"A racing driver has to be a good driver"
About this Quote
The specific intent reads as corrective. Coming from a two-time Formula One champion who raced in an era when safety was thinner and talent was less mediated by data, it functions as a boundary marker: no amount of hype, money, or narrative substitutes for craft. There's also subtext aimed at gatekeeping and credibility. Motorsport has always wrestled with pay drivers, celebrity crossovers, and the temptation to treat speed as a personality trait. Fittipaldi's sentence politely refuses that romance. It's not "drivers are heroes"; it's "do the job."
Context matters: Fittipaldi's career spanned the moment when F1 professionalized into a corporate spectacle. As the sport became more about brands and global TV, the human element risked turning into content. His deadpan line resists that shift. It's a reminder that, beneath the champagne and the sponsorship logos, the only story that consistently survives the stopwatch is competence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fittipaldi, Emerson. (2026, January 17). A racing driver has to be a good driver. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-racing-driver-has-to-be-a-good-driver-68164/
Chicago Style
Fittipaldi, Emerson. "A racing driver has to be a good driver." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-racing-driver-has-to-be-a-good-driver-68164/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A racing driver has to be a good driver." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-racing-driver-has-to-be-a-good-driver-68164/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.






