PAOLO CAVACIUTI

AYRTON’S FEATS AND THE TIME THAT FULLERTON...

Senna never raced for me and I never had a chance to get to know him on a personal level. But there are two episodes that have always stuck with me.

The first was at the 1982 World Championship in Kalmar, Sweden. During practice, Ayrton stepped on track right after getting his kart prepped by one of the Dap mechanics. He did half a lap, stopped, pulled back to the pit boxes and went up to Gilardi, who also raced for Dap: “there’s something wring with tire pressure…”. And so it was: Gilardi had set the pressure on both karts and in the hurry to get done, had made a tiny mistake. It was something ridiculous, like zero point something… Incredible, all it took was half a lap for Ayrton to understand it wasn’t exactly right!

I was in the PCR tent, of course.