The Grand Prix Quotations

Σε αυτό το Blast From The Past, συγκεντρώσαμε κάποιες από τις καλύτερες ατάκες που έχουν ειπωθεί από οδηγούς, διευθυντές, και δημοσιογράφους κατά τα παλαιότερα χρόνια της Formula1.

 

When the flag drops, the bullshit stops (Jack Brabham)

The next one (Enzo Ferrari when asked which is his favourite racing car)

Nigel Mansell and Silverstone… a combination so exciting it should carry a health warning.

A driver should not have off-days. He always must maintain the pressure. (Colin Chapman)

Drivers who are really good, never really appreciate their own ability. (Jackie Stewart)

I don’t understand how 26 of the finest drivers in the world turn into a bunch of hooligans in the first turn. (John Watson)

I live to do this, to be the best driver in the world, and when it’s over, I will be like other men. (Ayrton Senna)

Every time a driver takes off, we write him off in our book. When he comes back, it’s a bonus. (Enzo Ferrari)

Driving for Ferrari is like driving for the Pope. (Nigel Mansell)

For us F1 is not a cost but a traditional expenditure. (Enzo Ferrari)

Formula 1 and Indianapolis have a mutual disrespect for each other. (Robin Herd – March F1 designer)

I know that in F1 there can be no friendships, except maybe, between front runners and back markers. (Michael Schumacher)

Most of my friends are from five to ten years ago (Ayrton Senna)

It’s very difficult to have a relationship with a fellow competitor because the next thing you’re doing is touching wheels with him at 200 mph. (Derek Warwick)

Indianapolis? It’s great! You only turn left while leading and you get $250 for each lap. I can go on racing there for ever! (Jim Clark)

The fact is that we, F1 drivers, are like whores. If the money is right we’ll turn up anywhere to do our stuff. (Keke Rosberg)

You’ve got a delay of two hours. No more priorities, no more first class, no VIP treatment. You left Ferrari, you bastard. (Air controller to Niki Lauda after he quitted Ferrari)

I have not been relaxed for 30 years. (Alain Prost)

95 % is disappointment. 5% is success and it outweighs the rest a thousand times over. (Derek Warwick)

You win some, lose some, wreck some. (Dale Earnhardt about racing)

A racing driver is a painter, the track is the canvas, the car is his brush. (Graham Hill)

When I’m in my racing car, I’m in my little world, there’s no place better (Nigel Mansell)

When my car is on a corner, mentally I’m on the next one. (Ayrton Senna)

When the lights go green, he goes red. (Frank Williams on Nigel Mansell)

Ayrton waves me down and I thought of running him over, perhaps breaking his big toe. But as a good RAC man I stopped. (Nigel Mansell after stopping his car to give Ayrton Senna a lift to the pits, Silverstone 1991)

All that counts is the next race. (Niki Lauda)

The straights are just piece of road connecting the corners and it’s the corners where you try to get ahead. (Stirling Moss)

I don’t enjoy racing that much. It’s too dangerous. I enjoy the profits. (James Hunt)

F1 Champions, actors and dictators should retire always when they are at the top.(Juan Manuel Fangio)

Brakes only slow you up. (Tazio Nuvolari)

Jackie Stewart started that safety thing. He was the one who started the damn stuff, going about with his blood group on his underpants and things. (Innes Ireland)

To finish first, first you have to finish.

Win on Sunday. Sell on Monday.

The Williams team is a &25 million business. Does anyone believe that they would give me one of their cars because long ago someone had known my dad? (Damon Hill)

When you start off as a driver, it’s a sport. But when you get into F1 it suddenly becomes a job (Alain Prost)

The Angels of Imola. (How Gerhard Berger named the safety marshals who saved his life in Imola in 1989)

People want superstars and Niki is an obvious one. His accident gave him mystique… he came back from the dead! (Ron Dennis on Niki Lauda)

I am a little bit shocked but I’m off to play with the nurses now. (Rubens Barrichello after his Imola accident in 1994)

It’s the cars that break, not the drivers. (Jochen Rindt)

Williams will find a replacement driver. F1 will not. (Williams team on Senna ‘s death)

The doctors said the brain scan was normal. I told them they were wrong. It has never been normal all my life. (Nigel Mansell)

My helmet came off on the first roll. Everyone thought it was my head in there bouncing about. (Julian Bailey)

I’d rather have an accident rather than fall in love. (Lella Lombardi)

Some rookies think that mirrors are just for shaving. (Jody Scheckter)

What’s the point in keeping the silverware? (Niki Lauda, on why he gave his trophies to a local garage in return for a free car wash)

He’s got his eyes on everywhere. If there is a Formula 2500 driver in Zaire looking for a drive, you can bet Eddie will know about him. (Stefan Johansson, on Eddie Jordan)

Feet are made to fit pedals. (Stirling Moss)

Well, it’s not bad at all. Senna having one of our cars in his mirrors. (Eddie Jordan on Andrea de Cesaris finishing 4th behind Senna, Mexico ’91)

After you’ve had Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna as team mates you don’t give a damn who’s gonna be your next one. (Damon Hill)

I know that no human being can perform miracles, but Gilles made you wonder sometimes. (Jacques Laffite on Gilles Villeneuve)

Racing in Japan was small so I bought me a ticket to Paris, because I thought it was the capital of England. (Ukyo Katayama)

-My boy, you have seen my car and my organization. With my team and my factory we can make you World Champion. -Fucka the championship. How mucha do ya pay?? (Conversation between BRM boss Louis Stanley and Clay Regazzoni)

If the money disappeared overnight, I would be still be in racing because I love it . The entrepreneurs would be gone. (Gilles Villeneuve)

Corporate signage. (F1 cars and sponsors)

It’s an Anglo-Saxon take over. (Jean Marie Balestre after failing to be re-elected in FISA)

It’s like when John Surtees set up his own team. He came to me and told me he had two sponsors. A cigarette and a condom company. I told him. “That’s pathetic. You’ve got a car going round with a cigarette in one hand and a condom in the other… That’s not progress”. (Lou Stanley)

I almost had tears in my eyes. My father will be up there dancing. (Damon Hill after his first win)

One of the nice things when you are World Champion is that you can be late for appointments. (Keke Rosberg)

I like the competition better than the victory, the fighting better than the winning (Stirling Moss)

I think I am doing more for Britain this way than I would if I joined the army. (Peter Collins)

Winning is everything. The only ones who remember when you come second is your wife and your dog. (Damon Hill)

It’s like a nightmare. (Alan Jones after his retirement)

It’s time to grow up. Now I will start some sensible work. (Niki Lauda after his final retirement)

When do you retire? When the passion is gone. (Guy Edwards)

My “Family” has gone. In ten years, 20 of my best friends died behind the wheel. I am 47. I am tired in body and spirit. I don’t want to finish up like my friends. (Juan Manuel Fangio)

Driving the Lotus, I will be World Champion or I ‘ll die. (Jochen Rindt)

The quickest thing about a monocoque is Jim Clark. (Jack Brabham)

OK. Turn 1 is flat out. But is it right or left? (Arturo Merzario)

Today my Goodyear tires ees sheet. (Emerson Fittipaldi after qualifying at the back)

The older I get, the faster I was.

I ran out of opposite lock. (Gilles Villeneuve, after a spin)

If you are in control you’re not fast enough. (Mario Andretti)

The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood. (Ayrton Senna)

I had oversteer in a corner. I made one correction, then another one, then I ran out of talent.

Flying Scots Mk I and Mk II (Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart)

In my days it was 75% car 25% driver. Now it’s 95% car and 5% driver.(Juan Manuel Fangio)

We had not won in F3, we had not won in F2, so I figured out that we could win in F1. I was right !! (Lord Hesketh)

“To πρώτο Αυστραλιανό GP στο Phillip Island, τότε ονομαζόταν “αγώνας δρόμου 100 μιλίων”… Ο αγώνας ήταν αντίθετος σε κάποιους νόμους…και το ’54 έγιναν αλλαγές στη νομοθεσία” (Περιοδικό F1 Racing , Μάρτιος 2002 σελ. 132)

and… Why motorsport? Because basketball, football, tennis, soccer etc. all require only one ball.

Murray Walker:

We’re on the 73rd lap and the next one will be the 74th.

Mansell is slowing it down, taking it easy. Oh no he isn’t . It’s a lap record!!

Mansell is watching us from hospital with his injured knee.

It’s not a curve it’s a straight actually.

You can’t see a digital clock because there isn’t one.

I know it’s true because I was there when I said it.

Ayrton Senna, winner of the 1999 Monaco GP.

Unless I’m very much mistaken…I’m very much mistaken.

Patrick Tambay’s hopes, which were absolutely nil before, are absolutely zero now…

The car in front is unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.

With half the race gone there is still half the race to go.

Eddie Jordan storms up the grid.

The first four cars are both on the same tyres.

Nicknames:
Little Godfather – Bernie Ecclestone
The Professor – Alain Prost
Walker the Talker – Murray Walker
Andrea de Crasheris – Andrea de Cesaris
The flying dentist – Tony Brooks
The Black Prince – Emerson Fittipaldi
Black Jack – Jack Brabham
The Maestro – Juan Manuel Fangio
Uncle Ken – Ken Tyrell
The madman – Ayrton Senna
The bear – Denny Hulme
The rat – Niki Lauda
Mr Piaggio – Ayrton Senna
Monza Gorilla – Vittorio Brambilla
Air Canada – Gilles Villeneuve
The Pope of the North – Enzo Ferrari
Captian Nice – Mark Donohue
Il Leone – Nigel Mansell
The moustache of the year ’82 – Keke Rosberg (by Steve Smith)
The rainmaster – Ayrton Senna / Rudolf Caracciola
The Joker – Nelson Piquet
Son of the Devil – Tazio Nuvolari

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