Ten iconic quotes from an all-time Formula 1 great : PlanetF1

Ayrton Senna was not just one of Formula 1’s greatest ever drivers, he was also one of its most complex characters and deepest thinkers.

The great Brazilian became one of the sport’s most successful figures in its history in winning three World Championships and was arguably Formula 1’s best ever qualifier, with 65 pole positions in his 162 race starts. Only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have gone on to surpass his total, though both have taken part in far more race weekends by comparison.

The passion Senna showed on track was matched by a depth of thought off it, with his Christian faith playing a big part in his life and describing on more than one occasion about how his belief in God helped him go beyond his own natural abilities at times.

Some of what he achieved in Formula 1, and some of the drives he completed, were the stuff of legend – and on what would have been the great man’s 63rd birthday, here are a selection of some of the most iconic quotes Senna gave throughout his career in Formula 1.

“You should know that by being a racing driver you are under risks all the time. 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, we are competing to win, and the main motivation to all of us is to compete for the victory.”

In the aftermath of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, Senna collided with great rival Alain Prost at the first corner, taking both drivers out of the race. In a testy interview with three-time World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart, after the race, Senna defended his move after being passed at the start, with the McLaren driver tagging the rear wheel of the Ferrari heading into Turn 1 at Suzuka. It has since become Senna’s most well-known maxim: “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.”

“Suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.”

Monaco, 1988. Senna completed arguably the greatest qualifying lap in the history of the sport, but gut-wrenchingly, there is no onboard footage available of it. In a dominant McLaren alongside Prost, he lapped Monte Carlo a whopping 1.427s quicker than his team-mate, and was 2.6s clear of third place on the grid. A lapse in concentration cost him race victory on the Sunday, but to go that fast on the toughest circuit of them all is the stuff of legend.

“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.”

Speaking in Australia in 1989, if it wasn’t clear beforehand, the Formula 1 great made everybody fully aware just how important racing was to him.

“Thank you, Brazil. Thank you, fans. The human heat this weekend was so great, that we had to win this time. It couldn’t be any other way. We did…