Maria Paddock

Q: (Alexey Popov - VGTRK) Question to all five drivers - except Michael. It’s just about you! Can you remember, gentlemen, your first race with Michael, when you first saw him on TV or maybe as a spectator? And secondly, will you try to be more respectful than usual with him on Sunday?

Senna: Well, the first time I saw Michael racing was Spa in 1991, on his debut in Formula One. I remember it pretty clearly when he had a really…

Schumacher: How old were you??

Senna: Um, eight?

D’Ambrosio: How old are you?

Senna: 27. Not that young any more. So I saw a great performance in qualifying but unfortunately he had a bit of a failure on his car up Eau Rouge, which denied him a good result but obviously he showed that he had great potential to fulfil in the following steps of his career.

Q: And will you show him respect?

Senna: We’re racing aren’t we, so if it’s close racing or more distant, we will have to see, but we are fighting for every inch of the track and it’s a great privilege for me to be racing with him and hopefully he will be in a good position to be fighting for points.

D’Ambrosio: Well, it wasn’t the best weekend actually. I was in the paddock at Imola in ‘94 on Saturday and that was my first weekend in Formula One. Obviously, Michael was driving there.

Senna: Will you show him any respect?

D’Ambrosio: Well, I will really make sure he doesn’t lose… try not to lose a tenth when there’s a blue flag situation. I will really try hard on this weekend for him.

Buemi: For me, ‘91 is a long time ago. I was a bit small, so I can’t really remember. I think the first races I really remember were ‘94, ‘95 when he was driving for Benetton.

Petrov: As you know, I started to watch Formula One very, very late because I was in my town to be honest, I never saw racing - I was racing myself but I never even knew what Formula One was, so I think I started to watch when Michael was battling with Alonso, at this time. And when I heard that he would stop racing, I was a little bit, you know… I said why? Because I wanted to race with him.

Vettel: I think Michael asked me to have some respect, so I’m not sure. I think the first time I was in touch with Michael was 1991 or 1992, probably as a toy car in kindergarten. I remember the first time I went to Hockenheim with my father to see free practice. We went all the way down to the first chicane. It was raining like crazy and Michael had this yellow Benetton at the time. To see a Formula One car and then to see Michael passing… he was probably just on an install lap, nothing spectacular but it was really very special. Unfortunately, nobody else went out because it was raining so hard. There was only a couple of cars but that was the first time that I remember. Obviously, after that there were a lot of races… when I was go-karting, Michael was sort of all the kids’ hero. When we had this race in Kerpen at the end of the season, he handed over the trophies and it was very special to see him, to meet him, to shake his hand and to get our trophies presented by him. Still there are some pictures from that time and to imagine now, to know what happened in the past and to see today that we are racing against each other in Formula One is quite crazy. Obviously, I have a lot of respect. It’s very special to me. As I said, he was the hero of my childhood. I can’t give you too much credit now, but I think he’s an OK driver.