Roland Ratzenberger F1 driver

Roland Ratzenberger was just starting in Formula One racing when his life was tragically cut short. The child who was to become a popular motor racing driver was born in Salzburg, Austria on July 4 1960. During his racing career he claimed to have been born in 1962 to appear younger and so lengthen his time for competing in the sport.

His first experience of motor racing was in the German Formula Ford series in 1983. His skills in this class of racing were rewarded in1985 when he won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford Championships. 1985 also saw him take second place at the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival in the United Kingdom. The following year he returned to Brands Hatch to win the festival.

In 1987 he joined West Surrey racing to compete in the Formula Three championship series, in the United Kingdom, finishing eleventh in the series. He also raced in the World Touring Car Championships (WTCC) driving a BMW M3 for the Schnitzer team and he managed two second places in that series.

Roland was a popular driver with the British public. On breakfast television at the time there was a glove puppet character called Roland Rat and he was inevitably paired with the puppet in their minds. He was very good natured about this comparison even making a television appearance with the puppet.

1988 saw Roland in British Formula Three racing again this time driving for the Madgwick Motorsport team. He again finished eleventh overall for the series. The WTCC was not run that year and the series was not run again until 2005.

Moving to drive in the Formula 3000 series in 1989 he achieved one first place and finished second in the championship. It was in 1989 he first drove in Category C Sportscars when he entered the Le Mans 24 hour race. He drove a Porsche 962 for the Brun Motorsport team. Unfortunately he did not finish the race and retired in the third hour.

He wanted to go into F1 racing but was unable to secure a drive. In 1990 he left European racing to go to Japan where he drove in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship with the SARD team. For two years he combined this championship with the Japanese Touring Car Championship. He won a race in both years with the Japanese Sports Prototypes. He also finished seventh overall in both years in the Touring Cars.

Ratzenberger also continue to drive in endurance events entering the Le Mans 24 hour every year from 1990 to 1993. His best result was a third place in1993 driving a Toyota 93 C-V for SARD. He also won the Fuji 1000km in 1990, the Suzuka 1000km in 1991 and came third in the Daytona 24 race in 1992.

In 1992 he returned to Formula 3000 racing but remained in Japan to do so. He finished seventh in the Japanese championship.

Roland hoped to join Eddie Jordan’s newly formed F1 team in 1993 but he was unable to get the sponsorship required so remained in Japanese Formula 3000 for another year. He finished eleventh in the 1993 championship.

1994 saw him achieve his ambition and become a F1 driver when he joined the Simtek F1 team. He had been offered the drive for the first five meetings of the season. His continuation after that point depended on finding sponsorship.

Roland Ratzenberger’s first F1 meeting was the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit where he failed to qualify. His next run was at the Pacific Grand Prix held at the Aida track in Japan. He was one of the few F1 drivers to have had experience of this track and despite being a Rookie in F1 racing finished in eleventh place.

The third meeting of the 1994 F1 season was the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit. The meeting did not start well at the practice session on the Friday Rubens Barachello was injured in a crash and was unable to compete in the rest of the meeting. Determined to improve on his Japanese performance Roland went into the Qualifying session on the Saturday April 30 1994. On one lap he left the track and damaged the front wing of his car. Not realizing the extent of the damage he continued to drive and on the next lap at over 300 kph the front wing broke free to go under the car. With the wing preventing him from maintaining traction Roland Ratzenberger was unable to make a turn and crashed at 314.9 kph into the outside wall. Observers could see that from the movement of his head that the driver had broken his neck. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination showed he had died of a basal skull fracture.

The following morning at the drivers pre-race meeting the F1 drivers arranged to re-form the Grand Prix Drivers' Association with Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger and Michael Schumacher named as its directors. The purpose of this association was to campaign for safer tracks and cars particularly with changes to the cars that had been enforced at the start of the season. While they knew accidents were inevitable in their high speed sport the drivers wanted to make them survivable. Just how dangerous their sport had become was emphasized when World Champion Ayrton Senna crashed and was killed in the race that afternoon.

Examination of Senna’s vehicle found a furled up Austrian flag that Ayrton had hoped to show on the podium at the end of the race in honour of the young Austrian. The F1 world was reeling from the double tragedy at Imola. There had been no fatal crashes in an F1 car since 1986 when Elio de Angelis had been killed in a testing session. The last fatal accident at an actual Grand Prix meeting had been at the Canadian Grand Prix in 1982 when Richard Paletti crashed and died.

With Ayrton’s death Roland’s was overshadowed. While many drivers and fans attended the World Champion’s funeral in Brazil the Austrian’s funeral was an altogether quieter affair. The FIA chairman Max Mosley did attend Ratzenberger’s funeral. At a later press conference Mr. Mosley said "Roland had been forgotten. So I went to his funeral because everyone went to Senna's. I thought it was important that somebody went to his."

Roland was well liked by his team, his rival drivers and the motor racing fans. The motor racing world honoured its fallen drivers at the next Grand Prix in the1994 season which was held in Monaco. The front two places on the grid were left empty. In the place of the cars two flags were painted on the track, the Austrian and Brazilian flags took the places of Ratzenberger and Senna.

The Simtek team continued to race for the rest of the season and on the cars’ air box was painted the words “For Roland”. Eddie Irvine replaced Roland as one of the drivers of the SARD teams Toyota at Le Mans in 1994 but as a tribute to their dead driver the team did not paint out Roland’s name on the car to replace it with Eddies.

Since that tragic weekend the Grand Prix Drivers' Association has continued to campaign for safety measures for its members. There have been no fatal F1 accidents since those of Roland and Ayrton. In 2001 the use of the HANS device was mandated for all F1 drivers. The HANS device is designed to save a driver from the type of injury that killed Roland Ratzenberger.

Roland Ratzenberger - July 4 1960 - April 30 1994 - R.I.P.