At age ten you watched your first race.
How did you experience that moment?
I was shaking like a boy
who is dreaming of having the chance, one day,
to take part in that competition.
What mattered the most in your life,
your passion or the drive to succeed?
Mostly, it was passion.
What do you feel before the "Go"?
Anxiety? Fear?
Before the "Go", I feel...
a mix of feelings, all of which disappear
as soon as the race starts.
Behind success there is a terrible truth.
Italians are prepared to forgive anything and anyone.
Thieves, murderers.
All sorts of criminals.
Except for success. They won't forgive anyone for being successful.
When does a star begin to decline?
The day they put personal interests before the sport itself.
You said drivers can be divided into two categories:
the pros and the ambitious, i.e. the amateurs.
No doubt.
You said it's not true
that Italians race slower than foreigners.
But the winners are almost always foreigners.
Obviously Italians lack the technical resources
available to foreigners.
Not everyone finds you agreeable.
You're often accused of being a dictator. What do you think?
If by dictator,
you mean demanding from others,
the utmost commitment to their job,
they definitely have a point.
If you visit the cemetery as often as I do,
you'll find yourself staring into the majestic face of death.
What can you think in that moment?
"All those worries, all those issues, all those fights
to just end up here."
Do you feel any responsibility or a moral burden
when these tragedies happen?
I question myself profoundly.
How do you feel when one of yours dies?
Do you feel like quitting?
I feel many things. Too many things.
For instance,
the frightening fragility of the human existence.
He would write to me about the badgering he had to put up with
from these two people.
Because strength comes in numbers and they were united against Luigi.
Never again in my life was I so happy
and in love as I was with him.
It was an incredible and amazing thing.
On the seventh lap Luigi didn't come around.
I thought his car might have broken down or he might have stopped.
Nobody made a signal. And when there is no signal, it's bad.
I was young and my entire world collapsed.
I ran to the window to throw myself out.
When a fatal event occurs,
it is never down to a single cause.
It's different things happening simultaneously,
leading to the sacrifice of a life.
Do you know what fear is?
I would say I've always lived in fear.
What are your most frequent fears?
All of them.
You've been quite straightforward
about some of those who quit.
You said, "Time will prove the worth of all these people."
It is not up to humans to judge
what we are supposed to believe.
Only time can do that. And time is relentless.
I would say, first and foremost...
that I did nothing other than what gave me pleasure.
I just did something that mattered to me, in a purely selfish way.
I only find comfort in the thought
that what I did wasn't detrimental to anybody.