The whereabouts of Senna's FW16

[BlueAngel]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, but not to F1. I stopped following F1 in 1994 when Senna was killed in Imola, Italy. IMO he was the last great driver in F1. Things were never the same adter his death, so I stopped following F1 entirely. Well, I'm back, sort of, but mostly into F1's past then it's present. The new drivers are great, but just don't do it for me like the old school, gents did such as Mansell, Prost, Senna, Fittipaldi, Villeneuve (Gilles), etc.

It's been a while since I followed up on Senna's crash, and was wondering what came about of the FW16 that Senna was killed in. Let me know. Thanks in advance, gents.

Samir

[stefan_]

There are all kind of stories about the fact that WIlliams deleted some crucial data from the black box because the car was returned to them after the crash (and it wasn't suppose to happen that because it was evidence), about the broken steering column that was allongated in a poor way to fit Senna's desires etc.




The car itself was in the Italian's authorities posession until March 14 2002 when it was released and returned to Williams Grand Prix Engineering.


Shot taken right after the crash (the steering wheel with a part of the steering column still attached is hanging out of the car) -right click/view image for large version-


The car being towed away

[BlueAngel]

Hi Stefan, and thanks for the reply. I remember reading somewhere about the car being released back to Williams. There is one on display, but wasn't sure if that's the same car Senna was killed in, or just the spare from that season.

Samir

[stefan_]

The one on display it's certainly not the car we're talking about, it is just a car used in that season. As you can see, Senna's car has the right side pretty much destroyed with the chassis being broken and so on, and I don't think Williams were so cynical to repair and display the car in which Ayrton was killed. The crashed car is probably stored somewhere away in the Williams factory or it has been destroyed.

[BlueAngel]

The one on display it's certainly not the car we're talking about, it is just a car used in that season. As you can see, Senna's car has the right side pretty much destroyed with the chassis being broken and so on, and I don't think Williams were so cynical to repair and display the car in which Ayrton was killed. The crashed car is probably stored somewhere away in the Williams factory or it has been destroyed.

Stefen, I'm thinking that as well. Like yourself, I do actually think its either put away in a secret location, or destroyed.

Regards
Samir

[countersteer]

Can't site the source but I recall that the car was destroyed once it was returned to Williams. It's my understanding that Frank oversaw that activity.

On another note, I think it very very cool that Williams continues to display the "Senna S" on every car to this day.

[ESPImperium]

My understanding is that FW16-02 was returned to Williams F1 for a short time in a area controlled by Italian prosecution authorities, and has been never returned to Williams F1 since that day in Imola.

The car is held in an Italian Prosecution Evidence Storage facility somewhere in Milan the last time i heard, the chassis and all the bits that were retrieved from the scene are held in a large wooden box similar to the opening scene to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Williams have only been able to take pics of the chassis as well as get the data of the 4MB memory of the Magnetti ECU.

[banibhusan]

Not sure if its the right place and the right content, nevertheless just came across these nice videos about Senna's crash and thought of posting them here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayjOW5DnwgM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM6MzcdK62k[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX2Sd_Ww-HA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f9pumnvqDI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NjSIZfG5rk[/youtube]

[BlueAngel]

Cool vids, thanks for sharing.