Driving Senna's first Formula 1 car

Having a show like this for the fans is really nice. Actually, when I first landed in the UK I saw everything was white with snow and I wasn't sure we would even be able to drive. In Brazil the weather is sometimes nice enough to go to the beach at this time of year, so it was quite a shock... I also didn't know the style of this event, so had no idea we would be driving indoors!

The event looks really good - so many different cars, different categories, and different drivers. I think it's really nice for the people to be able to mix with all these examples from different forms of racing.

When I sat in the FW08C for the first time, it gave me a really special feeling. Driving something that is part of the history of Ayrton Senna is special for any Brazilian driver, and for sure I was thinking of Ayrton when I was driving the car. I was thinking about him, even though the car was actually Keke Rosberg's car. I was not thinking about Keke at all!

I was actually with Bruno Senna the day before I came to Birmingham, and he told me a story I didn't know so much. Bruno told me when Ayrton drove this car, which was his first test in F1, that Ayrton destroyed all the other guys who were testing on the same day - including Keke!

He was a lot quicker, maybe a second or something like that. That shows just how special he really was. I'm told Frank still thinks it was his biggest mistake not to sign Ayrton up that day...

Senna's first F1 test was in an FW08C at Donington Park in July 1983... © LAT

Actually, my first memory of Ayrton is pretty bad. When I was maybe eight or nine years old, I was having dinner in a yacht club in Brazil. It was a very quiet evening with not many people around. This boat arrived and Senna jumped from the boat with a girl. I went up to him to ask for an autograph but he wouldn't give me one.

It was really frustrating for me! I was always supporting him when I was a child, and I cried so much when he died. Not getting his autograph was really one of the worst days of my life when I was young.

Of course I never knew at the time that I was going to become a Formula 1 driver myself, but actually I learned massively from what happened, because now, whenever kids come up to me and ask for an autograph, I remember how I felt that day and I make sure I give them my time.

I can't remember ever doing something like this show before, but it was really nice. The track was small, but it was good for the show. The only thing I would say is that maybe the show was too short. I only did about four laps. But it was nice to entertain the crowds.

I thought about maybe doing some doughnuts, but the car is very old and I didn't want to break it. It's not so easy to make the parts now, and Dickie Stanford [general manager of Williams Heritage] wouldn't have been very impressed if I damaged it. So I just tried to enjoy driving - sliding and pushing on the throttle, but no crazy stuff...

... two decades later, it was Massa's turn, after some pointers from Nick Yelloly © LAT

I was looking at the steering wheel while I sat in the car and I was thinking how nice it was to have such a completely different wheel to the one we usually have. Not even one button on the steering wheel, which was so nice to see! The H-pattern gearbox, three pedals, nobody talking to you when you're driving. It was so nice!

It took me back to when I was in Formula 3000, which maybe had a similar level of cars to this. When I drove Formula 3000, the engine and tyres we had were not so far away compared to this car. Maybe the F1 engine was a little bit more powerful, but not so much different.

I won the championship in Euro F3000 and have really fond memories of those times. I cannot really compare that to how Formula 1 is now, but the only thing I really miss from those times is how relaxed I was able to be.

You cannot relax in Formula 1, because you have so many things to do, so many things to follow, so much politics around you, and sometimes you cannot be yourself. Pressure you always have, but it was a different world. The environment was so much more fun to be in.

The relative simplicity of the FW08C reminded Massa of his Formula 3000 days © LAT

Driving this historic Williams was amazing. It was really good fun. It was easier than I expected, because everything is related to the mechanical grip. I thought I would need to understand how the car is and maybe it would not be so easy, because the car is completely different to my usual Williams. But actually it just goes sideways in the corners, and it's pretty easy to control.

The acceleration was nice, because the Ford DFV is the right engine for the amount of grip you have. You don't have the same levels of aerodynamic grip, so you have a lot less grip than I'm used to, but you feel the engine in a nice way, because there's no turbo.

It was not a 'proper' track - it was like an oval - but you could feel the car a little bit in the tight corners. It was nice, but not very fast. I was in first gear the whole time. But that first gear was pretty long, so it was OK. The track was really tight, so I didn't need second gear.

I was going sideways in the corners and early on the throttle to kick out the back. There was a bit too much understeer, because the grip level was pretty low. Plus I was using rain tyres - they didn't want me on slicks!

It was good fun, and I got a really good reaction from the fans. They were really happy, really screaming and enjoying the time. It would have been good to have cars from other Formula 1 teams there too, but anyway it was really nice to be a part of the show.