Tony Kanaan on what he learned from Ayrton Senna

Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan has participated in several championships over the years, but his most important successes came in IndyCar: in 2004 he became champion of this series and in 2013 he won the Indy 500.

He is currently working with the Arrow McLaren team, so he and other McLaren Racing drivers are taking part in the Velocity Invitational, which takes place this weekend in California.

Probably not everyone knows that Ayrton Senna once played an important role in his life and career and that Tony was given a unique opportunity to get behind the wheel of his McLaren MP4/6 with a Honda V12 engine from 1991. Senna won seven that year races this car, and today Kanaan drives it in exhibition races at Sonoma Raceway.

“I can’t even believe this is actually happening,” an emotional Kanaan told Racer. “I never thought I would get this opportunity.” Over the course of my career, I’ve been very lucky for many reasons, including the people I happened to befriend.

I don’t want to take anything away from my performance, but maybe I would liken this moment to winning the Indy 500. And honestly, it’s not just about the car itself. I just understand who drove it and won seven races, and I simply don’t have the words to describe what I feel right now. And I’m still holding up well, but I don’t even know what will happen to me when I take this car onto the track.

Everyone knows who Ayrton Senna was. But you have to understand how many people in Brazil today are waiting for this moment: my mother, my family, my friends, my fans. This is just incredible! And I thank a lot of people who made this possible: Zac Brown and McLaren in general.”

Of course, Tony Kanaan’s special relationship with the historic McLaren car, which was built more than thirty years ago, is mainly due to the fact that he and Senna had a friendship, despite the age difference. This is how Tony put it:

“Ayrton Senna was my idol, but at the end of 1991 I beat him in a kart race in Brazil. That’s how our friendship started, and then he said, “If you need help in your career, let me know.” And then it happened like this: in 1993 I took part in Formula Vauxhall/Lotus in Europe, but the sponsorship money was only enough for five races.

I drove the last of these in Hockenheim, but they were support races, which took place on the same weekend as the Formula 1 races. Ayrton knew this and invited me to the McLaren camper. We spoke on Saturday afternoon and an hour later he came to the pits of the team I was driving for. There he found the owner, introduced himself and said to him: “If I were you, I would sign a full contract with this man, because as a racer he is better than me!”

And I got a job before the end of the year. This was in 1993, but unfortunately we lost Ayrton Senna in May 1994, so our relationship didn’t last long. But I was able to learn a lot from him, and he was also friends with Rubens Barrichello, who was already active in Formula 1. And then I was also considered a promising man.

I was recently asked if I could imagine what my career would have been like if Senna had lived? I don’t know, but even though he was only my mentor for a short time, it was incredibly cool. And a few days later they asked me what was the most important thing I learned from Ayrton?

Maybe what I’m saying sounds pretty harsh: to achieve anything like what he achieved – although I don’t think that’s possible – you need that obsession, that incredible desire for victory, that was characteristic of Senna.

We all love our sport and have dedicated our whole lives to it. But for him, racing always came first, no matter what. I think this is exactly what I took to heart, and I also tried to follow it…”