Michael Schumacher was convinced Ayrton Senna would miss “one or two races” after his Imola crash and come back to win the World title, and then he – like the rest of the world – had to come to terms with the Brazilian driver’s death.

For months after, as he lapped the Grand Prix circuits, he’d think: “This is a point you could be dead”.

Aryton Senna was killed in a crash on May 1st 1994

Triple F1 World Champ Senna lost his life on May 1st at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola when he crashed while leading the race ahead of Schumacher.

Leading the race, Senna lost control at the Tamburello left corner and, continuing straight on, struck the unprotected concrete barrier at a speed of 211km/h.

The race was red-flagged and then-FIA race doctor Sid Watkins arrived at the scene to treat Senna before the Williams driver was airlifted to hospital. Senna was declared dead later that day.

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The race, though, was restarted and Schumacher went on to claim the win by 54s ahead of Nicola Larini with Mika Häkkinen third.

No champagne was sprayed on the podium, but that was out of respect to Roland Ratzenberger, who had died the day before in a qualifying accident.

Two hours after the race, Dr. Maria Teresa Fiandri announced that Senna had not survived the crash. His official time of death was given as 14:17 local time, meaning he had been killed instantly.

His passing haunted Schumacher, who, for months after, would think to himself as he drove his Benetton around the various F1 circuits that this was the “point” that he could die.

“It was two hours after the race where (engineering director) Mr (Tom) Walkinshaw came up to me after the race and said it’s looking very bad,” he said in an interview that featured on the Netflix ‘Schumacher’ documentary.

“I said ‘no, he’s in a coma but a coma doesn’t mean anything bad’. He said ‘no, it doesn’t look too good’.

“And then someone came to me later and said ‘he’s dead’”. I still didn’t believe he’d be dead, I couldn’t think of that. That point I was like ‘no, he’s going to be the champion’.

“He maybe misses one or two races and then comes back again. The worst was really the two weeks after this as I had to accept he was dead. The impact of the tragedy altered Schumacher’s entire outlook on his sport.

“Silverstone, I went there (afterwards) and suddenly you see things with different eyes. I went through Silverstone in a road car and just thought ‘this is a point you could be dead, this is another point you could be dead’.

“I thought ‘crazy, you always raced here but there are so many points you can crash and you can be immediately dead’ – that was the only thing I was thinking of.

“I didn’t know what was going to be the situation if I was going to be in the race car. I wasn’t sure can I drive without thinking that or I’m going to drive now always thinking ‘now you can be dead here, if you go off here it’s going to be bad’ and that was something very strange.

“I wake up during the night and I’d sleep maybe three hours a night, things like this.”

Senna was just 34 years old at the time of his death.

Schumacher would go on to win his first of seven World titles in 1994, adding a second with Benetton in 1995 before moving to Ferrari where he won five on the trot from 2000 to 2004.

Retiring from the sport in 2006, he returned in 2010 for a three-year spell with Mercedes before hanging up his helmet for good at the end of the 2012.

A year later, he suffered a devasting crash while skiing in the French Alps with his son Mick and friends, the German sustaining extensive brain injuries. His family have kept his recovery private.

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