DECEMBER 7, 2003

Imola to remember Senna

It is coming up to 10 years since the death at Imola of the great Ayrton Senna and the organisers of the San Marino Grand Prix have announced that they will not let the event pass without some recognition of one of the sport's greatest drivers, killed in his prime on May 1 1994. The race organisers say that there will be 10 days of events to mark the event with one high point being a soccer match between former Brazilian World Cup stars and F1 drivers, and an exhibition of the cars which Senna drove during his career, which lasted from 1984 to his death. In that time he was World Champion on three occasions, all with McLaren.

Senna's death was a pivotal moment in modern F1 history not only because of the changes that were made in safety measures after the accident but also because his disappearance removed the main opposition to Michael Schumacher, which enabled him to win perhaps win more World Championships than he would have managed had Senna lived.