Why the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix resumed after Ayrton Senna’s crash at Imola

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Ayrton Senna died from the injuries he sustained from a crash in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix but F1 riled many by resuming the race at Imola after less than 40 minutes.

The 1994 San Marino GP was one of the darkest weekends in Formula 1 history after Roland Ratzenberger and Senna lost their lives on successive days. Rubens Barrichello also survived a high-speed crash that foreshadowed the events that followed over qualifying and the race.

Senna’s 1983 British Formula 3 title-rival Martin Brundle was incensed that Formula 1 raced on at Imola after the Brazilian’s crash. The Briton, who had replaced the son of Sao Paulo at McLaren that season, later seethed that “we raced past a pool of Senna’s blood for 55 laps”.

Bernie Ecclestone admits ‘commercial problems’ saw the 1994 San Marino GP resume after Ayrton Senna’s crash

F1 suspended the San Marino GP whilst Senna received emergency treatment from his close friend and FIA doctor, Professor Sid Watkins. But, once the Brazilian was taken by helicopter to Bologna’s Maggiore Hospital, F1 resumed the event with only Erik Comas not on the grid.

Comas felt he owed his life to Senna as the Brazilian came to his aid following a crash at Spa in 1992. But the Frenchman was powerless to help Senna when he was incorrectly released from the pit lane and arrived at Tamburello at speed as medics tended to the Williams driver.

Senna had crashed into the wall at Tamburello at 131mph after leaving the track at 192mph, with the contact tearing the front-right wheel and nose cone off his Williams FW16. A piece of the suspension and a piece of the upright assembly would also penetrate Senna’s helmet.

READ MORE: All to know about Ayrton Senna including Alain Prost rivalry and Imola crash

The impact with which Senna hit the wall even forced his head back into the headrest, and it fractured his skull. Any of the injuries he sustained from his crash in the 1994 San Marino GP could have caused Senna’s death. But the race resumed whilst his condition was still unclear.

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone later conceded that the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix should not have been resumed after Senna’s crash. But the decision to continue the event at Imola was made to placate the “commercial” issues abandoning the race would have raised.

“Should we have stopped the race? I don’t think so,” Ecclestone explained, via quotes by Sky News, in April 2024. “It wouldn’t have helped him in any way, shape or form. When these things happen, they all happen so quickly that you don’t really have that much time to think.

“Legally, it should have been stopped because we now know he died at the circuit. But, in the end, it came down to commercial problems – people who would have wanted refunds and all these sorts of things. And the other side of it wasn’t really taken into consideration.

“But I hope we will never see something like that again. And I think today, with the way everything has improved with safety – thank God – the chances are so much smaller.”

Bernie Ecclestone had already made it clear F1 would continue after a fatal crash

Ecclestone had already made it clear that Formula 1’s position was to aim to resume a race in the event of a fatal crash before the San Marino Grand Prix of 1994, where Ratzenberger and Senna would lose their lives owing to high-speed incidents on successive days at Imola.

But it surprised many when F1 resumed the 1994 San Marino GP after Senna was put in the helicopter and taken to a hospital. It particularly upset Senna’s younger brother Leonardo to hear the event would continue as Ecclestone had incorrectly told him that the Brazilian died.

Ecclestone had received an update about Senna’s condition from Watkins via the FIA’s press delegate, Martin Whitaker. But the news that the three-time champion’s injuries were to his ‘head’ was confused with ‘dead’, leaving Leonardo grief-stricken before the round resumed.