1 (2013) - full transcript
Set in the golden era of Grand Prix Racing '1' tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives during Formula 1's deadliest period, and the men who stood up and changed the sport forever.
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JJ”
[spectators cheering]
[engine roaring]
[heart beaf/ng]
[heartbeaf slo ws]
[engines roaring]
[low, sfeady heartbeaf]
[sirens approaching]
(Martin Brund/e) E verybody
thought / was dead.
I didn't have a bru/se
on my body.
I didn 'f have anything at all.
I looked up,
and I saw a red flag.
That's /uckyu
fhey've stopped the race.
Back then, we had
the restarts, and...
also we had spare cars,
so your mind goes,
"Get in the spare car. ".
And new ear plugs!
(man) Yes, okay.
And new gl... and new gloves!
(Brund/e) And so,
you can 'f start
until you've seen
Professor Wafkins.
"Where's Sid? Anybody
kno w where Sid is?"
I ran towards him like crazy.
I got there, and he said,
"I can see you're okay.
I've just wafched you run
300 meters. What's the date?"
I said, "It's the 10th
of March. ".
He said, "Then you're
fine. Get in the car. "
(Brund/e) There is
no doubt about if.
A few years before, I would
have been a dead man.
(Brund/e) We want to see
something except/anal,
breathtaking, that we
think we can't do.
We want to see
g/adiafors, Warriors.
And /ez”s face if, we do
like to see a bit of a show.
But we don't
want to see deafhs.
(ma/e reporter)
Miracle of miracles!
This is well
nigh unbe/ie vab/e!
Martin Brund/e
gets out of the car,
and he's seemingly a/I right.
(Brund/e) If is incredible
how this changed,
and suddenly if
became unaccepfable
to die in the name of sport.
JJ”
(narrator) Grand Prix is like
the Olympics of motor sports,
with the cars in
a/I national colors,
blue for the French,
green for the British,
red for Ita/y,
and white for the Germans,
until Mercedes stopped using
pain! On those silver arro ws.
(ma/e reporter)
Michael Schumacher wins
and becomes the most successful
Grand Prix driver of a/I lime!
(ma/e reporter) The silver cars that
are the pride of Hit/er Germany.
(man) Alfa Romeo wins, driven
by the fabulous Nouva/ari.
(ma/e reporter) What a
feeling for Fernando Alonso!
He wins the Italian
Grand Prix af Monza.
(man) As the French announce their
search for the fastesz' man
in a new world championship
series to be entitled Formula 1,
with the inaugural race
to be held at Silverstone.
Enzo Ferrari for one
is no! Impressed
with the new wave
of British motor racers.
Ll Commendatore has labeled
the new independent designers
"garagistes", the men
who cannot build engines.
Fangio is beaten
in Buenos Aires
by former feammafe and
fastesz' rival, Stirling Moss,
in a Cooper funny car, no less.
What Courage by these men,
to push these cars
and themselves
to their very lim/fs!
But that is Formula 1.
(ma/e narrafor) Formula 1
was born in a bygone time
when boys' heroes
reigned in the sky.
(Nigel Manse/I) When you're young,
you wanted to be a Formula 1 driver.
You wanted to be an asfronaut,
you wanted to be
a fighter pilot.
(Damon Hill)
After the Second World War,
the mindsef of going off
and doing something
courageous in a vehicle,
this just naturally flo wed
into what became Formula 1.
(Martin Brund/e) when you see
photographs and film of that era,
the seriousness of them
is awe inspiring.
I grew up in that world.
My dad was world champion '62,
and I was two.
They a/I had this
genuineness about them.
They all were the real article.
(John Watson) / certainly had respect
to those that went before me.
Some of them
were my confemporaries.
I me! One time
probably, in my vie w,
the greatest
Grand Prix driver ever,
and that includes people like Michael
Schumacher and A yrton Senna.
Fangio. Fangio.
Fangio. Fangio.
Fangio.
Juan Manuel Fangio.
(narrator) The first big
name in Formula One
may ha ve been
the best driver ever.
Fangio would win
five world iii/es,
a record that sfood
for 40 years,
surpassed only
by Michael Schumacher.
(Schumacher) Whene ver
you drive those cars
that Fangio had to race in,
it's very sca ry.
(Fiffipa/di) You have to hold
yourself on the steering whee/.
No safety belts.
The helmet was
just like a hat...
gogg/es... and you
had to be bra ve.
(narrator) The most celebrated
driver in a dangerous time...
survi ved.
The year Fangio ref/red,
1958, the Formula changed.
The sporfs governing body
announced from Paris
that Formula One would crown two
world champions each season.
One title for
the fastesz' driver,
and another for the manufacturer
of the fastesz' machine.
(Mario Andreffi) This was
the evolution, you know?
Each team has to fake engines,
take chassis and technology
to the absolute limit.
(narrator) /n this
ne w competition,
The British began to challenge the
Old World continental po wers.
(John Bernard) AI/ the English
feams were considered to be
the garagisies by Ferrari
and the other racing teams.
(narrator) One Englishman would se!
The pace of progress,
in racing and the entire
automat/ve world.
(Co/in Chapman) We basically
go racing 'cause I like if.
I like the compefifiveness
of if,
I like the comradeship of if.
And I also like the technical
fallout that comes from it.
(John Surfees) Colin Chapman
was a great character,
if at times a bit cavalier.
(chuckles) Oh, I don't
know about that.
(narrator) Colin Chapman was an
engineer who learned to fly,
an enfrepreneur who made /ighfweighf
sports cars for the public,
as well as for Grand Prix
under the name Lotus.
In those days, Lotus was
an ouf-and-out racing car.
(Clive Chapman) My father, he was
always push/ng the en ve/ope.
Good engineering means you've
designed something to its limit.
Colin was the ma verick
of a/I time.
He was a genius.
He was the team owner
that you want to drive for.
(narrator) By 1963,
Chapman had designed
the fastesz' machine
in Formula One.
And he had the fastesz' man
behind the whee/ of a Lotus.
(Sir Jackie Ste warf) Jim Clark
was the best racing driver
I ever raced against.
The whole exercise was to be
as good as you can get
on the limit.
And Jimmy drove in such a way
that he was ne ver
over the lim/f.
He was ne ver errafic.
He was ne ver specfacu/ar.
He was specfacu/ar/y fast, but
in an unspecfacu/ar fashion.
If was smooth and clean
and beautifully hand/ed.
(narrator) He would win more
Formula One championship races
than any driver before him,
finishing in second place
only once in his career.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl)
He was a country boy.
He was a farmer from
the borders of Scotland,
quiet and almost innocenf.
(Jim Clark) I'd like to get
back here much more often.
It's, uh, great re/axafion
to get back here,
And very much
the opposite from racing.
(narrator) Clark became
the face of Formula One,
with another champion,
Graham Hill,
playing his affable foil.
(Damon Hill) E veryone
was quite close.
Jim Clark
had been to our house,
and I knew Colin Chapman sort of
the same way as I knew my dad.
They sounded the same, and
they had the same mustache.
(Sa/ly Swart) Colin was
an extreme exfro vert,
great fun to be with,
but very different
in character to Jimmy, really.
Jimmy was quieter.
But they were like brothers.
(narrator) Together, they
were racing on the lim/f
of manmade speed and ingenuity.
They won four world
Championships between them,
and a record five
British Grand Prix.
But for a/I their success,
they failed to fake
the checkered flag
at the most famous
motor race of all.
(narrator) Fast cars and courageous
sou/s from a/I over the world
have been racing through
these Streets since 1929.
(Damon Hill)
Monaco is ferrifying.
You cannot be/ie ve
it's possible
to hold a motor race
round Monaco.
(Jody Scheckfer)
In the first few laps,
you stick your head up to
see where it went, 'cause
it's just guardrails
that you can't hardly see.
You're millimeters
away from barriers.
(Jensen Button) You either do a
/ap that you're so proud of,
you're always wondering if you
could ever go through that again,
or you end up in the wall.
(Lewis Hamilton)
The danger aspect to this
is one of the parts that
drives us racing drivers.
It's something we love.
(narrator) One man
mastered these Streets
like no other driver
in history.
(Jo Ramirez) Monaco was a
special place for Senna.
He was the best in the world.
(Jo Ramirez) His concenfration
on one /ap was just uncann y.
(narrator) A yrton Senna won
Monaco a record six times,
one more Victory than the man
with the derring-do mustache.
Graham Hi/I came
to Monaco in 1966
to defend his
third straight Victory.
(Graham Hill) It's a fremendous race
and a great one to come and watch,
and if anybody's going to come and see
a Grand Prix, this is really the one.
It's such a nice place
to be an ywa y.
(Stirling Moss) To come
to Monaco and talk to men
is a waste of time,
so excuse me.
That's when motor racing
was really dangerous,
and sex was safe.
(Mario Andreffi) Sti/I today,
what defines Formula One
is the sense of prestige.
It's an event.
Kings want to be there.
(Princess Grace of Monaco) For me, it's
a fhril/ to see an expert at work.
Upon meeting Graham
Hill, you like him.
Watch/ny him made me become
more interested in racing
and what these men were doing.
(narrator) /n those days,
Hi/I's fiercest rivals
were also his closest friends.
[chatter and laughfer]
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) The
inf/mac y was incredible,
from the racing drivers
to the mechanics
to the wives
and the girlfriends.
The camaraderie was very deep.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) We
went on holidays together.
We //ved together.
We fra ve/ed together.
(Br/gifte Hill) You felt very
much part of this family
gro wing up together.
Motor racing
was just a part of it.
(narrator) The drivers
farmed a trade union,
the Grand Prix
Drivers ' Association.
The women soon followed suit
with the Doghouse Club.
(Damon Hill)
Well, the doghouse club
is where I was kept growing up with
the wives and girlfriends of drivers.
What do they call them now?
Wags, I think.
(Br/gifte Hill) Betty Brabham
sfood up at one dinner,
and she said,
"Jack's in the doghouse. ".
And they all realized they were all
feeling very much the same way.
(Sa/ly Swarf) They were
always playing with engines
or something like that,
and not paying nearly
enough attention to us.
(Bette Hill) The fact that he's
going to work a/I night on his car,
and then it's going
to break down after two laps.
You have to love this man
to be a good wife
of a racing driver.
(Br/gifte Hill) The wives
did the /ap scores,
and that would
decide the grids,
because there was no real
sort of official time keepers.
These kind of s/ighf/y
romanfic memories
that everyone's got
of the whole thing.
(Br/gifte Hill) We just
were a clan to ourselves.
(narrator) They fra ve/ed by
cara van, to wn to to wn,
country to country,
for six months straight.
Even the most celebrated
drivers raced
in the lesser
Formula Two series
in the off weekends
to keep this family Circus
on the road.
(Mos/e y) / dro ve Formula
Two with Bruce McLaren
and Jochen Rindf and Jackie Ste war!
And Jim Clark,
all sorts of top drivers
of that era.
I got the shock of my //fe because
they were puffing the brakes on
at about the point going into the
corner that I was taking them off.
(John Surtees) There is a
point where you don't think
you should fake if beyond,
when you're on the edge,
and you're just pushing
your luck a little.
(Mos/e y) The problem is, when
you push if to the lim/f,
it's irresisfib/e,
and as soon as you've done if,
you want to do it again.
(narrator) The charismatic young
Italian, Lorenzo Band/ni,
racing for Ferrari,
died after a fiery crash af
the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix.
This was the beginning,
when the evolution
of the machines
began to overtake
the standards of the tracks.
The seeds had
already been so wn
for an upris/ng
within the drivers' ranks.
Just months
before Bandini's death,
the FIA changed
the formula for enfrance.
(Max Mos/e y) They doubled
the size of the engine
and more than
doubled the power.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) They were
just racing on the same tracks
as they had done
almost pre-war.
The racefracks hadn? Changed.
The medical facilities
hadn 'f changed.
The marshaling hadn 'f changed.
And suddenly the cars were
going almost twice as fast.
(narrator) That same year,
Colin Chapman con vinced
the mighfy Ford Motor Company
to Invest
in a powerhouse engine
for his new,
even lighter design.
He signed Graham Hi/I
to drive for Team Lotus,
a/ongside
his old riva/ Jim Clark.
The number one man
in motor racing
started selling space
on his racing machines,
like billboards in motion.
Sponsors meant money.
Money meant making belter cars.
He'd paint the car
any color you wanted,
as long as he could have more
resources to realize his ideas.
(narrator) For the 23
drivers in the grid,
sponsorship meant exposure.
Soon, every boy's hero
was a racer.
(Maurice Hamilton)
My first real hero
was Jim Clark,
no question about if.
To me, he was the guy
I would like to have been.
(narrator) One of Jim
Clark's first drives
in the red-and-go/d colors
of Gold Leaf Tobacco
was in Germany.
(Max Mos/e y) If was
a Formula Two race.
If was 1968, at Hockenheim.
In April. And I was on the grid.
[P.A. announcements in German]
[P.A. announcement in German]
(Sa/ly Swart) The whole world
stopped when that happened.
(Damon Hill) You don't understand
when you're young what's going on.
But I remember watching the
television when Jim Clark died.
(Blue Peter)
As you have probably heard,
yesterday Jim Clark,
racing driver Jim Clark,
was killed in Germany.
I believe he was
a friend of yours.
Yes, he was a good
friend of mine, Peter,
and I think, you know,
I'm very sad about it,
and everyone involved
in motor sport
all around the world
will be very sad.
He was a very fine
driver, wasn 'f he?
Yep, I think
one of the greatest,
perhaps, uh, perhaps
the greatest yet.
(Sa/ly Swart) /t was a deflating
tire, that's what Colin thought.
He was really,
really de vastated.
He was never quite
the same after that.
(Co/in Chapman) This is the
fragedy of motor racing,
is when you do get close
to a driver
and there is an accident,
of course if...
if hurts you so much more.
He was, I would say,
my best friend,
best friend I've ever had.
(Max Mos/e y)
There was no barrier,
and the car went in full
speed info the frees.
I'd always explained
to my wife that
as long as you were
reasonab/ y careful,
it was all perfectly safe.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) We suddenly
realized that if Jimmy died,
[Sigh] God, anybody
could be killed.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) /n
1968, we had a driver die
every month on the same weekend
for four consecutive months.
And we were racing
on the fifth weekend
in circumsfances that we should ne
ver have been allowed to go out in.
You cou/dn 'f see
60 meters of visibility
because of the fog
and the heavy rain.
And the very first
question I asked
when I got out of the car
was, "Is everybody okay?"
(Max Mos/e y) /f you spoke
to the FIA or the organizers
and you said, "This is
really very dangerous, "
fhey'd say, "Well, if you think
motor racing's dangerous,
"slow down a bit. Don 'f drive so fast.
It's entirely up to you. "
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) They
were blind to the real/fy.
They didn 'f
know those drivers.
They didn't know
the drivers' wives
and the drivers'
fathers and mothers.
(Max Mos/e y) / thought
to myself in those days,
if ever I get info a position
of any power in this world,
I will do something about it.
(narrator) One month
after Clark's funeral,
Graham Hi/I climbed
back info his Lotus
and won the Spanish Grand Prix.
(Damon Hill) What my
dad did with Lotus,
he re-galvanized the team
by no! /effing this fragedy be
totally desfructive to everything.
(Max Mos/e y) /n '68,
Graham Hi/I went on,
and he still won
a world Championship.
[cro wd cheer/ng]
(Max Mos/e y) And you just
realized this was another world.
The drivers could just go on.
Some just don't
care about risk.
(presenfer) Down from the
Via/one, 185 miles an hour,
four cars virtua/I y together,
and down to the
Parabol/ca they come.
Can Ste war! Hold the line
on this, the last /ap?
Somebody's cha//engingu
it's Rindf going through!
Jochen Rindf takes the
lead in the Parabol/ca,
on the last corner
of the last /ap.
And it's going to be a fringe
factor to win. If must be!
/z”s... iz”s over
the line together!
And it's almost a dead heat!
It's Jackie Ste wart,
Rindf, Bella/se, and McLaren!
Nobody has ever seen the finish
of a motor race like that!
I won the race by about this
much, from Jochen Rindf.
And the crowd went
absolutely bananas.
They sudden/ y
were on top of us,
and the police were
trying to keep them back.
We ended up by locking
ourselves in a tai/et!
And they were still outside banging
the doors, trying to get in.
[cro wd shouf/ng]
There was no more enfhusiastic
a cro wd of specfafors
than that of the /ta/ians.
They really follow the motor
racing with a passion.
They're so spirited,
fhey're so enfhusiastic.
From that point of view
at Monza,
it's certainly
the capital of the world.
[opera singer
singing in Italian]
(man) It's one of their
beloved Ferraris in the lead,
and another of them
in second place.
The fifosi a/I around me
are erupf/ng.
The Ferrari flags are flying.
The counfing horses
are count/ny.
And Michael Schumacher
wins in Ita/y!
(narrator) Since 1929,
Ferrari fans have come
to Monza.
The tifosi,
fens of thousands strong,
cheering,
Cry/Dg,
for a German,
or a South African,
or an Englishman.
The Italian fans stormed over
and lifted me up
and carried me down
to the podium.
If was incredible.
In my early years, / sfrugg/ed
to sort of understand
what if means, Ferrari.
Yeah, okay, it's a race car.
Yeah, right, it looks good,
but didn't understand
about the history.
Enzo Ferrari, il Commendatore,
created a a' ynasty.
In the first two decades
of Formula One,
his powerful engines had
delivered six championships.
Ferrari had also
lost six dri vers.
[speaking Italian]
By 1969, Ferrari,
like every other team
on the grid,
was chas/ng Chapman and Lotus
info a bra ve new world.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) Suddenly,
we were running biplanes.
(Max Mos/e y) When the wings
came, if was a step change.
The aerodynamics
gives the fire more grip.
That enables the car to go
faster round the corner.
Obviously, the drag
from the wings
makes the car go slower
on the straight,
but peak corner/ng
speeds went up.
(Mario Andreffi) Obviously, as you
increase the corner/ng speed,
things become more dangerous.
This was the evolution
of the sport.
You cannot stop progress.
(narrator) The first
team to fake advantage
of aerodynamics was Lotus.
(Herb/e B/ash) / remember
Colin Chapman arrived
at 4:00 in the morning, and
he'd suddenly had this dream...
huge wings.
(narrator) /n Spain, at the second
Grand Prix of the '69 season,
Chapman ordered his mechanics
to expand the wings
the morning of the race
for his defending champion,
Graham Hill,
and his new driver,
a German-born Formula Two
star named Jochen Rindf.
(Eddie Dennis) We could
see from the pils
the wings appear
to start to buckle.
Graham's went first.
One of the boys ran back to
try and signal Jochen's car.
(narrator) Rindfs wings collapsed
at the same turn in the track.
Hi/I escaped unhurf,
then foughf to pull
his young feammafe
out of the wreckage.
Rindf suffered a broken nose,
a fracfured ja w,
and shatfered confidence
in the man building his cars.
/f Jim Clark had been like
a brother to Colin Chapman,
Jochen Rindf
was like a petulanf son.
(Eddie Dennis) Jochen had a few
ups and downs with the o/d man.
(narrator) Orphaned when
he was just 15 months old,
he assumed his family
inheritance at 18,
and started buy/ng racing cars.
A2' 25, he married
a fashion model, Nina Lincoln,
the daughter of another racer.
(John Miles)
Jochen was acerbic,
ap! To react very sfrong/
y to situations.
[speaking German]
(Eddie Dennis) On one
or two occasions,
Rindf wouldn't actually drive
one or two cars because he felt
that the design
of the car was unsafe.
(Max Mos/e y)
Drivers, when fhey're young,
they will drive
whatever you give them.
Jochen Rindf
was complete/ y different.
(Eddie Dennis) / can
remember at one point
he put a dollar sign
on his helmet.
He was looking for someone to
buy him out of his contract.
(Max Mos/e y) Jochen, he had
this m ysterious manager
cal/ed Ecc/esfone.
(John Miles) Rindf and Bernie
were always playing cards,
and he had
a sort of a live-wire,
sort of businessman
feel about him.
(Herb/e Blash) Bernie could
handle Colin Chapman.
Normal/ y people
went up to Colin
and they were more or less
on their hands and knees.
He wanted Jochen to drive a car
that Jochen
didn't want to drive,
thought it wasn't safe.
They had a few argumenls
over that.
AI/ these cars were super light
and probably no! Safe.
It was certainly
going to be quicker.
(narrator) /n 1970,
Chapman un veiled
a ne w-look Lotus
for his sfee/y young driver
that would bring Formula One
info the modern age.
(John Miles) The wedge
shape, the side radiatorsu
if was a/I highly
advanced and amazingly...
fragile.
[screeching fires and crash]
The car was being
developed at race meefings
in the back of frucks.
A lot of things
fell off, broke.
(John Bernard) The whole safety thing wasn?
Even an issue.
Let's no! Beat around the bush,
a designer's first requiremenf
is to make it fast.
Being quick comes first.
(narrator) One month
info the 1970 season,
Rindf se! Aside
his reservafions
and sent Chapman's new Lotus
roar/ng info the history books.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) Jochen Rindf
and I were the two fastesz' drivers,
that'd be fair to say.
I saw a lot of the back
side of his car in 1970.
(narrator) They came to Monza
with almost twice
as many points
as the second place team,
owner/dr/ ver Jack Brabham.
A2' practice, we often decided
to fake the wings off the car.
If was a/I to do
with straight-line speed.
At Monza, you gained
more down the straight.
(Eddie Dennis) 75 percent of the
drivers fake the wings off.
The wings were off my car,
and the car was absolutely,
for me, undrivab/e.
It's the first time I've been
really, really frightened
in a racing car.
Jochen felt the only way he
was going to go really fast
was to get rid of the wings
and sort of hang
the consequences.
(Eddie Dennis) But the 72 had ne
ver been raced without wings.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) / ran
back to see Nina, his wife,
to tell her what was happening,
but I didn't know what the
situation was with Jochen,
but I certainly
didn't want to worry her.
Bernie and I ran down
to the Parabolica
to see what we'd find.
Jochen had gone by then.
(Eddie Dennis)
If comes over you
that you're the last
person they talked to.
You search your brain to see if there
's something that you've done wrong,
but Jochen, he said, "Leave the
wings off, " he said, "for sure. "
[speaking German]
That you would stop racing.
[Rindf laughs]
(narrator) One of the first men
to openly question
the safety of his sport
was silenced at the age of28.
Two months later,
his widow was awarded
the world championship,
the only posthumous title
ever won in Formula One.
Thelesson
of Jochen Rindt was that
had he had even basic
proper medical attention,
he would have survived.
(Sir Jackie Ste warf) The Grand
Prix Drivers ' Association
had a really good
articulaled vehicle
with everything on board.
The people did no! Put
him info that vehicle.
They took him
to the wrong hospital,
and the time he'd got to the
right hospital, he'd died.
(narrator) Jochen Rindf was
the third Formula One star
to be killed that season.
Bruce McLaren
was killed at Goodwood.
Ninefeen days later,
Piers Courage was killed
in the Dutch Grand Prix.
(Andreffi) Those were fragic
times in so many ways,
because we 'a' lost
some icons of our sport.
(Ecc/estone)
He had an accident.
As far as the world knew,
that's what happened.
He had an accidenf
and got killed.
And nobody really
looked behind it,
wh y the accidenf happened
and could somebody have done
something to stop if happening.
(Mario Andreffi) If always took
some kind of a fragic event
for us to say, "You know what?
We can do better. ".
We're getting smarter
and smarter about these cars.
We're able to make
them go faster.
Why can 'f we use the same
know/edge to make them safer?
(Keon Vergeer) There is a parallel
between Formula One racing
and space.
As a kid, I followed
a/I the moon miss/ons.
(NA SA fechnician)
Five... four... three...
two... one. /gnifion Sequence...
(NASA fechnician) Liffoff/
We have a /iffoff/
(Koen Vergeer)
If was the same time
they sent men in
rockets to the moon.
They are carrying fire
inside these machines.
They are driving
over the edge...
info new worlds,
getting beyond boundaries.
Also about //fe and death.
[specfafors cheer/ng]
(Koen Vergeer) And
that's Formula One, too.
You knew when
the season started,
one or two of your
heroes would be killed.
(narrator) Koen Vergeer was among
the legion of boys worldwide
who became obsessed
with Formula One
during its most Violent decade.
He was just 11 years old
when he saw his first race,
the Dutch Grand Prix
at Zandvoorf.
(Koen Vergeer)
We went there by fra/n,
and you go info the
sand of the dunes.
And nothing is organized...
no signs at all, nothing.
You can be lost in the
dunes, if you want to.
And after a half an hour,
you find the track.
(John Hogan) /n the early
'70s, Formula One was
really a little bit
of a circus act.
(Maurice Hamilton)
You'd go to a Grand Prix.
Uni/I the cars cars
came out to practice,
you wouldn't know
who was going to turn up.
(Padd y McNally)
Each team would negotiate
with the individual promoters
at these various circuits.
(John Hogan) /n fact, the
organizers paid the broadcasters
to show the Grand Prix.
The whole business was much
more informal in those days,
so even as a fan,
you could literally
go into the paddock, and
there were your heroes.
(Koen Vergeer) Jacky /ckx was my hero.
He had his mysterious name.
(narrator) Jacky lckx,
the baby-faced Belgian,
with Ferrari in 1970,
was the one driver
who could have caughf.
Jochen Rindf
for the championship.
In truth, /ckx came
per//ous/y close to becoming
the fourth casualfy
of the season.
[spectators screaming]
(Jacky lckx) Being burnf is one of the
most painful things you can ha ve.
You can be broken, you can
have a/I sort of things,
But being burned,
it's really... it's terrible.
I ne ver thought
if could happen to me.
It's not going to happen to me.
You always think
it's going to happen
to the other driver,
not to you.
It was never going
to happen to me.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) A lot of
drivers have the phi/osoph y
that it's always someone
else who has an accident,
it's never themselves.
But of course you're always
on the very fh/n line
between survival
and even disasfer,
or certainly death.
(narrator) Jackie Ste war!
Had a huge accidenf at Spa.
He was frapped
in his car ups/de down,
and he was soaked in fuel.
(Max Mos/e y) The great fear
was fire in those days.
Those cars were a/I
effecfive/y a mobile bomb
because in an accident,
the fuel went everywhere
and caughf fire.
(Nigel Roebuck) When Jacky had his
accident, no one was wearing seatbelts.
That's because they preferred
if they hit anything
to be thrown free from the car.
It's proof
of how amateur we were...
organizers, teams, and drivers.
(narrator) Both Jack/es had
been caughf out and escaped,
only to become abso/uie
rivals in the re vo/ufion.
(narrator) /ckx won
at Zandvoorz' in 71,
while the other Jackie
won his second world title.
We were in total opposifion.
Pure competition.
(narrator) The flying Sco!
Became cha/r
of the Grand Prix
Drivers ' Association,
and as world champion,
the de facfo leader
in the upris/ng.
You're all wearing seatbelts
because in these cars,
an unfastened seatbelt
is no good.
(narrator) While Baby Face
refused to join the union.
Jacky was no! A be/ie ver
in the safety movemenf.
(John Watson) Jackyjusf didn
'f want to be part of the GDPA
because if didn 'f quite
suit the image of Jacky lckx.
[vintage audio]
(Jacky lckx) / was no! Part of
if because that's the way I am.
(Nigel Roebuck) What he
didn 'f like was fhreats.
You know, "We will not race
tomorrow unless you do this. ".
You know, union fact/cs.
(Max Mos/e y) The FIA in
those days was very weak,
and an ywa y the FIA
cons/sted of the organizers,
so there was
no proper Organization.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) For me, if was a
very simple, black-and-white case.
You know, we had to get
the race tracks themselves
to recognize they
needed to do more,
had to put more fenc/ng
up or more barriers up.
It was all costing money,
and they had never had to spend the
money on the race track before.
(narrator) Ste war! Became
the new face of Formula One,
as sfee/ armco barriers
were installed
at places like Zandvoorz'
and Silverstone.
Max Mos/e y
became a consfructor
and team owner
with March Engineering.
Bernie Ecc/esfone joined him
in the paddock as an owner,
after bu ying
Jack Brabham's old team.
And on the wings
of aerodynamics,
a new stable
of young guns arrived
to fil/ the empty
dri vers ' seals.
We were very aware then
that the drivers had massive
respect for each other
because they kne w,
a bit like fighter
pilots in World War ll,
that they might not come back.
There was Jody Scheckfer
of South Africa,
the quiet Austrian, Niki Lauda,
John Watson
of Northern Ireland.
Other British hopefuls,
James Hunt,
Da vid Pur/e y,
and Roger W///iamson.
The super Swede,
Ronnie Peterson,
the American playboy
Peter Re vson,
whose family created
Re v/on Cosmetics,
and the Renaissance Man
from France, Francois Ce vert,
handpicked by Ste war!
For team owner Ken Tyrre//.
[speaking French]
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) He was
like a young fighf/ng cock.
He was enormously good looking,
had an incredible
pair of eyes, and, uh,
did a lot of damage
with the young ladies.
(Jo Ramirez) Francois
absolutely /do/ized Jackie.
(Padd y McNally)
He was almost up
to Jackie's standard
at that time.
We had probably one
of the strongest feams
that would have been
in motor racing.
Everything I knew
about the sport,
I was passing on to him.
What do you think about
Emerson as a pilot? Who?
Emerson Fittipaldi. Who?
You know, the guy who won
the world Championship.
Oh, yes! Ha ha!
(narrator) Colin Chapman had
his fourth world champion
in eight years,
a brilliant young Brazilian
named Emerson Fiffipa/di.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
We were, like, 21 drivers
establish/ng Grand Prix racing.
Your odds
are 7-fo-1 to survive.
Colin fold me, "Emerson, / don't
want to get too close to you,"
"and you know
the risk you have."
"At any time, / can /ose you. "
(Chapman) Cevert's going to
be your danger, I reckon.
You beat him, I reckon
you'll win the race.
That was Colin Chapman.
(John Watson) My first Grand
Prix was in Silverstone,
the British Grand Prix.
Graham Hill walked into
the room, it was like...
almost like a god walking in.
But if you can 'f
compete with them
and get info that car,
and go out
and literally "put
your cock on the block,"
then you shouldn't be in it.
(man) The cars now
coming up onto the grid,
and fhey'// only be
held there for seconds
before the flag fa//s
and the start of the race.
(Scheckfer) A2' the beginning,
you were just trying
to prove to yourself
and to other people that
you were fast enough.
(man) The flag's up.
(man) Jackie Ste war! Going
through on the inside,
behind Ronnie Peterson.
Jackie Ste war! Made
a blinding start.
It's sti/I Peterson,
just holding Ste war! Out
as they go through copse
for the first time.
(Jody Scheckfer) What a driver
is there for is to fake if
to the lim/f and keep if
at that lim/t,
and that's in every part
of every corner.
It's keeping it
right on that limit.
(man) And then Francois Ce vert.
Jody Scheckfefs lost if.
Jody Scheckfer has been hit,
a multiple shot
at the end of the first /ap.
Jody Scheckfer,
with the McLaren.
(man) They're stopp/ny the race.
Here comes Jackie Ste
wart, ferrib/ y fast,
and Ronnie Peterson
coming up, ferrib/y fast.
(Scheckfer) It's a lot of
adrenaline's gone info you,
and you're near/yjust laughing
a/I the way to the pils
until you tell the guys what the
bloody hell happened, you know?
Eleven cars ref/red,
but no one was killed.
Very lucky.
Silverstone, which
was one of the biggest,
if no! The biggest accidenf
in Formula One,
brought if home to me... to
win, you've got to finish.
(man over P.A.)
Two minutes to go...
The next race was the Dutch
Grand Prix at Zandvoorf.
(Vergeer) We were up on a hill
because my father could film
very good from there,
and then you could walk
down to a fence.
Behind the fence was the armco.
As a kid 11 years old,
I want to be in that
vortex of sound and color.
[engines roaring]
(Koen Vergeer) The sound
goes through your bones
info your stomach some where,
and I remember the first
time I saw the cars coming.
I thought, this is my world!
(narrator)
Eight /aps info the race,
there was a single-car collision with
the ne w/y installed armco barriers.
(Koen Vergeer) / saw a car
flying through the air,
and I looked straight
info the cockpit.
But if was in a flash,
and the car shatfered
on the aspha/f.
1973, when I had March,
it was Roger Williamson.
One of our cars.
He was a close friend.
(Jo Ramirez) Da vid Pur/e y
stopped his car, got off,
and he was trying
to lift the car.
And there was all...
lots of people just watching.
Nobody came to give him a
hand, and he was desperate.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl)
We passed if every /ap.
Yellow flags were being
flo wn to slow us down,
but the race was never stopped.
In those days,
they didn 'f stop races.
(Jo Ramirez) Jackie was probably
the greatest ambassador
the sport has ever had,
and he was a great
pioneer of safety,
but if he had to drive,
he would jump
in the car and drive.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl)
When the visor goes down,
you escape from the grief,
the dramas, the froubles,
the pain and suffering.
And if was only
when you came back,
you know, the visor
went back up,
that real/fy,
you became aware of,
again.
(man) W///iamson's dead.
There's no /ap of honor.
Quiet presentation.
It's clear that, in racing,
we are a/I the same.
In life, we need
just some extra luck.
(Koen Vergeer)
For me, at 11 years old,
if was ferrifying,
but also fascinating,
what was happening there.
I think they thought
we were g/adiafors,
and if you went
into the Coliseum,
you knew there
was lions in there,
and that chances are
you wou/dn 'f get out.
(Koen Vergeer)
I really began to cry,
but at the same time,
I thought,
how can you cry about someone
you knew nothing about?
(Max Mos/e y) He was an
ordinary working-class /ad
who'djusf done if
by his own talent.
Those things have a big,
big effect on you.
(narrator) The year
Roger Williamson died,
the FIA established mandafory
on-frack rescue equipment
and fire regu/afions.
By then, the Doghouse Club
was raising money each year
for the families
of fallen drivers.
(Max Mos/e y) Because there
were things that could be done,
maybe if was immoral, but on the
other hand, / cou/dn 'f say,
because there were people
who wanted to do it.
(narrator)
The only requirements
to replace the fallen
on the grid
were gufs and money.
(man) Lord Alexander
Fermor-Hesketh,
the third baron of Heskefh!
Lord Heskefh was 22 years old
when he farmed Heskefh Racing.
(I ord Heskefh) / got info
racing enfire/ y accidenfa/I y.
I'd just me! The preffiesf
hooker I'd ever,
ever met in my life,
and I saw this
posfcard counter,
and if had this
charm/ng feddy bear.
I drew onto the feddy bear
a crash he/mez'
and a Union Jack.
(ma/e spectator) / think
if has an afmosphere
of the old-type
Grand Prix feams,
and, uh, I think that
anything truly British
deserves Supporting.
(I ord Heskefh) We were there to have some fun.
That was about if.
(Maurice Hamilton) They were s/ighf/y
upper class, weren 'f the y?
Lord Heskefh and so on.
The more serious
journalists thought
that one didn't come in and do
Formula One racing like this,
and drinking champagne
and having fun. Not on.
(man) We don't want any pictures,
we don't want any pictures!
Ha ha ha ha!
(I ord Heskefh)
We've got a driver in F2.
He hasn? Got
a very good reputation,
but he is very, very fast.
His nickname is
"Huntman Shunf, "
'cause he tends to crash cars.
(John Hogan)
If was no! Dissimilar
from a man owning
a very expensive horse,
and his jocke y happened
to be James Hunt.
You want to... you just
want to get a level?
So if/ say "shuls and fuck"
and a/I that sort of stuff.
Oh, dear. Well, cancel if, then.
Can we rub that out?
(Jody Scheckfer) He drank a lot
and smoked a lot of funny things.
He had his fun.
He had girls to die for.
(John Watson) He was the
kind of thing you'd read
in your com/c when
you were a kid gro wing up
and dreaming of being
a Grand Prix driver.
James was the epitome of
everything a kid would want to be.
(Jane Birbeck) James was
so affracfive as a person.
He noz' only affracfed girls, but
he also affracfed a lot of...
a lot of, uh, men.
I mean, I don't mean like that,
But he just had that
ability to charm people,
and freedom within himself,
that some people found
a little unnerving.
(woman) When you go
around with these racers,
you start to know
almost everybody here.
It's like a big family for you,
and you get
your big interest with.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
If was a lot of fun.
/f was a fransifion in the
world of young people...
the sideburns,
the be/I bottom frousers,
the hippie time.
(narrator) Four hours west
of Woodsfock, New York,
Formula One hosted
an outdoor party
every year for two decades.
(Maurice Hamilton) E verybod
y used to stay af a place
cal/ed The Seneca Lodge,
which was a Hunting /odge.
With a/I the American
whoopin ' and ho//erin',
it was a great scene!
(narrator)
The Glen had a reputation
as a place for champions.
Jochen Rindf won
his first Grand Prix here,
as did Emerson Fiffipa/di.
Francois Ce vert won in 1971,
and was runner-up in '72,
to his mentor.
In 1973, the Tyrrell team
came to the Glen
with Jackie Ste war!
Having already wrapped up
his third world championship.
(Sir Jackie Ste warf) By 1973, I
had decided that my last race
would be Watk/ns Glen,
my hundredfh Grand Prix.
(Jody Scheckfer) Jackie's refiremenf
was sti/I hush-hush at that time.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl)
Only three people kne w.
Francois didn 'f know,
or even Helen.
I didn't want to fell my wife,
"because I didn't want her sa
ying, "If it's this dangerous,
"why don't you stop now,
and then we'll be happy?"
Oh, it's a fantastic
feeling, even the other one,
because, uh,
the roof thing I've got
is so smooth and de/ighfful,
it's even a nice
impression for the driver.
You know, it's...
Vrroooom! Very...!
Ce vert was sort of thinking
he was ready to be a number
one driver in his own right.
He se! Out to prove if
in qualifying that year,
at the Glen.
[vintage audio]
Ce vert. Blood y hell.
[Sighs]
(Jody Scheckfer) / was the
first one on the scene,
and /jumped out the car
to try and help him.
I remember then
trying to get his belts,
and then just turned around
and I knew if was a/I over.
[vintage audio]
It was the most horrible sight.
Iwouldn't want
anybody to see that, ever.
(Jo Ramirez)
Nothing broke in the car.
It was just going too quick.
He hit one barrier, then he
went across the circuit,
hit the other one, and
that turned the car over.
Maybe the barrier would have
been a little bit higher,
then he would have been okay,
but we will never know.
(man on P.A.) Because of the
Incident on the circuif,
practice for today for Formula
One cars is now concluded.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
Wen! Back to the pils.
I didn 'f say anything
to Colin, to my wife.
I just walked
info the parking place,
where there was nobody.
And I want to pray
with God and say,
"What I'm doing here? Help me."
(man over PA) Genflemen,
remain standing, please,
for the playing of the
national anfhem of France,
in memory of Francois Ce vert.
[La Marseillaise playing]
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) / chose no!
To race the next day
out of respecf to Francois.
Nothing to do with
my own personal concerns.
If was an unfortunate
way to end a career,
but in the other way,
maybe if was part of wh y /
ne ver wanted to race again.
(Roy Topp) / think if was the
right thing, no! To race.
Very sad.
(Sir Jackie Stewart) / was
just so angry that the sport
could do if in this way,
and continue to do if
in this way,
and not sufficiently
change itself,
to put its own house in order.
(John Watson) There's
about 15 minutes or so
before the race, so I was
hang/ng around the pils,
and Bernie said, "Well, what are you doing?
What are you doing?"
I said, "Well,
Francois's dead. ".
He said, "Well, so what?
"He died doing something which,"
"up until that fracfion
of a second,"
"was giving him the greatest
joy, pleasure, fulfillmenf."
"You're a racing driver.
Get out and do your job. "
(Francois Ce vert) Every man in
the world is looking to make
from his passion his business.
That's what I have done.
I cannot be more happy.
Everything I do
about my auto racing,
I enjoy if. Anything.
Because if is my passion.
(I ord Heskefh) When the
guys flying the Mustangs
came back in from five
or six hours over Germany,
and they probably lost
75% of the format/on,
they went to the bar.
And they went to the bar
with a very good reason.
[re ve/ers whooping]
Sometimes you have
to get up in the morning,
look in the mirror, and say, "Are
you prepared to put it on the line?"
"Are you prepared to actually
lose your life today?"
Because if you're not,
you have no right being there.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
I said to myself,
"I need to forget everything
that happened before,"
"because I love this sport."
[specfafors cheer/ng]
(Jo Ramirez) If is like a drug.
Once you get in if,
it's even more difficult
to get out of if.
(narrator) /n 1974,
Emerson Fiffipa/di
began to fil/ the Void
left by Jackie Ste wart,
both as the fastesz' man
and the voice of reason.
JJ”.
While sfee/ armco
now ringed most circuits,
two more drivers
had been killed
after collisions
with the barriers...
the American Peter Re vson,
and a young Austrian driver
in only his second start,
Helmuth K oinigg.
(Max Mos/e y) The marshal/
appeared with his he/mef.
His head was still in it
because he'd gone
under the barrier and it
just took his head off.
It was like it was a nightmare.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
I remember Barcelona.
Friday morning, after practice,
I saw the armco barriers
held with just bo/fs,
no nuts, and wire.
And I touch one.
I kick, and fall.
(narrator) Fiffipa/di,
now with McLaren,
refused to even practice.
The organizers
of the Spanish Grand Prix
fhreafened to impound
a/I the cars in the grid
if the defending champion
did no! Drive.
(Max Mos/e y) / thought,
this is a world sport.
I cannot believe that a world
sport is run like this.
(Max Mos/e y) So the
drivers had a meeting
in the Texaco motor home.
(Fiffipa/di) We had to
fight with the organizers.
I mean really fight.
(Nigel Roebuck) The track was sort
of in the hills above Barcelona,
and Friday afternoon,
there was Silence.
[birds chirping]
[distant race engine revs]
Then there was just one
car, just one engine.
[engine roars]
Somebody said,
"It's got to be lckx. "
(narrator) While Jackie Ste war!
Had stepped aside,
the other Jacky
was sti/I on the title hunt.
Baby Face /ckx had taken
Fiffipa/di's place af Lotus.
(Jacky lckx)
With the racing, frankly,
you have to be individual/stro,
in a way, and also selfish.
(Max Mos/e y)
The Pa v/o vian Reaction
to the sound
that they could hear,
that was it. Then they a/I
got in there and drove.
[engine roaring]
(Nigel Roebuck) If was a
very, very fense afmosphere,
extraordinarily
tense atmosphere.
The actual team mechanics were
bo/fing these barriers together.
(narrator) On race day,
Fiffipa/di held frue to his word.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di) /
did one /ap and come in,
as defending world champion.
I went back to Geneva,
and when I landed,
Swiss TV waiting for me.
I didn't know what happened
in the Grand Prix.
(narrator) The rear wing
of Rolf Stemme/en 's
Embassy Hi/I Lola
broke off, sending the
car info the barriers.
(Nigel Roebuck) We're about
25 /aps info the race,
and I can remember sa ying
to the guys with me,
"Jesus, that's Rolf.
He's in the crowd."
(narrator) Stemme/en survived,
but four people were killed.
[Emerson Fiffipa/di
speaking French]
(Max Mos/e y) Once drivers start
worrying seriously about safety,
you know that their
fastest days are over.
(Mos/e y) /f you took a/I
the Formula One drivers,
even the current crop
of racing dri vers,
"and said, " Here are two cars.
That one is very safe.
"That one 's
exfreme/ y dangerous.
"If you crash in if, you'll
probably get killed.
"But the dangerous one
is two seconds a /ap quicker. ".
There would be no discussion
about which one fhey'd drive.
They'd a/I get
in the dangerous one.
That's why it's the
people running the sport
have to take responsibility.
(narrator) Just weeks after
the failed strike in Spain,
the most unlikely rivalry
would spark
along the Dutch coast
at Zandvoorf.
A battle between two drivers
would help turn the tide
in the re vo/ufion.
(I ord Heskefh) Practice
Friday, fantastic.
Saturday, blue sky.
Wake up Sunday morning,
and suddenly it's piss/ng rain.
Absolute pour/ng rain.
(I ord Heskefh) E veryone
else had their spanners out,
wings are going up.
"I look at the car, I
say, "Look, we know
"absolutely fuck-all about
how you set a car up,"
"so we'd better leave it
just the way it is."
[engines roar]
(I ord Heskefh)
James does four laps,
and he's in front
of both Ferraris.
(Koen Vergeer)
When James Hunt approached,
a/I the cro wds
went to the fence.
"Yeah, there he is again!
There he is again!"
(I ord Heskefh) You'd suddenly
see white car, red car,
(Vergeer) ...Niki Lauda
in the Ferrari...
Getting closer, getting closer.
(Vergeer) "Yes! Keep him
behind, keep him behind!"
(I ord Heskefh)
And then we won.
(narrator) James Hunt
held off Niki Lauda
in his po werfu/ Ferrari,
and gave Team Heskefh
their first win
after three years of trying.
That's just brilliant.
You know, the David and
Goliath... fantastic story.
(narrator) The playboy ga
rag istes had pre va//ed
over the most stor/ed
team in Formula One.
(I ord Hesketh) Party bas/call y
started in the back of the truck.
It's fair to say that eventually
/ went into blackout.
If was special, 'cause
the only guy who ever,
ever took me seriously
was the Commendafore.
But then he was the
only guy who counfed.
(narrator) Mr. Ferrari was
the most decorated man
in motor racing.
He 'a' famous/ y said,
"Aerodynamics were for people
who could not build engines. ".
But he also hadn? Won
a title since 1964,
until Lauda.
(Niki Lauda) You know,
in Ita/y, there are
a lot of emot/ons
around the racing team.
If you win, it's quite easy.
If you lose,
it's quite difficult.
(John Watson) Niki was a ole ver guy.
He was a good operafor.
Probab/ y the ideal
Ferrari driver.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
Niki's very technical, cool.
James, even being English,
he was very emot/anal.
He 'a' come in my motor
home before every race.
"Emerson, can I use
your toi/ef?"
I'd say, "James, come on!"
(narrator) With one epic
win under his belt,
Hunt left
the fedd y bear behind
for a chance at the title.
He signed with the '74 world
champion consfrucfor, McLaren.
Those days, you got five years,
with the death rate
and everything else.
He had a new future.
(Jane Birbeck) The McLaren
outfit was very sfrucfured.
E verybody wore uniforms,
but James just
wore whatever he wanted.
(narrator) While Lauda
took the role of champion,
leading the charge for safety
in the drivers' union,
Hunt became the new face
of Formula One.
(McNally) / don't know
whether the drivers today
go out and have a party
till 3:00 in the morning
and jump into the car.
Who else could do that?
(Freddie Hunt) / don't think you
can get to that /e ve/ being,
you know,
just who you want to be.
You have to be,
to a certain extent, what...
what a racing driver's supposed to be.
You know, quick.
(narrator) Hunt took po/e
position in qualifying
for the first two races
in 1976,
while Lauda
took the checkered flags.
I think they
respected each other,
but there was a need.
Niki really wanted
to be a cool guy,
and he wasn? Quite a cool guy,
and he used to wind James up
whenever he had the opportunity.
(man) What about this fellow
James Hunt this weekend?
Well, James Hunt won
his Grand Prix in Holland,
so I think he's a very,
very strong competitor now.
(Barnard) Niki would psych
the other drivers out
just by fa/king
to them. I mean.
(narrator) Hunfs first
win came in Spain,
but if was taken down
when the wing
on his car was judged too wide.
I don't know how wide
it is anyway, you know?
I didn't even know
there was a rule about it.
I just drive the damn thing.
(narrator) A2' Monaco,
Lauda took the lead
at the first turn,
and ne ver looked back.
If was his fourth win
in six Starts.
(Jody Scheckfer) He didn't
seem spectacu/ar/ y fast,
but he won races,
and you could re/y
that he's not going
to do anything stupid.
(narrator) Hunt stormed back in
France, and after a dispufed start,
took the checkered flag before
a home crowd in Britain.
(man) The Victory
flag's cinched,
and James Hunt crosses the line
to win the British Grand Prix!
James, fhey've changed the
regu/afions concerning the wings,
and yet you're still
extremely fast.
How do you do it? Big balls.
Forget it.
Can't you print that?
We can't print... But it's true!
(Icyx) The difference
between drivers is maybe
the quantity of desire
you have to win races,
because the falents are equal.
That includes
whatever the weather is
when you're at the race course.
Monza, Spa, Monaco,
they were quite famous tracks.
But one was reckoned as a
symbol of pure driving.
It's the highest
possible challenge.
JJ”
(narrator) /n the shadow of
German y's Eife/ mountains
lies a monsfrous race track,
22 kilometers around.
(Jacky lckx) 168 Corners.
A2' the time, 17jumps.
So you were flying 17 times
at the Nürburgring.
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) /f a car went
off the road, you ne ver saw if.
It just disappeared into
the trees or the bushes,
or down a ra vine.
Hit/er built if
in the Depression.
If is the most challenging,
the most re warding,
the most dangerous,
the greatest racefrack
in the world.
(Jacky lckx) To win
at the Nürburgring,
that means that's
the race of your life.
(narrator) /n 1976, the
defending champion
and points leader Niki Lauda
cal/ed on his union
to bo ycotf the Nürburgring,
cifing unsafe track conditions.
They cou/dn 'f marshal if.
It would take an army of
firefighters to do any good.
[man over P.A., vintage audio]
(narrator) Hunt cast
his Vote to race.
Lauda was defeafed
by the s/immesf of marg/ns.
One.
(Brett Lunger)
I came round the turn
and he was sideways in the middle of the track.
His car was on fire.
(man) There's Brett Lunger
getting out of the Surtees
and info the flames.
(I unger) The Ferrari had different
be/ts and different systems.
Art Merzario
had driven a Ferrari.
He was able to get in,
undo the be/fs.
I was on top of the car,
and I grabbed Niki's shoulders
and pulled him out of the car.
(man) Lauda is finally
dragged clear
from the burning Inferno.
The race of course is stopped.
I remember him saying to me,
"What's my face like?
What's my face like?"
In fact, he didn't know
he'd ingested
a lot of fax/c fumes
from the burning resin
and fiberglass
of the bodywork of the car.
People were already fa/king
about him in the past fense.
We were both certain that
when we turned the radio on,
we 'a' hear the morning
news sa ying he was dead.
(Lauda) / cou/dn? See anything.
/ was just listen/ny.
Must have been in the hospital.
My wife came into the
room where I was lying,
and, uh, she started
crying, so...
which didn't certainly help me.
I told her afterwards,
"Listen, why did you cry
when... when you come in?"
"Because I felt bad."
She said, "Unfortunately",
"I only recognized you
on your feet."
Because I was burned so bad,
in my head and everywhere,
that she had a shock.
And that was the real
issue at the time,
so I thought, "Shit, I must
fight now to stay alive."
Five weeks later,
I was back in the car in Monza.
(Brett Lunger) Niki
walked down the pit /ane
to where my team was,
and he said,
"Brett, thank you."
And then walked away.
(Niki Lauda) / knew the risk
/ was getting myself info.
The easy way back is to
drive as quick as possible.
Don 'f wait.
As long as you wait,
is more worried you get.
[spectators cheering]
He finished fourth
and, you know,
kept his world
championship hopes alive.
That's the most courageous
thing I've ever seen.
Lauda! Lauda!
(Hunt) After a/I
he's been through,
I would like to see him
right at the front,
fighting and, you
know, unblemished.
(Maurice Hamilton)
Back against the wall,
James Hunt went out and
he won these two races
through just sheer
deferminafion and grif,
but there was something mag/cal
about what Niki Lauda was doing.
He was a very fough compefitor,
but most people
questioned his sanity.
(Jane) That accidenf
gave him charisma.
(Jane Birbeck) They became...
I hate to think what sort
of buddies they became.
Like playboys together,
if you know what I mean.
(man) Good afternoon, and welcome
to the Japanese Grand Prix.
This is the most exciting
finish to a Grand Prix season
in over len years.
It's down to a fight for the
championship between Hunt and Lauda,
with Lauda
just three points ahead.
What an incredible end
to the season!
(John Hogan) They ended up going
to the Japanese Grand Prix,
and everybody wanted if,
and the broadcasters
of the world said,
"Ah, that's good!
Lez”s... /ef's..."
"Oh! We don't have the rights!"
"Oh! Now, how do we fix this?"
[spectators cheering]
(narrator) By 1976, Bernie
Ecc/esfone and Max Mos/e y
had become friends and parlners
in the Formula One
Consfrucfors ' associafion,
the loose confederafion
of garagisies,
independent car builders.
(Max Mos/e y) Bernie was
complete/ y sfreefwise,
an absolutely
brilliant tactician.
(Nigel Roebuck) Didn 'f
fake Bernie that long
to work out that the organizers
were making a lot of money,
and fundamentally the teams
were getting screwed.
(I ord Heskefh) Bernie came in.
He said, "I have bought
all of the world's."
"TV rights
for a mi///on dollars. ".
There were len feams.
"You can a/I
have 10% for 3700, 000."
(I ord Heskefh)
Nine idiofs sa! There...
"Think how much testing
I could do with $100,000."
I said, "No, thank you", and
everyone else said "No, thank you,"
and that's how Bernie
got control.
Pathetic, really, but then that's
how great fortunes are made!
(narrator)
While the Brabham owner
would eventually sell his team,
he has mainfained control
of the sporfs Commercial rights
ever since '76
and the Showdown in Japan.
(John Hogan) Bernie said
to the broadcaslers,
"You can have the rights
going forward,"
"but you've got to show
every Grand Prix."
(I ord Heskefh) As they
say, the rest is history.
(Niki Lauda) /n Fuji, if
was raining a/I day long,
that we could not drive.
A2' four in the afternoon,
the race director came
"and said, " We have
to start the race now
because the television time."
But I said, "Look,
the rain is the same. "
(Ecc/estone) Those early
days, things were run
a little bit more
like a dictatorship
rather than a democracy.
It was me that said, "We're going
to start, no matter what."
(man) And the Japanese
Grand Prix is underway!
James Hunfs got a superb start.
That's exactly
what he wants to do,
get in front of a/I those cars,
because when you're in the front,
you don't have that spray.
When you're stuck behind in second,
third, fourth, or where ver,
you have this massive p/ume
of spray in your face.
It's Impossible
to see anything.
James Hunt in the lead,
in the Marlboro McLaren.
This is the start he needs.
(Mario Andreffi)
The visibility,
especially at the
beginning of the race,
was no more than 20%, at best.
(man) Look at that mist!
How can they see anything
driving in these conditions?
(Scheckfer) 180 miles an hour,
You're listen/ny, and then you're
watching your side of the road,
and if the car
in front of you stops,
you're going to be in trouble.
(man) There's Jody Scheckfer,
going down on the inside.
Perhaps he fhinks there's belter
grip down there on the inside.
And there, Lauda,
in the pils already,
having a cockpit conference
with Forghieri,
the leader of the Ferrari team.
What's happened to Lauda?
Niki decided to stop.
(man) And there is James
Hunt for the lead,
and Lauda seemingly
out of the race already.
He stopped. That was it.
In the entire 40-odd years
I've been involved,
that's the only time
I can remember
a driver aclual/ y stopping because
the conditions were so dangerous.
Just incredible.
(man) He 'S Spinning:
[Jumbled remark]
Out of the race completely,
and out of
the world championship!
(Jody Scheckfer)
If takes big ba//s
to make a decision like that.
Some people may think
it's cowardly.
Um, I think it's
probably the opposite.
(Watson) He went against
all the things that
being a Grand Prix driver
at Ferrari are about.
In other words, you drive
for Ferrari, not yourself.
And if you've got to die
doing it, so be it.
Die, but at least die trying.
Ferrari were actually
embarrassed for him.
You know, "No, the car is,
the engine is finished,"
and all the rest of it.
Lauda actually got angry when
he heard them doing that
and fold if straight.
(Koen Vergeer) He was the one who
res/sted the myfh of Ferrari.
And he said no, no.
Who said that before
to Enzo Ferrari?
To these days, I think / would
ne ver forgive Niki Lauda.
That particular moment,
he thought it was
too dangerous for him,
and he forget the 50,
60 people from Ferrari
he/ping him to achie ve.
The thousands of people
in the whole of Italy...
he forgot a/I of those
people in that time,
and their beloved Lauda,
he become selfish
and he said, "No, I
don't want to drive. "
(Niki Lauda)
I don 'f regref if.
But I already saw
what can happen.
(man) And so we've got
about four /aps to go,
and James Hunt is sti/I second.
(Hamilton) The championship wasn?
Seff/ed there and then
when he stepped out of the car
because James had to
finish third or higher.
(man) James Hunfs in the
pils with one ba/d fire
and the other is flat.
But there is Mario
Andreffi, in the lead.
Now, where does that lea ve
Hunt as he exits the pits?
Is Hunt sti/I
in the top two Hunt?
James Hunt,
racing for his life.
I think Hunt
is currenf/ y fourth.
And there's Hunt,
going past Alan Jones.
That will put him
info third place,
and info the world
champion title!
Will his car hold together?
James Hunt...
and Mario Andreffi
takes the flag,
and here comes Hunt!
James Hunt has done if!
Hunt is the champion!
When he got out of the car,
James didn't know if
he'd won the Championship.
He thought
he'd finished fourth.
[vintage audio]
Hunt was world champion
in the end, by one point.
Dramafic Formula One folklore.
/z”// be there fore ver.
(Freddie Hunt) When I met Niki, the
first thing he said to me was,
"I /o ved your father. ".
And, I mean, I think Dad
quiz' at the end of the season.
He wished he could have shared
the championship with Niki.
They both lived to win,
and he wanted
to share it with him.
But he couldn't, obviously.
There can be only one.
That was his shoot/ng
star moment, I think,
and if was the seminal
changing point in Formula One.
(narrator) The fairytale
end/ng belonged to Hunt,
but if was Lauda's decision
to quiz'
with the championship
on the line
that helped change
the sport fore ver.
/f the fastesz' drivers
refuse to race
out of fear for their lives
with the entire world watching,
there is no Formula One.
(Watson) We understood that
culling racing drivers
is not a good deal.
The public doesn't want
to see these heroes
dying on television,
dying in your living room.
(man) This week's big event
is the British Grand Prix.
Really, safety
came about with money.
(John Hogan) And that was a/I
to do with the television.
That was the real breakthrough.
That's no! Really frue.
The money helped,
but the whole point about
safety is it depends
on the attitude of the
people running the sport.
(narrator) The new men
taking the lead in the fight
were Survivors
in their own right.
/t was obvious that something
needed to be done.
A decade after Jim Clark's
death shocked the world,
Bernie Ecc/esfone
quief/ y hired
the leading neurosurgeon
in London
as the official
race doctor for Formula One.
This was Bernie's idea,
to take on
this permanent doctor,
Professor Sid Wafkins,
a renowned brain surgeon.
(Dr. Sid Wafk/ns) The
first year with Bernie
was a very difficult year
because nobody wanted
Sid Watkins at the circuit.
(Jody Scheckfer) The y've
got their own doctors,
and they don 'f like
some Englishman coming along
and saying, you know,
"We want to do this."
(narrator) A2' the German
Grand Prix in 1978,
Dr. Wafk/ns' fourth race,
the organizers banned
the track doctor
from race control
just moments before the start.
Bernie says, "Well, pack the cars.
We 're lea Ving. ".
Race control rep/led,
"What am I going to do"
"with 80,000 Germans
who are here?"
And Bernie said, "You can go and
tell them to fuck themselves."
And they said, "The doctor
can come back in. "
(narrator) If was always
said that Sid Watk/ns
was the only man to whom Bernie
Ecc/esfone always deferred.
(narrator) Four races later,
Dr. Watk/ns learned firsthand
the hardest lesson
in Formula One.
[announcer speaking German]
[specfafors reacting]
[announcer confinues speaking]
(Jane Birbeck)
We wafched if on TV.
James pulled Ronnie
out of the car.
I was pre vented from
getting there by the police,
for about 20 minutes or so.
I mean,
if was abso/uie ma yhem.
(narrator) The super
Swede, Ronnie Peterson,
had both of his legs
crushed in the pileup.
E venfually, Ronnie
went off in the he/icopfer,
and we resumed the start.
(narrator) Colin Chapman
won his se venfh and final
world championship
with Mario Andreffi.
He also lost his fifth driver.
Peterson died the next day,
after suffering an embolism.
That was just
a sword through my heart.
He should no! Have died
from that.
/f Dr. Watk/ns
was in charge at Monza,
Ronnie Peterson would probably
be sitting next to me.
(Koen Vergeer) Peterson was one
of the guys on my first race.
AI/ the others disappeared.
They had stopped,
or they had died.
On that day,
when Ronnie Peterson died,
my childhood approach
to Formula One ended.
If was a turning point
for the sport, too.
(narrator) From that race on,
Dr. Watk/ns began riding
in a safety car
behind every start,
for the most dangerous /ap
of every race,
so he could be on hand
in the event of an accident.
My job was really to
look after the drivers,
and that's what I did.
(narrator) He sfandardized
medical response
within Formula One,
mandafing permanent medical
facilities af each circuiz'
and he/icopfers on hand
for every race and practice.
Sid Watk/ns was the man.
Formula One sti/I lost
four men in four years.
(man) An outstand/ng
driver lost his //fe
through what was,
in my opinion,
a pure motor racing accident.
(narrator) But only two
drivers were killed
over the next 12 years.
Each death was me! With scrutin
y by the men in charge,
And a haunf/ng refrain by those
who knew too well
the price of g/ory.
It's ferrib/y, ferrib/y sad,
but it's always happened
and it always will.
It's just intrinsic
to Formula One.
(narrator) Uni/I one.
(Martin Brund/e)
I was driving in the race,
and if was
a really strange time.
We hadjusf lost Roland
Rafzenberger a day earlier.
And everybody Starts
looking over their shoulder
and looking round at
what's going to happen next.
(Jo Ramirez) And I remember that
evening that we were ta/king about,
yep, if was Rafzenberger.
If was, like, his first race.
No! For one minute / thought
if could ever happen to Senna.
(narrator) The three-time
world champion
had become the new face
of Formula One,
the one driver who could fina/I
y challenge the great Fangio.
(Eddie Jordan)
You had this great vision
of a megastar in A yrton Senna.
He was re vered.
He was probably the most
popular world champion
because he had everything,
and he brought great
style to Formula One.
He brought it to another level.
(Dr. Walk/ne) He was one
of the most geni/e people
that you could imagine.
He was getting older,
and he was starting to
campaign hea vi/y for safety.
You've seen Rubens?
He's all right. He's all right.
He's shocked, of course,
but he's all right.
(Dr. Sid Wafkins)
On Sunday morning,
just before the race,
I said to A yrton,
"You know, you're
the fastesz' guy around."
"Why don't you quit?"
He said, "/ can 'f quif.
I have to go on. ".
Maybe I should have been
much more se vere with him.
But then, you know, you've got
responsibi/ifies to a/I of those...
all of those boys.
And they were boys to me, see,
since I was so much
older than them.
(Lewis Hamilton)
I was 9 years old,
and my dad fold me that A yrton
's crashed and he's died.
I think as a kid at that age,
it's always difficult to understand
what that actually means.
But I went round the back
of the car, I remember,
and I cried.
I cou/dn 'f let my dad
see me because, you know,
you don 'f let
a man see you cry,
But I remember that day, and
I really was affected by it.
Sti/I today, I say he's
the greatest driver ever.
(Maurice Hamilton)
The biggest difference
between the death of Jim Clark
on the 7th of April, 1968,
and A yrton Senna
on the 132' of May, 1994,
is that the world needed
to know the answer
as to wh y this had happened.
Why is this man dead?
Why is motor racing
so dangerous?
The death of A yrton Senna
was relayed by television
info the living rooms of millions
of people around the world,
to people who didn't really
know about motor sport,
but knew of him.
Somebody had to be blamed.
(narrator) The new
president of the FIA
had been on the grid
the day Jim Clark died.
I think it's distressing
that so much of the press
doesn 'f appreciate the
rea/ifies of the situation.
(narrator)
Max Mos/e y had ascended
to the ultimate position
of power within the sport
just months
before Senna's death.
(Mos/e y) They were
absolutely concenfraied on,
wh y did Senna have the crash?
Tofal/ y irre/e van f.
It's a sport done at the limit
of human and mechanical ability.
When you do that, you're
going to have a crash.
The interesting question
isn't wh y he crashed,
it's why did he get killed?
(narrator) Mos/e y
cal/ed on Dr. Watk/ns
to lead
a scientific examination
info every aspect of the sport.
(Schumacher)
Max had a clear message,
sa ying that whatever is
happening to a car,
there should be no
reason to die in a car.
[spectators cheering]
(Martin Brund/e) / remember
going up in the air.
My first thought was,
"Please don 'f let me
go in the frees, "
because, you fly,
you die, info the frees.
Then if Starts to roll.
If fee/s like being in a tumble
dryer, a washing machine.
When if stopped,
I could feel this liquid
running down info my overalls.
I could smell fuel,
and I thought I was going
to catch fire and burn.
(man) This is what we
feared at this corner,
and that was very nasty indeed!
(Damon Hill) That's the first big
accidenf since A yrton Senna,
and the whole world
was watching.
(Brund/e) If was the first race
where fhey'd raised the
headresfs, up beside the driver,
and that played a big role in me no!
Being injured at all.
No! Only was he alive,
but he got back in the race.
[spectators cheering]
And it struck me then
that we 'a' moved on,
that the whole aspect
of it had changed.
(Mos/e y) What happened
was the affifude changed,
and Senna gave the impetus
to really go info safety
on a scientific basis.
(narrator)
In an arms race for speed,
no expense has been spared
for survival.
(Lewis Hamilton)
Never had that fear.
Never been worried about death
or the danger of getting hurt.
(Sebastian Vellel) 270 kilometers
an hour through the Corners.
Ah, it's unbelievable.
Sometimes if you
just look outside,
left and right,
you think, am I crazy?
It's almost like you
have control of the danger.
(Bern/e Ecc/estone) There 's
probably as many accidenfs today
as there was then...
but the results of the accidenfs
are complete/ y different.
[remarks from race announcer]
(ma/e reporter) Have you
seen the accidenf on TV?
Well, yeah, I... l have
seen it also live,
when I was there! But,
uh... [onlookers laughing]
(Sir Jackie Ste warl) The modern-da
y driver will ne ver know,
and I hope and pray
that they ne ver find out
what if fee/s like to have the
consistency of death surrounding you.
(Jacky lckx) The idea was no!
To race and die,
the idea was to race and to
last as long as possible.
After a/I I have said
about Jackie Ste wart,
I really did appreciate
what he started.
(Nigel Manse/I)
Emerson and I have been
fa/king about if
today, actually.
We're very grateful
to be alive,
to have actually won the
races we've won and driven.
(Jacky lckx) / think we all
did something unbe/ie vab/e,
at the abso/uie lim/f
of the job.
In our days, we knew if you made
a misfake or something broke,
you had a good chance
you wou/dn 'f get out of if.
(Emerson Fiffipa/di)
AI/ these drivers,
they had a glamorous life,
and they were incredible.
I love my sport, and if was
awarding to be with my friends.
(Andreffi) I'm knock/ng
on wood every day
that I was one of the lucky ones
that really dodged the bullets.
(Mos/e y) /n the end, we were able
to use a/I these de ve/opmenfs
to /ifera/I y re vo/utionize
the crash safety
of the ordinary car industry.
(Mansa/I) That's why it's
such a fantastic sport.
If pioneers the evolution
of the car, and going faster.
But safefy's got to come first.
Three thousand people get killed
every day on the roads worldwide.
To make a one
per cent difference,
even one per cent,
is 30 people a day.
Real/y, that alone
justifies everything
that's come from Formula One.
But, you see, one's always
haunled by the past.
Max be/ie ves everyone
should //ve to a hundred.
I don 'f look back, aclual/ y.
I look forward.
Yesferda y's yesterday.
(man) Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
We are world champions!
World champions!
(man) Oh, no! Mark Webber's
gone right up there!
Oh! Mark Webber's gone
completely over the top there.
(male vocalist) .U A/I this
fee/s strange and unfrue .U
.U Ana' I won 'f
waste a minute .U