For over 30 years, between 1975 and 2006, Italian Domenico Salcito, 79, was the director of the medical service at the Imola racetrack and one of those responsible for work on the track. On May 1, 1994, when Ayrton Senna crashed his Williams into the wall at the Tamburello corner, Salcito was inside the medical car, near the pit straight.
"On the seventh lap, I hear over the radio: 'Accident at Tamburello.' I calculated that [the cars] were on the other side and that there would be time," Salcito told Folha.
In a video interview, the retired doctor recalled moments from that weekend, marked by two deaths and other accidents. On Friday, Rubens Barrichello crashed; on Saturday, Roland Ratzenberger died on the track; on Sunday, after the start, a collision between two cars sent a tire flying into the crowd. Shortly after, Senna's fatal crash. "During those days, the witches flew over the Imola racetrack," he said.
Salcito remembers Senna as one of the few to visit the medical center in previous years. "He had an uncommon sensitivity for everything that surrounded him."