Following are the words of David Brabham – the full article can be read on the official website of Formula 1.
As a competitor, you always want to know who your teammates are. When someone says their name, you immediately form an image of that person in your head. You get excited or you get disappointed, and when Roland’s name was mentioned to me, I got excited. I didn’t really know him, but I knew what he had achieved in his racing career. He was an experienced driver who showed his speed, made no mistakes and seemed to have it all.
I had some F1 and sports car experience and he had sports car and single seater experience. I thought it might be a good combination for the team. A fledgling team like Simtek needed everyone pulling in the same direction. And with his experience as a sports car driver, he knew exactly how to play this game.
We both lived in Monaco so we took the opportunity to train together. During this time we tried to get to know each other. After we started driving the car, we talked regarding what would be needed. He had ideas and so did I. Our relationship started well; we felt that we worked well together and were looking forward to the season, although we knew that we were facing a very serious task.
This was Roland’s first F1 season. At the age of 33, he fell into it relatively late, but he worked hard behind the scenes to get it together. Although he was at the end of the field, he also had a childhood dream of entering F1. He was in his element, so you might feel an extra effervescence around him. The first two races were held in Brazil and Japan. Roland might not qualify for the first, but he did for the second. I finished the first race, which was a huge achievement in itself.
We started to build momentum, we had data and information regarding the car as we didn’t have the money to go and test it. We didn’t have a spare car or anything like that, so we had to try everything on the race weekends, so the more laps we did, the more we learned.
We went to Imola with much more knowledge, and we changed a few things on the car. We were excited. Roland started to feel more comfortable in the car, but he still had a little trouble with the brakes. I actually drove his car on Friday. The team asked me to try it for a couple of laps and it turned out that the brakes were really bad. Roland was happy to hear what I said and thanked me. But I was just telling the truth – the brakes really didn’t work.
On Saturday, he felt really confident in the car, he was much closer to me, we were head to head, and then the time trial came. I was out on the track and I saw some parts, some body parts that were the same color as my car. I knew it was Roland. As I rounded the corner, I saw him and the car…it is very vivid in my memory and I can see it clearly to this day. I saw someone who was no longer there.
I went back to the pit and of course everyone was panicking. I walked by the car, so everyone was like, “What do you think?” I remember my wife, Lisa, also asking me what I thought, and I said, “I don’t think he made it.” You might feel it somehow. Then came the announcement that he had indeed died and it was a huge shock to everyone, not just the team but F1 – everyone who loves F1. I have never faced anything like this before.
Then Sunday came and we lost Ayrton. As competitors, we didn’t know he died until following the race. Actually when we got back from the field that night because the news came a little later. I saw the end of the accident as I turned the corner. At first I thought it was another car. I saw the blue color and thought it was a Tyrrell. It was only following I returned to the pits that they told me it was Ayrton.
There was Rubens Barrichello’s accident in training, then there was Roland’s incident, then there was the start accident, the pit lane incident, and finally Senna’s accident… Horrible events happened one following the other, and you simply didn’t understand what was happening. You asked, what the hell is going on? I experienced something similar for the first time in my life, as did many others.
Of course, Ayrton overshadows Roland, as they are two completely different people, with two completely different careers and a different impact on global fans, but it’s good that people still want to remember him because he was also part of the history of F1 at that time. He was still a competitor, he was still on the grid, and he lost his life doing what he loved.
In my eyes, Roland was very talented. Too bad we never really got to see what he was capable of.
