Lucky! (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Ringmeister - full transcript
Immediately after
Ayrton's death.
The viewing figures
increased dramatically.
After the shock and trauma of Imola,
it was hoping
for a happier time at
Monaco, but sadly it
wasn't to be.
As Karl Wendlinger shot out of
the tunnel at some 160
miles an hour in his
Sauber Mercedes
on Thursday,
he lost control, hit
the barrier and
suffered head injuries.
Three days later,
he's still in a coma
and his team have
withdrawn from the race.
For the next Grand Prix,
which is Barcelona,
we are going to reduce
the size of the diffuser,
we are going to raise the
front wing end plates and we
are going to restrict the
size of the front wings.
We are going to firstly
increase the lateral protection
for the driver's head
in order to allow the
teams to do that without
any difficulty from the
point of view of
weight and strength.
Therefore, we're
going to increase the
minimum weight
limit by 25 kilos.
Max is the one
that was crusading
that all the way
through to safety.
Obviously I supported
all these things because
it was the right thing to do.
You're looking at
the race leader in the
sole Williams Renault, Damon Hill.
You're watching Schumacher leave the pits.
He certainly, as
far as I could tell,
did not leave it in first gear.
We do have report
from the pit that
he is still stuck in fifth gear.
I do find it very
hard to believe and in
fact I would go to far as to
say it's actually impossible.
He is now dropping down
the final decent to the final
corner of the Spanish Grand
Prix, which Damon Hill wins.
There is a surge
of excitement and
joy in the grandstand around me.
I think generally
the public were
looking for
somebody else to love.
And Damon, Graham Hill's
son was recruited by Williams.
Then it's you Michael, probably forgot what
it's like to be in
second place, but
you obviously suffered
considerable difficulties today.
What happened?
I don't know actually
what really happened.
I just know that I finished
and going in fifth gear.
Schumacher is going to be black flagged.
Well this is most extraordinary because it
does look Schumacher goes by
Burger there but it
may be all to no avail
because if he's been
black flagged then this
could well be the
end of his race.
Damon Hill exits the last
corner and the crown falls.
And rightly so.
And he wins the
British Grand Prix.
Magnificent.
Well, the headmasters
going to give
somebody a winging
over this afterwards.
German racing driver and
world championship favorite
Michael Schumacher has
tonight been disqualified after
winning the Belgian Grand Prix.
Schumacher's car failed a
technical examination
and Britain's Damon Hill,
who finished his runner up,
has been declared the winner.
60 kilo of bull is not
the same at 1 mm.
Even the FIA doorman is
perplexed by a technical
issue that boils down to
the unseen wooden block
bolted down to the
underside of all Formula One
cars in order to reduce
aerodynamic downforces and oblige
drivers to corner more
slowly, brought in after
the death of Ayrton Senna.
This regulation insists
that the block must
be at least 10 mm thick.
But after Schumacher
won the Belgian Grand Prix,
his was found to be
only 7.4 millimeters
a difference estimated to be
worth 1 second per lap.
Max is a bit upset with him.
When he gets upset with
people, he punishes them.
There's no more I
could have expected
from those two races,
and I'm absolutely
delighted to have
realized that opportunity.
And now we can
really have a real
ding dong to the end of the year.
Australia is go.
Oh, out, out goes Schumacher.
The German is out of
the Australian Grand Prix.
And Damon Hill only
has to keep going
to be world champion of 1994.
But can he keep going?
Winning the championship, which
I nearly won earlier this
year, and then got banned for
a couple of races and
couldn't continue, lost a lot
of points, where I
thought, now it's going to be
very, very tough and difficult
to make this championship up
again just now sitting here.
And it's a dream.
Michael only knew about
one thing that was winning.
He didn't hurt being the first
of the losers or anything there.
He was a winner, and
sometimes wasn't too careful
in exactly how this actually
happened,
but he still won.
We wanted to show
Formula One worldwide and in
particular to people perhaps
have never seen Formula One.
So in 1995 by
then, we'd sorted
company on own company
that would do everything.
So there was only Formula One
people that were
carrying out the broadcast.
And the two world championship
contenders are once again
hammer and tongs for
victory in a Grand Prix.
Now, this is the chance
for Damon Hill, but
Schumacher's going
to try and cut him off.
Hill's alongside him
and goes through.
No
Schumacher, still marginally
ahead, pushes Damon Hill
sideways, retaining his line.
16th career victory for
Michael Schumacher, who starts
16th on the grid
and superbly win
the Belgian Grand Prix
again further to extend
his world championship
lead over Damon Hill.
Michael Schumacher enters
the last corner of the last race of
the last lap to win the
Pacific Grand Prix in Japan
and to become the
world champion of 1995.
The Benetton team,
of course, are ecstatic.
We didn't need
another year at the one
that just finished with
Michael destroying everybody.
I can't believe that
Formula One would be
anywhere near as properly
resist without Ferrari.
Even when Ferrari are losing,
it's still an awful lot
better than any of the
other teams winning.
I find it very
hard to believe that
you're contemplating moving next year
just for money.
It's a good point
which I'd like
to speak in the end of
the season about, because now I want
to concentrate
completely in 100%
with what I'm doing here.
We have a fantastic
relationship still in the team.
But there's no reason now
to talk what's
going on next year.
Every Formula One driver
want to drive for Ferrari.
It's such a magic name.
Max was very close to
Mr. Smith, who
at the time headed the Labor Party.
And when he
died, it was taken over by Tony Blair.
And Max
suggests he's a new guy and young guy,
and I'm sure he's enthusiastic
about what we do.
Why would we like
him to Silverstone?
I said, a good idea.
I immediately liked him.
I thought, this is the guy
that we need to run the country.
There's nothing that I
could think bad about me.
He was a
conservative like myself.
Max had said to me, you know,
as always they look into
get some help wherever
they can financially, in order that
they can carry on and
campaign and do the things
they want to do to
make things happen.
Wouldn't be a bad
idea if somewhere
you could support
them, I suppose.
Yes I suppose you're right, a nice guy.
He needs a bit of help.
If you say he needs
help financially, I
don't know, we
could help a little bit.
So it would only be like helping
a charity if we're
helping the country.
We are here to
celebrate the ending of
partnership, a partnership
between Formula One and the BBC.
I said, what about the BBC?
They've been
doing this for 18 years.
Bernie said, that the other side
of paying a lot more money.
And for a brief moment,
a very brief
moment, I felt guilty.
The teams have always been a
benefit of the two bureaus.
The Concord Agreement, which is a
very lengthy, complex
document in which
there are procedures for changing the
rules, which acknowledges
that the governing body has the
television rights and various
other rights which are then
ceded back to the teams.
And it was really the blueprint
according to which Formula One
operated. The teams currently
only enjoy less than
23% of the entire revenue.
And we have
to have a fairer share,
a more equitable
share of that income.
We have to take
steps to get a greater
share of the revenue
of Grand Prix Racing.
The teams all
believed that they were
the business, they
owned the business.
Without them, there
wouldn't be a business anyway,
so they should have
90% of the revenue.
Probably a good idea.
If they could have achieved
it would have been okay.
But it obviously wasn't fair because
they put all the ideas that both
ran their business on the bank of
the Formula One company.
As Max always said about
these things when
the teams used to complain.
Max put it
quite clearly, if I go to
a restaurant two or
three times a week to
eat, I can't say
I own the restaurant.
We've had an official
request from one of the three teams
to become a signatory, and I've been
told by that team
that the other
two also wish to become signatories.
But I haven't yet
heard that officially and
in writing from
the other two teams.
Supreme Commander,
Mr. Ecclestone.
There is the past master
to divide and rule, and
at the moment, what
we have to focus on, as
always, is winning races and growing
our company.
Damon, the world at
large would expect you
to feel rather hurt, downcast,
angry, disillusioned.
What are your feelings?
Well, I'm disappointed.
I wouldn't say that
I could be anything
other than that.
The negotiations were
conducted as they normally would be
over a period of the
last couple of weeks,
maybe four weeks
now with Frank Williams.
And if you're asking
which my ace up
my sleeve was,
then I think the fact
that I'm leading the
world championship.
Frank told me himself that
money was not the issue.
Would you agree that
it would be at least
nice for him to win
the world championship?
I will agree in front of all of
you that it would be nice for them
to win the World Championship.
Do you have
any emotional input?
No.
Never before in the
history of Formula One
Grand Prix racing has the son of a
world champion become
world champion himself.
This is something
that many people
didn't think could
possibly happen today.
They thought Damon would drive a
cautious race, but he forged.
And Damon Hill
exits the chicane
and wins the
Japanese Grand Prix.
And I got to stop because
I got a lump in my throat.
I think a lot of people
were surprised after
20 years, Ron lost
Philip Morris, and tobacco
companies were in love
with McLaren, and Ron got
a very good deal with the
German tobacco company.
This is the first race
they have won for 15 races.
The Europeans decided
they were going to ban
tobacco advertising in all
sports, effective immediately.
Banning tobacco advertising
will be a very powerful
measure in reducing smoking
among young people.
I said to Max.
This is a bit cranky, you know.
I don't think these
people understand
what effect that would have.
It would be disaster.
So Max said, well, maybe we
should go and see Mr. Blair.
It's a new government.
So we duly arrived,
and I think we made
the case pretty well
as to what would happen
if they suddenly blocked
all tobacco advertising.
Probably put one or two
teams out of business
and certainly make Formula
One a little bit shaky
in general.
It's not just a
case of turning the
lights off and
being in the dark.
Maybe we should just dim
the lights a little bit
over a period and
then turn the lights off.
And I think they
understood this and
realized the problems
it would have caused.
After nearly 12 hours of
hard bargaining, Europe
tonight agreed its first
ever tobacco advertising ban.
But the talks were
trench warfare all the way.
Tessa Jowell who won the special deal
allowing Formula One to take tobacco
sponsorship for nine more years.
Good afternoon. Downing Street is still
refusing to disclose how much money it
received from the head of motor racing.
The meeting was held with the Prime
Minister, not the Health Secretary
and the Prime Minister was fully appraised
of how much the donation was
from Bernie Ecclestone.
It gives a whiff
There was no impropriety whatever
in either Mr. Ecclestone giving
the donation or in us receiving it.
Can you tell us how much you
gave to the Labour Party?
I could but I'm not going to.
The press suggested that maybe
I had given money to Mr. Blair
the week this happened
which is completely stupid.
I mean I don't know how they
could ever think like that because
it's not my way of going on.
I pay for things after I bought them
got delivery not beforehand.
I'm a bit more sensible, cash on delivery.
One million pounds.
Did you give a donation
expecting something in return?
Nope. Didn't want anything.
I still don't want anything to be honest.
It was very difficult for Mr. Blair
and embarrassing for him as well
and for me but more for him than me
because from my point of view
it didn't make a lot of difference
what people were saying.
How much money did you
give back to Mr. Ecclestone?
A little while after all
this had died down,
they decided they wanted
to give the money back,
which they did.
And as they'd agreed,
they sent me a cheque,
but asked me if I wouldn't sort
of bank it for a few months
which I was surprised and
happy to get the cheque back
knowing eventually it would be cashed.
Most people who have dealt with me
think I'm a pretty straight guy and I am.
Ken hadn't won a championship since '73
so it wasn't the best time for
Ken and he'd been used to winning.
And in the end, he more or less gave up.
And I tried to help him sell the team
and I latched on not a manufacturer at all
but a very big tobacco company.
They wanted to get into Formula One.
The reason we have chosen to
sell however is primary financial.
We have not been able to put the funds
together to enable us to compete
at the highest level.
Suddenly, you've been working very hard
and been very successful.
Suddenly, managed to acquire
a large sum of money
You're thinking to going to spend the rest
of your life enjoying all this and poor
Ken didn't last long enough to do that.
So when he came into Formula One, he was
new to Formula One but he wasn't new
to open wheel racing.
Okay, let's go.
So I remember very well
my daughter thought he was wonderful
'cos the way he use to dress with his
baggy pants and everything else.
And she thought he was super.
I thought he was a scruffy guy.
Just remind you how things stand going
into the last Grand Prix,
winner takes all in that personal battle.
Right then, let's have a word with Martin
Brundle and Murray Walker.
Now then Murray, all sorts of chat about
what happen before the first corner.
A fair fight or bumping cars?
What's it going to be?
Jim, the eyes of the world are on
Jerez, Schumacher and Villeneuve.
I can't believe for one moment
that either of them are going
to try anything untowards.
They both want this race to finish on
the track and not on the gravel trap.
Villeneuve is all over him.
That didn't work.
That didn't work Michael.
You used the wrong part of him my friend.
I braked on the maximum and then he braked
even later which with his braking point.
I wouldn't have made the corner.
He wouldn't have made the corner.
I probably wouldn't have
done anything different.
Surprised him a little bit but he
knew I was on the inside of him.
He decided to turn in on me
but luckily he's the only one that went off
so his plan didn't work.
Michael Schumacher had to clear his way
through the human traffic this morning
to get to the disciplinary hearing.
The critical issue was whether
his manoeuvre on lap 48
was instinctive or pre-planned.
Michael came to the World Council
and I defended him then because
he could have been in a lot of trouble.
I'm as much a human being as anyone.
Things can happen to us that can happen to
anyone else and it happened to me which I
didn't want to admit at the time.
But now I've no chance to admit a
lie and understand what I did.
Although the act was apparently
deliberate, it was instinctive
and it was not pre-meditated.
The World Council has therefore decided to
exclude Michael Schumacher from the results
of the 1997 Formula One World Championship.
That was it.
So he got off quite lightly.
It's my opinion with all these things
are that people, unless you can prove
conclusively that they deliberately do
something, it's a little bit unfair to
really harshly punish somebody.
Michael could have easily won 3
championships by 2000 with Ferrari.
Out goes Michael Schumacher!
And it's go, go, go!
Yellow flag. A driver stalled on the line.
Aborted start.
Michael Schumacher has to start this
race from the back of the grid.
Well, if that is the case, Michael
Schumacher has almost certainly lost
the World Championship before
this race even begins.
Schumacher!
Michael's struggling to get
out of the car a little bit.
I'm wondering if he's hurt his legs.
We could be seeing the end of his
World Championship chances for 1999.
Mika was completely different to Michael.
He was a more sort of a
gentlemanly type of...
You'd expect him to turn up in a
nice suit and a hat and jump into
the Formula One car and drive it.
That's the sort of driver he was.
He's also bloody quick.
After he won his second Championship,
I sent him a silver telegram
congratulating him on winning.
If you want to know when you send a
telegram what you have to put in it,
it was very simple for me.
Nice guys do win.
It's a very happy surprise in 2001.
Suddenly, we had Ferrari come back to life.
They had been sleeping
a little bit too long.
They did all the right things, built the
right cars, everything was right.
Right team. Everything worked perfectly.
Michael Schumacher wins again for
Ferrari and Italy and three.
I was talking to Michael,
I said who is running Ferrari now?
He said I am.
I was walking in the Kings Road and
I felt some pain in my chest.
Started to run out of breath a little bit.
So I went home and went to bed which is
something I would not normally do
in the middle of the day
go the bed at least not alone anyway.
And Slavica called the doctor to come
and see me which he did.
You're going to need to have a stress test.
Ahh, that's good.
Tomorrow, we have a FOCA meeting.
It's exactly what will happen.
There will be a stress test.
Sid found out about this
and then took control.
I was told I need to have stents
which most people have no
idea what they were.
This was because I had problem with my
heart and they said unless this is done,
we're probably going to lose you.
Might have made a lot of people happy.
Had I had died, the company
would have been broken up
to pay for the death duties.
So they said the best thing you can do
is to give Slavica the company.
When this actually happened, I would
have no control over anything at all.
And basically the trustees, not even
Slavica but the trustees could do whatever
they thought was the right thing to do
'cos the money you put into a trust
normally, there's a reason for it, in this
case it was to look after not only Slavica
but also the children.
I was advised that a good way to put some
money into the company is to have a Bond.
The idea of the Bond was because I was told
that I couldn't do anymore stents,
I had to do a bypass.
Bernie Ecclestone launched a Bond issue.
It's been setup to benefit his wife
Slavica a former model who after the Queen
will become Britain's wealthiest woman.
When I came round after the operation
they put me into an intensive care unit
and said they had to
sort of open me up again
probably left something inside maybe.
I thought maybe he left
his wallet or something
he wants another look to make sure.
So they unzipped me again
and sorted out whatever was wrong.
And I disappointed so many people.
Stayed alive.
People never thought about anything
to do with Formula One as a business.
And suddenly, people this is probably
a good business to be involved in.
One of them was a guy called Thomas Haffa
from MTV who had just bought
the Muppet show or something.
He was in the entertainment business
and thought he should be in Formula One
because he thought that was entertaining.
So I went to Osterreich to meet Thomas and
eventually managed to get him involved.
Not to buy the company, but to
take a substantial interest.
Thomas made it quite clear to
me that whatever part he took
he didn't take any interest in running
the company in any shape or form.
And actually he said if I do make this
investment I want you to guarantee
you're going to stay there.
Well you flogged off half of Formula One
but you're still sort of cruising around
like you own the place still.
My wife sold or the trust sold half not me.
I got nothing. I'm just a
poor guy trying to work.
Haffa according to a bit of a
difficult oil the company did
and sold the shares that he had bought
to Leo Kirch,
who'd borrowed the money from German Bank.
It paid $1.65 billion
for the stake in March.
Kirch is to pay half a billion dollars to
EMTV for a 49% stake in that holding.
When Kirsch suddenly got 75% of the
company they would have then forgot about
free to air television and tried to sold
it to everything on a pay basis, which, in
any event, I would have stopped them doing
whatever happened.
I was in the office and somebody told
me I should turn the TV on.
We had a race planned at Indianapolis.
And some of the teams pushed by one or two
drivers started thinking it would be
dangerous to go and we shouldn't go there.
Obviously it was terrible what happened
and I just pointed out that we had a
contract to race in Indianapolis.
The promoter was expecting
us to fulfill the contract.
I said, this is what we're going to do.
Share prices have been tumbling. In London,
the FTSE 100 has had a very bad day.
After 911, the stock market crashed,
which put Kirch in trouble.
What Kirch did wrong was assumed future
revenues from Pay TV would be huge.
Based on that, he got itself into deals
on which it now owes some $6 billion.
Under pressure from creditors,
Leo Kirch may be forced to sell
one of sport's greatest prizes.
The Bayerische Landesbank,
the company's biggest lender has
told Kirch there's no more credit.
So suddenly we've got another boss,
a German Bank.
I've had so many bosses during
my reign in Formula One.
One of them was a guy called
Gerhard Gribkowsky.
Gribkowsky was happy, happy, happy
because I used to walk around with
him and introduce him as my boss.
When people spoke to me about anything
I'd say, well my boss is here.
He was very happy with that situation.
I think he'd forgotten about banking.
I think he even forgot he was
actually working for the bank.
I think one or two people in the
bank were a little bit upset
with that and reminded him.
I think on a number of occasions
that they wanted to sell the
shares that they had inherited.
They didn't want to be encumbered with one.
So this was his task, selling the company.
This is a very, very magical moment.
I grew up hearing about Fangio and I
thought no one will ever do that.
But Michael Schumacher has done it today
and he wins his 61st Grand Prix and he's
a five times World Formula One Champion.
Globally, the best estimates are that
Formula One earned around $375 million
from television rights last year
and about $425 million from
advertising and sponsorship.
That's a total of $800 million
of which less than a quarter
went to the 10 Formula One teams.
Pretty much all the rest of the money went
to companies controlled but not as it turns
out really owned by Bernie Ecclestone.
I sat and explained very carefully
how the teams could own Formula One
without putting in one cent.
And the answer I got was very clearly
We are racers,
we don't want to own the company.
But in the next year or two or three at
the most when the present Concorde
agreement, which binds us all together,
runs out there will be a much more
difficult negotiation for him,
Bernie he knows that we all know that.
Do you think he's getting worried about it?
He'll never, ever admit it.
I don't think he ever will be.
He's very much a fighter. Not as a fight.
Michael, seven times world champion.
Is it an emotional moment.
It's very special.
We're in Spa which it does mean
a lot to me that circuit that place.
And to clinch the seventh title
at the 700th Grand Prix for Ferrari
is something very special.
The domination of Ferrari meant a drop in
the TV figures wasn't the sort of thing
that the bank was excited about.
Their intention was always to
sell to another TV company.
I think we'll leave it there.
Thank you very much. Well done
gentlemen. Enjoy your evening.
Drop in the TV figures of
making the bank very nervous.
Gerhard could never understand
they own 75% of the company.
But when the board didn't have much control
and I used the word much because
it meant didn't have any.
So they went to court to try and
get the court to say that they should
have more representation on the board.
He's one of Britain's richest men.
But tonight, Bernie Ecclestone has lost
some of his iron grip on the sport,
which made him his money.
The boardroom battle in the
courts didn't go his way.
His domination of Formula One is facing
its most serious threat so far.
And if they had wanted to,
they could have fired me.
Ayrton's death.
The viewing figures
increased dramatically.
After the shock and trauma of Imola,
it was hoping
for a happier time at
Monaco, but sadly it
wasn't to be.
As Karl Wendlinger shot out of
the tunnel at some 160
miles an hour in his
Sauber Mercedes
on Thursday,
he lost control, hit
the barrier and
suffered head injuries.
Three days later,
he's still in a coma
and his team have
withdrawn from the race.
For the next Grand Prix,
which is Barcelona,
we are going to reduce
the size of the diffuser,
we are going to raise the
front wing end plates and we
are going to restrict the
size of the front wings.
We are going to firstly
increase the lateral protection
for the driver's head
in order to allow the
teams to do that without
any difficulty from the
point of view of
weight and strength.
Therefore, we're
going to increase the
minimum weight
limit by 25 kilos.
Max is the one
that was crusading
that all the way
through to safety.
Obviously I supported
all these things because
it was the right thing to do.
You're looking at
the race leader in the
sole Williams Renault, Damon Hill.
You're watching Schumacher leave the pits.
He certainly, as
far as I could tell,
did not leave it in first gear.
We do have report
from the pit that
he is still stuck in fifth gear.
I do find it very
hard to believe and in
fact I would go to far as to
say it's actually impossible.
He is now dropping down
the final decent to the final
corner of the Spanish Grand
Prix, which Damon Hill wins.
There is a surge
of excitement and
joy in the grandstand around me.
I think generally
the public were
looking for
somebody else to love.
And Damon, Graham Hill's
son was recruited by Williams.
Then it's you Michael, probably forgot what
it's like to be in
second place, but
you obviously suffered
considerable difficulties today.
What happened?
I don't know actually
what really happened.
I just know that I finished
and going in fifth gear.
Schumacher is going to be black flagged.
Well this is most extraordinary because it
does look Schumacher goes by
Burger there but it
may be all to no avail
because if he's been
black flagged then this
could well be the
end of his race.
Damon Hill exits the last
corner and the crown falls.
And rightly so.
And he wins the
British Grand Prix.
Magnificent.
Well, the headmasters
going to give
somebody a winging
over this afterwards.
German racing driver and
world championship favorite
Michael Schumacher has
tonight been disqualified after
winning the Belgian Grand Prix.
Schumacher's car failed a
technical examination
and Britain's Damon Hill,
who finished his runner up,
has been declared the winner.
60 kilo of bull is not
the same at 1 mm.
Even the FIA doorman is
perplexed by a technical
issue that boils down to
the unseen wooden block
bolted down to the
underside of all Formula One
cars in order to reduce
aerodynamic downforces and oblige
drivers to corner more
slowly, brought in after
the death of Ayrton Senna.
This regulation insists
that the block must
be at least 10 mm thick.
But after Schumacher
won the Belgian Grand Prix,
his was found to be
only 7.4 millimeters
a difference estimated to be
worth 1 second per lap.
Max is a bit upset with him.
When he gets upset with
people, he punishes them.
There's no more I
could have expected
from those two races,
and I'm absolutely
delighted to have
realized that opportunity.
And now we can
really have a real
ding dong to the end of the year.
Australia is go.
Oh, out, out goes Schumacher.
The German is out of
the Australian Grand Prix.
And Damon Hill only
has to keep going
to be world champion of 1994.
But can he keep going?
Winning the championship, which
I nearly won earlier this
year, and then got banned for
a couple of races and
couldn't continue, lost a lot
of points, where I
thought, now it's going to be
very, very tough and difficult
to make this championship up
again just now sitting here.
And it's a dream.
Michael only knew about
one thing that was winning.
He didn't hurt being the first
of the losers or anything there.
He was a winner, and
sometimes wasn't too careful
in exactly how this actually
happened,
but he still won.
We wanted to show
Formula One worldwide and in
particular to people perhaps
have never seen Formula One.
So in 1995 by
then, we'd sorted
company on own company
that would do everything.
So there was only Formula One
people that were
carrying out the broadcast.
And the two world championship
contenders are once again
hammer and tongs for
victory in a Grand Prix.
Now, this is the chance
for Damon Hill, but
Schumacher's going
to try and cut him off.
Hill's alongside him
and goes through.
No
Schumacher, still marginally
ahead, pushes Damon Hill
sideways, retaining his line.
16th career victory for
Michael Schumacher, who starts
16th on the grid
and superbly win
the Belgian Grand Prix
again further to extend
his world championship
lead over Damon Hill.
Michael Schumacher enters
the last corner of the last race of
the last lap to win the
Pacific Grand Prix in Japan
and to become the
world champion of 1995.
The Benetton team,
of course, are ecstatic.
We didn't need
another year at the one
that just finished with
Michael destroying everybody.
I can't believe that
Formula One would be
anywhere near as properly
resist without Ferrari.
Even when Ferrari are losing,
it's still an awful lot
better than any of the
other teams winning.
I find it very
hard to believe that
you're contemplating moving next year
just for money.
It's a good point
which I'd like
to speak in the end of
the season about, because now I want
to concentrate
completely in 100%
with what I'm doing here.
We have a fantastic
relationship still in the team.
But there's no reason now
to talk what's
going on next year.
Every Formula One driver
want to drive for Ferrari.
It's such a magic name.
Max was very close to
Mr. Smith, who
at the time headed the Labor Party.
And when he
died, it was taken over by Tony Blair.
And Max
suggests he's a new guy and young guy,
and I'm sure he's enthusiastic
about what we do.
Why would we like
him to Silverstone?
I said, a good idea.
I immediately liked him.
I thought, this is the guy
that we need to run the country.
There's nothing that I
could think bad about me.
He was a
conservative like myself.
Max had said to me, you know,
as always they look into
get some help wherever
they can financially, in order that
they can carry on and
campaign and do the things
they want to do to
make things happen.
Wouldn't be a bad
idea if somewhere
you could support
them, I suppose.
Yes I suppose you're right, a nice guy.
He needs a bit of help.
If you say he needs
help financially, I
don't know, we
could help a little bit.
So it would only be like helping
a charity if we're
helping the country.
We are here to
celebrate the ending of
partnership, a partnership
between Formula One and the BBC.
I said, what about the BBC?
They've been
doing this for 18 years.
Bernie said, that the other side
of paying a lot more money.
And for a brief moment,
a very brief
moment, I felt guilty.
The teams have always been a
benefit of the two bureaus.
The Concord Agreement, which is a
very lengthy, complex
document in which
there are procedures for changing the
rules, which acknowledges
that the governing body has the
television rights and various
other rights which are then
ceded back to the teams.
And it was really the blueprint
according to which Formula One
operated. The teams currently
only enjoy less than
23% of the entire revenue.
And we have
to have a fairer share,
a more equitable
share of that income.
We have to take
steps to get a greater
share of the revenue
of Grand Prix Racing.
The teams all
believed that they were
the business, they
owned the business.
Without them, there
wouldn't be a business anyway,
so they should have
90% of the revenue.
Probably a good idea.
If they could have achieved
it would have been okay.
But it obviously wasn't fair because
they put all the ideas that both
ran their business on the bank of
the Formula One company.
As Max always said about
these things when
the teams used to complain.
Max put it
quite clearly, if I go to
a restaurant two or
three times a week to
eat, I can't say
I own the restaurant.
We've had an official
request from one of the three teams
to become a signatory, and I've been
told by that team
that the other
two also wish to become signatories.
But I haven't yet
heard that officially and
in writing from
the other two teams.
Supreme Commander,
Mr. Ecclestone.
There is the past master
to divide and rule, and
at the moment, what
we have to focus on, as
always, is winning races and growing
our company.
Damon, the world at
large would expect you
to feel rather hurt, downcast,
angry, disillusioned.
What are your feelings?
Well, I'm disappointed.
I wouldn't say that
I could be anything
other than that.
The negotiations were
conducted as they normally would be
over a period of the
last couple of weeks,
maybe four weeks
now with Frank Williams.
And if you're asking
which my ace up
my sleeve was,
then I think the fact
that I'm leading the
world championship.
Frank told me himself that
money was not the issue.
Would you agree that
it would be at least
nice for him to win
the world championship?
I will agree in front of all of
you that it would be nice for them
to win the World Championship.
Do you have
any emotional input?
No.
Never before in the
history of Formula One
Grand Prix racing has the son of a
world champion become
world champion himself.
This is something
that many people
didn't think could
possibly happen today.
They thought Damon would drive a
cautious race, but he forged.
And Damon Hill
exits the chicane
and wins the
Japanese Grand Prix.
And I got to stop because
I got a lump in my throat.
I think a lot of people
were surprised after
20 years, Ron lost
Philip Morris, and tobacco
companies were in love
with McLaren, and Ron got
a very good deal with the
German tobacco company.
This is the first race
they have won for 15 races.
The Europeans decided
they were going to ban
tobacco advertising in all
sports, effective immediately.
Banning tobacco advertising
will be a very powerful
measure in reducing smoking
among young people.
I said to Max.
This is a bit cranky, you know.
I don't think these
people understand
what effect that would have.
It would be disaster.
So Max said, well, maybe we
should go and see Mr. Blair.
It's a new government.
So we duly arrived,
and I think we made
the case pretty well
as to what would happen
if they suddenly blocked
all tobacco advertising.
Probably put one or two
teams out of business
and certainly make Formula
One a little bit shaky
in general.
It's not just a
case of turning the
lights off and
being in the dark.
Maybe we should just dim
the lights a little bit
over a period and
then turn the lights off.
And I think they
understood this and
realized the problems
it would have caused.
After nearly 12 hours of
hard bargaining, Europe
tonight agreed its first
ever tobacco advertising ban.
But the talks were
trench warfare all the way.
Tessa Jowell who won the special deal
allowing Formula One to take tobacco
sponsorship for nine more years.
Good afternoon. Downing Street is still
refusing to disclose how much money it
received from the head of motor racing.
The meeting was held with the Prime
Minister, not the Health Secretary
and the Prime Minister was fully appraised
of how much the donation was
from Bernie Ecclestone.
It gives a whiff
There was no impropriety whatever
in either Mr. Ecclestone giving
the donation or in us receiving it.
Can you tell us how much you
gave to the Labour Party?
I could but I'm not going to.
The press suggested that maybe
I had given money to Mr. Blair
the week this happened
which is completely stupid.
I mean I don't know how they
could ever think like that because
it's not my way of going on.
I pay for things after I bought them
got delivery not beforehand.
I'm a bit more sensible, cash on delivery.
One million pounds.
Did you give a donation
expecting something in return?
Nope. Didn't want anything.
I still don't want anything to be honest.
It was very difficult for Mr. Blair
and embarrassing for him as well
and for me but more for him than me
because from my point of view
it didn't make a lot of difference
what people were saying.
How much money did you
give back to Mr. Ecclestone?
A little while after all
this had died down,
they decided they wanted
to give the money back,
which they did.
And as they'd agreed,
they sent me a cheque,
but asked me if I wouldn't sort
of bank it for a few months
which I was surprised and
happy to get the cheque back
knowing eventually it would be cashed.
Most people who have dealt with me
think I'm a pretty straight guy and I am.
Ken hadn't won a championship since '73
so it wasn't the best time for
Ken and he'd been used to winning.
And in the end, he more or less gave up.
And I tried to help him sell the team
and I latched on not a manufacturer at all
but a very big tobacco company.
They wanted to get into Formula One.
The reason we have chosen to
sell however is primary financial.
We have not been able to put the funds
together to enable us to compete
at the highest level.
Suddenly, you've been working very hard
and been very successful.
Suddenly, managed to acquire
a large sum of money
You're thinking to going to spend the rest
of your life enjoying all this and poor
Ken didn't last long enough to do that.
So when he came into Formula One, he was
new to Formula One but he wasn't new
to open wheel racing.
Okay, let's go.
So I remember very well
my daughter thought he was wonderful
'cos the way he use to dress with his
baggy pants and everything else.
And she thought he was super.
I thought he was a scruffy guy.
Just remind you how things stand going
into the last Grand Prix,
winner takes all in that personal battle.
Right then, let's have a word with Martin
Brundle and Murray Walker.
Now then Murray, all sorts of chat about
what happen before the first corner.
A fair fight or bumping cars?
What's it going to be?
Jim, the eyes of the world are on
Jerez, Schumacher and Villeneuve.
I can't believe for one moment
that either of them are going
to try anything untowards.
They both want this race to finish on
the track and not on the gravel trap.
Villeneuve is all over him.
That didn't work.
That didn't work Michael.
You used the wrong part of him my friend.
I braked on the maximum and then he braked
even later which with his braking point.
I wouldn't have made the corner.
He wouldn't have made the corner.
I probably wouldn't have
done anything different.
Surprised him a little bit but he
knew I was on the inside of him.
He decided to turn in on me
but luckily he's the only one that went off
so his plan didn't work.
Michael Schumacher had to clear his way
through the human traffic this morning
to get to the disciplinary hearing.
The critical issue was whether
his manoeuvre on lap 48
was instinctive or pre-planned.
Michael came to the World Council
and I defended him then because
he could have been in a lot of trouble.
I'm as much a human being as anyone.
Things can happen to us that can happen to
anyone else and it happened to me which I
didn't want to admit at the time.
But now I've no chance to admit a
lie and understand what I did.
Although the act was apparently
deliberate, it was instinctive
and it was not pre-meditated.
The World Council has therefore decided to
exclude Michael Schumacher from the results
of the 1997 Formula One World Championship.
That was it.
So he got off quite lightly.
It's my opinion with all these things
are that people, unless you can prove
conclusively that they deliberately do
something, it's a little bit unfair to
really harshly punish somebody.
Michael could have easily won 3
championships by 2000 with Ferrari.
Out goes Michael Schumacher!
And it's go, go, go!
Yellow flag. A driver stalled on the line.
Aborted start.
Michael Schumacher has to start this
race from the back of the grid.
Well, if that is the case, Michael
Schumacher has almost certainly lost
the World Championship before
this race even begins.
Schumacher!
Michael's struggling to get
out of the car a little bit.
I'm wondering if he's hurt his legs.
We could be seeing the end of his
World Championship chances for 1999.
Mika was completely different to Michael.
He was a more sort of a
gentlemanly type of...
You'd expect him to turn up in a
nice suit and a hat and jump into
the Formula One car and drive it.
That's the sort of driver he was.
He's also bloody quick.
After he won his second Championship,
I sent him a silver telegram
congratulating him on winning.
If you want to know when you send a
telegram what you have to put in it,
it was very simple for me.
Nice guys do win.
It's a very happy surprise in 2001.
Suddenly, we had Ferrari come back to life.
They had been sleeping
a little bit too long.
They did all the right things, built the
right cars, everything was right.
Right team. Everything worked perfectly.
Michael Schumacher wins again for
Ferrari and Italy and three.
I was talking to Michael,
I said who is running Ferrari now?
He said I am.
I was walking in the Kings Road and
I felt some pain in my chest.
Started to run out of breath a little bit.
So I went home and went to bed which is
something I would not normally do
in the middle of the day
go the bed at least not alone anyway.
And Slavica called the doctor to come
and see me which he did.
You're going to need to have a stress test.
Ahh, that's good.
Tomorrow, we have a FOCA meeting.
It's exactly what will happen.
There will be a stress test.
Sid found out about this
and then took control.
I was told I need to have stents
which most people have no
idea what they were.
This was because I had problem with my
heart and they said unless this is done,
we're probably going to lose you.
Might have made a lot of people happy.
Had I had died, the company
would have been broken up
to pay for the death duties.
So they said the best thing you can do
is to give Slavica the company.
When this actually happened, I would
have no control over anything at all.
And basically the trustees, not even
Slavica but the trustees could do whatever
they thought was the right thing to do
'cos the money you put into a trust
normally, there's a reason for it, in this
case it was to look after not only Slavica
but also the children.
I was advised that a good way to put some
money into the company is to have a Bond.
The idea of the Bond was because I was told
that I couldn't do anymore stents,
I had to do a bypass.
Bernie Ecclestone launched a Bond issue.
It's been setup to benefit his wife
Slavica a former model who after the Queen
will become Britain's wealthiest woman.
When I came round after the operation
they put me into an intensive care unit
and said they had to
sort of open me up again
probably left something inside maybe.
I thought maybe he left
his wallet or something
he wants another look to make sure.
So they unzipped me again
and sorted out whatever was wrong.
And I disappointed so many people.
Stayed alive.
People never thought about anything
to do with Formula One as a business.
And suddenly, people this is probably
a good business to be involved in.
One of them was a guy called Thomas Haffa
from MTV who had just bought
the Muppet show or something.
He was in the entertainment business
and thought he should be in Formula One
because he thought that was entertaining.
So I went to Osterreich to meet Thomas and
eventually managed to get him involved.
Not to buy the company, but to
take a substantial interest.
Thomas made it quite clear to
me that whatever part he took
he didn't take any interest in running
the company in any shape or form.
And actually he said if I do make this
investment I want you to guarantee
you're going to stay there.
Well you flogged off half of Formula One
but you're still sort of cruising around
like you own the place still.
My wife sold or the trust sold half not me.
I got nothing. I'm just a
poor guy trying to work.
Haffa according to a bit of a
difficult oil the company did
and sold the shares that he had bought
to Leo Kirch,
who'd borrowed the money from German Bank.
It paid $1.65 billion
for the stake in March.
Kirch is to pay half a billion dollars to
EMTV for a 49% stake in that holding.
When Kirsch suddenly got 75% of the
company they would have then forgot about
free to air television and tried to sold
it to everything on a pay basis, which, in
any event, I would have stopped them doing
whatever happened.
I was in the office and somebody told
me I should turn the TV on.
We had a race planned at Indianapolis.
And some of the teams pushed by one or two
drivers started thinking it would be
dangerous to go and we shouldn't go there.
Obviously it was terrible what happened
and I just pointed out that we had a
contract to race in Indianapolis.
The promoter was expecting
us to fulfill the contract.
I said, this is what we're going to do.
Share prices have been tumbling. In London,
the FTSE 100 has had a very bad day.
After 911, the stock market crashed,
which put Kirch in trouble.
What Kirch did wrong was assumed future
revenues from Pay TV would be huge.
Based on that, he got itself into deals
on which it now owes some $6 billion.
Under pressure from creditors,
Leo Kirch may be forced to sell
one of sport's greatest prizes.
The Bayerische Landesbank,
the company's biggest lender has
told Kirch there's no more credit.
So suddenly we've got another boss,
a German Bank.
I've had so many bosses during
my reign in Formula One.
One of them was a guy called
Gerhard Gribkowsky.
Gribkowsky was happy, happy, happy
because I used to walk around with
him and introduce him as my boss.
When people spoke to me about anything
I'd say, well my boss is here.
He was very happy with that situation.
I think he'd forgotten about banking.
I think he even forgot he was
actually working for the bank.
I think one or two people in the
bank were a little bit upset
with that and reminded him.
I think on a number of occasions
that they wanted to sell the
shares that they had inherited.
They didn't want to be encumbered with one.
So this was his task, selling the company.
This is a very, very magical moment.
I grew up hearing about Fangio and I
thought no one will ever do that.
But Michael Schumacher has done it today
and he wins his 61st Grand Prix and he's
a five times World Formula One Champion.
Globally, the best estimates are that
Formula One earned around $375 million
from television rights last year
and about $425 million from
advertising and sponsorship.
That's a total of $800 million
of which less than a quarter
went to the 10 Formula One teams.
Pretty much all the rest of the money went
to companies controlled but not as it turns
out really owned by Bernie Ecclestone.
I sat and explained very carefully
how the teams could own Formula One
without putting in one cent.
And the answer I got was very clearly
We are racers,
we don't want to own the company.
But in the next year or two or three at
the most when the present Concorde
agreement, which binds us all together,
runs out there will be a much more
difficult negotiation for him,
Bernie he knows that we all know that.
Do you think he's getting worried about it?
He'll never, ever admit it.
I don't think he ever will be.
He's very much a fighter. Not as a fight.
Michael, seven times world champion.
Is it an emotional moment.
It's very special.
We're in Spa which it does mean
a lot to me that circuit that place.
And to clinch the seventh title
at the 700th Grand Prix for Ferrari
is something very special.
The domination of Ferrari meant a drop in
the TV figures wasn't the sort of thing
that the bank was excited about.
Their intention was always to
sell to another TV company.
I think we'll leave it there.
Thank you very much. Well done
gentlemen. Enjoy your evening.
Drop in the TV figures of
making the bank very nervous.
Gerhard could never understand
they own 75% of the company.
But when the board didn't have much control
and I used the word much because
it meant didn't have any.
So they went to court to try and
get the court to say that they should
have more representation on the board.
He's one of Britain's richest men.
But tonight, Bernie Ecclestone has lost
some of his iron grip on the sport,
which made him his money.
The boardroom battle in the
courts didn't go his way.
His domination of Formula One is facing
its most serious threat so far.
And if they had wanted to,
they could have fired me.