Thursday May 1, 02:17 AM

The Senna legacy

IF MCLAREN Formula One driver Heikki Kovaleinen escaped from his 240-kph crash at the Spanish Grand Prix last week with nothing more than a headache and a stiff neck, it has perhaps a lot to do with one weekend in Formula One history exactly 14 years ago.

On May 1, 1994, F1 lost one of its greatest names at a cold concrete wall at Imola in San Marino. Ayrton Senna hit the wall at 218 kph and a force of 30g (30 times the force of gravity), within two seconds of going off the track. The right wheel of his car smashed into his cockpit, the suspension piercing his helmet and fracturing his skull.

It was the last tragedy in a series of unreal incidents to occur that weekend.
Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed during qualifying, another driver had miraculously survived, while two others were involved in a collision that had injured spectators from flying debris.

Twenty two drivers had died in F1 before that weekend, but none in the previous 12 years. Death had started becoming less of a probability. So it was almost chillingly ironic that when Senna was removed from the wreckage, an Austrian flag was found in his lap. The triple world champion had planned to unfurl it in tribute to Ratzenberger. But tragedy can serve a lesson. The double deaths of Imola shook the F1 world out of its complacency.

A flurry of safety reforms have come into F1 since. Senna's death brought focus onto tyre barriers - the kind Kovaleinen got wedged into after his crash - and onto ways to test the adequacy of existing or new barriers. Engine capacity was reduced from 3.5 litres to 3.0 litres to reduce power.

Through computer analyses, the FIA identified the most dangerous of corners across tracks to make them safer. New circuits now have wider run-off zones, many made of asphalt rather than gravel. Unprotected concrete walls at circuits are almost non-existent.

Where wide run-offs are not possible, a special high-speed barrier to absorb a 200kph impact has been developed. Frontal and side impact tests have become more strict, tyre barriers too undergo stringent crash tests.

Grooved tyres were introduced to reduce cornering speeds. "Since that weekend, several committees across all formulae of motorsport have been established to minimise the risks to both teams and drivers," says Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer of the Force India F1 team.

"All aspects have been looked at and bettered, including the actual cars themselves with more stringent crash tests, the tracks - by introducing chicanes on potentially dangerous corners and wider gravel traps and barriers - and driver protection, such as the HANS device and improved cockpit protection."

This was particularly evident when BMW's Robert Kubica crashed into a concrete barrier twice at 270 kph in Canada last year in a massive 75g impact. He came away with a sprained ankle, and was racing within three weeks.

He was aided especially by the HANS (Head and Neck Support) device, made mandatory in 2003, to reduce the risk of a neck and skull fracture. A skull fracture is what had killed Ratzenberger in Imola.

Drivers' heads are now also increasingly protected against debris, with an extremely strong helmet comprising multiple layers of carbon and plastic.
The monocoque or survival cell is also protected with material used in bullet-proof vests to prevent splinters from entering while it's ensured that the nose and rear structures disintegrate more softly.

To monitor data closely, an accident data recorder is now mandatory on cars, akin to an aircraft's black box. Danger of getting hurt and dying is part of life as a Formula One driver, Senna once famously said. His death marked the start of the longest casualty-free spell in F1.

No driver has died on a track since. Senna was a legend who one counted on to come out on tops in tricky situations. Now he will also be remembered when a driver has a 300kph crash and comes off with nothing more than a sprain.