(in alphabetical order by driver's name)
Alan Jones
"Nothing has to be done hastily in racing, except driving itself; for all other things you need calm." Alan Jones
Alessandro Nannini
"I only smoke mild cigarettes, I don't drink anymore, I moderate my sexual appetites, but I go slowly anyway." Alessandro Nannini
Alessandro Zanardi
“Formula One is not sport. Formula One is only intense competition between teams where the competition is really the research, the technology.” Alessandro Zanardi
“The 5 seconds when you shut your eyes and tell yourself you have something more to give when you think you have already given it all, make all the difference.” Alessandro Zanardi
Arturo Merzario
"In the past I was an admirer of Graham Hill for the Formula 1 races and of Jo Siffert for those of the Prototypes. Currently my esteem is for Emerson Fittipaldi, because he is the classic driver who, in addition to being fast, knows how to get by even when his car is not up to par with his opponents, emerging in the distance." Arturo Merzario
Ayrton Senna
“Do you see those stands full of spectators? The day that I’ll drive a Ferrari they will drop down for the enthusiasm.” Ayrton Senna, Imola 1991
“Every driver has his limit and mine is higher than his.” Ayrton Senna about Alain Prost
“I feel more comfortable as the power increases.” Ayrton Senna
“I have no idols. I admire hard work, dedication and competence.” Ayrton Senna
“If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.” Ayrton Senna
“Partly because I still have time ahead of me, I am sure one day I’ll drive a red Ferrari, it’s one of my dreams.” Ayrton Senna
“The car seems OK…” Ayrton Senna, 1 maggio 1994
“There are no turns where it is not possible to overtake.” Ayrton Senna
“If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.”Ayrton Senna
“There are so many things to do and think about in the hours before a Grand Prix.There are so many things you have to think about that, often, you are learning some of them at that precise moment because they happen suddenly.For me, the only way to feel ready and strong, to feel confident that I will achieve my highest expectations, is to focus deeply.I try to remember everything, every actionable aspect of every single detail;even the most insignificant one.Mentally I go over a sort of ‘checklist’, similar to that of an airplane pilot, except that we don't have documents to consult.Everything must already be in your head.In my mind I have an x-ray of the car.When I am about to put on my helmet I check that all the buttons are turned on in the correct position and, after starting the engine and doing the warm-up lap, I will have to repeat this procedure once again;it will be necessary to bring the brakes to the right temperature so that they are efficient and perform at the first corner but first I have to think about the last minute changes that can still be made to recover a few fractions of a second here and there and, at the same time, compare our choiceson the tires with those of the others to understand if there is still room for improvement and only then I try to imagine what could happen during the race.These moments before departure seem endless, there are so many things to think about that if you get carried away you would never finish.Consequently, at a certain point you have to stop and say to yourself: "I've done everything I can, I can't do more otherwise I risk going crazy, others will take care of the rest."" Ayrton Senna
Bruce McLaren
"To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone." Bruce McLaren
Carlos Reutemann
“’Reutemann is a tormented and tormenting driver. He is capable of resolving difficult situations, also making up for occasional mechanical deficiencies, but unstable to wasting results that can be acquired at the outset due to congenital emotionality’. I have never put up with this definition from Mr. Ferrari.” Carlos Reutemann. Great gentleman Lole.
Charles Leclerc
"Just a week before my father died, I lied to him saying I had signed with Ferrari. Obviously I hadn't but I promised myself that I would give everything to achieve that goal. My mother told me 'this is no good Charles, you shouldn't lie to him'. But I knew he was leaving soon and, to give him that last satisfaction, I told him I signed. I remember the tears in his eyes. Since that day I carried that remorse. Then, when I really signed up, that was the first thing I thought about. That day I didn't lie to my dad." Charles Leclerc
Colin Chapman
"If we don't clean up, F1 will engulf itself in a game of copying, denial, petty interpretations of imposed regulations." Colin Chapman
Colin McRae
“If in doubt, flat-out!” Colin McRae
“If you feel the car perfectly under control, it means you are not driving fast enough.” Colin McRae
“Straight roads are for fast cars, turns are for fast drivers.” Colin McRae
Damon Hill
“Winning is everything. The only ones who remind you when you finish second are your wife and your dog.” Damon Hill
David Coulthard
"I'm not motivated by awards, I do things I like to do: racing, fucking, eating and drinking." David Coulthard
David Purley
“There is nothing to do, the dangerous tracks give racing a wonderful extra. It's like in war. There are limits beyond which you are dead. You can never go wrong, if you do it you pay. It sounds honest to me, doesn't it? Racing should always be just that. Those who are concerned about their safety should go fishing, not racing. Endless straights, heartbreaking corners, side walls and paddock in a cow field open to all, like in Chimay: this is or should be the life of a driver. The rest, what F1 is doing is pure politics and commercialism. Puah! No, I haven't changed my mind [after Williamson's stake]. I think as before, racing must be dangerous and that's it. I always go faster in the race than in practice, because at the start I reach maximum tension, while in qualifying I don’t. In Rouen, as in Yemen, I screamed into my helmet to gain courage. I love the old Nurburgrìng, Macao, Chimay and Rouen, but beware, something different happened at Zandvoort in 1973. The bad accident can happen, but afterwards one expects that everything possible can and must be done for him. It wasn't like that there. That's all. And then the lie that Williamson was my friend: that's not true at all, I hardly knew him. I'm not a hero, I just did my duty. Like when we pulled comrades out of burning tanks in Yemen. Those who made the war know these things, acting is not poetry or altruism but only a conditioned reflex. Besides, it's not a driver's job to get off and try to save a colleague. When you go 270 kilometers per hour and stop suddenly, your head continues to go at the same speed and the world seems frighteningly slow, like in slow motion. It also happens in the pit stops, it is a very strange feeling. The truth is that, while we are racing, we do not live in the same world as you. They all treat me like a security expert now, imagine that. In fact, I'm only attracted to dangerous things. And do you know what I think for the future? I firmly believe that, if we allow F1 and racing in general to become as safe as model racing, people will get fed up and start complaining of boredom. Christ, we're paid to race. Get paid, do you understand? You will see, soon we will only see races for almost remote controlled toy cars, so no one gets hurt. No, I don't think any of us are self-harming or that the public wants to see a driver looking pretty bad, but remove completely the possibility of this happening and the punch in the stomach that racing gives you will no longer exist. Ours will no longer be an extreme sport.” David Purley
Denny Hulme
Journalist: "don't you find today's F1 boring? In your day it was something else." Denny Hulme: "much better today. In my day you had to keep yourself free every Tuesday for some funeral."
Elio de Angelis
"Once your ass is in the metal monocoque, the only person who can help you is yourself." Elio de Angelis
Emerson Fittipaldi
"The driver's mind must have the ability to predict what will happen. Extraordinary coordination and reflexes. In a second you travel the length of a football field and this means that you have to visualize a second or two before which trajectory your car will take and what are you going to do, because everything happens too fast. I've been enormously lucky, I've had some big accidents but, despite that, I'm still here ... thank God." Emerson Fittipaldi
Enzo Ferrari
“A car is like a daughter, when it wins a race I feel like a father who knows that his daughter got top grades at school.” Enzo Ferrari
“Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.” Enzo Ferrari
"At Christmas I usually give journalists a ham hock. It's the only way to call a journalist pig." Enzo Ferrari
“Hands off Ferrari: say what you want about me.” Enzo Ferrari
“How would I like to be remembered? I would prefer silence. If I could, I would say: "forget me". If it is inevitable: “like the one who invented hot water.”" Enzo Ferrari
“I was not ambitious but consistent.” Enzo Ferrari
"My father said to me: be careful. The assholes are expensive at all prices! So I tried to get along with someone who wasn't an asshole." Enzo Ferrari
“Passion allows you to endure bitternesses and renunciations that ambition would not justify in any way." Enzo Ferrari
“Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.” Enzo Ferrari
“The best Ferrari ever built is the next one.” Enzo Ferrari
“The perfect race car is the one that breaks a moment after the finish line.” Enzo Ferrari
“The second is the first of the losers.” Enzo Ferrari
“There is no misfortune, there is only man's inability to do or predict.” Enzo Ferrari
"They often ask me what was the most important victory of a car from my factory and I always answer like this: the most important victory will be the next". Enzo Ferrari
“What's behind you doesn't matter.” Enzo Ferrari
Ernest Hemingway
“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” Ernest Hemingway
Felipe Massa
“I was a child. In the Brazil of the last year of Senna, there was a young German who was busting Ayrton’s balls… What Michael did is more important than time, so much, elapsed.” Felipe Massa speaking of Michael Schumacher
Fernando Alonso
Andrea Stella at the 2023 Chinese GP: "there is no need to push anymore." Fernando Alonso "I'm not pushing!"
"My father always told me that a driver can even win races or titles, but if he doesn't drive a Ferrari he's not fulfilled." Fernando Alonso
“Of course I am a competitive person and competitiveness is important in Formula 1. But I don't race only for the competition, that I could also find playing tennis or cycling. I race in Formula 1 because the cars give me a unique feeling that I can't find anywhere else. There is nothing like F1. You have to reset your brain every time you get in the car because everything happens faster there. And, when you don't drive a single-seater for a few weeks, when you restart the level of performance leaves you surprised. The driving styles between kart and F1 are similar, but nothing unexpected happens in karting. Your mind is never caught off guard and you can predict what is to come. Not so in Formula 1: when you push the brake, the brain takes 0.2 seconds to react. It's a wonderful feeling." Fernando Alonso
Gerhard Berger
"The Ferrari name alone is legend, it's always special to race for them. In 1986 I had three offers, McLaren, Williams and Ferrari. McLaren had the best car but when I sat down in Enzo Ferrari's office and he said 'Berger, you can race for me', I didn't hesitate for a moment. I would have liked to drive for Ferrari for my entire career. The Ferrari family, which also includes the whole of Italy, is unique." Gerhard Berger
“Today Ayrton had a car which on paper was one second per lap slower than competition. And we all knew that he couldn’t have beaten the competition. Ninety-nine percent of drivers would have accepted the situation saying: “well, next week we’ll have a new engine and then we’ll be there.” For Ayrton, of course, it wasn’t like that. He thinks he always has to be the fastest and he does it. And it’s not just a dream. He just did it.” Gerhard Berger
Gilles Villeneuve
“I never thought I can hurt myself, at least not seriously. If you think that it can happen to you, how can you do this job? If you think you can have an accident it’s clear that you can’t go as fast as you could. And if you don’t do it you are not a pilot. Some guys in F1… well, for me they are not pilots. They drive a race car and that’s all. They do a halfway job and then I wonder: why don’t they change job?” Gilles Villeneuve
“I race to win, you can tell. But even before winning, I race to race. As quick as I can.” Gilles Villeneuve
“If you search for the limit in the meantime you have to go over it.” Gilles Villeneuve
“Montecarlo is a mountain circuit with a city around it.” Gilles Villeneuve
"The simplest way to find the limit is to go quicker and quicker until you go over it. Then you come back from it a bit and think about the next corner." Gilles Villeneuve
“We should approach the turns shifting to a lower gear than the one we use now and put the car crosswise. People are still in love with how Ronnie Peterson was driving his Lotus 72 and I understand them, I agree with them. This is the kind of entertainment I want to give the crowd: smoking tires!” Gilles Villeneuve
“You cannot take your foot off the accelerator while you are racing fast. The only hope is that the other driver is looking at you in the rearview mirror.” Gilles Villeneuve
Graham Hill
“Drivers like Clark, Moss, Fangio and Stewart are natural champions. No one has ever said or written that I am. And it's not a coincidence." Graham Hill
“Formula 1 is like keeping an egg in equilibrium on a teaspoon while riding the rapids in a canoe.” Graham Hill
“I am an artist. The track is my canvas and the car is my brush.” Graham Hill
“When I notice a rear wheel overtaking me, I know I'm sitting in a Lotus.” Graham Hill
Hans Stuck
“Everything is better than before the crash. I was 10 days in hospital. It gave me some rest after 43 years of nonstop action. So that’s when I made the decision to finish my career by racing one last time with both my sons [Ferdinand and Johannes] at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, where I first started my career in 1969. We drove a Lamborghini Gallardo [LP600 GT3]. Fantastic.” Hans Stuck
Herbert Von Karajan
“I am driving my Ferrari to just circle the building, I only need to listen to the engine music.” Herbert Von Karajan
Jack Brabham
"I want to be someone who dies without a single enemy in the world: I want to bury them all myself, those bastards." Jack Brabham
Jackie Ickx
''For a true driver, there is nothing more beautiful than starting from the last place. Because you just have to do one thing: overtake and overtake.'' Jackie Ickx
"The flames were the real danger. At the 1970 Spanish GP, in Jarama, my Ferrari turned into a stake because Jackie Oliver hit me on the side. We had just started and the tanks were full. The on-board fire extinguisher gave me a few seconds of survival but, shortly after, the flames had reached me and I knew that no one could enter that fire without an asbestos suit. And, in Jarama, the marshals didn’t have any. I had to get out alone. Or die." Jacky Ickx
Jackie Stewart
“Cornering is like bringing a woman to a climax. Both you and the car must work together. You start to enter the area of excitement at the corner, you set up a pace which is right for the car and after you've told it it is coming along with you, you guide it along at a rhythm which has by now become natural. Only after you've cleared the corner you can both take pleasure in knowing it's gone well.” Jackie Stewart
“For a quick lap at the Nurburgring, you've probably experienced more in seven minutes... than most people have experienced in all their life in the way of fear, in the way of tension, in the way of animosity towards machinery and to a racetrack.” Jackie Stewart
“From the five years, 1968-73, if you were an F1 driver at that time, there was a very likely chance that you would have died.” Jackie Stewart
“Good luck in most cases comes through the misfortune of others.” Jackie Stewart
“I would have been a much more popular World Champion if I had always said what people wanted to hear. I might have been dead, but definitely more popular.” Jackie Stewart
“If you struggle and force your driving to make the time you won’t do it: something is wrong with you or with the car. You are really fast when everything is done quite naturally, when you absorb inside you the speed, and the lap seems to become long and musical, like a movie shot in slow motion.” Jackie Stewart
“In my sport, the quick are too often listed among the dead.” Jackie Stewart
"Jim Clark lived to race, while I race to live." Jackie Stewart
“Juan Fangio was the great man of racing, whilst Stirling Moss was the epitome of a racing driver.” Jackie Stewart
“Oh yes. It's not when you brake but when you take them off that counts. Most people don't understand that.” Jackie Stewart
“The years I raced in were fantastic. There was so much change in the cars. We went from treaded tyres to no wings right through to slicks to enormous wings.” Jackie Stewart
“There is no doubt that Formula 1 has the best risk management of any sport and any industry in the world.” Jackie Stewart
“To take a single-seater to the limit, to the real absolute limit, is a bit like making love: you need to treat the car with sincerity, with conviction, gently. Once you began to caress her she needs to understand by herself what you expect from her and participate, like a woman who starts to truly feel pleasure.” Jackie Stewart
“When I was racing, we were more used to seeing some horrific accidents. For example, Michael Schumacher is a great world champion, but I haven't seen a weekend where he doesn't go off the circuit. At every race he always has a spin or runs through the gravel trap. He usually doesn't hit anything, but nevertheless it is an error that could not have been made in the days I raced.” Jackie Stewart
James Hunt
"Happiness is a tight pussy." James Hunt
"If I get into the car I drive as fast as I can. Period." James Hunt
"Life is short and I want to make the most of it. I have divided my time between serious and fun things. I really work hard on the former and have a lot of fun with the latter. I always said that, when I don't like racing, I just won’t show up for the next race. I could leave if I didn't feel like it and I have no reason to do something that I wouldn’t like. There are many things I certainly don't like to do but racing is not one of them." James Hunt
"Once I had just won the race, I was tired, I was thirsty and a bottle was the only thing I had in the world. Some guy comes and grabs it from me. I react by punching him. It was terrible because the poor fellow didn't do it on purpose, but I reacted without thinking. Then I was terribly bad and I went to look for him, without being able to find him. I'm not usually a quarrelsome type but I always become one when I get out of the car." James Hunt
“Sex: breakfast of champions.” James Hunt
"Sex is a high performance thing." James Hunt
“To hell safety. All I want now is racing.” James Hunt to Niki Lauda, Mosport 1976
"What's the point of having millions of medals, cups and trophies if you don't have any kind of fun?" James Hunt
Jean-Luis Trintignant
“To be a pilot means to take a curve exactly at 240 kilometers per hour. At 239 you lost the race. At 241 you lost the car.” Jean-Luis Trintignant
Jim Clark
"The one time Chapman told me to slow down, we lost." Jim Clark
"When I want to go faster, I don't need to push. I just need to focus a little." Jim Clark
Jochen Rindt. Photo by Getty Images.
"I may not live to be 40. But, up to that point, I will have experienced more in life than anyone else." Jochen Rindt
Jody Scheckter
“At the end of this season I will retire from racing. If I was a tennis player I could have kept going another year to earn some money but you can’t do this in F1. It would be foolish to kill yourself for money.” Jody Scheckter
“I understood the difference of racing for Ferrari or for any other team: with other teams you are the driver of a team, when you race for Ferrari you are the driver of an entire country. It's a fantastic feeling”. Jody Scheckter
"It was a long wait, which you Italians especially suffered. I only realized it when I returned to Europe: people remembered it, asked me about it. And then I filled myself with pride. Even if I didn't take it so seriously: sooner or later it had to end, like the comings and goings of beautiful girls who were looking for me: the last Ferrari champion." Jody Scheckter
“Sometimes, on Sunday, I wonder who makes me to go on a track to race like an imbecile not knowing if then I will be back home at night.” Jody Scheckter
Juan Manuel Fangio
“A racing car is like champagne. Either you know it well or it's best to leave it alone." Juan Manuel Fangio
“Driving fast on the track doesn't scare me. What scares me is when I drive down the street and I am overtaken by an idiot who thinks he's Fangio.” Juan Manuel Fangio
"I learned to deal with racing like playing a game of billiards. If you hit the ball too hard you don't go anywhere. If you manage the cue with care you can give direction and drive with more finesse." Juan Manuel Fangio
“Monza ‘58? Very good race. No one died.” Juan Manuel Fangio
"The great drivers can do their best laps after only two or three laps of a circuit, while the others take 10, 20 or 30." Juan Manuel Fangio
"What do I think of this new fashion for helmets on your head? No. It's not for me. When I drive I want to feel the caress of the wind." Juan Manuel Fangio
John Surtees
“He had a difficult character, it's true. But I don't bear a grudge: anyone who knows how to do and get what Ferrari did and got has the right to have a character that is not always accommodating. Ferrari was the center of a small kingdom totally dedicated to creating the cars he wanted and he produced truly sensational ones.” John Surtees
Keke Rosberg
"The point is: we are all little bitches, isn’t it true? If the money is there we go everywhere and do our own things." Keke Rosberg
"To reach the top in Formula One you need two factors: a lot of talent or hard work. Nelson Piquet, for example, was not a hard worker but he was gifted with innate talent. Ayrton Senna was a separate case, he possessed both qualities. As for me, I don't feel like saying it was a question of talent, on the contrary, I should fall into the second category." Keke Rosberg
Kimi Raikkonen
“I don't mind the risks. Sometimes you have bad luck and you can get hurt, but it is better to think about the danger only later." Kimi Raikkonen
"People don't know exactly how much I love Ferrari. I won my only title with her." Kimi Raikkonen
Question: “you first started a Formula 1 race at 21, what would you say to that 21 year old now?” Answer: “nothing. I wouldn’t talk to him.” Kimi Raikkonen
“The most important thing is to be satisfied with yourself.” Kimi Raikkonen
"When I was a boy, dealing with cars, fixing, adapting, was a normal thing. Not today. Many live off their father's money, so why get busy? But it wasn't what I thought before: washing cars and repairing them was an ordinary affair. Nowadays, however, there are many of those dickheads with their millionaire father, why should they get their hands dirty? They go to the races with the helicopter and they find everything served". Kimi Raikkonen
Lella Lombardi
“I prefer to have an accident than to fall in love. That's how much I love racing.” Lella Lombardi
Lewis Hamilton
“We win and lose together.” Lewis Hamilton
Maria Teresa de Filippis
“At the 1958 Belgian GP I finished in tenth place, two laps behind the winner Tony Brooks in a Vanwall. Upon arrival I was furious because of the car. And I left. But King Baudouin in the honor tribune kept repeating: ‘but I want to know the girl’. They recovered me in extremis. The sovereign touched my arms: ‘they look like iron’.” Maria Teresa de Filippis
Mario Andretti
“Chapman told me: "I want to make cars lighter and lighter." Then I replied: "then the two of us have to clarify amongst ourselves because I want to live as long as possible." Mario Andretti
“Driving turbo Formula 1 cars of many years ago was like to be sitting on a crate of dynamite.” Mario Andretti
“It happens, this is also racing.” Mario Andretti when he knew about Ronnie Peterson’s death
Mauro Forghieri
"In all these years I have always hoped that technology does not rely on electronics, because with electronic aids we all become geniuses, we who design cars and also those who drive and race them. This is not the right way. For example, I think that in F1 the electronics have clipped the wings of the creativity of the technicians and of the skills of the drivers. This is not progress. And then I find absurd that a world champion has to wait for authorization to be able to operate his aileron, otherwise he can't even overtake. [...] I would never have imagined what happened to me in front of the TV this year, watching the Grands Prix. Now, honestly, after a few laps, I sleep. Well, I never would have imagined that progress was so restful." Mauro Forghieri
Michael Schumacher
"A part of my heart will always be red." Michael Schumacher
“I can’t really imagine life without F1.” Michael Schumacher
“I did everything I could for Ferrari to become number one. The whole team and all fans deserved it.” Michael Schumacher
"In sport there can never be a moment equal to another." Michael Schumacher
“There are some moments in the rain when visibility is zero. That's when you have to accelerate even more because your opponent won't.” Michael Schumacher
“Without my team I am nothing.” Michael Schumacher at the 2000 Imola Grand Prix
Michele Alboreto
“It's not kissing the wall that worries me. It is making love with it that scares me a little.” Michele Alboreto
Mika Hakkinen
"The first time I left the pits in an F1 car I realized that I was born to be a driver." Mika Hakkinen
Miki Biasion
“The best thing a dressed man can do is driving crosswise.” Miki Biasion
Nelson Piquet
“Absurd, like riding a bicycle in the living room.” Nelson Piquet about racing in Montecarlo
"They say that for drivers the best thing is victory, but that's not true. The best thing for a racing car driver is when he has had a big accident and comes out of it all in one piece." Nelson Piquet
Nigel Mansell
"In life and in the GPs there are ordinary people and racers. The first ones look at how things are going, the racers make them happen. I am a racer." Nigel Mansell
Nigel Mansell leads the race behind the wheel of his Ferrari when, suddenly, he goes off the track to the amazement of all the spectators. Once back in the pits, he is interviewed by Ezio Zermiani. "Nigel, what happened? Why this mistake?" Nigel can only respond with his typically British humor. "Next time let's do this: you make the curve and, afterwards, I'll ask you such a stupid question".
Niki Lauda
"Don't talk too much, focus on the goal and achieve it. The less you talk the more time you have for the essentials." Niki Lauda
"For me Ferrari is my heart, Mercedes my wallet". Niki Lauda
“I prefer to have my right foot than a nice face.” Niki Lauda
"I won three titles without ever being the fastest. In racing you need the head and that has never been lacking. It seems exaggerated to call myself cold. I am just a precise, controlled man who does a dangerous job, a job that does not allow mistakes. At the wheel, yes, I'm a computer, but coldness can save my life. The precision and coldness that are attributed to me are therefore dear to me." Niki Lauda
"In theory one can be more talented than me, but my ass is more sensitive: here is my secret, I feel first if a car swerves and I correct it." Niki Lauda
“Many people criticize Formula 1 as an unnecessary risk. But what would life be like if we only did what is necessary?” Niki Lauda
"To race I only ask for a dollar, everything else is for my character." Niki Lauda
"When you succeed they are all with you, when you lose you have them all against you. There is nothing in between." Niki Lauda
“With the Drake, the greatest personality that I have ever come close to has disappeared. With his charisma he animated a car that lives because Enzo Ferrari is behind it. He lets his car live and the whole world knows a Ferrari. When I ask my seven-year-old son, he knows that Ferrari is a car. This is only possible because he is behind it." Niki Lauda
"You learn absolutely nothing from success." Niki Lauda
Pastor Maldonado
"He always drives the car as if he had just stolen it. Anything can happen with him in the race, even winning a great victory." Xevi Pujolar, Pastor Maldonado's track engineer
Patrick Depailler
"No, no. The future is for other people." Patrick Depailler
Patrick Tambay
"Now driving a racing Ferrari without Enzo Ferrari will never be the same, because the most important thing was to drive for Mr. Ferrari." Patrick Tambay
Peter Arundel
“At Zandvoort I saw my team mate Jim Clark popping out up the hill with the car crosswise, travelling at full speed on the slippery road. He kept it in that position for all the stretch that was separating him from the Scheivlak curve, where he was forced to brake with the car still crosswise. If you have to drive like that to win, then I prefer to get last.” Peter Arundel
Phil Hill
"Staying at Ferrari was a kind of hell where you felt like hitting your head against a brick wall, but it didn't matter because it was the most beautiful wall in the world." Phil Hill
Piero and Antonella Lardi Ferrari
"My father advised me not to become friends with the drivers because sooner or later they leave us, or die or go driving for the competition". Piero Lardi Ferrari
Raymond Sommer
"I don't want any signal from the pits. I go as fast as I can, always and in any case. It is useless to signal me to go faster because I can't. It is useless to signal me to go slower because I won't." Raymond Sommer, the first pilot to drive for the new manufacturer Enzo Ferrari.
Ronnie Peterson
"I have two remedies for the turns and the skids: the steering wheel and the accelerator pedal." Ronnie Peterson
Rubens Barrichello.
"I was eight years old. I was sitting on a low wall in Interlagos, at a Go-Kart race. I heard the noise of a Ferrari V12 passing by. A unique sound, different from the noise of any other engine, unforgettable. And ever since I have kept dreaming about it." Rubens Barrichello
Sebastian Vettel
"Everyone is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they're not, they are Ferrari fans." Sebastian Vettel
“There are a lot of fairy tales about Ferrari and how it feels to drive a red car. In the end I can only confirm these fairy tales.” Sebastian Vettel
Stefan Johansson
"Once you have raced for Ferrari you will remain a Ferrari driver forever. This is a source of pride for me. I think I raced in the best period of F1 because the cars of the eighties with the turbo engine were crazy, with nearly 1500 horsepower and a very limited grip which made them incredible to drive, like a bomb about to explode. I don't think there will ever be another era like that. Unfortunately I didn't have the timing on my side to win a race but, over the years, I have learned that what really matters is enjoying the driving and always pushing yourself beyond your limits. Because it’s the moments when you are really focused, with all your senses alerted for the performance, that make the life of a driver so fantastic." Stefan Johansson
Steve McQueen
“For drivers, driving is living; all they do before or after is simply waiting.” Steve McQueen, Le Mans 1971
Stirling Moss
“I am not a driver, I am a racer.” Stirling Moss
"I have had a lot from racing and I have given a lot to racing ... but not my life." Stirling Moss
"I like the competition more than the victory, the battle more than the winning." Stirling Moss
“It’s hard to drive at the limit, but it’s harder to know where the limits are.” Stirling Moss
"It is better to enter the curve slowly and to exit it quickly than to enter it quickly and to exit it dead." Stirling Moss
"It is necessary to relax the muscles when you can, relaxing the brain instead is fatal." Stirling Moss
“Motion is tranquillity.” Stirling Moss
“Prost is the most complete driver. You could say that Senna is the quickest but this is just one aspect of driving in F1. Alain has a phenomenal knowledge in terms of developing the car, of mechanics motivation, of race tactic and psychology. Senna is a race animal but Prost is The Driver.” Stirling Moss
“Straightaways are just boring stretches of road that link the turns.” Stirling Moss
“There are only two things a man won’t admit he can’t do: driving and making love.” Stirling Moss
"To achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster.” Stirling Moss
“With driving a motor car, the danger is a very necessary ingredient. Like if you’re cooking, you need salt. You can cook without salt, but it doesn’t have the flavour. It’s the same with motor racing without danger. For me.” Stirling Moss
"You ask me what is the difference between the heroic Formula One and the current one. Well, it is as if before you were walking in balance on a wire suspended overhanging the Grand Canyon. Now that wire is tightly stretched in the bedroom, a palm from the mattress: the skill required to walk on it is the same, but the challenge has changed forever." Stirling Moss
Tazio Nuvolari
"Afraid of dying in an accident? But you who will die in your bed, do you still have the courage to go to sleep in it in the evening?" Tazio Nuvolari
“Brakes? What are brakes for?” Tazio Nuvolari
"They say that you are a good administrator but I realize that it is not true .... You should have made me reserve only the one way ticket. When you leave for a race you have to foresee the possibility of returning in a wooden trunk." Tazio Nuvolari to Enzo Ferrari
Walter Röhrl
“The problem is to maintain a speed of thought which is greater than the car speed.” Walter Röhrl
"Understeer is when you see the tree you hit; oversteer is when you feel the bump but don't see the tree." Walter Röhrl
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