The Brazilian ace Ayrton Senna finds death after going off the road with his Williams. Ayrton went straight in the Tamburello corner in San Marino, a circuit that saw the death of Roland Ratzenberger just one day before. The circuit was consequently modified by introducing slower corners while the FIA initiated ambitious regulation changes to prevent anything similar from happening again.

Gilles Villeneuves crashed during the qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit of Zolder and died. F1 lost one of its greatest talents and one of the most popular drivers in history.

Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (9 May 1928 - 16 December 1982) was born in London and studied mechanical engineering.
He founded the famous sports car company Lotus in 1952. His initials are shown in the trademark of Lotus.
This brilliant designer who introduced downforce wings, ground effect and struts died of a heart attack. He is still recognised as one of the most inventive designers ever in Formula One.

Nick Heidfeld was born on May 10, 1977 in Mönchengladbach, Germany. In 2000, 'Quick Nick' made his F1 debut with the Prost GP F1 Team alongside Jean Alesi. Heidfeld made the switch to Sauber in 2001 where he partnered with Kimi Raikkonen.
For the 2004 season, Heidfeld moved to Jordan. In 2005, Nick ended up with the Williams F1 Team, after a shootout with Antonio Pizzonia for the 2nd race seat. As at the end of 2005 Williams and BMW decided to part ways, Heidfeld signed a contract for 2006 with the BMW Sauber F1 Team.

Rubens Barrichello was born on May 23, 1972 in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1993, he made his F1 debut with the Jordan Formula One Team. In the 2000 season, Rubens got a contract with the Scuderia Ferrari as team mate of Michael Schumacher. For the 2006 season, the Brazilian switched to the Honda Racing F1 Team.

Franco Rol was born in Turin, Italy. He participated in 5 Formula One World Championship grands prix, debuting on May 21, 1950. He scored no championship points.
Franco Rol died June 18, 1977 in Rapallo.

Jorge Daponte was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He participated in 2 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on January 17, 1954 and scoring no championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship races. He died at 39 years of age.

Umberto Maglioli was born in Bioglio, Vercelli, Italy. He participated in 10 Grands Prix, debuting on September 13, 1953. He achieved 2 podiums by sharing drives and scored 3.33 championship points.

Noritake Takahara is a former Formula One driver from Japan. He participated in 2 Grands Prix, debuting on October 24, 1976. He scored no championship points.

Belgian racing driver Charles de Tornaco was born on June 7, 1927 in Brussels, Belgium. He participated in 4 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on June 22, 1952 in Ferrari. De Tornaco finished that GP in seventh place at the Belgian GP, driving the Ferrari 500. One year later in 1953, the Belgian died at the age of 25 after a testing accident at Monza.

Johnny McDowell was an American racecar driver from Delavan, Illinois. McDowell competed in the 1949 to 1952 Indianapolis 500 races. Since the Indy 500 was part of the F1 World Championship between 1950 and 1960 he completed 3 World Championship races.
He was killed at the Champ Car race at the Milwaukee Mile on June 8, 1952 at age 37.

Sir John Young Stewart, better known as Jackie Stewart, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scottish former racing driver. He competed in 99 Formula One GP's between 1965 and 1973, winning three world titles. During that period he also raced in Can-Am.
Between 1997 and 1999 he was team principal in partnership with his son, Paul Stewart of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team.