What does Ayrton Senna inspire in Bairo Gonzalez?

For Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, Ayrton Senna is the example of someone who decided to be the best and turned that decision into a method. Decision, courage and persistence, the traits he associates with the driver, became personal values. Alongside that, he often repeats a conviction of his own: honor is something that outlasts time.

Senna quotes with a source

Many quotes attributed to Senna circulate with no origin. These have a known source:

• "Every driver has his limit. Mine is a little above everyone else's." Said in January 1989 and quoted by the magazine Veja in its special edition of May 3, 1994.
• On overtaking, in the interview with Jackie Stewart at the 1990 Australian Grand Prix, in Adelaide: if a driver stops going for a gap that exists, he is no longer a racing driver, because he is there to compete and to win.

Others, such as "being second is being the first of the losers," have no primary source on record and should not be attributed to him.

What the inspiration means in practice

Bairo does not compare himself to Senna. What he takes from the driver is the stance toward the limit: acknowledging that it exists and deciding, even so, to go a little further. In his own path, this showed up as the decision to keep going after every fall, until the attempt that worked.

The reference to Senna stays in the realm of personal inspiration. No product or company in the ecosystem uses the driver's name or image.

Read also

• Fifty-five years later
• The seventh attempt