“When I drove for British teams… they called me The Tadpole because I was too small to be a frog.”

I’m brave to say that I won’t take this sort of risk.

I don’t like to go over curbs, because I don’t want to be hard on the car.

A German team could be quite good. But maybe they are a little bit too convinced that they are the best.

So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport its the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

When I test I never go right to the limit. Only because when you are below the limit you can go at the same speed all day, and that’s the only way you can be absolutely sure about what you are testing.

Do you know, why I really love my helmet that much? Because it makes me 15 centimetres taller!

So I know at the beginning of the race, from all that I have analysed during the practice, whether I will win the race or not.

Sometimes it also helps you to understand the mentality of the people in the team a bit better.

I like the mentality of the Americans. It’s like when you talk about money.

I have always had this mentality because I hated to break anything on the car.

I think maybe the English don’t want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.

That is an important part of my success. Another big part of my success is that I hated not to finish a race.

I always work the same way, starting from the beginning of the weekend.

Maybe I am not French, maybe I am from nowhere.

In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place.

In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place. I pushed like mad, yet everyone was gathered around the winner and they were thinking that I was just trundling around. But that’s motor racing.

People who never drove a car in these conditions, they just don’t know.

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that’s not me.