1993 Season Formula One World Championship British Grand Prix - Sunday Quotes

Williams

Damon Hill: It Was a very hard race, I got a bit of a break when Ayrton took Alain at the start. I pushed as hard as I could. My pit-stop went well, but I was held up with traffic. When the Safety Car came out, Alain was right on my tail. I knew it was important to get a good start and once the Safety Car pulled off, it was a 20 or so lap race. I pushed as hard as I could and the engine blew up. You feel empty. It is only the second time an engine has blown up and both times it has cost me a race. It was going to be difficult for Alain to get past me. There is just a feeling of disbelief. I turned upside down. It was a very physical race. It's infuriating. You do everything right and then something stops you. You feel anger more than disappointment.

Alain Prost: If Damon had not stopped it would have been difficult to take today's win away from him. I didn't make a good start, again, and I was eight seconds behind Damon. It would definitely have been difficult to overtake him, I was just waiting and would have waited there behind him until the end, waiting for the right moment. It would have been hard for me to win. I saw his problem and I was wondering if he was pulling more revs and I didn't know what to do. I slowed down quite a lot, but as I was slowing down Michael Schumacher was pushing quite hard, behind me. And then it became more difficult. As I slowed down I think the tyre pressures were a little low and it became more difficult to go faster and faster at the end. But I was able to keep the pace anyway.

Tyrrell

Ukyo Katayama: I made a terrible start. I saw that a lot of the drivers were waving their arms as if there was a problem on the grid so I took the car out of gear, and then the red lights came on. I lost some places because of that. Then I had no real problems except that everything was difficult because I had not been working on the setups for this car.

Andrea de Cesaris: I was unlucky because my engine cut out at the start, I think because of the electrical problem which I had had already in practice. So I lost all the places and was right at the back. I started to pull back the time I had lost and was coming back well but Badoer touched me when I was overtaking him and I damaged the track rod. By the time I got out of the pits it was too late. The car is starting to feel much better though, we are learning with each new setup and every lap. I feel confident now that we will come good with this car.

Benetton

Michael Schumacher: Another consistent performance. I was pushing really hard at the end on Alain who I thought might have had a problem after Damon had gone. But after I closed up to about four seconds, he was able to push a little bit harder. The performance from the car was really great again and I am quite happy. We had both drivers in the first three and I have to say that is a very good result for the Camel Benetton Ford team.

Riccardo Patrese: I am very pleased. It is the first race this year that I have enjoyed very much. The car went very well and it was very busy in the last part of the race after the Safety Car had been introduced because we were lapping cars. The team had a little bit of patience in the first part of the season when things did not come right for me. So I hope now it is a new start for the second half. I feel happy with today's result.

McLaren

Michael Andretti: I started fast and was overtaking cars on the outside, when two of them, I think a Ferrari and a Ligier, drifted to the outside and I went on to the marbles, the dirty part of the track, and just spun off.

Ayrton Senna: The computer told us we had fuel, when in reality we were running out. But apart from that we've had stability problems all weekend. To get over them, we raced with a lot of wing, but of course this slowed us down on the straights. That's why Schumacher's Benetton could run away from me the way it did.

Footwork

Lotus

Alessandro Zanardi: It has been a very bad weekend for me! We have worked very hard and have made a lot of the progress with the balance of the car, but sadly no result for me. Today I used the spare chassis because of my accident yesterday, and it wasn't quite as well balanced as my race car. I was fighting with Alesi, Fittipaldi and Barrichello, when I had a big spin as I went into Bridge corner I don't know why I went off, but I was fortunate that I didn't hit the wall. It is very fast there! The car's suspension has a set of safety springs which prevent it dropping directly on to its undertray in the event of failure of the main system. It dropped on to these springs so we think we may have had a problem with the active ride. When I came to a halt the failure warning light on the dashboard had come on.

Johnny Herbert: I just couldn't quite do it! I was really pushing, but I couldn't quite get close enough to Riccardo when it mattered. I passed him in traffic on lap 42, but then we came up to lap Alliot and he just kept blocking me as he was fighting with Alesi and co. Everywhere I went, he blocked. One time at Club I had to have a big lift, otherwise I'd have hit him, and that lost me ground. Thanks to that, Riccardo managed to get back by me on the exit to Bridge on lap 46. My car was better than his through the Esses and Bridge, but he just had more speed than I did on the straight, so he could do enough to stay in front. On one lap near the end I thought I'd caught him and Martin going through Woodcote. I think Martin was having gearbox trouble and as he slowed momentarily Riccardo had to lift. As he tried to go round the outside of Martin I dived for the inside, but again I had to lift off. I think when Ricardo pulled back over he just missed my nose by an inch! It was a good race for us, though, and I'm very happy that we are back in the points.

Jordan

Rubens Barrichello: That was one of the hardest races of my life! I was flat out from the beginning and I seemed to spend most of the race trying to get past Christian. Over a lap I was much quicker, but he was faster on the straights and it was impossible to get past him. If it wasn't Christian it was Alesi's rear wing I was trying to drive round. We were all trying really hard, particularly at the end; it was like qualifying laps all the time. It was a good battle though and it was fantastic for learning.

Thierry Boutsen: I felt on the warm-up lap that there was something strange with the car; it was weaving as I went down the straight. The mechanics checked it over on the grid but the could not find anything wrong so I started the race as it was. I found out what the problems was when the wheel bearing failed!

Larrousse

Lola

Minardi

Ligier

Martin Brundle: I lost my gears 10 laps before the end of the race, and was obliged to stop when it I had no more gears at all. I am really disappointed because I was quicker than Patrese and Herbert before the problem happened.

Mark Blundell: I have lost one minute with the Safety Car because I was just lapped by the leaders. Then I spun and that cost me the 6th place when I was pushing hard to catch Derek, and because of my dammaged tyres it was impossible to get any chance in the last laps to fight for the point!

Ferrari

Sauber

Karl Wendlinger: I made a very good start and immediately gained five positions. I then found a comfortable pace, but in the lap before I wanted to change tyres, I spun at Stowe. When I was braking into the corner, the rear was a little loose and at the moment when fourth gear engaged I lost control of my car and crashed into the barrier. It was quite a big shunt and I am happy to be okay. The balance of the car was basically fairly good, it's a shame I didn't finish the race.

JJ Lehto: I'm happy with my performance although it wasn't good enough to score some more championship points. The start of the race was really confusing, because Comas waved his hands and I thought they would not let us go, but suddenly there was the red light and I had to hurry to prepare for the green light. In the early stages of the race the car was not easy to drive, but the less petrol I had, the more the handling improved. Towards the end the balance was very good and it was a pleasure to drive the car. Unfortunately I missed scoring points by only a few seconds.