It is a quirk of Italian law that, if a fatality occurs, even on a race track, someone must be held responsible. The tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend resonated through the world and put Formula 1 under intense scrutiny.
While Ratzenberger’s accident was clearly caused by front-wing failure, Senna’s became the object of frenzied speculation. As the FIA sought to find lessons from the fatalities that could be translated into effective safety improvements, the Italian legal machine swung into action and a criminal trial ensued.
