Imola forced all of us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if it was worth it

DAMON HILL EXCLUSIVE 30 YEARS ON FROM THE DEATHS OF SENNA AND RATZENBERGER

- DANIEL MOXON

AS Damon Hill strapped himself into his Williams for the restart of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, he had no idea his team-mate Ayrton Senna was dead.

He knew it was the Brazilian who had suffered a horrifying crash at high speed, seven laps into the Imola race, held 30 years ago this week.

But neither he nor any of his fellow drivers knew at the time the suspension on Senna's car had penetrated his helmet.

The triple world champion, aged just 34, most likely died instantly.

And very quickly, in just his second full season as a Williams driver, Hill was thrust into the role of Williams team leader while still dealing with his own grief.

The situation was eerily similar to what his father Graham went through 26 years earlier, as he had to lead the Lotus team after Jim Clark's death.

Danger is an inherent part of motorsport, but that Imola race weekend was the darkest in Fl's history. A day before Senna's fatal crash on May 1, 1994, Austrian racer Roland Ratzenberger was killed when he also hit a concrete wall at high speed.