Your favourite racing-related quotes

Canada 1990.
Stefano Modena has just been lapped by Nelson Piquet at the hairpin, and the image cuts to his onboard camera.
Murray: "And you look straight down the exhaust pipes and see that firey red flame of Piquet's Ford V8 engine's spent gases..."
(one minute later)
James (unable to restrain from laughing) : "Sorry Murray, I'm sure that the red flame was the rear light!" (laughs)
(and, indeed, it was the rear safety light on the B190 Benetton...)
I've tracked that down as the first F1 race I ever saw, and it was only due to two complete coincidences.

Sundays would never be the same again...
 
The transcript of what was said in the BBC commentary box in the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, on laps 57 and 58, the laps that turned that race on its head:


Murray: "Ayrton Senna, through the Acqua Minerale bends, now to the Variante Alta, down into 2nd gear, 95 mph, lapping Derek Warwick again, closing up on Nigel Mansell, who is in 9th position in the Williams, and surges past the Isle of Man driver... and down he goes...

(at this point the Lotus slows right down)

... into the Rivazza, the double-left..."

James: "Senna's in trouble! Could be fuel! So Senna slowed right down, out of the blue, and one would have to... And there is Stefan Johansson, right behind him! (the Swede had started from 15th on the grid) So Stefan Johansson set the challenge and if that's fuel, Senna has no chance of making it... he's slowed right down... Stefan Johansson goes into the lead... What an amazing turn-up, Johansson, in his second drive for Ferrari, is going to win his first Grand Prix. And that would be quite something. What a wonderful story, to drive for so many years..."

Murray: "I will tell you this... that the Italian crowd is ABSOLUTELY BESIDE ITSELF with euphoria and excitement, as well they might be! Because as James said, in that dramatic moment, Ayrton Senna has had defeat snatch... sorry, has had victory snatched from him by Stefan Johansson in the Ferrari, who is now on his 58th lap out of 60."

James: "And Senna, if it is fuel, the obvious suspicion...

(the Ferrari starts spluttering)

... probably won't pick up any points at all, because he's unlikely to limp round for three laps. And there's... and that's Johansson! Johansson's in trouble now, Johansson is probably out of fuel, and Prost has now gone into the lead!"


Prost went on to win, only to be disqualified for a car that was 2 kg underweight.
 
"Ask any racer, any real racer. It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile; winning's winning. "

"I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I'm free."

Sorry, had to. :p
 
The transcript of what was said in the BBC commentary box in the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, on laps 57 and 58, the laps that turned that race on its head:

Which is why fuel restrictions were the gayest thing every dreamed up by anybody ever.
 
Did he race in a car with a turbocharger?




:p
 
"Aerodynamics are for people who can't make engines"
-Enzo Ferrari
 
I already managed to forget this one...

The right answer is Keke Rosberg. The quote was by Carlton Kirby in 1993 DTM season review.
 
Ayrton Senna on his astonishing qualifying performances:

"It was Monte Carlo '88, the last qualifying session. I was already on pole and I was going faster and faster. One lap after the other, quicker and quicker and quicker. I was, at one stage, just on pole, then by half a second and then by one second - and yet I kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team-mate with the same car. And I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was kind of driving by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, not only the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit for me was a tunnel. I was just going and going and going and going - more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit, but still I was able to find even more."
 
James Hunt was never afraid to speak his mind out loud...


Monaco 1989:

Murray: "Prost has yet to take (to lap) his fellow Frenchman Rene Arnoux, who says <<The reason I'm going so slowly these days is that I'm used to turbo cars, and these normally-aspirated engine cars are a very different kettle of fish to drive>>, he says."

James: "And all I can say to that is <<Bullshit>>."
 
Ayrton Senna on his astonishing qualifying performances:

"It was Monte Carlo '88, the last qualifying session. I was already on pole and I was going faster and faster. One lap after the other, quicker and quicker and quicker. I was, at one stage, just on pole, then by half a second and then by one second - and yet I kept going. Suddenly I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team-mate with the same car. And I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was kind of driving by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, not only the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit for me was a tunnel. I was just going and going and going and going - more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit, but still I was able to find even more."

I watched the DVD tribute to Ayrton Senna and when they showed footage of him saying that i had chills going down my spine.
 
Senna was on pole in that race with a 1:23.998 lap, Prost was second with a 1:25.425(!!!), and Berger was third, with a 1:26.685(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

And, as we know, that was ironically the only time in 7 consecutive years (1987-93) that he didn't win the Monaco GP.
 
Well... since he was still up against "The Professor" at the height of his cunning... Senna was easing up and Prost put in a lap which slashed more than 5 seconds off Ayrton's lead; he panicked, they swapped fastest lap for about 10 laps, then Senna set fastest lap again, and then, on the next lap, at Portier, went off.
 
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