"Fears of a Clown"

Johnny was interviewed for an article which appears in the September 1996 issue of the UK monthly magazine, Motor Sport. By kind permission of the Editor, Simon Arron, quotes by Johnny and others from that article, which appeared under the above title, are reproduced below.

Johnny on Benetton and driving fast....

"Benetton was hard, and it certainly damaged my career. But it hasn’t made me think, ‘Right, now I’m going to go out there and prove you all wrong,’ because you can’t do that. You’ve got to perform to your best the whole time. Nigel [Mansell] always had this thing about driving at Silverstone because his home crowd gave him a second per lap. It just doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to be at 110 per cent at every race, wherever it is."

Peter Collins on Johnny’s first outing in an F1 car after his big F3000 accident in 1988....

"It was Silverstone, in winter, and pouring with rain. Sandro [Nannini] set a time, Johnny did an installation lap, then three more laps - all of which were slow - before coming back in. The car was pushed into the garage and he just stayed there, slumped in the cockpit.

I leaned in and asked, ‘What’s the matter?’

‘I don’t think I can do it,’ he told me, really subdued.

I asked him if he would give it another go, and he agreed. He did three quick laps, bang, bang, bang, came in, and said, ‘Got ya!’"

Johnny on F3000 and the effect of that accident on his career....

"I remember when I was doing F3000 it just didn’t matter what I did. Everything was such a flow. It was just all going in the right direction. I think if the accident hadn’t happened, I would be a better driver now. I was on a high and everything was going so well. When you’re on a roll, your confidence just grows.

"But I effectively lost three years before I really got back into it. Even when I felt okay, I know it was in the back of people’s minds. When I was at Lotus and out-qualifying Mika [Häkkinen], who was the golden start of ‘91, I still didn’t get the recognition. There was still this thing about, ‘Is he over his accident?’"

David Kennedy, who put together the Mazdaspeed driver team which won Le Mans in 1991, on Johnny’s fitness for the 24 hour race....

"Mr Ohashi was asking me, ‘Are you sure he’s okay?’ and I was saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, of course’ but if you saw him in the morning - when it took Johnny half an hour to get out of bed, and another half-hour before he could walk - you would have thought I was crazy. But whenever he was in the car, in the tests or for the race, he flew. And he was easiest of the three drivers on the car. He played his part."

After the race, Kennedy recalls: "By then his eyes were sunk right back in his head, and he looked as if a feather would knock him over. At Le Mans, mental and physical fatigue are your biggest enemies. I asked the girls in the team to take Johnny away from the pits whenever he was out of the car, just to get his mind off things. He just thought he was really popular!"

Johnny on his return to an F1 cockpit - no regrets....

"If I hadn’t come back, hadn’t finished fourth in Rio, I would never had got back into Formula One at all. If I had said, ‘I will give it a year or two, to get fully fit,’ who would have taken me? Everyone would have said, ‘Well, he’s had a shunt, and he hasn’t been in Formula One...’ I used to lay there at night and think to myself that one day the pain would go away, but all the time I continued to race and test, it actually just got worse. To get sacked [the first time by Benetton] was upsetting, but now I realise that coming back saved me. As did Peter Collins. Without PC and Lotus I wouldn’t be here now."

Johnny on his second stint at Benetton....

"It was the sort of risk you just have to take. A lot of people criticise me for saying what I did last year, and complaining that I had no support from the team, but if I hadn’t said that I would just have been attacked anyway. People would just have written me off as slow. Formula One is very fickle."

Peter Sauber on hiring Johnny....

"I was slightly worried by the things Johnny had said at Benetton, especially because he was coming from a team with one very fast German, Michael Schumacher, to a team with another. I thought Heinz-Harald might be too much for Johnny. But it hasn’t worked out that way."

Johnny on the recognition his is now receiving for his speed whilst battling further down the grid with team-mate Frentzen....

"I told you F1 was fickle! I’ve driven better this year than last, by a long margin. I don’t have to be leading a race to know that I’m driving well."

Johnny on his exasperation at being seen as a cheerful pitlane clown who doesn’t take F1 seriously enough....

"After Mika left Lotus, I tried to get more serious. I’ve always known that if something is missing from your feedback, you lose a couple of tenths immediately. I give my all in briefings. Where I do my laughing and joking away from that it’s almost seen as if I’m not committed enough. It’s my way of getting rid of the pressure. That’s how I cope with it - outwardly. With Damon, for instance, I wouldn’t even go near him when he’s under pressure!"

Johnny on his motivation - does he still want to be World Champion?

"People seem to think I don’t want it bad enough, which is a misconception because being champion is something that I’ve always dreamt of, and want to achieve. I think I’ve got a lot more to prove. If you are content, you’re not going to give everything ; you shouldn’t be in a car any more.

"I’m still in this to win races, and to win a championship. It’s going to be hard to achieve, because I got harmed last year, but I’ve got to somehow try to turn it around. Whether I ever will or not, I don’t know, but I will give everything I’ve got until the time comes when there is no chance left."

The above is reproduced by kind permission of Motor Sport magazine.
This article may not reproduced, in whole or in part, without permission.
© Motor Sport magazine. All rights reserved.
This page prepared 29th August 1996.