May 2 (GMM) 22 years on, the father of Roland Ratzenberger says he and his wife have accepted the tragic death of their son.
Most thoughts over the weekend at Sochi were about the F1 legend Ayrton Senna, as Sunday was the first grand prix since that fateful day at Imola in 1994 on which a race was held on 1 May.
But Austrian backmarker Ratzenberger, then 33, had been killed at the wheel of his Simtek during qualifying the day before Senna died.
“I have accepted what happened,” his father, Rudolf, told Auto Bild at the weekend.
“In hindsight, my wife and I often think ‘What if Roland had become paralysed?’ Or when we think about the dreadful fate of Michael Schumacher and that it might have happened (to Roland).
“So you can perhaps imagine something worse,” Rudolf Ratzenberger added.
“While the worst thing that can happen to you is to lose your life, for parents I think there are even worse scenarios than a sudden death and the certainty that it’s over.”