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Senna: A F1 Materials and Safety Exploration

By Core Jr - August 15, 2011

in Materials | Cars

Reporting by Josh Wirth

The life of Brazilian racecar driver Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest Formula 1™ drivers of all time, is beautifully portrayed in director Asif Kapadia's recent documentary Senna. The film recounts the making of a three time Formula 1™ world champion and Brazilian national hero, whose brilliant career in racing was cut short when he crashed and died at age 34 the 1994 Grand Prix in San Marino, Italy. The use of home movies and TV footage brings viewers vividly into the racing world of the '80s and early '90s, where Senna was famed for bringing intelligence and sportsmanship, as well as unrivalled technical mastery, to the highly political, competitive and sometimes corrupt sport of racing.

The weekend of Senna's final race seemed cursed from the start. First, Senna's protégé Rubens Barrichello, crashed on Friday (he survived). The next day, ~~Senna's Williams-Renault teammate~~ Rolando Ratzenberger (driving for Simtek), crashed and died from head and neck injuries during the qualification laps. Finally, during the Sunday race, Senna lost control of his car when his steering column shattered during a turn. He crashed into the wall, causing shrapnel from the column to strike his helmet with fatal force.

Which led us to the question—What are some of the materials employed today to prevent similar fatalities? Two fatal crashes on the same team in one weekend was more than just coincidence. The drivers were driving faulty and unsafe vehicles, which no one wanted to admit at the time. These were slightly older race cars that had been upgraded in 1993 with cutting edge electronic components that were removed prior to the start of the racing season in 1994 without re-engineering the vehicles, rendering the cars unstable and challenging for even the most talented racers, like Senna, to drive. The deaths launched a decade long investigation into the cause of the accidents, and ultimately resulted in the creation of new regulations for cockpit size, survival shell material, and increased physical protection around the driver's head. Advances in helmet composite technology and the design of the HANS device to protect and stabilize the driver's upper body were further necessary safety innovations.

Current F1 helmet outer shells are made of three main materials: carbon fiber for rigidity; fire-resistant aramide and Kevlar for impenetrability; and magnesium, aluminum and epoxy resin for additional strengthening and durability. (The exact make up of the outer shell is a manufacturer secret). Windscreens are fire-resistant polycarbonate layered 3mm thick with tear-off outer layers for split-second dirt removal. A note from the official F1 website explains in more detail:

In recent seasons the actual shape of helmets has gradually evolved, as more aerodynamically efficient shapes are brought into use. Sitting directly below the main engine air intake, helmets are increasingly shaped to assist in the process of reducing drag in this notoriously high-turbulence aerodynamic area. The modern designs also reduce the lift produced by more traditionally shaped helmets—which can be anything up to 15 kg at racing speeds.

At a 2009 Grand Prix race, a spring traveling at 160 mph hit Felipe Massa's ~~Rubens Barrichello's~~ visor causing a serious, but non-fatal, head injury from which he fully recovered. Following this incident, manufacturers added Zylon to the visor to improve further the chances of a racer walking away from major impact. If only this helmet had existed in 1994.

The HANS (Head and Neck Support) device is a safety support system that wraps under the driver's shoulders and comes up the back of the neck with two tether straps clipping into the helmet. The HANS device is made primarily with carbon fiber, sparing foam, and fabric trims. Designed and invented by Dr. Robert Hubbard, a biomechanical engineer from Michigan in the early '80s after his own racing tragedy, it wasn't till 2003 that F1 officially made the HANS mandatory for all drivers.

CORE77 READERS in SF and PDX!! We have a special screening of Senna setup for Core77 readers in San Francisco (Wednesday, August 17th) and Portland (Monday, August 22nd)! Email us mail [at] core77.com with your CITY in the subject line. Lookout for an email confirmation that includes the location for entry to the screening for you and one guest! Check the full trailer below, and to find out where to see Senna near you, see www.SENNAmovie.com

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Ronald Pottol

13 years ago

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Thanks for the tickets, I very much enjoyed seeing it, I think it may do well (hard for me to say, I was a serious F1 fan for all but the last part of Senna's career, so I knew most of what was shown).

Keep up the good blogging.
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paul

13 years ago

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Also, he didn't die from shrapnel from the steering column. His right front wheel broke off and hit him in the head - which ultimately led to mandating "tethers" on the wheels so now, when they break off, the wheels don't go flying away.
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Ragonettidesigns

13 years ago

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Great piece. My father has been racing in novice racing since 1986 and watched him escape some scary incidents. When I began racing 15 years I made a lot of novice mistakes, ended up in tire walls and such. At that time there was not a HANS device. Today I feel much safer and more confident straping into my car with HANS on. I can wait to Senna on Thursday, greatest racer ever!
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Bia

13 years ago

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I grew up watching him, it was the thing to do for brazilian kids at the time. The guy was incredible. I remember watching the whole thing live, it was in fact the last full race I ever watched. The steering column was indeed fatigued, and broke when he had to swerve coming out of a curve. There was debris in the track, which didn't help any. He died in the medical center off the track. What was most remembered afterwards was that he had been acting weird all weekend, like he knew something would happen. Maybe reflecting on all the accidents that had occurred already that weekend. We've not had since a pilot with that kind of standing before the public. The holy trinity of sports is, to this day, Pele-Senna-the Ronaldos.
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Lucy

13 years ago

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Senna historians know that the steering column was worn 60 - 70% when Ayrton went into the Imola weekend. Both Williams and Head have attested to that. Newey has never. The car did not bottom out. The steering column broke, he tried to slow the car down and did by about 30 MPH - there are people that were interviewed that swore they saw him tossing out the broken wheel. Williams should have manufactured a new column - they did not. Negligence and of course, safety was secondary back then.
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Erik

13 years ago

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Great post, some of the most innovative designers and engineers have come from F1 (Colin Chapman, Bruce Mclaren, Gordon Murray, Adrian Newey ect.), just a few corrections however.

- Roland RatzenBerger was not Senna's teamate, Damon Hill was. Ratzenberger drove for the Simtek team.

- There was a huge investigation into what caused senna's crash and while steering column failure was thought to be the cause (the column was broken after the crash) the more likely reason was the car bottoming out on entry to the turn and Senna over correcting

- Also the incident with the spring you are reference occurred at the Hungarian GP 2009 and was the result of Rubens Barrichello's spring falling off his Brawn and Hitting the visor of Ferrari's Felipe Massa's Helmet.

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Alex

13 years ago

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err, that 2009 spring hit felipe massa's helmet.
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