the grid but declined, out of respect for Ratzenberger and on the grounds that he had not earned that race spot.[15]
Race and aftermath
During the seventh lap of the race the following day, Senna's car ran wide at the Tamburello left-hander and struck an unprotected concrete barrier at 233 km/h (140 mph), resulting in multiple fatal injuries.[16] When track officials examined the wreckage of Senna's racing car, they found a furled Austrian flag. Senna had planned to raise it after the race, in honour of Ratzenberger.[17] The race was won by Michael Schumacher, with Nicola Larini and Mika Häkkinen in second and third positions respectively, while Brabham retired after 27 laps.[18] Out of respect for Ratzenberger and Senna, no champagne was sprayed at the podium ceremony.[18]
The death of Senna, a three-time world champion, mostly overshadowed Ratzenberger's: while all active Formula One drivers attended Senna's funeral, only five (Brabham, Herbert, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Ratzenberger's compatriots Karl Wendlinger and Gerhard Berger) attended Ratzenberger's.[19]FIA president Max Mosley was also in attendance, noting in an interview ten years later:[20]
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.
As a tribute, Ratzenberger's name was left on the Toyota 94C-V which he intended to drive at Le Mans.
Ratzenberger was buried in Maxglan, in Salzburg. Due to drive later that year in the Le Mans 24 Hours for Toyota, Ratzenberger's name was left on the car as a tribute, with his friend Eddie Irvine taking his place at the wheel.
Legacy
During the customary pre-race drivers' briefing on 1 May 1994, the remaining drivers agreed to the reformation of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, with Senna, Berger and Schumacher intended to be its first directors. The reformed association subsequently pressed for thorough improvements to safety after the Imola crashes and others during 1994; for 2003, the FIA mandated the use of the HANS device, designed to prevent the type of injury suffered by Ratzenberger.[21]
^Longmore, Andrew (31 October 1994). "Ayrton Senna: The Last Hours". The Times. UK: News International. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2006.
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