Brazilians Seek More Than Justice In Case About Senna's Death

RIO DE JANEIRO - He was Brazil's hero, a man who made this often-embattled country's name synonymous for a time with grace and perfection.

When he died more than three years ago while negotiating a curve on the Formula One track in Imola, Italy, a shocked nation grieved.

"Ayrton Senna was the best ambassador Brazil ever had abroad," says Adilson Carvalho de Almeida, the president of Senna's ever-expanding fan club.

Now, Brazil may find out, finally, why its hero died.

In a controversial trial that resumed this month in Italy, three members of Senna's English racing team face charges of manslaughter, accused of negligence in the design and maintenance of the world-famous driver's car, which may have crashed after its steering column sheered off.

Also accused in Senna's death are two track officials and the director of the ill-fated San Marino Grand Prix, all accused of security failures that contributed to the accident.

As the prosecution presents its case in Imola in a trial expected to last at least until September, racing teams are warning a finding against Senna's team could have implications far beyond the case.

For Brazilians, who have chafed for years under charges that the accident somehow was Senna's fault, the trial is a chance for vindication of the man considered perhaps the best Formula 1 driver in history.

"Senna was the best in the world," de Almeida says. "To attribute his accident to his own doing is an absurdity. He had a reputation for perfection and, in respect to his memory, we want to clean this up and show the truth."

What little is clear about Senna's death is that on May 1, 1994, with millions watching on live television on a Sunday afternoon, his Formula One car flew off an easy curve at Imola at 192 m.p.h. and smashed into a concrete retaining wall.

The Brazilian, who suffered fatal head injuries, was pronounced dead soon afterward at a hospital in Bologna.

Team members said later that Senna, a handsome, dark-haired man with a penchant for waving the Brazilian flag, had been unusually tense that day. Crushed by the earlier death of Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger during a qualifying heat, the three-time Formula One champion driver was keyed up about facing top German rival Michael Shumacher.

The night before the fatal race, Senna called girlfriend Adriane Galisteu deeply upset by Ratzenberger's death and convinced the race should be called off because of it.

"He cried," she said later. "He didn't want to race. He had never talked that way before."

Investigations later revealed Senna also had confided to friends that he sometimes held his breath for the first lap of a race, leading to speculation he might have passed out and caused the accident.

An in-car camera showed Senna's helmet tilting sharply to the left just before the crash, a motion experts have been unable to explain.

But evidence uncovered by Maurizio Passarini, Bologna's public prosecutor who brought the new charges, suggests the accident may have been the result of the car's specially modified steering column sheering away at a weak weld.

X-rays taken after the accident showed material fatigue, a problem at the heart of the charges against the three members of Senna's racing team, including team leader Frank Williams. On July 3, Williams engineers testified Senna's car was tested before the race and found fit. The following day there was testimony that the steering column had defects.

Photos have surfaced in recent months of debris on the track, apparently left over from an earlier accident. The photos, by French racing photographer Paul-Henri Cahier, show the debris blasting skyward just before Senna's crash, leading to speculation he may have hit it or spun out of control after swerving in an effort to avoid it.

Track officials have been charged with negligence in maintenance of the track. All of those charged face a maximum of five years in prison.

If Williams and his teammates are found guilty, other Formula One teams have threatened to boycott races in Italy.

Even Senna's most stalwart Brazilian supporters acknowledge their hero's death was largely a consequence of the risks inherent in his sport. "Racing is dangerous," says Luiz Py, a Rio psychiatrist. "He risked his life. Everyone understands that."

But intimations Senna may have erred and contributed to his death have been a stain on the national pride for nearly three years. The trial, Brazilians hope, will clear that black mark.

"He's dead. You can't recover his life. No one is going to make any money on this, either," Py said.

"The only important thing this trial will do is get at the truth," de Almeida said.