RACING QUOTES – “The BEST from THE BEST”

Quotations are small sound bites of perspective, wisdom and knowledge. they give you insight into the way those people thought, what was important and how they lived. Sometimes humorous, sometimes bitter, sometimes sarcastic… reading their quotes help shape some of our own thinking. Here are some of the best quotes from some of the best in motor sports.

1.”Loads of overtaking is boring. You go fishing and you catch a fish every
ten minute it’s boring. But if you sit there all day, and you catch one mega
fish, you come back with stories that you caught a fish this big (indicates
a big fish), intead of this size (indicating a small fish)”
– Eddie Irvine on the lack of overtaking in F1.

2. “You know you’re in trouble when the first person to get to you after a
wreck is carrying a beer”
– NASCAR driver, Jimmy Horton, speaking of his accident at Talladega in
1993.

3. “The car is such a dog we should have tied it to the fence”
– Dick Johnson, former Australian Touring Car Champion, discusses an
obviously less than brilliant vehicle….

4. “F1 won’t change me”
– Jenson Button, just weeks before dumping his girlfriend of five years and
buying a Ferrari.

5. “Give me a few bits of wool to stick on the car, a good gust of mistral
wind, and I could come up with a better aerodynamic package on the bridge at Avignon”
– Jean Alesi on the dreadfully inefficient Prost AP02.

6. “He’s just a total bloody idiot. Always was, always will be”
– Derek Warwick on Rene Arnoux.

7. “Oh, we’re just looking for the ear”
– Niki Lauda replying to somebody asking what the former world champion was doing back at the site of the 1976 accident that nearly killed him at the
Norschleife circuit.

8. “I am a non discriminating driver. I want to kick everybody’s ass”
– Greg Ray, IRL.

9. “The track is my canvas. My car is my pencil”
– Graham Hill.

10. “Ukyo Katayama is undoubtedly the best formula 1 driver that grand prix
racing has ever produced”
– A questionable quote from commentating legend, Murray Walker.

11. “Anyone who doesn’t speak English isn’t worth speaking to”
– Bernie Ecclestone.

12. “Clark came through at the end of the first lap of the race so far ahead
that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been
wiped out in an accident”
– An onlooker describing Jim Clark’s incredible first lap speed at the 1967
Belgian GP at Spa.

13. “My game is going wrong – the star is setting” – Ascari speaking to Fangio
in 1955 – just four days before his death at the wheel of a sportscar.

14. “Jimmy ranked with, perhaps even out-ranked, Nuvolari, Fangio and Moss and I think we all thought that he was in a way invincible. To be killed in an
accident with a Formula 2 car is almost unacceptable”
– Bruce McLaren speaking of the great late-Jim Clark.

15. “Drivers are just interchangeable light bulbs – you plug them in and they do
the job”
– Teddy Mayer, McLaren.

16. “And that is Ralf Schumacher – son of Michael”
-Who else but Murray Walker, ITV commentator?

17. “I think I’ve proved that, in equal cars, if I want someone to stay behind
me… well, I think he stays behind…”
– Gilles Villeneuve.

18. “Break a leg”
– Grid Girl at 1999 British GP offering some ‘advice’ to Michael Schumacer
pre-race. A few hours later Michael was in a hospital and his leg was in
plaster, following an early race shunt.

19. “Christ – I used to complain that this thing was underpowered, I must have
been mad”
– Chris Amon after driving a 1970’s F1 car up the hill at Goodwood.

20. “Aerodynamics is for those who cannot manufacture good engines”
– Enzo Ferrari prior to the advent of the Daytona Cobras.

21. “I’m fine, but I’m going to need to change my shorts when this race is over”
– Greg Moore over the car to pit radio after a spin in the Michigan 500.

22. “It’s been 2000 years since a Good Friday was this bad”
– Benetton tech boss, Pat Symonds speaking at the 2000 British GP, the site
of another dismal performance.

23. “No, it will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end
of the straightaway in high gear”
– Too much power is never enough….Mark Donohue on the Can Am Porsche 917.

24. “Are you here to race or to crash?”
– Chico Landi addressing drivers safety concerns in Brazil in the 1980’s.

25. “You might think that’s not cricket, and it’s not, it’s motor racing”
– Yep. Murray again.

26. “It’s almost worth retiring just so I can speak to you…”
– Alex Zanardi speaking to Louise Goodman on TV during the former’s awful
1999 Grand Prix season.

27. “F–k off”
– Yvan Muller to Peter Cox, during the postrace press conference at the 1999
Snetterton British Touring Car Championship night race.

28. “Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is
the action, which it is”
– Murray Walker.

29. “The man’s an animal”
– John Cleland speaking about Steve Soper, at Silverstone BTCC race, 1992.

30. “…if they have any more drive-throughs, they’re going to have to start
selling burgers and fries in the pit lane”
– Charlie Cox commentating on a drive through penatly for Laurent Aiello at
Silverstone BTCC round, 1999.

31. “Racing drivers have balls, unfortunantly, none of them are crystal”
– David Coulthard.

32. “You’re a pack of ********s”
– Race winner Jim Richards responds to a booing crowd on the podium of the controversial 1992 Bathurst 1000.

33. “You’re a pack of lovely, lovely people”
Jim Richards makes up for his 1992 speech after winning the 2002 event.

34. “The litte Mexican ******* tried to kill me!”
– Jo Siffert on Pedro Rodriguez.

35. “Unless I am very much mistaken…I AM very much mistaken!”
– Murray Walker.

36. “The passport changes but the blood doesn’t”
– Italian-American, Mario Andretti on the lure to drive at Ferrari.

37. “I knew I’d been beaten by the best driver in the world”
– Rene Arnoux on his epic last lap battle with Gilles Villeneuve at Dijon
1979.

38. “When the flag drops, the bull**** stops”
– Anonymous

39. “Finishing second means you are the first person to lose”
– Gilles Villeneuve.

40. “In my day the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny”
– Unknown.

41. “I want to stay in F1 but things have to get better for me to have a chance.
No disrespect, but I won’t go to Minardi”
– Johnny Herbert, 2000.

42. “We’ll be looking to give McLaren and Ferrari a run for their money”
– Craig Pollock, BAR Team Principle, speaking prior to the team’s 1999 race
debut. As it turned out, BAR wasn’t even able to give Minardi a walk for
their money, failing to score a single point.

43. “There’s a bit of debris there, Rouse hits it, Oh, nice header from Menu!”
– Murray Walker, Brands Hatch BTCC, 1994.

44. “Why did I take up racing? I was too lazy to work and too chicken to steal”
– Kyle Petty, Stock Car driver.

45. “It was a Ford, so it didn’t really matter”
– Mark Skaife answering a question about a car fire in a touring car race at
Barbagallo.

46. “I already tried that. Something heavy metal like. And sunglasses. But it
didn’t work; I went to the gas station and when I left the guy at the
counter said, ‘bye Mr Schumacher”.
– Michael Schumacher on trying not be recognised…

47. “He’s broken our camera lens; that’ll be six grand please Derek!”
– Murray Walker after Derek Warwick crashed into the remote TV camera during a BTCC race.

48. “Presumably it’s vitamin C they put in that Orange Arrows, Murray…”
– Commentator Martin Brundle shows why he isn’t a comedian.

49. “I want to win a couple of Indy Car Championships and I want people to say
that Greg Moore was one of the best CART drivers that was ever around.”
– Greg Moore, speaking in 1997. In October 1999, Moore was killed in an
accident at Fontana.

50. “Rene Arnoux is coming into the pits … lets stop the startwatch…”
– Murray Walker, BBC commentator.

51. Question : “How do you know when a car has enough power?”
Answer from Mark Donahue : “When you can leave two dark stripes of rubber from the exit of one turn to the entrance to the next..”

52. “When you’re racing, it’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.”
-Steve McQueen (from the movie ‘Le Mans’)

53. “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”
-Mario Andretti

54. “If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.”
-Mario Andretti

55. “Newman’s first law: It is useless to put on your brakes when you’re upside down.”
-Paul Newman

56. “On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, ‘Okay, this is the limit.’ As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.”
-Ayrton Senna