Page 1 of Roland Ratzenberger

Fourteen years to the day that the young laddie died at Imola when his wing failed. Sadly had the great Ayrton survived the following day he had planned to raise an Austrian flag in memory of the laddie.

Roland and Ayrton gone but not forgotten .

Ian :(

Blimey was it 14 years ago? That was a sad weekend for the sport.

Actually, thinking about that weekend and what happened to Heikki Kovalainen last week puts into perspective the massive improvements in the safety of F1. If that crash had taken place a decade ago then the Finn would be dead rather than just knocked unconscious. That`s something that Max Mosely can be proud of.

This item was edited on Saturday, 3rd May 2008, 13:14

Choagy, I`m glad someone else thinks about that truly sad weekend at this time. Every year I choke up just thinking of what we lost that weekend. Same at the beginning of April with the great Jim Clark`s anniversary, a gentleman and a genius.

All of Max`s detractors should think very carefully about castigating him. If he hadn`t forced through the HANS device, Heikki might notbe able to race again. Also it is thanks to Max that we know about how safe our road cars are through the Euro ENCAP safety tests. Don`t suppose the NotW scum will say anything about that though!

This item was edited on Saturday, 3rd May 2008, 20:10

I have the duke season review of that year along with quite a few others that i have been tranferring onto dvd. It shows you the accident from a fair way away and the speed his car was doing is phenomenal. Poor lad, was not a good weekend for motorsport but on a positive side was a big wake up call for the safety side.

Watched that race, a sad day indeed.

MANCHESTER UNITED PREMIERSHIP CHAMPIONS 2006/2007/2008

Without the safety initiatives that were implemented because of that weekend, numerous drivers might otherwise have lost their lives - Schumacher at Silverstone, Kubica at Melbourne and Kovalainnen at Barcelona spring to mind. Clouds and silver linings.

This item was edited on Sunday, 4th May 2008, 21:51

Nice post, that was a shocking and sad day.