23 September 1997 Afternoon session in the Senna trial, dedicated
to the counter-examination of the simulation created by engineers Minen
and Guttilla and presented on 16 September. The simulation was produced
using the Adams and Driver software. Expert for the prosecution is
prof. Fanghella, of the University of Genoa. Prof. Fanghella said
that his graphs show that superimposing the curves of the telemetry and
those of the simulation there is a time displacement of 1"5. The
simulation of the car movement on the bend (produced with the Driver
software) cannot be superimposed at all on the real data. The error
between the two graphs gets as high as 25%-50% and in a few points even
over 100%. The simulation only takes into account the movement of the
car and not Senna's corrections to the trajectory. The angle of
steering of the simulation program does not comply with the settings of
the steering wheel.
Minen replied that the relationship between the steering wheel settings
and the angle of steering is not omogeneous because there was no
stability due to bumps on the road surface. This only happened once
and, according to Minen, was the cause of Senna's accident. The time
displacement between the simulation and the real data is only 1"2 and is
not relevant. It is not possible to determine the angle os steering
imposed by Senna simply by looking at the yellow button on the steering
wheel.
Today the 21st hearing will take place.
Article Date Menu 
Next Article