A Star Named Ayrton Senna Page #3

Ayrton turned up, made himself

comfortable in the cockpit...

remembered all the instructions

about what everything was for.

At the time he was only halfway

through his first Formula-3 season.

triple the power of his usual mount.

He did an out-and-straight-back-in

lap to check over the car mechanically.

Then he just went off a second quicker

than the car'd ever been around there.

And then said:
I think I got enough.

He got out of the car and went home.

We were quite astonished.

On that particular day, it was that his

brain was in control of everything else.

He was ahead of the game,

clearly belonged in GP car.

He was born for that.

We weren't ready

to put him in the team in '84...

because of contractual obligations

to other drivers.

And then he went off to Lotus

and then to McLaren.

So it was quite a long while before we

were able to offer him a seat in '94.

He went to Toleman, it was fantastic

to see another Brazilian driving.

By instinct I was always

more of a fan of Ayrton...

than I was of any other

Brazilian Formula-1 driver.

I never saw Emerson,

but I had the chance to see Nelson.

With Ayrton it was different. I felt

like he was driving tremendously...

and that he was going to be a champ.

I remember we had a discussion about

top drivers like Piquet or whatever.

And I said to Ron Dennis

and the other people:

Take the best young guy to get a very

strong team and that was Ayrton.

They all said:

Why do you want to have Ayrton?

I said:
Why not?

I'm thinking about the team.

Having a teammate like Ayrton was

very different from the old team I had.

Also for Formula 1

it was really exceptional...

to have two drivers

of this kind of caliber.

When Ayrton came into F-1,

Prost was the top, number one.

And he was the one he wanted

to catch. He wanted to beat him.

When he started testing

and racing with us...

he wasn't interested in anyone else

in the grid, only Alain.

What was his time? What rear wing

has he got? What springs has he got?

He just wanted to know what Alain

was doing. He wanted to beat him.

He was a man like no other man

I had ever met before.

He was almost a mystic.

He was very, very, very intense.

He was a charismatic personality.

He could be absolutely charming,

but there was another side to him.

He was absolutely ruthless

when he was in the cockpit.

And he was an intensely religious,

God-fearing man.

And he actually believed

that he had a God-given right to win.

The main thing is to be yourself

and not allow people to disturb you.

To be different, because they want

you to be. You gotta be yourself.

Many times it's through a mistake

due to your personality or character...

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