F1 Champion Senna Remembered on Imola Track 30 Years After His Death During San Marino GP 

People lay flowers at the grave of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 1, 2024, during the 30th anniversary of his death. (AFP)
People lay flowers at the grave of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 1, 2024, during the 30th anniversary of his death. (AFP)
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F1 Champion Senna Remembered on Imola Track 30 Years After His Death During San Marino GP 

People lay flowers at the grave of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 1, 2024, during the 30th anniversary of his death. (AFP)
People lay flowers at the grave of Brazilian F1 driver Ayrton Senna in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 1, 2024, during the 30th anniversary of his death. (AFP)

The 30th anniversary of three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna’s death was commemorated Wednesday with a memorial on the Imola track where he crashed during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali was joined Wednesday by hundreds of fans, politicians from Brazil and Italy, plus a representative from Austria to also recall fellow Formula One driver Roland Ratzenberger, who died a day earlier during qualifying.

At 2:17 p.m. (1217 GMT), a minute of silence was held and flowers laid down at the Tamburello curve to observe the exact time and place that the 34-year-old Senna crashed into a concrete wall at about 300 kph (185 mph).

Then flowers were also laid down at the Villeneuve corner only slightly further down the track where the 33-year-old Ratzenberger crashed.

Senna, the Brazilian driver who won F1 titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991, was leading the race in Imola when he crashed.

Ratzenberger was an F1 rookie from Austria.

“They are part of sports history and history in general for what they represented,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

The attention around Senna’s death brought about safety improvements at the Imola track and throughout F1, resulting in shorter straights, more room around dangerous turns and less powerful engines.



Grumpy Maresca Still Hopeful Chelsea Can Win Club World Cup He Thinks Needs Fixing

 Chelsea's Italian head coach Enzo Maresca reacts during a press conference at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 7, 2025, on the eve of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semi-final football match between Brazil's Fluminense and England's Chelsea. (AFP)
Chelsea's Italian head coach Enzo Maresca reacts during a press conference at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 7, 2025, on the eve of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semi-final football match between Brazil's Fluminense and England's Chelsea. (AFP)
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Grumpy Maresca Still Hopeful Chelsea Can Win Club World Cup He Thinks Needs Fixing

 Chelsea's Italian head coach Enzo Maresca reacts during a press conference at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 7, 2025, on the eve of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semi-final football match between Brazil's Fluminense and England's Chelsea. (AFP)
Chelsea's Italian head coach Enzo Maresca reacts during a press conference at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 7, 2025, on the eve of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semi-final football match between Brazil's Fluminense and England's Chelsea. (AFP)

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca remains one of the Club World Cup's harshest critics, despite his team reaching the semi-finals, and continued a stream of complaints about everything from the weather to the scheduling ahead of Tuesday's clash with Fluminense.

The Italian has repeatedly complained about the heat, the calendar and the toll on his players' fitness at the tournament, while also criticizing FIFA for the weather delay that interrupted his team's round-of-16 clash against Benfica for nearly two hours.

On Monday, ahead of the semi-final against Fluminense, the Chelsea boss refused to accept that his Premier League side were favorites, instead arguing that the tournament calendar unfairly benefited South American teams.

Maresca said the South American sides had arrived with fresh legs in midseason while the Europeans were exhausted at the end of a long campaign.

"It is not that we don't see this tournament as important, it's that teams have arrived in two completely different situations and realities. How many games have the Brazilian team played in their current season? We have played 63 games," Maresca told a press conference.

Maresca said Chelsea took the competition seriously, but structural improvements were needed.

"I see the Club World Cup as a top competition and we are very happy to be here, we want to win it, but at the same time that are several things I think could be improved probably due to the fact that it is the first time they are organizing it," he said.

Maresca also said that "many other things have been done well" but did not specify what those positive things were.

The manager praised Brazilian football quality ahead of facing his third Brazilian opponents, after Chelsea lost 3-1 to Flamengo in the group stage and beat Palmeiras 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

"The quality from Brazilian players is probably the top, is the best quality," he said, while again highlighting the conditioning gap between fresh South American sides and exhausted Europeans.

"There are two things that for me are very clear in the two games that we face (against) Brazilian teams. One is the quality but at the same time it is very clear the energy that they have, for different reasons, and we don't. Top quality and also defensively, they were very good. So it will be a tough game."

Despite his litany of grievances with the tournament format and conditions, Maresca's Chelsea remain in contention for the title as they prepare to face the Brazilian underdogs who have defied all expectations to reach the semi-finals.