Ayrton Senna

Host: Ayrton, it has been a quite incredible season for you. You are the youngest ever three times world champion, three times in four years. I have to ask you on behalf of your despairing rivals, is your motivation still as high as ever?

Ayrton Senna: I think so. I am, as you said, young. I am healthy. I am as committed as ever to my passion, to our passion, and to my profession.

And the main thing is to find the ways, time after time to stimulate myself in my own world or in my own funny ways, to dedicate a lot of my time and a lot of my thinking, and keep up with the commitment that, is quite high to continue to be successful. Host: Now, we all need goals in life.

We have to aim for something to attempt to achieve it, and I know you must feel that way. Now, with three world championships, 60 pole positions, 33 wins, what can be your target? Fangio? Ayrton Senna: Well, I said this several times before.

I think no matter, who in the modern Formula One, me, myself, or any younger drivers that will be successful in the future can achieve be four, five, six, how many titles you can imagine, no one will ever take away anything that Fangio has done in the past of motor racing.

He has established, the titles, the records, but also he has established a way of doing things as a, as a gentleman, as a man. And all I can say is that I should be trying hard to get as near as possible to him. Now, Host: you had seven wins in 1991, but it was by no means an easy year for you.

Ayrton Senna: It's been a special season, of course. We finally got another championship. It's been a good start, as you all know.

We had our difficulties. We had, a great championship, particularly with Nigel, but also Patrese was there.

And it's been particularly rewarding because, this championship was, again, a result of everybody pulling together as strong as ever, to the same direction, and that has been the efforts that, McLaren has done, Honda and Shell and all the sponsors that have helped us to pull out from the troubles we had and finally win, in some style in Japan.

Host: Now here is a question I have been longing to ask you ever since it happened. When you walked back at Hockenheim after you had run out of petrol for the second time in two races, what did you say to Ron Dennis?

Ayrton Senna: Well, I keep learning every day, you know, about many things in life, and one thing that I have learned lately is that, you should, monitor very carefully your words, particularly if it's not your native language. But I'm afraid that, at that, occasion in the, in the truck, on the back of the truck of McLaren, I was not monitoring my words at all.

So we had a particular moment there, but I think, we now know each other well enough to understand the, some of the frustrations that we both go through at different times, in different ways, and I think, we try to get the best out of each other. And I have to say that, I won my first championship with McLaren, with Ron.

I won other two championships, and that is something that does not happen often in the same team, you know, to the same driver. So, it's something that only time will prove, but I value very high. Host: Now, when you won the first four Grand Prix of 1991, you had done something that no one had ever done before in the history of Grand Prix racing.

We all thought that this was going to be another 1988 with McLaren winning. Did you say to yourself, "That's it, Ayrton, I'm there, I've won"? Ayrton Senna: I don't think so.

You should ask all the team members. Well, before we went to the Phoenix Grand Prix, when we first tried the car in Portugal I had two months off, so I was fresh and full of motivation.

And I didn't have a good I had a good feeling because we made a step forward in all areas, but I didn't think we had done enough, in some areas, to be very confident. Of course, we won the first four races, and I kept saying to everyone, you know, "We're not there, we're not there." And many people were thinking, "When is he gonna be happy?

Because he's on pole, he's winning, he's leading from lap one to last lap, and he's complaining." And but I people inside the team knew, they understood, but it took a while to get everybody really with the right momentum. And we then saw subsequently to Monte Carlo, a number of races where Williams was very strong and we were struggling.

But on the other hand, has that has made this year special because, we all pulled together afterwards, and in a very short time, we were able to recover and to match them and to keep the number one in our car next year. Host: Well, now, in less than three months' time, we are all gonna be at Kyalami in South Africa, where you got your first world championship point in nineteen eighty-four.

You've heard what Williams are doing. Luca Montesemolo is at Ferrari, and he's an extremely competent man. Tom Walkinshaw is at Benetton, and he's an extremely competent man.

You're gonna have an even harder time next year, I think. Ayrton Senna: I don't know. I think, it could be an even more exciting championship next year again compared to ninety-one. Certainly, ninety-one has been the most difficult and the most exciting because different cars, different drivers won.

Eighty-eight was fantastic and is the one that I like most because it was my first one. And I had a top driver beside me with the same equipment, but we were well ahead of everybody else in terms of equipment. And I think ninety-two could be a continuity of ninety-one.

Hopefully not with the same struggle as we had halfway this year, and hopefully I can go back to the pits every time after the race with my racing car and not, with the lift or with the pace car. But I think it could be very exciting next year again. Host: Ayrton, we have an expression in English which says, "A little bird told me."

Now, a little bird told How little was he? Oh. Well, a little bird told me that at the FISA presentations in Paris last night, you made a special presentation of a crash helmet to Jean-Marie Balestre. Is that true? Ayrton Senna: Yes.

Of course that's true. Well, as you said, I made a presentation, and it was, something that I did with some hesitation for a moment. And it's something I'll be sincere.

It's something that I did, with some reservation. But I found myself in a position, unexpected position, where after dinner, Bob Constantiud started to call on the, on the microphone, some of our colleagues to talk to them. And I never expect that because the two times before I was there in the past, that wasn't part of.

And I had the helmet with me. Still undecided what to do with it, thinking that perhaps if I give him would be after finishing dinner. And when he then call me, Constantiud, Bob called me on the, on the microphone.

I went there, I start to talk to Bob, and I got involved in the, in the climb, in the teamosphere, which was very friendly, very genuine. And then I call Jean-Marie there. We made some jokes, and I was able to express some of my feelings in a, in a sincere manner and at the same time, without any knife anywhere.

You know, it was just really a sincere way and joking, and I think it just came right. It was unexpected, and but it came just right. And I believe, he took it, the right way, the same as I did.

And I think it was good. It happened unexpected, but it I was happy afterwards that it happened that way, and I was able to give him my helmet in. Sincerely. Host: And so are we.

Ayrton Senna: I am, like you said, still young, thirty-one, but I've been involved in motor racing from four years old, believe me. And when I come to England in nineteen eighty-one to participate in the Formula Four Championship, it was my first season of racing cars. Until then, it was only go-karts.

And I've been through several seasons here in different categories, successfully, fortunately. And lots of the things that I learn and that I subsequently use in Formula One have come from England, because here I learn how to race as a professional. I learn how to observe the flags.

I learn how to follow the marshals, the starting procedures, the testing procedures, setup of cars, the relationship with the engineers, mechanics, team owners, team managers. And that, has made a lot of my personality in terms of motor racing. I know that, often I don't get the best press in England, but I suppose nobody's perfect.

I try hard, and I try hard to be better, to improve. And I'd just like to say thank you to all of those people here in England that have given me the opportunity from nineteen eighty-one to come through all the way, and in such a relatively short period of time gain so much success. Thank you.