How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey

Author:Adrian Newey
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2017-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 47

There’s no such thing as accidental death in Italy. If somebody dies and it’s not suicide, then somebody must be held responsible.

So after the death at Imola of Roland and Ayrton, a prosecuting magistrate was assigned by the local Bologna Prosecutor’s Office. Two and a half years after the accident, Maurizio Passarini, Bologna’s federal prosecutor, decided there was no case against the Simtek team after the death of Roland Ratzenberger, but concluded that Williams team executives and circuit administrators should face a manslaughter charge.

Charged from Williams were Frank, Patrick and me, while Federico Bendinelli, head of Sagis, the firm who administer the Imola circuit, was charged with failing to modify a well-known dangerous corner. Giorgio Poggi, the track official director, and Roland Bruynseraede, the race director from FIA, were charged with being co-responsible for not making safety modifications in the wake of Roland Ratzenberger’s death.

The whole thing was something of a travesty as far as I was concerned. I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton’s death but not culpability. The guilt I felt was for me to work out for myself, not in the forum of an Italian court, presided over by a judge who was operating in direct contravention of the family’s wishes. The fact that the Ratzenberger case had been so easily swept under the carpet left me suspicious that Passarini’s principal motivation might be personal glory and notoriety.

Fast-forwarding, I went on gardening leave from Williams (more of which later) at the end of the 1996 season, and spent most of that period consumed with establishing my defence to the case. The trial began in the summer of 1997. By that time I’d left Williams, but I’d had the foresight to ensure that my contract with McLaren included coverage of my legal fees with respect to the ongoing manslaughter charge. Patrick had made it clear, even when I was still at Williams, that because we were being charged individually, we’d have to defend ourselves individually, which I thought was a slightly strange stance.

Eventually, on the evening before the commencement of the trial, Patrick came up to me and said, ‘Just to let you know that as far as I’m concerned, you were the chief designer and responsible for the design of the car and therefore, I believe, you have to take responsibility for this.’

I was dumbfounded. I didn’t expect that from Patrick. In my book, as one of the senior officers of the ship you take responsibility. Below me in the organisation was the head of the design office, below him the detail designer who actually drew the component. So, if you want to get into that game, I could say, ‘Well actually, you shouldn’t be charging me, you should be charging the head of the design office and the design draughtsman over here; it’s nothing to do with me. I never saw the design.’ Needless to say, I just don’t think that’s the way one should work. Their names were kept out of the proceedings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.