Frank Williams says about Ayrton Senna "Ayrton was the most committed of all"

“Ayrton was the most committed of all. What was outstanding about him was his mental application. He had an air of invincibility around him. He put his entire body and mind into winning.” - Frank Williams

Winning was no accident for Ayrton Senna – it’s what his whole life was about right to the end. In his last Grand Prix in Imola on 1st May 1994, he was leading the field from pole position when he died.

Many of Ayrton Senna’s 41 Grand Prix victories amounted to comprehensive driving lessons that remain textbook examples of how to win at the pinnacle of motorsport. Only death stopped him challenging Alain Prost’s 51-win record and possibly putting it beyond the reach of Michael Schumacher or any other successor.

Ayrton Senna vs Michael Schumacher, Imola 1994

To win was what he desired more than anything else. That he was more successful at getting pole than he was at winning was a mystery to him, as it was to others. He once said: “You either commit yourself as a professional racing driver who is designed to win races, or you come second, third, fourth or fifth. I am not designed to come second or less. I race to win. As long as I feel it is possible. Sometimes you get it wrong, sure. It is impossible to get it right all the time. But I race to win because I am designed to win.”

And that was probably the problem – he tried too hard to win and wore out the car or went off trying when he should have held for second and possibly inherited victory. Senna’s designs on the art of winning, his detailed planning to parlay his superlative natural talent into ultimate success, were unsurpassed. Michael Schumacher has become the dominant driver of his era by emulating Senna’s pioneering pursuit of excellence. 

But prior to Senna, none of the sport’s other superstars worked as hard at winning. Sir Frank Williams only employed him for a short time but it was long enough to realise what distinguished Senna from the team’s other greatest winners, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost.

Source: "The life of Senna" - by Tom Rubython

Sylvester Stallone in the FW16B Williams, GP Italy, 1994/09/11

Sylvester Stallone in the Williams FW16B, GP Italy, 11-09-1994. Next to him, David Coutlhard, appointed as the replacement of Senna for the 1994 season, acting as the PR host

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Investigation and trial on Ayrton Senna's accident at Imola 1994

The Williams team was entangled for many years in a court case with the Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, ending in a guilty verdict for Patrick Head. 

The Italian Court of Appeal, on April 13, 2007, stated the following in the verdict numbered 15050: “It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control”. Even being found responsible for Senna’s accident, Patrick Head wasn’t arrested: in Italy the statute of limitation for manslaughter is 7 years and 6 months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.

A 600-page technical report was submitted by Bologna University under Professor of Engineering Enrico Lorenzini and his team of specialists. The report concluded that fatigue cracks had developed through 70% of the steering column at the point where it had broken. Lorenzini stated: “It had been badly welded together about a third of the way down and couldn’t stand the strain of the race. We discovered scratches on the crack in the steering rod. It seemed like the job had been done in a hurry but I can’t say how long before the race. Someone had tried to smooth over the join following the welding. I have never seen anything like it. I believe the rod was faulty and probably cracked even during the warm-up. Moments before the crash only a tiny piece was left connected and therefore the car didn’t respond in the bend.”

Senna did not like the position of the steering column relative to his seating position and had repeatedly asked for it to be changed. Patrick Head and Adrian Newey agreed to Senna’s request to lengthen the FW16′s steering column, but there was no time to manufacture a longer steering shaft. The existing shaft was instead cut, extended by inserting a smaller-diameter piece of tubing and welded together with reinforcing plates. Many surmise, based on the “yellow button tracking analysis” done in 1997 by CINECA that the movement of the steering wheel during the final seconds into Tamburello was abnormal. A reference point (yellow button) on the onboard video is seen to move several centimetres in its own plane, due to the steering wheel moving up and down, indicating a fully or partially buckled steering column.
Williams released its own video to prove the movement was normal by Coulthard manhandling an FW16B steering wheel, yet the effort required by Coulthard to deflect the wheel in the demonstration is termed to be “quite considerable”. The nature of Tamburello requiring a light and anticipatory grip on the wheel (because of the high speed and bumps) coupled with Senna’s slight frame causes some to question whether or not the movement of the yellow button was indeed as “normal” as Williams has claimed.

No known analysis has been done on the tracking of the yellow button at other laps of the FW16 around Imola or other racing circuits.

During the trials, Fabrizio Nosco, a Regional technical commissioner, testified that both of the vehicle’s black boxes were intact, except for minor scratches. He said “I have seen thousands of these devices and removed them for checks. The two boxes were intact, even though they had some scratches. The Williams device looked to have survived the crash.”. In a move that apparently breached FIA regulations, Charles Whiting, a FIA official, handed the black boxes to Williams before the regulating body’s own investigation into the accident. Williams claimed the black boxes were unreadable, and the boxes returned for the court proceedings were indeed unreadable, a full month after the accident. The black boxes might have put to rest the cause of the accident.

At the conclusion of the Italian trial, Senna’s FW16, chassis number 02, was returned to the Williams team. The team reported that the car was in an advanced state of deterioration and was subsequently destroyed. The car’s engine was returned to Renault, and its fate is unknown.

His death was considered by many of his Brazilian fans to be a national tragedy, and the Brazilian government declared three days of national mourning. Senna is buried at the Cemitério do Morumbi in his hometown of São Paulo.

Source: http://www.sennafiles.com/ayrton-senna/death/investigation-and-trial/

Was the Williams team legally found guilty for Senna's death?

Yes. But nobody paid in the end.

This is very little known but yes, the Williams team was finally found guilty for Senna's death. 
"The Williams team was entagled for many years in a court case with the Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, ending in a guilty verdict for Patrick Head. The Italian Court of Appeal, on April 13, 2007, stated the following in the verdict numbered 15050: "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control". Even being found responsible for Senna's accident, Patrick Head wasn't arrested: in Italy the statute of limitation for manslaughter is 7 years and 6 months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident."

Ayrton Senna suspected about Schumacher in 1994: illegal traction control

Flashback: A tale of dodgy traction control and alleged cheating in Formula 1

The suspicion raised by former Formula 1 team owner Giancarlo Minardi, that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull could be using a clever form of traction control, has conjured up memories of a similar scenario that played itself out during the 1994 season when Ayrton Senna went to his grave convinced that Michael Schumacher’s Benetton B194 was using traction control – and he may well have been right.

Senna and Schumacher were clearly the two main contenders of that season. The Brazilian, a three times world champion, having moved to Williams and Schumacher the young upstart with the Benetton team packed with a back room of the brightest technical gurus such as Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, all led by flambouyant Flavio Briatore.

Frpok the outset Senna was struggling with the Adrina Newey designed Williams FW16, it was not as easy to drive as the all conquering predecessors, namely the FW15C and FW14B. Nevertheless those close to Senna claim he drove the car harder than anything he had driven before, and although he never finished a race in 1994 he did qualify on pole for all three races he started.

Senna explained at the time, “I have a very negative feeling about driving the car and driving it on the limit and so on… Some of that is down to the lack of electronic change. Also, the car has its own characteristics which I’m not fully confident in yet.”

And famously added, “It’s going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I’ll risk saying that we’ll be lucky if something really serious doesn’t happen.”

In Brazil, Senna confided with his close associates that he was suspicious of Schumacher’s Benetton, and that he felt the team was using some form of traction control which along with active suspension and ABS was banned for 1994.

He became convinced of the use of traction control when after retiring from the Japanese Grand Prix he stood by the side of the track and heard the difference in engine sounds and characteristics between Schumacher’s car and his teammate Jos Verstappen’s supposedly similar Benetton B194.

At Imola, Senna was killed during the race and the Formula 1 world was sent reeling.

Coincidentially or ironically straight after the race the FIA impounded computer control systems of Ferrari, McLaren and Benetton. Shortly after Silverstone that year the governing body decreed that Ferrari had co-operated, and were clean, but two Benetton and McLaren were fined $100,000 each for attempting to deny the FIA’s inspectors access to their computer programme codes.

The Independent newspaper reported at the time: When the inspectors got into the Benetton computers, they discovered a hidden programme, and it was dynamite: a programme called Launch Control, which allowed Schumacher to make perfect starts merely by flooring the throttle, the computer then taking over to ensure that the car reached the first corner with no wasteful wheelspin.

Legal in 1993 but outlawed by the new regulations, the programme was still there – although now it had been concealed. To find it you had to call up the software’s menu of programmes, scroll down beyond the bottom line, select an apparently blank line, press a secret key – and, hey presto, without anything showing on the screen, Launch Control was ready for action.

Brawn’s claim that the system had not been used during the 1994 season could neither be proved nor disproved; the FIA’s decision to publicise their findings suggested that they had their suspicions. After all, if Launch Control was now redundant, why had it had been left sitting in the software? Because, the Benetton people said, the task of isolating and removing it was one of impossible complexity. (The concealment, they added, was simply to prevent somebody switching it on by mistake.)

‘That’s enough to make me believe they were cheating,’ a computer specialist with another F1 team told the author at the time. ‘Look, we purged our own software of all the illegal systems during the winter. I did it myself. It took me two days. That’s all. Perfectly straightforward. And the fact that they disguised it was very suspicious.’

Also that year, after an investigation by Intertechnique at Benetton’s team factory, the FIA revealed that the team had been using an illegal fuel valve, without a fuel filter, that pumped fuel into the car 12.5% faster than a normal, legal fuel valve that had a filter.

This may have explained how Schumacher was able to leap frog Senna and take the lead at the season opening Brazilian GP. Upon which the Brazilian was forced to chase hard, but to no avail as he spun out in front of his home crowd.

Verstappen, who was lucky to survive with only minor burns when a fuel hose fire caused flames to engulf his car during a pitstop at the German GP, spoke of his 1994 season with Benetton alongside Schumacher

“I know what happened when we were together at Benetton. People think I’m looking for excuses but I know that his car was different from mine. I always thought it was impossible; I braked at the limit and took the corners as hard as possible, so how could Schumacher do it?”

“There was something wrong. There were electronic driver aids. It was never mentioned, but I’m convinced and when I later asked Flavio Briatore he replied ‘Let’s not talk about it’. So I know enough now,” claimed Verstappen.

The tragic story of the 1994 season is now part of the history and folklore of Formula 1, but it begs the question: Would Senna have been pushing the limits (in and out of the car) had he not been up against a rival using illegal means to gain an advantage?

And with this in mind it obviously must never be allowed to happen again in Formula 1 ever again. 

Source: Grand Prix

Senna runs to join Sid Watkins in the Medical car after Ratzenberger's fatal crash, Imola, April 30th 1994

Ayrton Senna runs to the track after hearing about Ratzenberger's death - Imola, San Marino, 30th April 1994

161 starts, 65 pole positions, 41 wins. 

Those are the statistics of none other than Ayrton Senna. The statistics, however, do not even begin to tell the story of the incredible man that was Ayrton Senna. A testament to his greatness was that during the recovery efforts after his fatal accident, the medics found an unexpected item - an Austrian flag, sadly bloodstained from the accident. Had Senna won the race, and he had every intention of doing so, he would have held the flag aloft on his victory lap to honour the memory of Roland Ratzenberger. It would have been a simple gesture, but it sums up the nature of Ayrton Senna perfectly.

Picture: Senna runs to join Sid Watkins in the Medical car after Ratzenberger's fatal crash, Imola, April 30th 1994

Ayrton Senna Memorial at Imola, San Marino, Italy

Ayrton Senna Memorial at the circuit of F1 in San Marino, Imola, Italy

 "I’m not a big fan of May 1. I know what to do each year on my wife’s birthday, our wedding anniversary, on Christmas, and all of the other major dates circled on the calendar, but the annual reminder of Ayrton Senna’s death on May 1, 1994 tends to leave me a bit confused and emotionally conflicted. It's been 19 years since his crash and subsequent death at the San Marino Grand Prix—more than enough time to have gone from mourning his loss to celebrating his life—but there are still tinges of sorrow that surface each May.

As much as I’m thankful for all he accomplished and left behind, I’m also somewhat selfish in wanting to have seen more. I feel the same way about the late Greg Moore and Dan Wheldon. Having witnessed their brilliance for only so briefly, living without it has left an immeasurable void that, if I’m honest, will probably remain unfilled. What I’m also left to consider each year on May 1—and I imagine I’m not alone—is how big of a role Ayrton Senna played in my life. Like millions of other Formula 1 fans, I dove headfirst into the sport in the 1980s. Despite my appreciation for many of the World Champions in the field, I was immediately drawn to Senna, a driver whose otherworldly talents were so perfectly balanced by his many flaws. He was painfully human —the most relatable driver on the grid, I reckoned. I digested every bit of news and information on Senna that was available from magazines like Autosport, On Track, and MotorSport (during those pre-Internet days) and videotaped nearly all of his F1 races (once I was old enough to get a job and pay for cable, that is).

I spent countless hours arguing with co-workers, bosses, and drivers about his superiority to Prost, Piquet, Mansell, and the rest. He was my hero, and my worship of him continued into the Nineties, adding Schumacher and Hill to the losing column in my superiority debate. By the way I miss those heated roundtables but remain convinced that I was always right... And then it came crashing down for me on live television in the early hours of May 1 at a hotel near Laguna Seca.

The outcome of his crash was obvious at the time, and although I was in shock, the announcement of his death that came over the public address system in the Monterey paddock wasn’t unexpected. Following Senna was incredibly personal for me and made his death hard to reconcile. Again, I can’t say if my attachment to him—one forged from half a world away—was unique, but every year on May 1, I’m taken back by the flood a memories—of who I was at the time, of what he meant to me, and of how my appreciation for him has matured."

By Marshall Pruett

Ayrton Senna had the good looks of a romantic hero

Death, perhaps inevitably, has lent Ayrton Senna's legend a romanticised sheen. The greatness of the man and the brilliance of his driving are remembered easily, the occasional darkness of his psyche perhaps less so. But it does Senna a disservice to honour only part of his legacy. The significance of his achievements cannot be properly understood without a full appreciation of their origins.

Ayrton Senna facts

World champion three times
161 grand prix starts
41 wins
65 pole positions
First race - 1984 Brazilian GP
First win - 1985 Portugese GP
Last win - 1993 Australian GP
Last race - 1994 San Marino GP

He had the good looks of a romantic hero, a charisma that could quieten any room, the eloquence of a poet and a spirituality with which millions felt they could identify. His dark eyes were windows to a soul of complexity and volatility. All that made him into a demi-god in his homeland of Brazil, and admired the world over like few sportsmen before or since.

But with that determination, and his own knowledge of just how good he was, came a sense of entitlement that was less attractive and which led him to take actions that put his own life - and the lives of his opponents - at risk.