It's constant. You always have that feeling of danger, which is actually very attractive. [...] It's a challenge to master the feeling of fear and to always seek new limits. So you take a corner at 250 km/h, 300 km/h, and you know that at a certain corner you have no escape area, no room for error, no margin. If you make a mistake there, the impact is enormous. So that challenge of "a little more", "a little stronger", "a little faster" and the feeling that the limit is near, the feeling of danger increasing is very attractive. The challenge of controlling that feeling and having control of the situation is a privilege that I think few have. It's special and it's constant. [...] It's a very attractive, very motivating thing, and you always have to keep a cool head to control it and never exceed your limits either, because if you do you end up getting hurt.
Ayrton Senna interview in 1989 by Jô Soares [x]
[Danger] is very strong in my mind. And it's very good that it's there the way it is because it gives you the right feeling for self-preservation, at moments when you are dealing with a danger very near ⎼ in that it's a very close relationship. It's attractive and, being attractive, it could go a little bit too far there at certain moments. And the fact that you are aware that you can be hurt or that you can die, gives you the ability of stopping at some moments where you really have to stop. It's there but I live with it very well and um um it's something that I use as a self-preservation feeling more than anything.
Ayrton Senna interviewed in 1991 for the documentary Inside Track ⎼ With Honda Marlboro McLaren [x]
