May 13, 2008

ISTANBUL, Turkey –- Driver Bruno Senna is lucky to be alive after his car struck and killed a stray dog that ran onto the track Sunday at Istanbul Park during a race preceding the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix.

The dog was running along the track with another dog when the race cars approached them. One car missed the pair, but Senna couldn’t avoid hitting the black and white dog when it suddenly ran into his left front wheel.

“The race was going really well up until the incident with the dog,” Senna said.

Senna was closely following driver Mike Conway’s car when he saw him move to the right, and thinking he had a problem, he moved to the left, Senna says.

“And that’s when I saw the dog for the first time,” Senna said. “It ran right, so I went left, but then it turned again, hit my wheel and that was that. I couldn’t believe it.”

The second dog managed to leave the track through an exit gate. The Federation Internationale De L’Automobile race director issued a warning to the course’s circuit clerk and organizers. They were reminded of their responsibility for ensuring all gates are closed to prevent arrival of animals, and to remove any animals that reach the track.

Australian driver Mark Webber, a member of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, said it was unacceptable that two dogs were allowed to run onto the track.

“Obviously it’s turned out to be horrible for the dog, and it could have been horrible for Senna as well,” Webber told SpeedTV. “We had two dogs in two different parts of the circuit. I appreciate that it’s a massive venue, but it needs to have control of all the boundaries. It’s very, very dangerous.”

Senna was running sixth midway through the 23-lap race. He could have been killed had he hit the dog head on, observers say.

The 24-year-old Brazilian seemed angry when he limped back to the pits, though he escaped serious injury. He seemed annoyed at not being warned that there were dogs on the track.

Istanbul Park has high security including sharpshooters throughout, making it surprising that the dogs ever reached the track. Wild dogs were known to congregate on the site before the track was built, and they still return.

Senna’s family has been previously victimized by tragedy on wheels. His father died in a motorcycle crash in 1995. His uncle, Ayrton Senna, is a legendary three-time Formula One world champion, and is the last Grand Prix driver killed during a Formula One race.

During the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, Ayrton Senna died when his car struck a concrete retaining wall at 135 mph. The Brazilian government declared three days of national mourning.

Sunday was not the first time a loose animal has caused an accident on a race track. In 2006, Christiano da Matta’s car hit a deer that ran in front of his car during open testing at Road America. Matta’s right front tire struck the deer, which then flew back and hit da Matta in the cockpit.

It is believed that da Matta was knocked unconscious, though his foot remained on the brake and his pit crew removed him from the car. After being hospitalized, da Matta eventually resumed his racing career.

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