Roland Walter Ratzenberger (German: [ˈroːlant ˈratsn̩bɛrɡɐ]; 4 July 1960 – 30 April 1994) was an Austrian racing driver, who competed in Formula One at three Grands Prix in 1994.
Born and raised in Salzburg, Ratzenberger began his racing career as a protégé of Walter Lechner, joining the Lechner Racing School at the Salzburgring upon graduating from technical school, aged 18. Ratzenberger progressed to Formula Ford in 1983, winning multiple national and continental titles, as well as the Festival in 1986. Ratzenberger balanced his next two seasons between touring car racing and Formula Three; he contested the World Touring Car Championship in 1987 with Schnitzer, achieving four podium finishes in ten races whilst driving the BMW E30 M3. After finishing third in the 1989 British Formula 3000 Championship and retiring from his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, Ratzenberger moved into Japanese motorsport with Toyota. Amongst competing in World Sportscar, All-Japan Sports Prototype, Japanese Touring Car and Japanese Formula 3000, Ratzenberger also entered four further editions of Le Mans from 1990 to 1993, winning the C2 class at the latter in the Toyota 93C-V with SARD.
Ratzenberger signed for Simtek in 1994, making his Formula One debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he did not qualify. He made his only Grand Prix start at the subsequent Pacific Grand Prix, finishing 11th after starting 26th. During qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Ratzenberger died as the result of a basilar skull fracture sustained in an accident at the Villeneuve Curva, colliding with a concrete barrier at 225 km/h (140 mph) in his Simtek S941. He was the first fatality in the Formula One World Championship since Riccardo Paletti in 1982. The weekend became notorious for the fatal accident of Ayrton Senna the following day, with both deaths leading to widespread safety reforms and the re-establishment of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.
Roland Walter Ratzenberger was born in Salzburg, Austria, on 4 July 1960. When he was seven, his grandmother took him to a local hillclimb race at Gaisberg. Ιn 1969, the Salzburgring opened near his home. As a teenager, he discovered that racer and Formula Ford team owner Walter Lechner was based nearby and, while studying at a technical school, began to hang around the workshop. On finishing his education at eighteen, he joined Lechner, who was at this time opening a racing school at the Salzburgring.
In the winter of 1991, in Monaco, and after what Adam Cooper described as "a whirlwind courtship", Ratzenberger married the former partner of another driver, becoming stepfather to her son from a previous relationship. They were divorced early in 1992.
Ratzenberger began racing in German Formula Ford in 1983, and in 1985 won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships. In 1985, he entered the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in England, finishing second. He returned in 1986 to win the event, before graduating to British Formula 3 the following season. While in the UK, he briefly gained fame for the similarity of his name to that of TV puppet Roland Rat, with whom he appeared in an edition of TV-am; the TV-am branding appeared for a time on his car.
Two years in British F3 yielded two 12th places in the championship with West Surrey Racing and Madgwick Motorsport. Ratzenberger also raced in other cars besides single seaters, once finishing second in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship driving a Team Schnitzer BMW M3. In 1988, he entered the final few rounds of the British Touring Car Championship in a class B BMW M3, racing for the Demon Tweeks team. The next year, he entered the British Formula 3000 series, finishing third overall, and also raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time; the Brun Motorsport, Porsche 962 he shared with Maurizio Sandro Sala and Walter Lechner retired in the third hour. He would take part in the next four Le Mans races, with Brun again in 1991, and with the SARD team in 1990, 1992 and 1993.
In the 1990s, Ratzenberger began racing primarily in Japan. He won one race each in 1990 and 1991 in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship with the same SARD team he drove for at Le Mans. He also returned to touring car racing in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, finishing seventh in 1990 and 1991 in a BMW M3. During the latter year, Ratzenberger tested a CART Lola T91/00 for Dick Simon Racing at Willow Springs.
This paved the way for a return to Formula 3000 in the Japanese championship, with the Stellar team in the 1992 season. His year began poorly but, when the team upgraded their two-year-old Lola for a new model, Ratzenberger won once to finish seventh overall. He remained in the series in 1993, finishing 11th. That year, he achieved his highest finish at Le Mans, as he, Mauro Martini, and Naoki Nagasaka finished fifth in a Toyota 93 C-V.
Ratzenberger greatly desired to race in Formula One, especially as former rivals in F3000, such as Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert, had managed to reach the top level while he had not. He came very close to securing a drive with the Jordan team for their inaugural season in 1991. Negotiations were at a very advanced stage when Ratzenberger lost the financial support of a "major sponsor". In the end, Bertrand Gachot got the seat.
In 1994, Ratzenberger achieved his ambition of becoming one of the few Austrian Formula One drivers. After gaining a sponsor in a wealthy German, Barbara Behlau, who negotiated a deal over the 1993–1994 winter, Ratzenberger signed a five-race deal with the new Simtek team, partnering David Brabham.
With a very uncompetitive car, Ratzenberger failed to qualify for the first race at Interlagos. However, the next round at the TI Circuit in Aida went much better, as he not only managed to qualify, but finish in a very commendable eleventh place, even considering that he was the only driver who had raced at the venue before.
The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola would have been Ratzenberger's third race in Formula One. During the first qualifying session on Friday 29 April, he asked the more experienced Brabham to test his car out; the Australian vindicated Ratzenberger's assessment of the brakes, which had been troubling him at the previous races. According to Brabham, the issue was soon resolved to the satisfaction of both. The session was overshadowed when Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello hit a kerb at the Variante Bassa corner; his car, travelling at 225 km/h (140 mph), was sent airborne, and collided with the tyre barrier. Having received injuries to his nose and arm, Barrichello was transferred to a nearby hospital, and took no further part in the weekend.
The next day, the second qualifying session proceeded as normal until the moment of his accident. Early in the session, Ratzenberger went off the track at the Acque Minerali chicane. With his sponsor in attendance for the first time, and at the halfway point of his contract, he decided to carry on, after checking the car to the best of his abilities. Unknown to him, the minor incident had damaged his front wing; on a later lap, as he tried to turn into the high-downforce Villeneuve corner, the wing broke and became lodged under the car, which crashed into the outside wall at 314.9 km/h (195.7 mph).
Ratzenberger was transferred by ambulance to Imola Circuit's medical centre, then by air ambulance to the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. He had suffered three individually fatal injuries: a basilar skull fracture, which was named as the official cause of death; blunt trauma from the front-left tyre penetrating the survival cell;
Ratzenberger was the first racing driver to lose his life at a Grand Prix weekend since the 1982 season, when Riccardo Paletti was killed at the Canadian Grand Prix. Ratzenberger was also the first driver to die as a result of a crash in a Formula One car since Elio de Angelis during testing for the 1986 season. He was also the first Austrian driver to die as a result of a crash during qualifying in a Formula One car since Jochen Rindt in the 1970 season.