Hi! I'm Rodrigo França, this is Senna TV,
and today we'll be talking about the World Go Kart Championship.
Hello, friends of Senna TV. We're back with another interesting chat
about Ayrton Senna's career. and today we'll be talking
about a really cool specific chapter:
the World Go Kart Championship. And to talk about that
I have Gastão Fráguas with me.
What's up, Gastão? Thanks for being on Senna TV,
Gastão is nothing less than the 1995 go kart world champion.
A title that Ayrton tried to get so many times
and that you ended up winning in '95.
Could you talk about it for the Ayrton Senna fans?
We know it's an incredible achievement, that Senna really wanted to accomplish.
Of course, Ayrton had a fenomenal career in F1, with three world titles,
41 wins and so on. He became an idol.
But what is it like in go kart racing? The whole year is decided in a single contest, right?
That's it. First of all, thanks for the opportunity. It's an honor being here.
And yes, the World Go Kart Championship is a unique contest.
And I was fortunate enough to become champion.
And since we're talking about it, I'd like to say that before I went to Europe
and started racing go karts, I followed Senn's career as a go kart driver,
and people in Europe were always telling stories about Senna's go kart days abroad.
He was twice a runner up in the World Championship.
But, despite not winning, he was still considered the best.
That's so cool.
On one hand, sure, we have the final result: someone takes the title.
But some drivers stand out
to Formula One teams... They are already scouting, right?
For sure. Here's the thing:
it's harder for us, Brazilians.
Because the Mecca of professional go kart racing is Europe.
So, when we leave to Europe, everything is different - or almost everything.
So, it's harder.
While they're familiar with the procedures and the equipment since they were kids.
When we go from here to there, we have to learn a lot. So, it's harder.
It's like you said.
Yeah, Senna didn't win.
But people already saw something very unique in him.
And that makes all the difference.
Also, at the time he competed in the World Go Kart Championship,
and we've talked about it with the guys from Acelerados,
because Gerson Campos interviewed Terry Fullerton, Ayrton's big rival in his go kart days,
and Fullerton mentioned he was already a professional, he made a living that way,
while Ayrton was just a kid. "He was a boy", he said.
And that was the difference, Gastão.
When Ayrton got there, there were already people who made a living racing go karts.
That's what I'm talking about.
Ayrton was up against guys who were professionals, who had been doing that for years.
And Ayrton, even as a rookie, didn't take long to show what he was made of.
And speaking of Terry Fullerton,
after becoming champion, I had the chance to race in Terry's team.
-That's great. -I did...
Three or four races, I think, in Terry's team.
It was a great time. The stories, the behind the scenes stuff...
-So, it was great. -What stories did he tell?
Because they had a lot of respect for each other.
For sure. Terry...
He told a lot of cool stories about that time. And that's the main thing.
Terry was already a veteran, he made a living that way.
When a Brazilian kid started going faster than everybody else, he was like,
"Wait. Who's that boy?"
And they used the same equipment, right? DAP was a factory team, one of the favorites.
It couldn't have been easy for someone who was already established as the team's star.
The same thing happened when Ayrton joined McLaren. Prost was the "king" of McLaren
and had to deal with the newcomer. That's kind of what happened, right?
Exactly. And Terry actualy said that
he could see that in Senna from the beginning. He always wanted to win.
And he saw that Senna really was different.
Because when it came to competing,
they weren't friends as far as Senna was concerned. His sole focus was the competition.
Terry told us he went, "Come on, I've been here for a while.
I'm the boss here. And he wants to invade my space?"
Well, we're talking about Ayrton Senna.
We know the full story in retrospect.
But, at the time, he was just a kid from Brazil.
Even though he had won everything in Brazil, both the state and the national titles.
But things were different in Europe.
There was no Internet, they couldn't watch his races.
-He arrived as just another driver, there. -Sure, nobody knew who Ayrton was.
They knew he had a good record in Brazil.
But who knows what's gonna happen when someone moves from Brazil to Europe?
And he showed right away that he was an outstanding driver.
And just so you guys know:
I, at least, used to think the World Go Kart Championship was like the World Cup.
That it was a full month of racing, with several stages.
But it's nothing like that. It's full speed ahead.
It's basically just one weekend.
You practice a little, in the track, during the week,
Then you have the preliminary rounds, the final, and whoever wins is world champion.
There's no margin for error, right?
Yes. The world championship had, in the last few years, some...
-Rule changes. -Yes, rule changes.
It was like that in my time, and it`s changed a little, recently,
but the vast majority of tournaments takes place over the course of one week.
At the time I was champion, there were 130 drivers,
from all over the world, but only 34 made it to the final.
So, there was a time trial,
then we had the qualifying heats,
the pre-final round and the final.
All of that in a single week.
So, we had to have everything in order to be able to fight for the title.
Just the best in the world. Who were your contemporaries, for instance?
I think the most famous one, who had a lot of success later on, was Jenson Button.
Jenson Button, an F1 World Champion.
When I was champion, he was the runner up.
He was also starting out.
He was young, he was second in the world,
and you could tell he had a bright future ahead of him.
And you, besides dueling with Button, and beating him at the World Championship,
had the privilege of racing, not in a competition, of course,
but in a friendly match, so to speak, with Ayrton Senna.
-But there were no friendly matches with Senna, right? -No!
Even if it was just for fun, he raced to win.
Yeah, that was part of Ayrton.
Whatever he did, he was in it to win, whether or not it was just for fun.
That was something that I'll never forget.
It was in '93. Ayrton was in São Paulo,
and he called Maurão, who had been Senna's mechanic back when he raced here.
The great Maurão.
He said, "Maurão, can you bring over a few drivers on the weekend to play around?
Maurão was like, '"Sure, I'll bring my drivers." And that's what happened.
I had the chance to spend a full day on Senna's track.
On the go kart track he had built.
And we spent the whole day there, driving around.
But what is it like? Someone calls you up and says, "Hey, do you want to race with Ayrton Senna?"
What kind of invitation is that, Gastão?
Yeah, I was really amazed at that invitation.
I though I was on a hidden camera show.
What was it like when you got there? You saw that famous helmet, this one,
the helmet everyone knows.
What was it like to share the same track?
It was an amazing experience, because I had just start driving go karts.
I had just one year of experience.
So, it was an amazing experience, for me.
What stood out to me was the fact that Senna already was a three-time world champion,
and karting was just a hobby for him, something he did for fun.
But as soon as he put on the helmet and started driving,
you could tell he was not of this world.
We were all really young, and we practiced everyday.
And he didn't.
It was something he did sporadically.
But he was just as fast as us.
And you didn't go easy on him, right?
-Who doesn't want to beat Ayrton Senna? -Of course!
We had a lot of respect for him, but we wanted to show our talent.
It was an amazing experience.
It's also a story that shows how Ayrton was, his personality.
He wasn`t even wearing a racing suit.
Just a sweater.
He put on the helmet and didn't even wear gloves.
He was like, "Let's go!" He fueled his go kart and drove away without gloves.
After a few laps, we stopped.
I saw he wasn't wearing gloves and I had an extra pair.
So, I said: "Ayrton, do you want these?"
He said: "Thanks!" Then he put on the gloves and drove away.
He didn't care about what he was wearing. He just wanted to drive.
He made all the adjustments, he fueled the kart, he inflated the tires.
You could tell he was unique.
And it was a lesson for us. It was really important to see that
despite being a three-time world champion, despite being so famous and successful,
he still did all that.
I think that was the best lesson we could have learned.
And, two years later, you became world go kart champion.
So, we can say Ayrton had a little hand in your title, right?
Absolutely. As I said, it was an amazing experience for me.
And two years later I won the world title.
So, it was very moving for me.
At the time, I even dedicated my title to Senna,
because that was a title he really wanted.
He even mentioned that, back at his track.
"The one thing missing in my career was a go kart world title".
So, it was a great honor, for me, to win that title.
It's great that Ayrton has left such a legacy for your generation of go kart drivers,
and you won the world title.
And today, since you've taken more of a role as a manager,
can you say there are more kids following the same path
and getting ready to represent Brazil in the world go kart championship
and later, maybe, in Formula One?
Absolutely. In my career, I made it to Formula Three.
Then, for several reasons. I ended up retiring.
And I realized that what I lacked, in my career, was more of a professional management.
So, when I stopped racing, I started a managing company for drivers,
so I could help drivers in developing their careers.
Throughout the years, I've worked with several drivers.
Now, I'm working with Caio Collet,
who is one the most promising young Brazilian talents.
He's been having a brilliant career.
Last year, he finished the world championship in third place,
which was the best showing by a Brazilian driver in almost two decades
So, here's what we're going to do, since we don't have time to waste:
let's talk to Caio Collet right now, through the power of YouTube magic.
But before we do that, thanks for talking to us, Gastão.
-Let's see if Caio can talk to us. -Yeah, let's do this magic.
-Thanks! -Thanks!
Wow, the kid really is fast! How did you get here so fast, dude?
I think there was a little camera trick or something.
But let's not talk about it. That's how we do it on YouTube.
We have Caio Collet with us. Obviously, he was waiting backstage to talk to us.
First of all, Caio, we were talking about your third place in the World Go Kart Championship.
That was an amazing result.
Brazil hadn't had such a good result in a while.
And you were up against drivers from all over the world, right?
First of all, thanks for having me here.
The week of the championship was really intense.
I had an issue with my back, in the previous week.
But we worked a lot in the week of the championship, and all of our effort throughout the year paid off.
Dude, I'm old enough to have back problems, but not you. How old are you, anyway?
I'm 14.
-But that's because you train so hard, right? -Yeah, one week before
the track was really bad, there was a lot of rubber.
So I hit a kerb and fell down.
That caused a lesion, but thank God it didn't affect my actual driving.
And tracks in Europe are very different from the ones in Brazil, right?
I've heard this rubber issue is very different.
Yes, In Europe, tires are different.
The number of drivers is also way bigger.
They use another type of pavement.
So, things end up really different.
And what's really cool is that even though you are 14,
your role model is Ayrton Senna.
Who introduced you - your dad, probably - to Ayrton's races?
How did you come in contact with Ayrton's universe?
Everything started with my dad.
When I started out, I was a little aware of his story.
But my dad was the one who told me most of it,
and everything that happened to him.
I bet that watching the videos it's hard to believe someone was able to pull off those amazing feats.
What is it like for you, as a driver?
Unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness it.
But, from the videos I saw, I can tell he was different from the others.
And what inspires you the most, Caio?
We know Senna was the king of the rain.
He was incredibly fast. When he had the pole position, he was almost unbeatable.
What are some of his characteristics that you try to bring to your own career?
He's a role model in almost every aspect, for young drivers like us.
But his personality is really inspiring.
That's a really awesome point.
Which part of his personality, though?
People talk about the fact that Prost took him out in '89, and he returned the favor in '90.
We know that crashing is not the best way to decide a world title.
But many people praise him for having his payback on the track.
Is that how you think?
No, that was an "an eye for an eye" situation,
But I'm talking about the way he treated people, his demeanor.
-So, Caio Collet, good luck again. -Thanks.
Another driver inspired by Ayrton Senna
and who maybe will bring a lot of joy to Brazil. Good luck, Caio.
Thanks, see you guys.
That was a very cool chat about the world go kart championship.
So, like the video, share it with your friends and subscribe to Senna TV.
You can also watch the other videos that you can see on the screen right now.
And check out the Ayrton Senna merchandise at the Ayrton Senna Shop, okay?
Thanks, see you guys!
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