David Coulthard has spoken of the late Ayrton Senna's 'star quality' in a look back at his own career, in an interview with Off The Ball.
Coulthard was on the same Williams team as the great Brazilian driver, and was reticent to watch the documentary on Senna's life lest it throw up conflicting feelings in his mind's eye.
"In actual fact, I haven't seen the Senna documentary for the sole reason that I was there, active at that period as a test driver for Alain Prost, his great adversary, and then as a test driver for Ayrton when he was sadly killed.
"So I have my own memories of that event [...] and I don't want to be the guy that goes 'that is not how I remember it.'
The late Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna watches the pratice time monitor from the cockpit of his car during practice for the 1993 European Grand Prix at Doddington Park.But there was one tale that stands out for Coulthard that exemplifies Senna's magnetism.
"One little story that would serve to highlight that he did have incredible presence was at the official launch of him being the driver for the '94 season.
"We were testing in Estoril [in Portugal], we did the shakedown with the car, where Damon Hill was his team-mate and I was his test driver.
"We had a press event in Lisbon and I was in the room with all the various journalists when Ayrton arrived into this busy room.
"Slowly but surely, the room fell silent with this wave of recognition; the first people saw that he was in the room, then these people start elbowing each other going 'There's Ayrton'.
"Eventually the whole room was silent, such was the expectation that he was coming. This wasn't him getting on stage. This was him just entering the room.
"I think it just absolutely sums up that he had star quality, he had presence. He was a man that would think deeply about what it was he was about to say.
"It was one of the cherished memories of my racing career, that I was able to work with him for a short time as a test driver."
Coulthard also has particularly warm memories of Senna as the Brazilian helped him along the way in his career with a timely recommendation.
"He is a large part of why I was given the opportunity why I was given a role at Williams, because he said to Frank Williams that he was very impressed with the work that I had done in testing and that I deserved an opportunity as a driver in Formula 1.
"Clearly it wasn't something that he had said knowing that his time would come early, but it was certainly something that Frank considered when he gave me the try."
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