“25 drivers start every season in Formula 1, and each year, two of us die”, said Daniel Bruhl in the movie Rush while portraying Niki Lauda. You might wonder why these drivers risked their lives just for an F1 title. Well, it wasn’t just the title. It was the adrenaline rush, the high that one gets from racing. But like Lauda mentioned, the sport would end up taking 2 lives every year. And it wasn’t until Ayrton Senna’s death that F1 would sell its soul to the man responsible for making the Las Vegas Street Circuit, Hermann Tilke. But why?

Back in the day, F1 was all about the fine line between losing your life and finding the edge of one’s car’s limit. The risk was the soul of F1 back in the day. While things changed slowly and steadily to make F1 somewhat safer, Ayrton Senna’s crash in 1994 at the Imola GP changed everything altogether. The death of arguably one of the greatest talents ever seen in F1 to date shocked the grid. It was this that led Bernie Ecclestone to make the decision to bring Herman Tilke into the picture.

Bernie Ecclestone’s bid to make F1 safer after the tragic death of Ayrton Senna

Peter Windsor, in his recent YouTube video, was asked about why F1 sold its soul to Hermann Tilke in the 2000s. Windsor explained how Bernie Ecclestone wasn’t bothered about safety and if a driver came up and asked to make some safety changes to the track, the F1 Megalomaniac would ask him to write a cheque to get the changes done. Ecclestone wasn’t interested in spending money on the circuits. However, once Senna had the crash, circumstances forced Bernie into hiring Hermann Tilke. 

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According to the YouTube video, Peter Windsor said, “Once Ayrton had that horrendous accident in 1994 and also on the back of Karl Wendlinger’s accident in Monaco a few weeks later, some of the big manufacturers said, ‘we cannot support a sport like this. This is crazy. Something’s got to change.’ And Ofcourse at that moment everything had to change. Bernie was focusing on how to make the circuits safer.” 

He continued, “And this is the genius of Bernie. It wasn’t just a question of how do we make the circuits safer, this is an opportunity to create a new era in F1. Where we have absurdly extravagant race tracks but massive run-off areas, and huge pit complexes and we get the governments to pay for these. We take all the money, they lose all the money through their tourist budgets. And if they want to be in the championship, that’s what they have to have. And he commissioned Hermann Tilke to start designing circuits in association with what he wanted to do.”

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While Ayrton Senna’s death triggered Bernie Ecclestone to make the circuits safer, the F1 Megalomaniac saw the opportunity in it and hired Herman Tilke to fulfill both the purposes i.e. safety and commercialization. Let’s dive a little deeper into why Ecclestone signed Tilke.

Ecclestone’s vision for F1 and the secondary reason for signing Hermann Tilke

Bernie Ecclestone decided to hit multiple targets with one arrow. Behind the cape of safety measures, Ecclestone decided to commercialize F1 and add all kinds of luxury to it. Make it focused on sponsors and television so that sponsors’ hoarding would get TV footage. Hence, Ecclestone needed someone who understood his vision and Hermann Tilke was hired as a result. 

According to the YouTube video, Peter Windsor said, “It wasn’t just a safety thing. It was creating these circuits around television and safety and the facilities that he envisaged F1 deserving. The luxury of the paddock club, the luxury of the meeting rooms, the motor homes and everything else. And he needed an architect who understood exactly what Bernie wanted to create and that was Herman Tilke’s company.”

Today, several tracks in F1 have the influence of Hermann Tilke. While fans often have divisive opinions on his track designs, it certainly has fulfilled what Bernie wanted F1 to showcase through the circuits it races on. Crucially, post Senna passing away, the tracks have become so much safer for which Tilke does deserve credit.

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