MAY 27, 2005

The Senna case is over

The Italian appeal court has finally closed the book on the case surrounding the death of Ayrton Senna, 11 years after the crash at Imola which killed the Brazilian.

The Italian appeal court has finally closed the book on the case surrounding the death of Ayrton Senna, 11 years after the crash at Imola which killed the Brazilian. The court ruled that Adrian Newey, the former chief designer for Williams, was innocent of involuntary manslaughter and the case against Patrick Head, the Williams team's technical director, was dropped because of the statute of limitations.

Both men were acquitted of manslaughter in 1997. That verdict was upheld at appeal in 1999 but in 2003 there was an attempt to revive the case because of errors in the procedure.