Roland Ratzenberger Would've Celebrated His 54th Birthday Today

After signing a five-race deal with the MTV Simtek Ford team, the up-and-coming F1 talent got off to a promising start in the world's highest tier motorsport by finishing the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix with an honorable 11th place. However, the Austrian rookie's career was cut short by a very dramatic high-speed crash during the San Marino qualifying session on April 30th, 1994.

Ratzenberger went off the track on the lap previous to his accident, damaging his front wing and affecting the structural rigidity of his MTV Simtek Ford single seater. Time was short and he wanted to do a final fast lap to qualify for the final grid spot, so he didn't come to the pits to waste valuable seconds on repairs. On the long straight just before the Villeneuve Curva, his front wing broke, sending it under the wheels of his racecar.

With Villeneuve Curva approaching, Roland tried to turn the car into the corner but failed to do so over the lack of downforce and that front wing stuck under his racer. Ultimately, the Austrian hit the outside wall of the corner at a whopping 195 mph (314 km/h) and lost his life immediately because of basilar skull fracture.

This tragic event made him the first F1 driver to die on a Grand Prix weekend since the 1982 season and the first racing driver to die in an F1 car after Elio de Angelis was fatally injured during testing in 1986. Like most fans of the sport might know, he was followed the next day by Senna, the last racing driver to lose his life in a Formula 1 car. That says a lot about how dangerous were the 3.5-liter V8 and V10 monsters of that era in Formula 1.

If Ratzenberger would've survived the high-speed crash at the Imola circuit, today he would've celebrated his 54th birthday. The Austrian was born almost four months after Ayrton Senna, but their careers couldn't be more different in spite of their similarity in age. Senna first raced in F1 in 1984, while Ratzenberger spent a decade slowly climbing the ladder from German Formula Ford to the king motorsport. 1994 was Senna's 11th season in Formula 1, while Ratzenberger was just a rookie.

But not many know that the Austrian has something to boast about in front of the three-time F1 world champ from Brazil. He competed in the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans for Toyota and managed to position the car 2nd in the Group C class in 1992 and 1st in class in 1993. Further more, Roland won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships in 1985.

And that begs the question: had he lived, would've Roland Ratzenberger win the Formula 1 championship at least once? He had the talent, but Lady Luck hasn't smiled upon him during that terrible Grand Prix weekend in 1994.