13 Ayrton Senna Quotes on Racing

Ayrton Senna quotes on racing

1. I started racing go-karts. And I love karts. It's the most breath taking sport in the world. More than F1, indeed, I used to like it most.

3. Racing, competing, is in my blood. It's part of me, it's part of my life; I've been doing it all my life. And it stands up before anything else.

7. Basically our championship starts here. Fourteen races, not sixteen. It's not a comfortable position to be in, but that's the reality. The team is conscious about the challenge we have to make to recover the ground over Benetton.

8. My car reacts a bit nervously on this kind of surface. This stems from its special aerodynamics but it's also got to do with a difficulty in the suspension.

9. By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, competing to win. And the main motivation is to compete for victory, it's not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it's possible. Sometimes you get it wrong? Sure, it's impossible to get it right all the time. But I race designed to win, as long as I feel I'm doing it right.

10. Accidents are unsuspected and hated, but they are part of life. When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough. You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

12. Emotion, pleasure and challenge.

22. It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen.

31. You will never know the feeling of a driver when winning a race. The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood.

37. Ayrton set standards the rest of us can only dream about. His death doesn't seem real. He was invincible and was going to keep on winning.

41. The life of Ayrton Senna was an example in dedication and the love of the sports few athletes have had at international level. The world has lost the greatest athlete in the history of motor racing and I have lost a great friend. Grand Prix racing will never be the same without Ayrton.

42. I was proud to compete against him. Professionally, he was the only driver I respected. In Senna's honour, I will never sit in a Formula One car again.

43. When I first came round in the medical center after my accident, the first face I saw was Ayrton's, with tears in his eyes. I had never seen that with Ayrton before. I just had the impression that he felt as if my accident was like one of his own. He helped me a lot with my career and I can't find the words to describe his loss.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.