JULY 12, 1999

Italian prosecutors revive the Senna trial

THE Italian prosecutors announced last week that they will appeal the decision to acquit Williams engineers Patrick Head and AdrianÊNewey. The two were cleared of manslaughter charges relating to the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994 by a Bologna court in December 1997.

It was thought that the problems were finally over but the prosecutors think differently and hope that the decisions in favor of Head and Newey will be overturned in November this year.

The announcement is likely to cause some problems for the Italian Grands Prix although FIA President Max Mosley said that he hoped that with a new European Commission there would soon be a pan-European rule to stop criminal charges being brought as the result of motor racing accidents. The Italian government is supposed to be sorting out the problem but nothing has been done.

It is worth noting that the new President of the European Commission Romano Prodi is from Bologna.