The death of Ayrton Senna at Imola 30 years ago today has been pored over in minute detail in the time that has elapsed since.
But one of the lesser-known aspects of what happened on May 1, 1994, was the sense of helplessness unfolding for those inside the safety car which led the Formula 1 field early on. Faced with an underpowered Opel Vectra that was ultimately not fast enough to be running in front of F1 machinery, safety car driver Max Angelelli and former F1 race director Charlie Whiting, who was sat alongside him, faced a situation that nobody would ever want to be in.
“I picked up speed but, well aware of the car's limitations, I didn't go looking for 100% performance, especially since I had no idea how much I would have to stay on the track before the race could restart. “I knew that the brakes would hold for no more than a couple of laps, so I tried to be conservative when braking. When accelerating I pressed the throttle pedal with so much force that I could have made a hole in the floor.
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