Nothing to see here.
There were rumors at one point Senna was gay also. Labeling people is so boring; much better to race F1 cars. I could see how being gay in F1 (or any pro sport) in the 80s or 90s would be brutal though in terms of harassment and what you would hear on a regular basis.
Aside from the tiring discussion as to who is or who isn't gay, another consideration is how gay drivers will be perceived/received in countries/venues where they haven't rid the population of bigots; like here in the USA.
I remember the Piquet alluded that Senna was gay... I think that was more just to knock him off his game... Senna was intensely religious so I would think coming from a conservative Catholic background like he did - that allegation probably irked him to no end. I agree - who really cares. BTW I've saw Senna many times over a grand Prix weekend.. and he usually had several Exotic and beautiful girls with him... and I don't think they were discussing clothes.... if you get my drift! once in Detroit - it was a Wednesday Night before Practice ... they would allow some running on Thursday AM, in and out of the pits... I saw Senna walking through a small crowd of people with these two amazing girls - one on each arm... nobody knew who he was - he was still with Lotus so this had to be 87. I stood in shock, said hi... he winked at me, and kept walking on. then the next day I was down in the pits - and saw him, and said looks like you had a great evening... he smiled, winked and said to me "thank you for not making a scene".... and gave me a signed press release " to Tom a good guy- Ayrton Senna" I have it hanging in my garage ( framed ) ... cool memory.
+1 Seems to me most of these guys are pretty cool as long as they're not 'hassled' too much. In fairness, like most high profile sports folks - Most recognize why they make the big bucks & least make a token effort for the fans. Cheers, Ian
Great story! The same race where Ayrton dropped the F-bomb on the live ABC broadcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g0xP-Yss5w
+1 I think that goes for most famous people/sports persons. I think being recognized constantly will get old *really* quickly, and to have a normal person either nod in acknowledgement or whatever must be a much better feeling than the average ''meet'' of screaming fans and asking for autographs that'll go on ebay 5 minutes later.
I remember that!!! that was 86... JPS lotus - 87 was Yellow camel colors. that was so shocking back in the day - I remember seeing the tape of that ... I was talking to Bob Varsha about it and he could not remember it... I'll send him the link.
The Piquet incident happened because he wanted to mess with Senna's mind. Senna sued and Piquet had to issue an apology. I will try to get my the article from my old magazines, but I remember hearing about the incident on ESPN at the time.
Yep - that was about the time when Piquet had the bad crash at imola... perhaps that hit on his head make him start saying crazy stuff... he also called Mansell's wife ugly.. and a few other choice comments about the mustache... I only ever met Piquet once at Monza... he was actually very nice to me, "where you from etc..." he was with Lotus at the time and seemed bored to death. he was more interested in the Camel hospitality girls than anything.
I have no idea, and don't care honestly...but Piquet claims that he didn't start the rumors. Doesn't mean he didn't start the rumors ; ) That's an awesome story and to have a framed item to remind you of it is tremendous. Thanks for sharing it.
LOL...but that is over the line commenting on someone's wife. He called Prost ugly also. But a man can at least defend himself against the insults and... KARATE KICKS: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPOXvyOUA6Y[/ame]
That's assuming that there was/is only one. There could easily be several (and as pointed out by everyone, it doesn't make a bit of difference to the sport of F1). The hilarious spoof movie about NASCAR, Talledega Nights, had fun implying that all F1 drivers were gay. Ironic that Piquet would think that accusation to be insulting enough to disturb another driver... Then his son ended up being subject to the same accusations and rumours when he was in F1.
