The nightmares over Senna that would haunt Imola’s safety car driver for years

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.

As events played out, they would not only feel powerless to do anything as then race leader Senna urged them to up the pace – but would be left with harrowing thoughts for years to come.

Whiting is no longer with us to recount his experience of that day but, in an extras video interview for the Mosley film that was released a few years ago, he recounted the crystal-clear memories of those moments before Senna’s accident.

“I was the observer in the safety car,” explained Whiting, who had been FIA technical delegate at the time. “[It was] one of my little duties.

“I didn’t actually have an awful lot to do with the cars during the race. So, I just sat in the safety car.

“There was a start-line accident, I think involving Pedro Lamy, and so they dispatched the safety car and off we went.

“Senna was leading the race. And I remember it like it was yesterday.

“We’re going into the top chicane and Senna pulled alongside the car. “He was just like there [indicates right next to him], visor up and he was going: ‘faster, faster’. I’m going: ‘We can’t. We can’t go any faster. It’s impossible’.

“The brakes were hot, you could smell the brakes, and the poor driver was doing his very, very best in this car. We came in at the end of that lap and then a lap later he [Senna] had his accident.”

Underpowered and overweight

The overheating brakes and lack of engine power were something that Angelelli had feared from the moment he had turned up at Imola.

At the time, he was an official VW driver in German F3, having won the Italian title two years before. He was also well versed on the demands of his home Imola track.

He well knew that the 204 horsepower of the Opel Vectra, which weighed 1350kg, was not enough.

Speaking in a new book “Senna: The truths” written by Franco Nugnes, Angelelli recounts the terror he felt when he arrived at Imola and was shown the safety car.

Charlie Whiting, FIA Race Director talks to Professor Sid…