A Star Named Ayrton Senna Page #5

over the circuit sometimes.

The name of the hotel

was Hotel Castello.

He was a very simple man.

He was kind, he mostly kept to himself.

He often requested to have dinner

in the restaurant...

and he always requested a table in

the back, away from the other guests.

The whole weekend was terrible.

First there was the accident

of Rubens Barrichello...

and the day after Roland Ratzenberger.

Ayrton had only met him the day before,

because this was his first Grand Prix.

He was very upset about it.

The team manager

for Ratzenberger arrived.

So I had to tell the team manager

what had happened...

and Senna was standing alongside

me when I did.

The team manager went away and

Ayrton got very upset. He cried a bit.

I said to him:
You've been

world champion three times...

you're the fastest man in the world...

and you like fishing.

So I said:
Why don't you quit

and I'll quit and we just go fishing?

If you asked him a difficult question,

he wouldn't answer immediately.

You could see him thinking how

he would deal with that suggestion.

Finally he said:
Sid, I can't quit.

And I suggested

he didn't drive that weekend.

And he said:
But I've got to,

I've got to drive tomorrow.

He said:
There's no way

that I can stop driving at the moment.

A special hello to my dear...

our dear friend Alain.

We all miss you a lot.

In the morning we had TV coverage.

And I was doing my job.

Then we looked

at Ayrton's commentary.

The first thing he says

is not about corners or gears...

but he said:
First hello to Alain.

Alain, I miss you.

That was live. And they broadcast it

in the morning and before the race.

And again, people saw that.

So this odd sort of friendship we had...

was a little bit hidden

by all the fights we had.

In the last two weeks, we were good

but in a strange way also.

The last thing I remember

when he was alive was...

As a Ferrari driver, the Italians

have a special way of celebrating you.

When they announced my name,

the Italians were jumping and shouting.

I was just in front of his car,

and he was looking at me and laughing.

You really could see

that we were friends.

It was an honest love. He was happy

when something went well for me.

That was the last time I really looked

in his eyes and we saw each other.

There were many

heavy accidents before.

I had a very big accident in '89,

I nearly died there.

A day later Ayrton phoned me

in the hospital to ask how I was.

I said I was OK..

but that corner was very dangerous.

Someone could die there someday.

It was too dangerous.

We were just talking a bit.

Months later we went to test in Imola.

Ayrton and I said:

This corner should be changed.

We walked to this corner and

we looked how it could be changed.

We looked over the wall

and Ayrton says:

Look, you can't. There's a river

behind it, so you can't move the wall.

And we looked at each other and said:

We can't move the wall, that's it.

And we walked back. That was

the exact spot where he died.

It was the worst day in the history

of Formula 1...

because although

many drivers were killed in Formula 1...

before Ayrton Senna

none of them were as famous.

None of them were respected

and idolized worldwide like Senna was.

And the impact of Senna's death

on Formula 1 in particular...

motor racing in general

and the world at large...

was something

that had never happened before.

It has never happened since

and I pray it never happens again.

The Imola circuit witnessed

the loss of one the greats in Formula 1.

But memories of Senna will never fade.

Across the world, his spirit lives on.

I have the feeling that he's close by.

I can't explain it.

But I can feel it.

I'm sure that he's close by.

We have this thing about death where

we can't talk about it or think about it.

Our society rejects death.

It happened ten years ago now...

but the feeling is deeper

and more intense.

Things come up

in our collective consciousness...

that we were in danger of forgetting,

like his tenderness.

That he was a very simple man,

which is what impressed me the most.

And one of his nicer qualities:

His humility.

Ayrton said one time...

that the rich can't go on living

on an island...

surrounded by a sea of misery.

We all breathe the same air.

So we have to give children and young

people a fundamental chance in life.

Ayrton and I shared that vision.

It sprouted from our family.

The family raised us with these values.

They taught us to respect

other people...

and that it's important that we pass on

these opportunities to others.

To value and respect them.

And to be responsible.

We are all jointly responsible

for our own country.

In the 10 years we've been active,

we've been working for 10 years now...

we've helped 3,930,000 children

and young people all over the country.

It's because I had, first of all,

a good opportunity in life...

to grow properly, to live well,

to live a healthy life.

I learned a lot.

And I was led, at the key moments,

in the right direction, I believe.

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