( Spectators cheering )
( Engine roaring )
( Heartbeat )
( Heartbeat slows )
( Engines roaring )
( Low, steady heartbeat )
( Sirens approaching )
Martin brundle: Everybody
thought I was dead.
I didn't have a bruise
on my body.
I didn't have anything at all.
I looked up,
and I saw a red flag.
That's lucky--
they'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!
Martin brundle: And so, you can't start
until you've seen Professor Watkins.
"Where's sid?
Anybody know where sid is?"
I ran towards him like crazy.
I got there, and he said,
"I can see you're okay.
I've just watched you run
300 meters. What's the date?"
I said, "it's the 10th
of march."
He said, "yeah, then
you're fine. Get in the car."
Martin brundle:
There is no doubt about it--
a few years before,
I would have been a dead man.
Martin brundle: We want
to see something exceptional,
breathtaking, that we
think we can't do.
We want to see gladiators,
warriors.
And let's face it, we do like
to see a bit of a shunt.
But we don't
want to see deaths.
Man: Miracle of miracles!
This is well nigh unbelievable!
Martin brundle
gets out of the car,
and he's seemingly
all right.
Martin brundle: It is
incredible how this changed,
and how suddenly it became unacceptable
to die in the name of sport.
Man: Grand prix is like
the Olympics of motor sports,
with the cars in
all national colors:
Blue for the French,
green for the British,
red for Italy,
and white for the Germans,
until Mercedes stopped using
paint on those silver arrows...
Man: Michael schumacher wins,
and becomes the most successful
grand prix driver of all time!
Man: ...The silver cars that
are the pride of Hitler Germany.
Man: Alfa Romeo wins,
driven by the fabulous nouvalri.
Man: What a feeling
for Fernando Alonzo.
He wins the Italian
grand prix at monza.
Man: As the French announce
their search for the fastest man
in a new world championship
series to be entitled formula 1,
with the inaugural race
to be held at silverstone.
Man: Enzo Ferrari for one
is not impressed
with the new wave
of British motor racers.
Il commendatore has labeled
the new independent designers
garagistes, the men
who cannot build engines.
Man: Fangio is beaten
in buenos aires
by former teammate
and fastest rival stirling moss,
in a Cooper funny car,
no less.
Man: What courage
by these men,
to push these cars
and themselves
to their very limits.
But that is formula 1.
Narrator: Formula 1
was born in a bygone time...
When boys' heroes
reigned in the sky.
Nigel mansell: When you're young,
you wanted to be a formula 1 driver.
You wanted to be an astronaut,
you wanted to be
a fighter pilot.
Damon hill:
After the second world war,
the mindset of going off
and doing something
courageous in a vehicle,
this just naturally flowed
into what became formula 1.
Martin brundle: 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 2.
They all had this
genuineness about them.
They all
were the real article.
John Watson: I certainly had respect
to those that went before me.
Some of them
were my contemporaries.
I met one time probably
in my view
the greatest
grand prix driver ever,
and that includes people
like Michael schumacher and ayrton senna.
Fangio.
Fangio.
Fangio.
Fangio.
Fangio.
Juan Manuel fangio.
Narrator: The first big name
in formula one
may have been
the best driver ever.
Fangio would win
five world titles,
a record that stood
for 40 years,
surpassed only
by Michael schumacher.
Whenever you drive those cars
that fangio had to race in,
it's very scary.
You have to hold yourself
on the steering wheel.
No safety belts.
The helmet was
just like a hat.
Goggles. And you
had to be brave.
Narrator: The most celebrated
driver in a dangerous time
survived.
The year fangio retired,
1958, the formula changed.
The sport's governing body
announced from Paris
that formula one would crown
two world champions each season--
one title for
the fastest driver,
and another for the manufacturer
of the fastest machine.
Mario andretti: This was
the evolution, you know?
Each team
has to take engines,
take chassis and technology
to the absolute limit.
Narrator: In this
new competition,
the British began to challenge
the old world continental powers.
John barnard: All the English
teams were considered to be
the garagistby... by Ferrari
and the other racing teams.
One englishman would set
the pace of progress,
in racing and the entire
automotive world.
Colin Chapman: We basically
go racing 'cause I like it.
I like the competitiveness
of it,
I like the comradeship of it.
And I also like the technical
fallout that comes from it.
John surtees: Colin Chapman
was a great character,
if at times a bit cavalier.
(Laughing softly)
Oh, I don't know about that.
Colin Chapman was
an engineer who learned to fly,
an entrepreneur who made
lightweight sports cars for the public,
as well as for grand prix,
under the name lotus.
In those days, lotus was
an out-and-out racing car.
My father, he was
always pushing the envelope.
Good engineering means you've
designed something to its limit.
Colin was the Maverick
of all time.
He was a genius.
He was the team owner
that you want to drive for.
By 1963,
Chapman had designed
the fastest machine
in formula one...
And he had the fastest man
behind the wheel of a lotus.
Sir Jackie Stewart: 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 never
over the limit.
He was never erratic.
He was never spectacular.
He was spectacularly fast,
but in an unspectacular fashion.
It was smooth and clean
and beautifully handled.
He would win more formula one
championship races
than any driver before him,
finishing in second place
only once in his career.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
He was a country boy.
He was a farmer from
the borders of Scotland,
quiet and almost innocent.
Jim Clark: I'd like to get
back here much more often.
It's, uh, great relaxation
to get back here,
and very much
the opposite from racing.
Clark became the face
of formula one,
with another champion,
Graham hill,
playing his affable foil.
Damon hill: Everyone
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.
Sally swart: Colin
was an extreme extrovert,
great fun to be with,
but very different
in character to Jimmy, really.
Jimmy was quieter.
But they were like brothers.
Together, they were
racing on the limit
of manmade speed
and ingenuity.
They won four world
championships between them,
and a record five
British grand prix.
But for all their success,
they failed to take
the checkered flag
at the most famous
motor race of all.
Fast cars and courageous souls
from all over the world
have been racing through
these streets since 1929.
Monaco is terrifying.
You cannot believe
it's possible
to hold a motor race
round Monaco.
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.
Jenson button:
You either do a lap that you're so proud of--
you're always wondering
if you're ever gonna do 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.
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.
His concentration on
one lap was just uncanny.
Narrator: Ayrton senna
won Monaco a record six times,
one more victory than the man
with the derring-do mustache.
Graham hill came
to Monaco in 1966
to defend his
third straight victory.
Graham hill: It's a tremendous race
and a great one to come and watch,
and if anybody's gonna come and see
a grand prix, this is really the one.
It's such a nice place
to be, anyway.
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 andretti: Still 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 thrill to see an expert at work.
Upon meeting Graham hill,
you like him.
Watching him made me become
more interested in racing
and what these men were doing.
In those days,
hill's fiercest rivals
were also
his closest friends.
( Indistinct remarks
and laughter )
Sir Jackie Stewart:
The intimacy was incredible,
from the racing drivers
to the mechanics
to the wives
and the girlfriends.
The camaraderie
was very deep.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
We went on holidays together.
We lived together.
We traveled together.
Brigitte hill: You felt
very much part of this family
growing up together.
Motor racing
was just a part of it.
The drivers
formed 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.
Brigitte hill: Betty brabham
stood 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.
Sally swart: They were always
playing with engines
or something like that,
not paying nearly enough
attention to us.
Bette hill: The fact that he's going
to work all 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.
Vocalists:
gimme some lovin'
gimme,
gimme some lovin'
gimme some lovin'
brigitte hill:
Wives did the lap scores,
and that would
decide the grids,
because there was no real
sort of official time keepers.
These kind of slightly
romantic memories
that everyone's got
of the whole thing.
So glad you made it
hey, hey
so glad you made it
we just were
a clan to ourselves.
They traveled by caravan,
town to town,
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.
Max mosley: I drove formula two
with Bruce mclaren
and jochen rindt and Jackie Stewart
and Jim Clark--
all sorts of top drivers
of that era.
I got the shock of my life
because they were putting 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 take it beyond,
when you're on the edge,
and you're just pushing
your luck a little.
Max mosley: The problem is,
when you push it to the limit,
it's irresistible,
and as soon as you've done it,
you want to do it again.
The charismatic
young Italian lorenzo bandini,
racing for Ferrari,
died after a fiery crash
at 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 sown
for an uprising
within the drivers' ranks.
Just months
before bandini's death,
the fia changed
the formula for entrance.
Max mosley: They doubled
the size of the engine
and more than
doubled the power.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
They were just racing on the same tracks
as they had done
almost pre-war.
The racetracks hadn't changed.
The medical facilities
hadn't changed.
The marshaling hadn't changed.
And suddenly the cars were
going almost twice as fast.
That same year,
Colin Chapman convinced
the mighty
Ford motor company
to invest
in a powerhouse engine
for his new,
even lighter design.
He signed Graham hill
to drive for team lotus,
alongside
his old rival 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 better cars.
He'd paint the car
any color you wanted,
as long as he could have more resources
to realize his ideas.
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--
was Jim Clark,
no question about it.
To me, he was the guy
I would like to have been.
One of Jim Clark's
first drives
in the red-and-gold colors
of gold leaf tobacco
was in Germany.
Max mosley: It was
a formula two race.
It was 1968, at hockenheim.
In April.
And I was on the grid.
( Indistinct p.A.
Announcements in German )
( P.A. Announcement
in German )
Sally swart: The whole world
stopped when that happened.
Damon hill: You don't understand
when you're young, really, what's going on.
But I remember watching the television
when Jim Clark died.
As you have probably heard,
yesterday Jim Clark,
racing driver Jim Clark,
was killed in Germany.
And 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't he?
I think
one of the greatest,
perhaps, uh, perhaps
the greatest yet.
Sally swart: It was a deflating tire,
that's what Colin thought.
He was really,
really devastated.
He was never quite
the same after that.
Colin Chapman: This is
the tragedy of motor racing,
is when you do get close
to a driver
and there is an accident,
of course it--
it hurts you so much more.
He was, I would say,
my best friend,
best friend I've ever had.
Max mosley:
There was no barrier,
and the car
went in full speed,
into the trees.
I'd always explained
to my wife that
as long as you were
reasonably careful,
it was all perfectly safe.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
We suddenly realized that if Jimmy died...
( Sighs ) God,
anybody could be killed.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
In 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 circumstances that we should
never have been allowed to go out in.
You couldn't see
sixty 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 mosley: If you spoke
to the fia or the organizers
and you said, "this is
really very dangerous,"
they'd say, "well, if you
think motor racing's dangerous,
"then slow down a bit. Don't drive so fast.
It's entirely up to you."
Sir Jackie Stewart:
They were blind to the reality.
They didn't
know those drivers.
They didn't know
the drivers' wives
and the drivers'
fathers and mothers.
Max mosley: I thought
to myself in those days,
if ever I get into a position
of any power in this world,
I will do
something about it.
One month
after Clark's funeral,
Graham hill climbed
back into his lotus
and won
the Spanish grand prix.
Damon hill: What my dad
did with lotus,
he regalvanized the team
by not letting this tragedy
be totally destructive to everything.
Max mosley: In '68,
Graham hill went on,
and he still won
a world championship.
( Spectators cheering )
Max mosley: And you just realized
this was another world.
The drivers
could just go on.
Some just don't
care about risk.
Man: Down from the vialone,
185 Miles an hour,
four cars virtually together,
and down to the parabolica
they come.
Can Stewart hold the line
on this, the last lap?
Somebody's challenging--
it's rindt going through!
Jochen rindt takes the lead
in the parabolica,
on the last corner
of the last lap.
And it's gonna be a fringe
factor to win. It must be!
It's... it's over
the line together!
And it's almost a dead heat!
It's Jackie Stewart,
rindt, beltoise, and mclaren!
Nobody has ever seen the finish
of a motor race like that!
I won the race by
about this much,
from jochen rindt.
And the crowd went
absolutely bananas.
They suddenly
were on top of us,
and the police were
trying to keep them back.
We ended up by locking
ourselves in a toilet!
And they were still outside banging the doors,
trying to get in.
( Spectators shouting )
There was no more enthusiastic
a crowd of spectators
than that of the Italians.
They really follow
the motor racing with a passion.
They're so spirited,
they're so enthusiastic.
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 tifoall around me
are erupting.
The Ferrari flags are flying.
The counting horses
are counting.
And Michael schumacher
wins in Italy!
Since 1929,
Ferrari fans have come
to monza--
the tifosi.
Tens of thousands strong,
cheering,
praying,
crying,
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.
It was incredible.
In my early years,
I struggled
to sort of understand
what it 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 dynasty.
In the first two decades
of formula one,
his powerful engines had
delivered six championships.
Ferrari had also
lost six drivers.
( Speaking Italian )
By 1969, Ferrari,
like every other team
on the grid,
was chasing Chapman and lotus
into a brave new world.
Sir Jackie Stewart: Suddenly,
we were running biplanes.
Max mosley: When the wings came,
it was a step change.
The aerodynamics
gives the tire 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 cornering
speeds went up.
Mario andretti: Obviously,
as you increase the cornering speed,
things become more dangerous.
This was the evolution
of the sport.
You cannot stop progress.
The first team
to take advantage
of aerodynamics was lotus.
Herbie blash: I remember
Colin Chapman arrived
at 4:00 in the morning, and he'd
suddenly had this dream--
huge wings.
In 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 rindt.
Eddie Dennis: We could
see from the pits
the wings appear
to start to buckle.
Graham's went first.
One of the boys ran back
to try and signal
jochen's car.
Rindt's wings collapsed
at the same turn in the track.
Hill escaped unhurt,
then fought to pull
his young teammate
out of the wreckage.
Rindt suffered a broken nose,
a fractured jaw,
and shattered confidence
in the man building his cars.
If Jim Clark had been like
a brother to Colin Chapman,
jochen rindt
was like a petulant son.
Eddie Dennis: Jochen had a few
ups and downs with the old man.
Orphaned when he was
just 15 months old,
he assumed his family
inheritance at 18,
and started buying
racing cars.
At 25, he married
a fashion model, Nina Lincoln,
the daughter
of another racer.
John Miles:
Jochen was acerbic,
apt to react very
strongly to situations.
( Speaking German )
Eddie Dennis: On one
or two occasions,
rindt wouldn't actually drive
one or two cars because he felt
that the design of
the car was unsafe.
Max mosley: Drivers,
when they're young,
they will drive
whatever you give them.
Jochen rindt
was completely different.
Eddie Dennis: I 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 mosley: Jochen, he had
this mysterious manager
called ecclestone.
John Miles: Rindt and Bernie
were always playing cards,
and he had
a sort of a live-wire,
sort of businessman
feel about him.
Herbie blash: Bernie could
handle Colin Chapman.
Normally 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 arguments
over that.
All these cars
were super light
and probably not safe.
It was certainly
gonna be quicker.
In 1970,
Chapman unveiled
a new-look lotus
for his steely young driver
that would bring formula one
into the modern age.
John Miles: The wedge shape,
the side radiators--
it was all highly advanced
and amazingly...
Fragile.
The car was being
developed at race meetings
in the back of trucks.
A lot of things
fell off, broke.
John barnard: The whole safety
thing wasn't even an issue.
Let's not beat
around the bush--
a designer's
first requirement
is to make it fast.
Being quick comes first.
One month
into the 1970 season,
rindt set aside
his reservations
and sent Chapman's
new lotus
roaring
into the history books.
Sir Jackie Stewart: Jochen rindt and I
were the two fastest drivers,
that'd be fair to say.
I saw a lot of the back side
of his car in 1970.
They came to monza
with almost twice
as many points
as the second place team,
owner/driver Jack brabham.
At practice, we often decided
to take the wings off the car.
It was all to do
with straight-line speed.
At monza, you gained
more down the straight.
Eddie Dennis: Seventy-five percent
of the drivers take the wings off.
The wings were off my car,
and the car was absolutely,
for me, undrivable.
It's the first time I've been
really, really frightened
in a racing car.
Jochen felt the only way
he was gonna go really fast
was to get rid of the wings
and sort of
hang the consequences.
Eddie Dennis: But the 72 had never been raced
without wings.
Sir Jackie Stewart: I 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:
It 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.
( Rindt laughs )
One of the first men
to openly question
the safety of his sport
was silenced at the age of 28.
Two months later,
his widow was awarded
the world championship--
the only posthumous title
ever won in formula one.
The lesson of
jochen rindt was that
had he had even basic
proper medical attention,
he would have survived.
Sir Jackie Stewart: The grand
prix drivers' association
had a really good
articulated vehicle
with everything on board.
The people did not
put him into that vehicle.
They took him
to the wrong hospital,
and the time he'd got
to the right hospital, he'd died.
Jochen rindt was
the third formula one star
to be killed that season.
Bruce mclaren was
killed at goodwood.
Nineteen days later,
piers courage was killed
in the Dutch grand prix.
Those were tragic times
in so many ways,
because we lost some
icons of our sport.
He had an accident.
As far as the world knew,
that's what happened--
he'd had an accident
and got killed.
And nobody really
looked behind it,
why the accident happened
and could somebody have done something
to stop it happening.
Mario andretti:
It always took some kind of a tragic 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 'em go faster.
Why can't we use the same knowledge
to make 'em safer?
There is a parallel
between formula one racing
and space.
As a kid, I followed
all the moon missions.
NASA technician:
Five... four... three...
Two... one.
Ignition sequence--
NASA technician:
Liftoff! We have a liftoff!
Koen vergeer:
It 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...
Into new worlds,
getting beyond boundaries.
Also about life and death.
( Spectators cheering )
Koen vergeer:
And that's formula one, too.
You knew when
the season started,
one or two of your
heroes would be killed.
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 zandvoort.
Koen vergeer:
We went there by train,
and you go into 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: In the early
'70s, formula one was
really a little bit
of a circus act.
Maurice Hamilton:
You'd go to a grand prix.
Until the cars cars
came out to practice,
you wouldn't know
who's gonna turn up.
Paddy McNally:
Each team would negotiate
with the individual promoters
at these various circuits.
John hogan: In 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 ickx was my hero.
He had his mysterious name.
Jacky ickx,
the baby-faced Belgian,
with Ferrari in 1970,
was the one driver
who could have caught
jochen rindt
for the championship.
In truth, ickx came
perilously close to becoming
the fourth casualty
of the season.
( Spectators screaming )
Jacky ickx: Being burnt is one of the
most painful things you can have.
You can be broken, you can
have all sort of things,
but being burned,
it's really-- it's terrible.
Jacky ickx: I never thought
it could happen to me.
It's not
gonna happen to me.
You always think
it's going to happen
to the other driver,
not to you.
John Watson: It was never
going to happen to me.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
A lot of drivers have the philosophy
that it's always someone else
who has an accident,
it's never themselves.
But of course you're
always on the very thin line
between survival
and even disaster,
or certainly death.
Jackie Stewart had
a huge accident at spa.
He was trapped
in his car upside down,
and he was soaked in fuel.
Max mosley: The great fear
was fire in those days.
Those cars were all
effectively a mobile bomb
because in an accident,
the fuel went everywhere
and caught 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
how amateur we were--
organizers,
teams, and drivers.
Both jackies
had been cut out and escaped,
only to become absolute
rivals in the revolution.
Ickx won at zanvoort in '71,
while the other Jackie
won his second world title.
We were
in total opposition.
Pure competition.
The flying scot became chair
of the grand prix drivers'
association,
and as world champion,
the de facto leader
in the uprising.
You're all wearing seatbelts
because in these cars,
an unfastened seatbelt
is no good.
While baby face
refused to join the union.
Jacky was not a believer
in the safety movement.
John Watson: Jacky just didn't want to
be part of the gdpa
because it didn't quite
suit the image of jacky ickx.
( Vintage audio )
Jacky ickx: I was not part of it
because that's the way I am.
Nigel roebuck: What he
didn't like was threats.
You know, "we will not race
tomorrow unless you do this."
You know, union tactics.
Max mosley:
The fia in those days was very weak,
and anyway the fia consisted
of the organizers,
so there was
no proper organization.
Sir Jackie Stewart: For me,
it 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 fencing up
or more barriers up.
It was all costing money,
and they had never had to spend the money
on the race track before.
Stewart became
the new face of formula one,
as steel armco barriers
were installed
at places like zanvoort
and silverstone.
Max mosley
became a constructor
and team owner
of march engineering.
Bernie ecclestone joined him
in the paddock as an owner,
after buying Jack brabham's
old team.
And on the wings
of aerodynamics,
a new stable
of young guns arrived
to fill the empty
drivers' seats.
We were very aware then
that the drivers had
massive respect for each other
because they knew,
a bit like fighter pilots
in world war ii,
that they
might not come back.
There was Jody scheckter
of South Africa;
the quiet Austrian,
Niki lauda;
John Watson
of northern Ireland;
other British hopefuls--
James hunt,
David purley,
and Roger Williamson;
the super Swede,
Ronnie Peterson;
American playboy
Peter revson,
whose family created
revlon cosmetics;
and the renaissance man
from France, Franois cevert,
handpicked by Stewart
for team owner Ken tyrrell.
( Speaking French )
Sir Jackie Stewart: He was
like a young fighting cock.
He was enormously
good looking,
had an incredible
pair of eyes, and, uh,
did a lot of damage
with the young ladies.
Franois absolutely
idolized Jackie.
Paddy McNally:
He was almost up to
Jackie's standard
at that time.
We had probably one
of the strongest teams
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!
Colin Chapman had
his fourth world champion
in eight years,
a brilliant young Brazilian
named emerson fittipaldi.
Emerson fittipaldi:
We were, like, 21 drivers
establishing
grand prix racing.
Your odds
are 7-to-1 to survive.
Colin told me, "emerson,
I don't want to get too close to you,
"and you know
the risk you have.
At any time,
I can lose you."
Cevert's gonna 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't
compete with them
and get into 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 they'll only be
held there for seconds
before the flag falls
and the start of the race.
At 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 Stewart
going through on the inside,
behind Ronnie petersen.
Jackie Stewart made
a blinding start.
It's still petersen,
just holding Stewart out
as they go through copse
for the first time.
Jody scheckter:
What a driver is there for is to take it
to the limit and keep it
at that limit,
and that's in every part
of every corner.
It's keeping it
right on that limit.
Man: And then
Franois cevert.
Jody scheckter's lost it.
Jody scheckter has been hit,
a multiple shot
at the end of the first lap.
Jody scheckter,
with the mclaren.
Man: They're
stopping the race.
Here comes Jackie Stewart,
terribly fast,
and Ronnie petersen
coming up, terribly fast.
Jody scheckter: It's a lot of
adrenaline's gone into you,
and you're nearly just laughing all the way
to the pits
until you tell the guys
what the bloody hell happened, you know?
Eleven cars retired,
but no one was killed.
Very lucky.
Silverstone, which
was one of the biggest,
if not the biggest accident
in formula one,
brought it home to me--
to win, you've got to finish.
Man: Two minutes to go...
( Continues indistinctly )
The next race was the Dutch
grand prix at zanvoort.
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
into your stomach
somewhere,
and I remember
the first time I saw the cars coming.
I thought,
this is my world!
Eight laps into the race,
there was a single-car collision
with the newly installed armco barriers.
Koen vergeer: I saw a car
flying through the air,
and I looked straight
into the cockpit.
But it was in a flash,
and the car shattered
on the asphalt.
Nineteen seventy-three,
when I had march,
it was Roger Williamson.
One of our cars.
He was a close friend.
Jo Ramirez: David purley
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 Stewart:
We passed it every lap.
Yellow flags were being
flown to slow us down,
but the race
was never stopped.
In those days,
they didn't 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 Stewart:
When the visor goes down,
you escape from the grief--
the dramas, the troubles,
the pain and suffering.
And it was only
when you came back--
you know, the visor
went back up--
that reality,
you became aware of,
again.
Man: Williamson's dead.
There's no lap of honor.
Quiet presentation.
Jacky ickx:
It's clear that, in racing,
we are
all the same.
In life, we need
just some extra luck.
Koen vergeer:
For me, at 11 years old,
it was terrifying,
but also fascinating,
what was happening there.
I think they thought
we were gladiators,
and if you went
into the coliseum,
you knew there
was lions in there,
and that chances are
you wouldn't 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 mosley:
He was an ordinary working-class lad
who'd just done it
by his own talent.
Those things have a big,
big effect on you.
The year
Roger Williamson died,
the fia established mandatory
on-track rescue equipment
and fire regulations.
By then, the doghouse club
was raising money each year
for the families
of fallen drivers.
Max mosley: Because there were
things that could be done,
maybe it was immoral,
but on the other hand, I couldn't say,
because there were people
who wanted to do it.
The only requirements
to replace the fallen
on the grid
were guts and money.
Man: Lord Alexander
fermor-hesketh,
the third baron
of hesketh!
Lord hesketh was 22 years old
when he formed hesketh racing.
Lord hesketh:
I got into racing entirely accidentally.
I'd just met the prettiest
hooker I'd ever,
ever met in my life,
and I saw this
post card counter,
and it had this
charming Teddy bear.
I drew onto the Teddy bear
a crash helmet
and a union Jack.
I think it has an atmosphere
of the old-type
grand prix teams,
and, uh, I think that's
anything truly British
deserves supporting.
Lord hesketh: We were there to have some fun.
That was about it.
Maurice Hamilton:
They were slightly upper class, weren't they?
Lord hesketh 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!
Lord hesketh:
We've got a driver in f2.
He hasn't got
a very good reputation,
but he is very, very fast.
His nickname is
"hunt the shunt,"
'cause he tends
to crash cars.
John hogan:
It was not dissimilar
from a man owning
a very expensive horse,
and his jockey happened
to be James hunt.
You want to-- you just
want to get a level?
So if I say "shuts and fuck"
and all that sort of stuff.
Oh, dear. Well, cancel it, then.
Can we rub that out?
Jody scheckter: 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 comic when
you were a kid growing 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 attractive as a person.
He not only attracted girls,
but he also attracted 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 fittipaldi:
It was a lot of fun.
It was a transition
in the world of young people--
the sideburns,
the bell bottom trousers,
the hippy time.
Four hours west
of Woodstock, New York,
formula one hosted
an outdoor party
every year for two decades.
Maurice Hamilton:
Everybody used to stay at a place
called the seneca lodge,
which was a hunting lodge.
With all the American
whoopin' and hollerin',
it was a great scene!
The Glen had a reputation
as a place for champions.
Jochen rindt won
his first grand prix here,
as did emerson fittipaldi.
Franois cevert won in 1971,
and was runner-up in '72,
to his mentor.
In 1973, the tyrrell team
came to the Glen
with Jackie Stewart
having already wrapped up
his third
world championship.
By 1973, I had decided
that my last race
would be Watkins Glen,
my hundredth grand prix.
Jody scheckter: Jackie's retirement was still,
um, hush-hush at that time.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
Only three people knew.
Franois didn't know,
or even Helen.
I didn't want
to tell my wife,
because I didn't want her saying,
"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 delightful,
it's even a nice
impression for the driver.
You know, it's...
Vrroooom! Very...!
Cevert
was sort of thinking
he was ready to be
a number one driver in his own right.
He set out to prove it
in qualifying that year,
at the Glen.
( Vintage audio )
Cevert. Bloody hell.
( Sighs )
Jody scheckter:
I was the first one on the scene,
and I jumped out the car
to try and help him.
I remember then
trying to get his belts,
and the just turned around
and I knew it was all over.
( Vintage audio )
It was
the most horrible sight.
I wouldn'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.
And maybe [If] the barrier
would have been a little bit higher,
then he would have been okay,
but we will never know.
Man: Because of the incident
on the circuit,
practice for today
for formula one cars is now concluded.
Emerson fittipaldi:
Went back to the pits.
I didn't say anything
to Colin, to my wife.
Just walked
into the parking place,
where there was nobody.
And I want to pray
with God and say,
"what I'm doing here?
Help me."
Man: ...Gentlemen,
remain standing, please,
for the playing of
the national anthem of France,
in memory of Franois cevert.
( Les marseilles playing )
Sir Jackie Stewart:
I chose not to race the next day
out of respect to Franois.
Nothing to do with
my own personal concerns.
It was an unfortunate way
to end a career,
but in the other way,
maybe it was part of why
I never wanted to race again.
Roy topp: I think it was
the right thing, not to race.
Very sad.
Sir Jackie Stewart: I was
just so angry that the sport
could do it in this way,
and continue to do it
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 hanging around the pits,
and Bernie said, "well, what are you doing?
What are you doing?"
I said, "well,
Franois's dead."
He said, "well, so what?
He died doing something which,
"up until that fraction
of a second,
was giving him the greatest
joy, pleasure, fulfillment.
You're a racing driver.
Get out and do your job."
Franois cevert: 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 it. Anything.
Because it is my passion.
Lord hesketh: When the guys
flying the mustangs
came back in from five
or six hours over Germany,
and they probably lost
15% of the formation,
they went to the bar.
And they went to the bar
with a very good reason.
( Revelers 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 fittipaldi:
I said to myself,
I need to forget everything
that happened before,
because I love this sport.
( Spectators cheering )
Jo Ramirez: It is like a drug.
Once you get in it,
it's even more difficult
to get out of it.
In 1974,
emerson fittipaldi
began to fill the void
left by Jackie Stewart,
both as the fastest man
and the voice of reason.
While steel armco
now ringed most circuits,
two more drivers
had been killed
after collisions
with the barriers:
The American Peter revson,
and a young Austrian driver
in only his second start,
helmuth koinigg.
Max mosley: The Marshall
appeared with his helmet.
His head was still in it
because he'd gone
under the barrier and it
just took his head off.
Emerson fittipaldi:
It was like it was a nightmare.
Emerson fittipaldi:
I remember Barcelona.
Friday morning,
after practice,
I saw the armco barriers
held with just bolts,
no nuts, and wire.
And I touch one.
I kick, and fall.
Fittipaldi,
now with mclaren,
refused to even practice.
The organizers
of the Spanish grand prix
threatened to impound
all the cars in the grid
if the defending champion
did not drive.
Max mosley: I thought,
this is a world sport.
I cannot believe that
a world sport is run like this.
Max mosley:
So the drivers had a meeting
in the texaco motor home.
Emerson fittipaldi:
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 )
Nigel roebuck: Somebody said,
"it's gotta be ickx."
While Jackie Stewart
had stepped aside,
the other jacky
was still on the title hunt.
Baby face ickx had taken
fittipaldi's place at lotus.
Jacky ickx:
With the racing, frankly,
you have to
be individualistic,
in a way,
and also selfish.
Max mosley:
The pavlovian reaction
to the sound
that they could hear,
that was it.
Then they all got in there and drove.
( Engine roaring )
Nigel roebuck: It was
a very, very tense atmosphere,
extraordinarily
tense atmosphere.
The actual team mechanics
were bolting these barriers together.
On race day, fittipaldi
held true to his word.
Emerson fittipaldi:
I did one lap 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.
The rear wing of Rolf stommelen's
embassy-hill-Lola
broke off, sending the car
into the barriers.
Nigel roebuck: We're about
25 laps into the race,
and I can remember saying
to the guys with me,
"Jesus, that's Rolf.
He's in the crowd."
Stommelen survived,
but four people were killed.
( Emerson fittipaldi
speaking French )
Max mosley: Once drivers start
worrying seriously about safety,
you know that their
fastest days are over.
If you took all
the formula one drivers,
even the current crop
of racing drivers,
and said, "here are two cars.
That one is very safe.
That one's extremely dangerous.
If you crash in it,
you'll probably get killed...
But the dangerous one's
two seconds a lap quicker."
There would be no discussion
about which one they'd drive.
They'd all get in
the dangerous one.
That's why it's
the people running the sport
have to take responsibility.
Just weeks after
the failed strike in Spain,
the most unlikely rivalry
would spark
along the Dutch coast
at zanvoort.
A battle between two drivers
would help turn the tide
in the revolution.
Lord hesketh:
Practice Friday, fantastic.
Saturday, blue sky.
Wake up Sunday morning,
and suddenly
it's pissing rain.
Absolute pouring rain.
Lord hesketh: Everyone 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 )
Lord hesketh:
James does four laps,
and he's in front
of both ferraris.
Koen vergeer:
When James hunt approached,
all the crowds
went to the fence.
"Yeah, there he is again!
There he is again!"
Lord hesketh: You'd suddenly
see white car, red car...
Koen vergeer:
...Niki lauda in the Ferrari...
...getting closer,
getting closer.
"Oh, yes! Keep him
behind, keep him behind!"
Lord hesketh:
And then we won.
James hunt held off
Niki lauda
in his powerful Ferrari,
and gave team hesketh
their first win
after three years of trying.
That's just brilliant.
You know, the David
and goliath-- fantastic story.
The playboy garagistes
had prevailed
over the most storied
team in formula one.
Lord hesketh: Party basically started
in the back of the truck.
It's fair to say that eventually
I went into blackout.
It was special, 'cause
the only guy who ever,
ever took me seriously
was the commendatore.
But then he was
the only guy who counted.
Mr. Ferrari was the most decorated man
in motor racing.
He'd famously said,
"aerodynamics were for people
who could not build engines."
But he also hadn't won
a title since 1964...
Until lauda.
Niki lauda: You know,
in Italy, there are
a lot of emotions
around the racing team.
If you win,
it's quite easy;
if you lose,
it's quite difficult.
John Watson: Niki was a clever guy.
He was a good operator.
Probably the ideal
Ferrari driver.
Emerson fittipaldi:
Niki's very technical, cool.
James, even being English,
he was very emotional.
He'd come in my motor
home before every race.
"Emerson, can I use
your toilet?"
I'd say,
"James, come on! "
With one epic win
under his belt,
hunt left
the Teddy bear behind
for a chance
at the title.
He signed with the '74 world champion
constructor, 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 structured.
Everybody wore uniforms,
but James just
wore whatever he wanted.
While lauda took
the role of champion,
leading the charge for safety
in the drivers' union,
hunt became the new face
of formula one.
I 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?
I don't think you can get
to that level 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.
Hunt took pole 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't
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.
( Indistinct remark )
Niki would psych
the other drivers out
just by talking to them.
I mean...
Hunt's first win
came in Spain,
but it 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.
At Monaco, lauda
took the lead
at the first turn...
And never looked back.
It was his fourth win
in six starts.
Jody scheckter:
He didn't seem spectacularly fast,
but he won races,
and you could rely
that he's not gonna
do anything stupid.
Hunt stormed back in France,
and after a disputed 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!
Well, now, James, they've changed
the regulations 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!
The difference
between drivers is maybe
the quantity of desire
you have to win races,
because the talents
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.
In the shadow of
Germany's eifel mountains
lies a monstrous race track,
22 kilometers around.
Jacky ickx: Hundred
sixty-eight corners.
At the time, 17 jumps.
So you were flying 17 times
at the nrburgring.
Sir Jackie Stewart:
If a car went off the road, you never saw it.
It just disappeared into
the trees or the bushes,
or down a ravine.
Hitler built it
in the depression.
It is the most challenging,
the most rewarding,
the most dangerous,
the greatest racetrack
in the world.
Jacky ickx: To win
at the nrburgring,
that means that's
the race of your life.
In 1976,
the defending champion
and points leader
Niki lauda
called on his union
to boycott the nrburgring,
citing unsafe track conditions.
They couldn't marshal it.
It would take an army of
firefighters to do any good.
( Vintage audio )
Hunt cast his vote to race.
Lauda was defeated
by the slimmest of margins--
one.
Brett lunger:
I came round the turn,
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 into the flames.
Brett lunger: The Ferrari had different belts
and different systems.
Art merzario
had driven a Ferrari.
He was able to get in,
undo the belts.
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 toxic fumes
from the burning resin
and fiberglass
of the bodywork of the car.
People were already talking
about him in the past tense.
We were both certain that
when we turned the radio on,
we'd hear the morning news
saying he was dead.
I couldn't see anything.
I was just listening.
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 Lane
to where my team was,
and he said,
"Brett, thank you."
And then walked away.
Niki lauda: I knew the risk
I was getting myself into.
The easy way back is to
drive as quick as possible.
Don't 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!
After all 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
determination and grit,
but there was something magical
about what Niki lauda was doing.
He was a very
tough competitor,
but most people
questioned his sanity.
That accident
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 ten 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 it,
and the broadcasters
of the world said,
"ah, that's good!
Let's-- let's--
"oh! We don't
have the rights!
"Oh! Now,
how do we fix this?"
( Spectators cheering )
By 1976, Bernie ecclestone
and Max mosley
had become friends
and partners
in the formula one
constructors association,
the loose confederation
of garagistes--
independent car builders.
Max mosley: Bernie
was completely streetwise,
an absolutely
brilliant tactician.
Nigel roebuck: Didn't
take Bernie that long
to work out
that the organizers
were making a lot of money,
and fundamentally the teams
were getting screwed.
Lord hesketh:
Bernie came in.
He said, "I have bought
all of the world's
TV rights for
a million dollars."
There were ten teams.
"You can all
have 10% for $100,000.
Lord hesketh:
Nine idiots sat 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!
While the brabham owner
would eventually sell his team,
he has maintained control
of the sport's
commercial rights
ever since '76
and the showdown in Japan.
John hogan: Bernie said
to the broadcasters,
"you can have the rights
going forward,
but you've got to show
every grand prix."
Lord hesketh: As they say,
the rest is history.
Niki lauda: In fuji,
it was raining all day long,
that we could not drive.
At 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."
Those early days,
things were run
a little bit more
like a dictatorship
rather than a democracy.
It was me that said,
"we're gonna start, no matter what."
Man: And the Japanese
grand prix is underway!
James hunt's
got a superb start.
That's exactly
what he wants to do,
get in front
of all 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 wherever,
you have this massive plume
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 andretti:
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?
A hundred and eighty
Miles an hour,
you're listening, and then you're watching
your side of the road,
and if the car
in front of you stops,
you're gonna be
in trouble.
Man: And there's Jody scheckter,
going down on the inside.
Perhaps he thinks there's better grip
down there on the inside.
And there, lauda,
in the pits 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 actually stopping
because the conditions were so dangerous.
Just incredible.
Man: He's spinning!
( Indistinct remark )
...Out of the race completely,
and out of
the world championship!
Jody scheckter:
It takes big balls
to make
a decision like that.
Some people may think
it's cowardly.
Um, I think it's
probably the opposite.
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 told it straight.
Koen vergeer: He was the one who resisted
the myth of Ferrari,
and he said no, no.
Who said that before
to enzo Ferrari?
To these days, I think I would
never forgive Niki lauda.
That particular moment,
he thought it was
too dangerous for him,
and he forget the...
50, 60 people from Ferrari
helping him to achieve.
The thousands of people
in the whole of Italy--
he forgot all 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't regret it.
But I already saw
what can happen.
Man: And so we've got
about four laps to go,
and James hunt
is still second.
Maurice Hamilton: The championship
wasn't settled there and then
when he stepped
out of the car
because James had
to finish third or higher.
Man: James hunt's in the pits
with one bald tire
and the others flat.
But there is Mario andretti,
in the lead.
Now, where does that leave
hunt as he exits the pits?
Is hunt still
in the top two hunt?
James hunt,
racing for his life.
I think hunt
is currently fourth.
And there's hunt,
going past Alan Jones.
That will put him
into third place,
and into the world
champion title!
Will his car
hold together?
James hunt...
And Mario andretti
takes the flag,
and here comes hunt!
James hunt has done it!
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.
Dramatic formula one folklore.
It'll be there forever.
I met Niki. The first thing
he said to me was,
"I loved your father."
And, I mean, I think dad
quit 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 shooting star
moment, I think,
and it was the seminal
changing point in formula one.
The fairytale ending
belonged to hunt,
but it was lauda's decision
to quit with the championship
on the line
that helped change
the sport forever.
If the fastest drivers
refuse to race
out of fear for their lives
with the entire
world watching,
there is no formula one.
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 all to do
with the television.
That was
the real breakthrough.
That's not really true.
The money helped,
but the whole point
about safety is it depends
on the attitude of the people
running the sport.
The new men taking
the lead in the fight
were survivors
in their own right.
It was obvious that something
needed to be done.
A decade after Jim Clark's death
shocked the world,
Bernie ecclestone
quietly 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 Watkins,
a renowned brain surgeon.
Dr. sid Watkins:
The first year with Bernie
was a very difficult year
because nobody wanted
sid Watkins at the circuit.
Jody scheckter:
They've got their own doctors,
and they don't like
some englishman coming along
and saying, you know,
"we want to do this."
At the German grand prix
in 1978--
Dr. Watkins' fourth race--
the organizers banned
the track doctor
from race control
just moments before the start.
Bernie says,
"well, pack the cars. We're leaving."
Race control replied,
"what am I gonna 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 "
It was always said
that sid Watkins
was the only man
to whom Bernie ecclestone always deferred.
Four races later,
Dr. Watkins learned firsthand
the hardest lesson
in formula one.
( Announcer speaking German )
( Spectators reacting )
Jane birbeck:
We watched it on TV.
James pulled Ronnie
out of the car.
I was prevented from
getting there by the police,
for about 20 minutes or so.
I mean,
it was absolute mayhem.
The super Swede,
Ronnie Peterson,
had both of his legs
crushed in the pileup.
Eventually, Ronnie
went off in the helicopter,
and we resumed the start.
Colin Chapman won
his seventh and final
world championship
with Mario andretti.
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 not have died
from that.
If Dr. Watkins
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.
All the others disappeared.
They had stopped,
or they had died.
On that day,
when Ronnie Peterson died,
my childhood approach
to formula one ended.
It was a turning point
for the sport, too.
From that race on,
Dr. Watkins began riding
in a safety
car behind every start,
for the most dangerous lap
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.
He standardized medical response
within formula one,
mandating permanent medical facilities
at each circuit
and helicopters on hand
for every race and practice.
Sid Watkins was the man.
Formula one still lost
four men in four years.
Man: An outstanding
driver lost his life
through what was,
in my opinion,
a pure motor
racing accident.
But only two drivers
were killed
over the next 12 years.
Each death was met with
scrutiny by the men in charge,
and a haunting refrain
by those
who knew too well
the price of glory.
It's terribly, terribly sad,
but it's always happened
and it always will.
It's just intrinsic
to formula one.
Until one.
Martin brundle:
I was driving in the race,
and it was
a really strange time.
We had just lost roland ratzenberger
a day earlier.
And everybody starts
looking over their shoulder
and looking round at
what's gonna happen next.
And I remember that evening
that we were talking about,
yep, it was ratzenberger.
It was, like, his first race.
Not for one minute
I thought it could ever happen to senna.
The three-time world champion
had become the new face
of formula one,
the one driver who could
finally challenge the great fangio.
Eddie Jordan:
You had this great vision
of a megastar
in ayrton senna.
He was revered.
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.
He was one of
the most gentle people
that you could imagine.
He was getting older,
and he was starting
to campaign heavily for safety.
You've seen rubens?
He's all right.
He's all right.
He's shocked,
of course, but he's...
Dr. sid Watkins:
On Sunday morning,
just before the race,
I said to ayrton,
"you know, you're
the fastest guy around.
Why don't you quit?"
He said, "I can't quit.
I have to go on."
Maybe I should have been
much more severe with him.
But then, you know,
you've got responsibilities to all 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 told me
that ayrton's crashed and he's died.
And 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 couldn't let my dad
see me because, you know,
you don't let
a man see you cry,
but I remember that day,
and I really was affected by it.
Still 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 ayrton senna
on the 1st of may, 1994,
is that the world
needed to know the answer
as to why
this had happened.
Why is this man dead?
Why is motor racing
so dangerous?
The death of ayrton senna
was relayed by television
into 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.
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't appreciate
the realities of the situation.
Max mosley had ascended
to the ultimate position
of power within the sport
just months
before senna's death.
They were absolutely
concentrated on,
why did senna
have the crash?
Totally irrelevant.
It's a sport done at the limit
of human and-- and mechanical ability.
When you do that,
you're gonna have a crash.
The interesting question
isn't why he crashed,
it's why did he get killed?
Mosley called on Dr. Watkins
to lead
a scientific examination
into every aspect
of the sport.
Michael schumacher:
Max had a clear message,
saying that whatever is
happening to a car,
there should be
no reason to die in a car.
( Spectators cheering )
Martin brundle:
I remember going up in the air.
My first thought was,
please don't let me
go in the trees,
because, you fly,
you die, into the trees.
Martin brundle:
Then it starts to roll.
It feels like being
in a tumble dryer, a washing machine.
When it stopped,
I could feel this liquid
running down into 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 accident since ayrton senna,
and the whole world
was watching.
Martin brundle:
It was the first race
where they'd raised the headrests,
up beside the driver,
and that played a big role
in me not being injured at all.
Not only was he alive,
but he got back in the race.
( Spectators cheering )
And it struck me then
that we'd moved on,
that the whole aspect
of it had changed.
What happened was
the attitude changed,
and senna gave the impetus
to really go into safety
on a scientific basis.
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 vettel:
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.
Bernie ecclestone:
There's probably as many accidents today
as there was then...
But the results of the accidents
are completely different.
( Indistinct remarks
from race announcer )
Male reporter:
Have you seen the accident on TV?
Well, yeah, I-I have
seen it also live,
when I was there! But, uh...
( Onlookers laughing )
Sir Jackie Stewart:
The modern-day driver will never know,
and I hope and pray
that they never find out
what it feels like to have the consistency
of death surrounding you.
Jacky ickx: The idea
was not to race and die;
the idea was to race
and to last as long as possible.
After all I have said
about Jackie Stewart,
I really did appreciate
what he started.
Male vocalist:
all this feels strange and untrue
and I won't waste
a minute
without you
Nigel mansell:
Emerson and I have been
talking about it today,
actually.
We're very grateful
to be alive,
to have actually won the races
we've won and driven.
Jacky ickx: I think we all did something
unbelievable,
at the absolute limit
of the job.
Male vocalist:
I want so much to open your eyes
'cause I need you
to look into mine
tell me that
you'll open your eyes
tell me that
you'll open your eyes
In our days, we knew if you made a mistake
or something broke,
you had a good chance
you wouldn't get out of it.
Emerson fittipaldi:
All these drivers,
they had a glamorous life,
and they were incredible.
I love my sport, and it was awarding
to be with my friends.
I'm knocking
on wood every day
that I was one of the lucky ones
that really dodged the bullets.
Max mosley: In the end,
we were able to use all these developments
to literally revolutionize
the crash safety
of the ordinary
car industry.
Nigel mansell: That's why
it's such a fantastic sport.
It pioneers the evolution
of the car, and going faster.
But safety's
gotta 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.
Really, that alone
justifies everything
that's come
from formula one.
But, you see, one's
always haunted by the past.
Max believes everyone
should live to a hundred.
I don't look back, actually.
I look forward.
Yesterday'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:
all this feels strange and untrue
and I won't
waste a minute
without you