'78, I came to Europe for the first time to compete outside Brazil
in the World Championship.
It was pure driving. Pure racing.
There wasn't any politics.
No money involved either, so it was real racing.
That is more important than any title for me.
Few people really do know my self.
They just don't understand what it takes from a racing driver.
Somebody that has left behind,
thousands and thousands of miles away, family and friends
to live in Europe.
Being so young and always fighting.
Nothing ever has come easy.
Well Ayrton, it's a beautiful city
lovely narrow streets for walking, but not for racing, right?
Yes, exactly. I got here at the last minute
and I'm impressed because it's my first time in Monaco.
I've had a bit of practice
and, luckily, managed to adapt to the track.
There's no room for error, as an error would lead to an accident.
But so far I'm pretty happy.
Alain Prost, after a superb start, has got away in the lead.
It's Nigel Mansell second, the two Ferraris third and fourth.
Niki Lauda is in fifth position.
Sixth is Rosberg.
Seventh is Manfred Winkelhock. Eighth is Ayrton Senna.
But Senna has come up through the field.
He started in 13th place and he's now seventh.
And off goes Nigel Mansell.
Ayrton Senna has now passed Keke Rosberg and is in third place.
He comes and devours Niki Lauda!
Ayrton Senna takes second place
on the most dangerous part of the circuit!
I think we are watching the arrival of Ayrton Senna,
a truly outstanding talent.
He's catching Alain Prost at something like three seconds a lap,
and that is a truly staggering performance.
Prost is waving his hand at the officials. He wants to stop the race.
And who can blame him?
There is, in fact, from a purist and a dispassionate point of view,
no reason to stop the race.
There's an official in front of me with a red flag.
They are going to stop the race.
And the checkered flag is going up.
It is incredible!
Prost is stopping, and Senna crosses the line before he gets there.
Ayrton waves his arm wildly!
He is celebrating as if he has won the race!
If it went on for a few more laps,
you can be sure Ayrton would have taken the lead.
A tragic result for Senna. However,
he's not gonna actually be World Champion this year.
He will undoubtedly be World Champion in the future if his career continues.
Ayrton Senna, the new star of Formula One!
On the Formula One podium for the first time
after a fantastic performance.
What about next year?
Are you going to stay with the Toleman team?
-What are your plans now for. . . -I don't know.
I don't know at the moment. It's still. . . No decisions and nothing clear.
We have to wait more time to see what happens.
You're not gonna be satisfied until you're in a winning position though, are you?
I believe if you are doing something like competing, like motor racing,
you either do well or forget it.
Lotus was the perfect place for Ayrton to move to.
It was a team that had won championships and had won many Grand Prix,
and they worked very, very hard around Ayrton to give his talent
all the facilities that it needed to win.
When I first come to Formula One in '84,
I was starting,
so I had so much to learn and to achieve that anything. . .
Any good result was a progress,
was a motivation.
Then I changed to a bigger team, to Lotus,
and I still went up and up and up.
And I'm still doing it.
So even when I have some problems, I look always to the next race.
Because maybe one race I have no chance, but next one or the next five will be good
against one bad one.
So, you got to try to make the numbers bigger and bigger.
There's no doubt that Senna came from a background of privilege.
His family was very comfortably off.
Once they recognized that his ambition was to be a racing driver,
they had no problem backing his early efforts in go-karts.
But it would be a great mistake to think that he was able to buy his way into Formula One.
Senna himself realized
that to make a serious, lasting impact on Formula One,
he had to fight his way into it by virtue of his talent.
It's a unique thing.
It's like a drug.
It is something so strong and so intense.
And once you experience it, you keep searching for it all the time.
I'm Mili Okada from Japan TV,
Fuji TV, and I'm just a TV personality and not a news reporter so. . .
I see. Let's make a picture together.
Come and see Japan, and see you in Japan.
-Thank you. A little kiss. -Thank you.
Bye-bye! Another kiss.
There's only one word that describes Ayrton's style,
and that is "fast."
He would take a car beyond its design capabilities.
He would brake later, fly into these corners where the car was just over the edge,
and somehow he could dance a dance with that car
to where it stayed on the track.
As I watched Ayrton's early career,
what was very apparent was his pace and his dedication.
But in the end, what you're looking for is an intellect,
and I thought, "This guy's got what it takes."
In the mid-'80s, McLaren was the team to beat.
Ron Dennis was the best manager and Alain Prost was the best driver.
We all called Prost "The Professor" because he would do,
methodically, whatever it took to be ahead on points.
If it meant coming fifth,
he would hold the fifth place and collect those points
rather than fighting for a second, third or first place finish.
And he certainly understood the politics of the sport,
and he played that game smarter than anyone.
You're known as the Professor of Motor Racing
because you plan everything out and you know where you're going.
Is that actually true?
I'm very realistic, so I think when I'm competitive,
I know that I'm competing. When I'm not, I know I'm not so.
Why are there no women racing drivers?
I really don't know exactly why women are not very competitive
in motor racing, especially in Formula One.
But, you know, you are a beautiful woman, and I know somebody at McLaren
who likes you very much, and I can arrange it.
Alain, you know, if only someone would teach me how to drive a car,
a racing car, I might be able to give up this job and. . .
There is nothing important I could not teach you.
Does your wife drive you home?
We're very confident that we have the best two drivers in the world.
The two most professional drivers, as well.
If we're not consistently in the winning circle next year,
then we certainly won't be able to put the blame at the drivers.
It's a great opportunity for me, professional.
And as a personal point of view, I feel very happy to work together with Alain.
Ayrton has, for the first time in his career, the car able to be World Champion,
and he doesn't want to let his chance go anywhere.
-That's normal and that is going to push us. -What about you?
-It's a little bit different.
So, you're going to let it go?
I have a little bit more pressure than. . . You put me more pressure.
I think you could see smiles,
but at the same time some slightly strange body language,
as they realized just where they were and what was going to unfold.
Alain, who obviously felt he was well-nested down at McLaren,
and the young pretender coming in and clearly threatening that position.
Both had great intellects and both were very good racing drivers.
Beating each other became far more challenging
than beating the rest of the field.
That day, I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving conscious.
And I was in a different dimension, for me.
The circuit for me was a tunnel, which I was just going, going, going.
And I realize I was well beyond my conscious understanding.
Ayrton was multiple seconds into the lead, had the race in hand
with only a handful of laps to go, and he received a radio message that said,
"You are so far in the lead, slow down."
Ayrton Senna has hit the wall.
Senna in the barrier! He's out of the car. . .
Ayrton Senna is out of his car and out of this race.
Ayrton Senna goes out of the lead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Absolutely incredible!
He never wanted to beat me. He wanted to humiliate me.
He wanted to show the people that he was much stronger.
Much better. And that was his weakness.
His post-accident emotion was pure anger with himself,
and he couldn't cope with it at all.
He actually walked back to his apartment,
and it was two or three hours before he surfaced.
I just came so close to perfection that weekend, that I relax.
I open windows for mistakes, and I learned that there.
And since then
my progressive comeback, because I lost some confidence at that moment.
And progressively, I fight back,
and I got much stronger after that incident.
Somehow I got closer to God and that has been very important for me as a man.
Monaco was the turning point in the '88 season.
Ayrton went on an amazing run,
winning six of the next eight races.
Putting him just ahead of Prost in the championship.
What happens now, you two?
Good fun. We will have good fun from now on.
Fight. Maybe we fight outside the car.
I think it's gonna get more and more exciting, the championship.
Is it possible to be equal in the championship?
-No. -Shit.
Can only be one winner.
Fifteenth race of the season.
In the small hours, Brazil is waiting
for Ayrton Senna to win his first world title in Formula One.
His childhood dream.
The pressure was on Ayrton.
He was on pole, he was going to be World Champion
if he won that race, so the pressure was huge.
Senna is getting close. Senna's gonna challenge for the lead.
Ayrton Senna goes for it and overtakes Prost.
Ayrton Senna has got the lead.
The 1989 season was somewhat less harmonious than the year before.
Both drivers took on different levels of aggression,
especially when racing each other.
That's when the gloves come off within a team.
That's when engineers stop sharing information.
That's where drivers start looking over their shoulders to see
who is getting what from whom.
And Ayrton, with his love of truth,
wasn't as in tune as Alain Prost
with adding another dimension, the politics of the sport.
Of course, I think French FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre at the time
was helpful for Alain because they were close.
Please, gentlemen.
All the drivers in the world are looking at you on TV
because they think, stupidly, that you are an example.
It is a big mistake, but they think that.
I repeat.
No danger for the end of the World Championship.
Very clear.
Now it depends on you.
The championship is neck-to-neck.
Senna has to win the Japanese Grand Prix
to keep the points battle going on to the last race.
Prost knows that if Senna does not finish, he will be the Formula One Champion.
The opportunity that Senna's looking for, and he's going through.
Oh, my goodness, this is fantastic.
It may be in 20 minutes.
Fucking hell.
Want a cup of tea?
Nigel, Nigel, he missed the chicane.
He went through the slip road.
You're the World Champion, Alain?
Apparently, yes.
I was not 100% sure, I know the regulation,
but you never know how it's going to be interpreted.
But to be very honest, I mean, I'm quite happy to leave,
because I think it becomes absolutely impossible to work with Ayrton,
and that's a good end of championship.
What I'd like to do now
is show you some footage which I think is quite relevant.
Because we're told that you can't use escape roads to rejoin the race.
Escape roads are not for escaping through, they're in fact for stopping in,
turning round and going out of.
Very important to remember, no exclusions,
no penalties, no disqualifications.
And for that he's excluded from the Japanese Grand Prix?
Where's the consistency? It can't be right.
Alain, you said that you took a normal racing line.
I would put it to you that from the aerial pictures,
it looked as though you had turned in quite early.
It wasn't a normal line at all.
I won 39 races and now three championships,
do you think that I would do something like this on purpose?
You know, you know, I had already turned for the corner,
maybe a little bit earlier, if you want, but that was my corner.
The way the whole affair has been treated,
it's like I have total responsibility for everything that took place there.
I was blamed for everything and I was penalized for everything.
I was treated like a criminal.
And this is totally unacceptable.
Left him alone for a while.
I gently persuaded him if you are true to your values,
if you believe that your values are correct values,
then walking away from the dark forces
that you're faced with in life just doesn't become an option.
The 1990 season he came back wiser, the team is harmonious.
Prost has gone out of McLaren to Ferrari,
and Senna is in a perfect position to compete for the title.
Ayrton has a small problem. He thinks that he can't kill himself
because he believes in God and things like this.
And I think that's very dangerous for the other drivers.
Is that him?
Who is it?
Martin Donnelly.
I was in the pits. Practice was stopped.
I hear by different people there was an accident, was Donnelly.
Was bad, was too bad, was disaster.
And I decide to go to the place to see myself.
Million things went through my mind. In the end, I...
I realized I was not going to give up my passion,
even just having seen what I had seen.
And I had to put myself together,
and walk out, go to the racing car, and do it again.
And do it again, and do it even better than before,
because that was the way to kind of cover that impact it had on me.
I was just not ready to give up. As much as I was scared to continue,
I was not ready to give up my aim, my target, my objective,
my passion, my dream, my life. It is my life.
As far as I hear, he is out of danger, life danger,
which is a lot considering the accident.
And as it happened to him, can happen to any of us.
There are some things that you can calculate,
but there are things which are unexpected,
and those unexpected things are the most dangerous ones,
like it happened to him today.
I hope we don't see those things in the future.
Amazingly, for the third time in a row,
the championship hinged on the race in Japan.
But this time if Prost didn't finish, Ayrton would be champion.
Gentlemen, morning.
Number of laps from green light to chequered flag will be 53 laps.
Dangerous behavior and/or dangerous maneuvers
will be immediately investigated,
and may lead to suspension of the license
for one or more Formula One World Championship events.
Any questions?
There was a big fuck-up last year with Ayrton.
Why do we have to repeat the same thing?
The safest thing is. . .
If you miss the chicane, the stewards stop you.
When you have no traffic, they let you go.
If you have to turn around and go backwards
against another car, that's dangerous.
Okay.
Does everybody feel that way?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Thank you. -Thank you very much.
I can't stand it. I can't stand this. It's a joke.
After what happened last year, it's a joke, this situation.
You just proved here. . . I said nothing, and you see somebody raising the point,
and you see everybody agreeing. And last year was really bad for me.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I have to leave.
The story down in the pit lane and on the grid is one of tension.
With the World Championship up for grabs, everyone is extremely tense.
Ayrton Senna actually walked out of the driver's meeting today.
He thinks that the pole position should be
on the left hand side of the grid, not on the right.
Normally, if the inside was clear, the inside for sure is better.
Because it's dirty, the outside is better. Like Hungary, or like. . .
The racing line is the line where the cars most normally drive.
It's the fastest line around the track.
It's really important to have the pole position on the racing line.
If you are on the opposite side, you are on a part of the track that is rarely used
and has half the grip.
If you have the clear circuit, you'll get away better
on the outside than the inside.
Because on the inside you have no traction.
We'll have a look.
Please.
But would the Chief Steward, would the FIA, would Balestre, agree?
Ayrton Senna will be in pole position for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix.
Prost was second fastest.
Pole position was his,
and then suddenly pole position was mysteriously
moved to the dirty side of the circuit, which he felt was unjust.
That decision was influenced by Balestre.
I know that, we know that.
I was fucked many times by the system.
I told myself, "Today, there's no way."
Today has to be my way.
I don't care what happens, it has to be my way.
And Senna sprints away,
but Alain Prost takes the lead! It's happened!
Senna is trying to go through on the inside...
And a collision.
Crash! They both crash.
Senna has been hit.
Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna have come together again,
and they are both off the racetrack! This is unbelievable!
We don't know yet whether we're going to see a red flag.
We haven't seen any yet,
so it looks as if the race is going to continue.
That's a very sad way for this year's World Championship to finish.
Can you tell us what happened on the first lap, Ayrton?
Well, unfortunately, we touched in the first corner
when we were fighting for the lead, and we both went off.
Do you think that's because the pole position
is on the wrong side of the track here? You wanted to change that.
Absolutely. You fight, you break your. . .to be on pole,
and then they put you on the wrong side of the circuit.
How do you feel about being World Champion?
It's not a bad feeling at all, is it?
Congratulations.
What was very clear with Ayrton, when he got back,
is his body language, his mannerisms showed that he was in massive conflict.
He was certainly not proud of himself.
Certainly not reveling in the fact that
this had determined the World Championship.
Formula One World Championship for drivers, Ayrton Senna.
I call on the World Champion, Ayrton Senna.
He knew I was right with him.
He moved to the inside line, going towards the first corner.
I just chased him then, and he opened the gap.
And knowing me like he does know,
he must realize that if there was a gap, I was gonna try to overtake him.
Okay. Let me ask you another difficult question.
If I were to count back all the world champions,
the number of times they had made contact with other drivers,
that you in the last 36 months or 48 months
have been in contact with more other cars and drivers
than they might have done in total.
I find amazing for you to make such a question, Stewart,
because you are very experienced and you know a lot about racing,
and you should know that by being a racing driver
you are under risks all the time.
And by being a racing driver means you are racing with other people.
And if you no longer go for a gap that exists,
you're 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 a victory.
It's not to come third, fourth, fifth or sixth, right?
But hasn't that always been the case?
But I think it's all irrelevant. All what you're saying, Jack,
is really irrelevant.
Because I'm a driver that won more races than anybody over the past three years.
I'm a driver that has been on pole position more than anybody in history.
And I'm a driver that won two titles in the past three years.
And I don't think how. . . I cannot comprehend how
you can try to turn things around
to say that I've been involved in more accidents than anybody
because that is not true, as well.
Senna versus Prost, which went on for a couple of seasons, well...
It was just absolutely wonderful for Formula One's appeal.
Some sports news now. It is the end of a love story.
The television ratings improved, you know, everything went up.
People talked about it.
It was controversial, shocking, fascinating.
The success of the sport also grew, you know.
Commercially and... Bernie Ecclestone was very clever
in the way they distribute television.
But to keep an audience, you need personalities
and, of course, the Prost-Senna story was a big hit.
And Ayrton became very famous outside the sport,
thanks to the impact of Formula One on TV.
I feel so worried for the people because. . .
And we push them away.
They're nice people and it's not a good feeling to see them being pushed away.
I feel so sorry, you know.
In Brazil it was very different.
The people were unhappy under the regime that was ruling them.
Poverty was just desperate.
So his appeal there, at a hard time, was extraordinary.
Ayrton pulled out a lead.
He was then, really, faced with a very easy race win.
And then, the gearbox jammed,
and he was faced with several laps to go
only having a sixth gear.
What's wrong?
My shoulders, my shoulders.
Just my shoulders.
Touch me very gently.
Don't touch me.
Don't touch me!
Do you need any help?
Bring the flag for me.
Life can be very difficult in Brazil. You have. . .
Brazil have all the extremes. You have the fantastic nature.
You can have all the good material things that money can buy.
But at the same time, you have lots of problems.
Social problems and poverty. Some violence as a consequence.
I try to help
a little bit. For children, particularly.
Ayrton in '91 was in great form.
I think it was his strongest year.
He won seven races, constantly on pole position.
The intensity was every bit as high as ever.
But there just seemed to be a further wisdom,
a further bit of growth.
But then the car bit him hard.
For the first time he really thought he could be hurt in a Formula One car.
Neurological examination
to check the chest and the blood pressure, the abdomen
and the limbs.
-And how did you feel about him? -He's fine. He's good.
-No problems to worry about? -No, none at all. No.
It's the deepest personal relationship that I've ever had with any driver.
Whenever I got to the circuit and ran into Senna,
he was usually being interviewed or surrounded by people.
And the moment he saw me, his face would always light up with a beautiful grin.
Because he had that wonderful humility,
which is not common amongst racing drivers.
-All right then. -Pleasure.
Be careful.
You've still got too much to do.
Yes, a few more.
Question? Yes.
We talked about the chicanes and the barriers
that we had there with the tires.
If you happen to hit those tires,
it's very likely that the tires throw you up in the air
and you end up rolling.
That's what happened with me in Mexico
and that can happen here with other people.
I agree that for the moment
it's not the ideal thing that we have done.
The President has talked yesterday with Mr Moll.
No, no, no, forget Mr Moll.
And he has. . .
Forget. . .
Okay, the President of FISA. . .
No, forget the President.
Now speak for the question of Mr Senna.
About what we do today for the race.
For the race we can do anything.
I think it's better to not have those tires there.
I happened to lose the braking point at the first chicane yesterday.
Let me finish, let me finish!
And as I drove straight, it was blocked, the road.
And I couldn't turn back.
If we move the tires, we must place the cones.
Yes, that's fine. And that way there is a run-off area. . .
Yes.
No, you must restart from the same place.
Because you must respect the distance of the race.
You cannot come back.
I'm sorry, that is the regulation, it is the regulation!
It's written in the regulation, we got the letter yesterday.
Page three.
Here, the last two paragraphs on that page.
Very good penalty for you.
Jean-Marie, it's the same.
No problem, Ayrton, no problem.
Whatever is the decision, it's the right decision, Jean-Marie.
You must understand.
The best decision is my decision.
I have a feeling for that.
No, because you don't know my decision.
It's the best every time, my decision.
My decision is. . .
Democratic vote, only the drivers.
By hand.
Who are in favor that we replace the tires by the cones?
Your hand.
Stop.
Against?
Abstention? Everybody agree, okay?
Immediately, the work. You replace the tires by the cones, okay?
Alain, what happened going into that chicane?
I tried to overtake Senna. It was. . .
He blocked me during the whole race, not very correct.
I think everyone knows Prost by now.
He is always complaining either about the car, or the tires,
or the team, or the mechanics, or the fuel, or the other drivers or the circuit.
Always somebody else to blame. It's never his fault.
Yeah, no problem,
but I have nothing to lose. I can't win the Championship,
but if I find him again the same way, if he is correct the same way, I push him out.
Prost was sacked from Ferrari because he criticized the car.
The only thing he could do, really, was to take a year off,
telling everybody he was on a sabbatical.
If I finish second place, the Championship will be over.
If Mansell does not win,
then it's almost certain that the Championship will be over, as well.
Ayrton Senna's third world title ensures that he will be ranked among the all-time greats.
After that third World Championship, I saw another Senna.
He was very satisfied, very confident. He knew the sport better than ever.
He saw it with real eyes, for the good and the bad,
and he still loved it as much as anyone in the paddock.
There is a great desire in me of improving.
Getting better. That makes me happy.
And every time that I feel I am slowing down my learning process,
my learning curve is getting flatter, or whatever,
then it doesn't make me very happy.
And that applies not only as a professional, as a racing driver, but also as a man.
Of course,
I shall have a lot more to learn as a man than a racing driver
because my career could last not many years.
My life hopefully will go still for a long time.
Maybe I'm only at the half of my life right now,
so there is a lot to go, a lot to learn, a lot to do still in life.
And happiness will come when I feel complete as a whole,
which definitely I don't feel today.
But I have plenty of time to fulfill that, too.
For the next season, the level of competition was distorted
by what was going on technically with the Williams car.
The car balanced itself. Each corner was controlled by a computer.
All the driver had to do was put his right foot down and go as fast as possible,
so in a car without that, you were at a serious disadvantage.
McLaren are still well off the Williams-RenauIt pace,
with the result that three times World Champion Ayrton Senna
has no chance of retaining his title.
When you go into this sort of
electronic war,
you can find yourself completely stuck.
The electronics do a given situation,
and no matter who you put in the car,
the electronics will do the work and not the driver.
And I don't think that is really what you want
to have a truly World Championship
of drivers.
The only thing I asked in the contract
was that I don't want to be a teammate with Ayrton.
It has to be clear.
And they had accepted that very quickly.
And said, "No, it's not our intention."
That is the only thing I asked in the contract.
Because I wanted to be a World Champion.
I did not want to lose the opportunity.
It's no secret that I've been
trying very hard to get some. . .
Some deal with Williams.
Situation's very complex.
It is. . .
It's not nice. It's not clear either.
He did accomplish some of his greatest drives.
Even though he spent most of his time looking at the back of a Williams car,
which was much faster than his.
French racing driver Alain Prost
has won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the 4th time. . .
Prost won the championship and duly retired,
thus getting out of the way.
It seems like a little goodbye from you to McLaren.
Do you think it was the last season for McLaren?
I think so. I think it will be my last season.
Let's try and do it the best we can for both of us.
Of course.
Okay, we'll put behind us what happened.
For sure.
Good.
Even without you saying anything, that was my goal.
Yeah, okay.
Even without talking to you, if we didn't talk at all,
I wouldn't change. . . I would just do exactly as I always tried.
Ayrton, what did Ron Dennis say to you when you first got from the car
It's never too late to change your mind.
But anyway, he said he was happy for me, and. . .
It's funny, but that's what he told me, too.
That's Ron!
I said, you know, we must keep the good times, the good moments,
and let's finish that way, finish with the good things.
It was Senna's last race for McLaren,
Prost's last race for Williams.
And although nobody knew at the time,
it was the last time either of them would be on the podium.
Ladies and gentlemen, Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna.
Ayrton is arguably the best driver available, the best driver currently racing.
The team is geared to being successful,
all our partners, investors, sponsors, expect that of us,
and that is therefore the best piece of equipment, if you like,
you could put in the machine to deliver to our requirements.
The International Motor Sports Federation
has banned some of the controversial computer devices
which help drivers in Formula One motor racing.
The ban is designed to stop the domination of the richest Formula One teams,
like Williams-Renault, the World Champions.
Senna in second place.
Almost 8 seconds between them now.
We're certainly not happy with the way
things are with the car right as they are at the moment.
The handling isn't particularly good.
The cars weren't supposed to have any of the electronic aids
that they'd come with the previous year.
But Senna became convinced
that the Benetton being driven by Michael Schumacher,
who had won the first two races of the season, had retained some of those,
particularly the traction control, the thing that eliminates the wheel spin.
It didn't stack up that he was being blown away by the Benetton.
He wanted us to protest,
which we didn't do.
We are here starting from zero, so basically our championship starts here.
It's not a comfortable position to be in, but that's the reality.
Now you've won here three times already. You really do need to make it four.
I would love to.
It's the balance.
Changing balance.
The car is worse.
Is it generally more one balance than the other,
or is it changing too much?
There was a bit more understeer.
Bit of understeer on the first lap,
then on the second lap, it's just changing balance.
Oversteer and understeer?
Yeah.
During the middle of a corner. . .
breaks away at the entrance.
When it is supposed to break away, it breaks away even more.
Fuck.
You have seen Rubens?
He's all right. He's all right. He's shocked, of course, but he's all right.
Did you talk to him?
Yes, yes.
You take care, Rubens.
Ayrton was still uncomfortable in the new relationship,
and he was very uncomfortable with the car.
But he struggled, and put it on pole position.
Fuck.
I just need to get myself under control.
I'm doing things with that car that no-one. . .
Throwing it around a bit?
320 km/h there. . .
Ladies and gentlemen, the San Marino Grand Prix organizer
has received a report from the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna
that the driver of car number 32, MTV Simtek Ford, Roland Ratzenberger,
succumbed to injuries sustained in the accident
which took place at Imola circuit
during Saturday qualifying practice April 30th.
It was the first time we had to face a dead Formula One driver for our generation.
The whole atmosphere was very heavy that afternoon.
Everybody was thinking about, "What are we doing here?"
Or, "What's the point?"
Ayrton got very, very upset and cried a bit.
And that's when I said to him,
"You know, Ayrton, you've been three times World Champion.
"You're the fastest man in the world."
And he liked fishing, so I said, "Why don't you quit"
"and I'll quit and we'll just go fishing?"
He said, "Sid, I can't quit."
We got him out of the cockpit,
got his helmet off and got an airway into him.
And I saw from his neurological signs
that it was going to be a fatal head injury.
And then he sighed, and his body relaxed.
And that was the moment... I'm not religious...
That I thought his spirit had departed.
Even at racing speed, Tamburello is not a corner
that you would make a mistake on.
Something on the car would have to go wrong.
Maybe the power steering failed.
Maybe it was the tire temperatures
that made the car skate straight off the road.
It will always be a mystery.
Ayrton ran out of luck.
He did not have a broken bone in his body. He did not have any bruising.
If that piece of assembly
would have gone six inches higher or six inches lower,
he would have walked back to the paddock.
Who is or has been
the driver that you get the most satisfaction of racing against. . .
Past or present?
I would have to go back
to '78 and '79
and 1980, when I was go-kart driving.
I came to Europe for the first time to compete outside Brazil
as a team-mate for Fullerton.
Named Fullerton. He was very experienced.
I enjoyed very much driving with him
because he was fast, he was consistent.
He was, for me, a very complete driver.
And it was pure driving, pure racing.
There wasn't any politics then, right?
No money involved, either.
So, it was real racing.
I have that as a very good memory.