Born: July 4 1962
Deceased: April 30 1994
Biography Roland Ratzenberger
Roland Ratzenberger was an Austrian racing driver who raced in various categories of motorsport, including British Formula 3000, Japanese Formula 3000, Formula One, and Group C. Ratzenberger’s racing career began in German Formula Ford in 1983, a series in which he achieved some successes. In 1985, he won the Austrian and Central European Championships and finished as runner-up in the German Championship and on the podium at the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival. In 1986 he returned to the festival to win it. Two seasons of British Formula Three followed and he finished 12th in 1987 and 1988, for West Surrey Racing and Madgwick Motorsport respectively.
In 1987 he also competed in the World Touring Car Championship for the Schnitzer team. In his BMW M3, he claimed 2 runner-up finishes, underlining his versatility as a driver. Unfortunately for Ratzenberger, the WTCC did not continue for another season so he had to make a series move to continue his racing career. By the end of 1988, his career had stalled. The WTCC had folded and two average seasons in British Formula 3 did not help. Thus in 1989, he raced in the British F3000 championship, winning at Donington and finishing 3rd in the series. That year he also raced sports prototypes driving a Brun Porsche 962 finishing 4th at Spa with Oscar Larrauri though he retired in the third hour in his first Le Mans with Maurizio Sandro Sala and Walter Lechner.
Ratzenberger raced at Le Mans again with Brun in 1991 and with the SARD team in 1990, 1992, and 1993. That last year, he achieved his best result at the Circuit de la Sarthe, teaming up with Mauro Martini and Naoki Nagasaka in a Toyota 93 C-V and finishing the race in 5th position
Having had sporadic success throughout the lower formulas, Ratzenberger managed to secure an F1 seat in 1994, at the unusually old age of 33. He signed a 5-race deal with Nick Wirth’s new Simtek Team. He was killed in a crash during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix just three races into his F1 career. The weekend would become notorious for also seeing the death of Ayrton Senna, a three-time world champion, during the race the following day.
Pictures copyright Philip Rainford and unknown
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