Stewart (2022) Movie Script
1
My school days
were the worst part of my life.
"You stupid boy, you're stupid,
dumb and thick. Sit down."
So, school, for me...
I was a complete disaster.
So, therefore... you're a...
you're a desperate person to win,
because you've failed
so much in normal life.
That when you find something
you've got to do,
you do it with much more focus,
much more commitment, much more
just ambition.
You know, your early life, I think,
has a lot to do
with how you develop.
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
- Jackie, come over!
I mean, my early life
was such an aggravation
because of my school problems.
The only benefit I think was
that I couldn't do the things
that other people did...
So there's no alternative
but to try and do it another way.
There is a Chinese curse which says,
"May he live in interesting times."
Like it or not,
we live in interesting times.
They are times
of danger and uncertainty,
but they are also the most creative
of any in the history of mankind.
This year's Formula 1
World Championship
will be contested in 11 races
on three continents.
And there is Jackie Stewart,
the young Scotsman,
a rising star in the sport
and a 1969 championship contender.
The swinging 1960s
were a fantastic time.
I had just started marriage,
I had just started motor racing,
and my career
was going like a rocket ship.
But the sport
was incredibly dangerous.
And here the most disastrous sight
that you can see on any
Clark had been killed instantly
as his car careered off the track
at over 150 mph
Jackie Stewart has broken
his collarbone and several ribs,
And Helen Stewart is by his side.
Stewart is pulling ahead
in the 1969 season so far.
Does he have what it takes?
Can he become World Champion?
I was brought up on the River Clyde,
just about 12 miles from Glasgow.
Mother and father did well,
both of them worked in the garage.
Jackie was a very, very nervous boy.
He was very thin, and I think
he suffered in his early youth,
a wee bit
from an inferiority complex.
Why? I don't know.
And due to his lack of stature,
he didn't like school.
He just hated it.
We all enjoy the works
of Robert Louis Stevenson...
At that time,
there was 54 of us in that class.
But your reading skills
are poor to middling...
And when that teacher would have
each and every one of us to stand up
and read something out of a book.
I couldn't do it.
Just a mass of letters and words
that you can't understand...
Particularly MacDonald,
Stewart and Lindsay...
It's a feeling of panic,
it's just a jungle...
And I just thought I was stupid.
And I was told I was stupid,
dumb or thick, or all three.
And that hurt. Badly.
I left school at 15
with no education.
You know,
at least my family had a garage.
And that was where I went to work.
I was preparing cars for customers,
and one of them
was a quite well-off customer.
And as a little reward,
he gave me the chance to drive
in a very small event in Scotland,
which I finished second.
He said, "Oh, well,
you should do the next one."
And I won the next one.
Four different cars
and four wins this weekend
for the young Scotsman
Jackie Stewart,
and team owner Ken Tyrrell
is already taking an interest.
In the early 1960s we were always
looking for new young talent.
And so I invited Jackie down
for a test drive at Good wood.
And Jackie got in the car,
not having driven
a single-seater of any sort before,
and in five laps he had gone quicker
than Bruce McLaren had been.
And I think from then on,
we knew that Jackie had arrived.
And Jackie Stewart wins
the 1966 Grand Prix of Monaco,
driving for BRM.
And a superb victory
for the young Scotsman,
seen here with his wife Helen.
Helen, when you first met Jackie,
were you interested in cars at all?
No! Not at all!
I just wasn't the slightest bit
interested, even watching.
What, so did you...
did you rebel at all?
Yeah, I did rebel a bit
and it didn't work.
It didn't work at all!
Now Jackie Stewart's office
is the cockpit
of his French-built
Matra racing car.
1969 is only Matra's second season.
How can they compete with teams like
BRM, Ferrari and Lotus?
Here's team leader Ken Tyrrell.
I think we have
an advantage over them,
because being a small outfit,
we're not involved with the politics
large companies get involved in.
Our aim is to win motor races
and we can concentrate on that.
Welcome to Silver stone
for the British Grand Prix of 1969,
and a full house today
in the grandstands...
Today's grid includes
world champions Denny Hulme,
Jack Brabham, John Surtees,
Graham Hill,
and top team drivers Jochen Rindt,
Bruce McLaren,
Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon,
Piers Courage and Jackie Stewart.
I always wanted to
be good at something.
It might be that I want to be better
than other people. I don't know.
I remember that from early age
that I wanted to succeed
and do things well.
And this hasn't changed at all.
I really desperately want success.
It's been a hard-fought season,
and Stewart now has four wins,
but Lotus-driver Jochen Rindt
was faster in practice
and is on pole position...
You're leading the championship.
Are you feeling pressure?
I try to remove pressure
and not to get overexcited.
I had to consciously
remove all of my emotions.
- No panic.
- Three minutes!
I was completely neutral.
And by the time of the race,
I'm completely and utterly calm.
I am absolutely ice-cold neutral.
This is where your advantage lies:
In your calmness.
Rindt putting on a tremendous show,
not being rattled by
the masterful Stewart behind him...
Some people believe they've got to
think of themselves as the best
in order to succeed.
And that they're gonna win.
I never, ever thought that.
The people I raced against,
I was always surprised that I went
as fast or faster than them.
He's got to catch up
to make contact again with Rindt.
So there's nothing for it
but to belt after him,
just as hard as the Matra will go.
I was always thinking
everybody else is better than me.
And he's right up with him there,
he's gonna try and take him!
Stewart's back in the lead...
And I've always thought that.
Stewart's back in the lead again.
And Stewart now...
Rindt's coming in,
he's in trouble.
Jochen Rindt's in trouble.
He's coming into the pits.
Jackie, five wins out of six
and five more to go...
- How many more do you want to win?
- As many as possible, obviously.
It's very nice to have won so many
and I'm very thankful for this.
And I'd just like to win some more.
They had a tremendous show,
one of the best Grand Prix's
we've seen for a long time.
And a worthy winner,
and man's who's got 45 points
in the World Championship...
Sir Jackie Stewart,
it's wonderful to be here,
sitting next to your 1969 Matra.
I have to ask you:
Does it feel like 50 years ago?
Yes, in a way. I mean this car here
is so special to me.
I think as history goes by,
people have a desire to look back...
And lots of people do, because
the great old days were wonderful.
Hey, it's good to hug.
It's good to hug.
It's lights out and away we go,
Hamilton covers off his teammate,
Leclerc in third from Verstappen
I'm not one who thinks like that.
I think today
is better than yesterday,
and tomorrow
is going to be better than today.
And when I think back,
it's difficult for me to identify
the halcyon years of my life so far.
- Sir Jackie Stewart, OBE...
- I'm thinking they're still to come.
It is possible
that the World Championship of 1969
may be decided here today,
at the Monza Autodrome.
If Jackie Stewart
finishes fifth or better,
he will become World Champion.
Things were a little fraught.
People were getting a bit on edge.
But at the same time,
you've got to try and keep calm.
And to try and do that
is, really, very difficult.
Jochen Rindt, still desperately
chasing his first Grand Prix win,
in the very fast,
but temperamental, Lotus 49B,
designed of course
by team leader, Colin Chapman.
Tremendously experienced
Jackie Stewart,
who is almost literally
able to tune himself down
at the beginning of a race so that
he's drained himself of all emotion.
You know, the manners in the group
were really perfect.
And they're in our sight now,
in your sight now,
Rindt...
Rindt up into second place...
You had to be very sure what
everyone was doing
because you were
in very close company
literally inches apart
at some times.
Down to the Vialone, 185 mph,
four cars, virtually together.
Down to the Parabolica they come.
Can Stewart hold the line on this?
The last lap, someone's challenging,
it's Rindt going through,
Jochen Rindt takes the lead
in the Parabolica on the last
corner of the last lap...
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.
Jackie Stewart
won the Italian Grand Prix
from Jochen Rindt
by about half a car's length.
Nobody has ever seen the finish
of a motor race like this!
And this makes Jackie Stewart
unmistakably the world champion
of 1969.
He had to finish in fifth place
to be the world champion
and he has, in fact, won the race.
Just five years ago Stewart
was working at his parents' garage,
and he's now
Formula 1 champion of the world.
That was a dream.
I could never have dreamt
that it could have turned out
the way it did.
Oh, Jesus!
This was the start of realising
that I had become World Champion
and things
were gonna be different...
"Hail to King Jackie",
as just said in Sports Illustrated.
Will you welcome please,
Mr Jackie Stewart!
Although he isn't
in the Cassius Clay league yet,
Jackie Stewart is racing with
characteristic dash to a new title,
one of the world's
richest sportsmen...
To have won the World Championship
was for us both...
We've come a long way.
I mean, but I think
I was terribly proud of him, but.
I think, to be part of it
was worth the drama
of going through all the races.
But he did it.
I worked hard
at being world champion.
I did all the functions.
It's very easy for you
to be adversely affected
by being in the public eye.
We do The Today Show,
The New York Time, AP...
You get money, you get
all sorts of things thrown at you.
World Champion Jackie Stewart:
This is your life!
And if there is any
inherent weakness in your character,
it will find you out.
From the opening to the airport,
where I flew to New York and Mexico.
He needs to keep himself busy,
he's a workaholic.
I think it's a...
it's the pressure of life,
of what I've got to do.
It's not selfishness.
People that you were meeting,
there was such a kaleidoscope.
The Beatles,
The Stones, Frank Sinatra
Elizabeth Taylor came with us
to the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo...
There's been no time to absorb the
blur... We have no time to reflect.
I fly to Scotland to see my parents,
literally for 45 minutes,
and I get back
on the plane to London.
Don't you morally respond
to what's happening in the world?
I mean, I couldn't
point Vietnam out on the map,
never mind anything else.
I was being paid quite a lot.
And I had to deliver.
I've never prostituted myself,
and, really, I feel that...
Yeah but in that film there's a
scene with your hair being cut by.
They're trying to project the image
of a modern racing driver
for their purposes,
not for Jackie Stewart.
That is to allow them to do
with your existence as they please!
Yes, to a certain extent,
and they're paying me to do that.
- Oh, so you're willing to sell it?
- Yes.
You mean morality
and principles?
- No, no, no, look.
- I mean you're selling yourself.
- No!
- A film on the life of Stewart.
One of the most important aspects
of your life is your fucking hair?
When we're walking down...
I told you about him,
the German commentator.
Every time
he comes in a more stupid outfit.
Okay?
Some people say the same about me!
All the way through my career
as a racing driver,
and the success I achieved in that,
I kept a secret.
I could neither read or write.
I could do my signature,
only because I practised,
time and time again.
I still can't
read or write correctly.
I can't do the alphabet,
I don't know the alphabet.
I faked it.
You find ways of avoiding
being faced with
having to write something
or having to read something...
You find different ways of
getting people to provide for you.
"What did you say again?
Just read that out to me."
No, I tell you, I was good at that.
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
With the 1970s fast approaching,
he's becoming an idol, a pop star.
Thanks very much!
And don't forget wife Helen.
She's in on the act, too!
We were very much
the "in couple" at that time.
And it was nice to be trendy
and a woman of the time.
I feel I should look more
like a girlfriend than
a very staid wife!
So, what do you make
of the great hair debate?
Should he keep his hair long?
It's a great
point of conversation at the moment!
- And what do you think?
- Well, I encourage him to do it.
It's my fault he did it.
He's always enjoyed dressing well,
but when I first met Jackie,
he used to dress terribly.
He thought it was in good taste,
I thought it was old-fashioned.
- Are we leaving this plain, or...
- That's up to you, really.
But there's a serious side
to Stewart's image.
The former garage mechanic,
who left school at 15,
is now representing
several big companies,
as well as pushing his own brand.
His commercial activities may
just be a glimpse of the future
the sports star as millionaire?
Appearances, promotions,
and getting paid.
A long way up from the garage floor.
Every year Stewart earns about
200,000 in low tax Swiss Francs,
making him the second highest paid
sportsman in Europe.
The highest? A bullfighter.
My tax rate in Britain was 93%,
so we moved to Switzerland.
I didn't want to leave Scotland,
but my tax people just said,
"Look, if anything were to
happen to you, you've got no capital
sufficient to support Helen
and two children
if you were either
critically injured or killed."
And the same night, on Saturday,
I've got to fly back to London.
- How old are they now?
- Erm, Mark is two and a half.
And Paul is five on 29 October.
- Does he understand the risks?
- Oh no.
- Not at all.
- Not at all? You're certain of that?
Er, no, I can't be certain of it,
because er
I remember when Jochen had a crash,
in Barcelona, and
Paul saw the crash
on television.
And he says, you know...
"Uncle Jochen had a crash."
I said, "I know." He said,
"Uncle Jochen's got a sore head."
I said, "Yeah." He said,
"He fell out his racing car."
He said,
"You be careful, won't you?
You won't
fall out your racing car?"
Welcome to the 1970
Formula 1 World Championship.
Motor racing was so unsafe then,
because whatever aspect of Formula 1
you looked at,
it was inherently dangerous.
I don't see my motor racing
as something very brave.
I mean, I'm not a brave man at all,
I'm sort of cowardly man.
Twice a year, when I left home
to go to Nrburgring
and I left to go to Spa,
I consciously questioned
whether I were coming back.
The cars were dangerous:
Virtually mobile petrol tanks
with an engine strapped on one side
and a driver on the other.
There were no fences or barriers,
no run-off areas. There was trees,
bushes, telegraph poles, the public
or barbed-wire fences
to keep the cattle
from going on the roads
or the track.
It was pathetic.
In recent years, there has been
a grim death toll: Jim Clark,
Bruce McLaren, Piers Courage...
And we were killing people
at that time, like ten-a-penny.
Ludovico Scarfiotti,
Lorenzo Bandini, Mike Spence...
So I took on with a venom
the issues of getting
better safety into motor sport,
in particular to Formula 1.
Jackie decided he was
going to do something about it
at a time when motor racing
was regarded as
a gigantically macho sport.
I mean, we closed Spa-Francorchamps
and the Nrburgring,
the two
great racetracks of the world.
The attitude then was,
"Who is this wimp Jackie Stewart
who's going round saying
motor racing ought to be safer?
If you don't like the heat,
get out of the kitchen."
I never used to think that anything
would ever happen to Jackie,
but now it's happened so many times.
I went straight on at the chicane
and jumped out of third gear.
- You know... you've got to...
- I realise now it could happen
I did it twice, I nearly went
straight on into the stadium.
I think he thought he was...
He reckoned that if you survived
five years, statistically,
if you did that, the chances are
you would be killed.
- There are reports of an accident...
- The attitude of the drivers was,
"Well, that's the way it is,
and we'll do it."
Confirmed that
Piers Courage, the 28-year old...
Because they wanted to race more
than they were worried about
being killed or maimed...
You know, I don't want to
be racing for ever, that's for sure.
I suppose one of these days
I'll have to think about stopping.
But I don't want to do it now.
I don't really want to stop.
Being in the public eye,
you're closely watched.
And some of those journalists
really want to dig deep.
Jackie Stewart,
New York City, April 12.
I'm always worried they'll find out
I can't read or write.
I don't read the papers
hardly at all.
I read the papers
of something that...
- Do you shy away from reading them?
- No, no.
You know,
the last book I read was, was erm.
I used to read a lot of books.
I used to read them on aeroplanes.
Because when you spend
this much time in an aeroplane,
you... you have to read books...
But I was bluffing,
because I was frightened
that people would find out.
Jochen was the only man
who I really had to compete against.
He is great friends with Stewart,
but Rindt's Lotus...
He was the only man I had
real respect for as a racing driver.
I mean,
a really high, high respect for.
The Lotus was
the fastest car on the track.
Colin Chapman was a genius
at making things go fast,
but not always reliable.
And, frankly, not always safe.
But to get any sense
into Chapman's skull is impossible.
I have never trusted Lotus.
Is it a business relationship?
Yes, purely business.
Jochen had won the French, you see,
and the Dutch and Monte Carlo.
I'm not all out of step,
quite frankly.
I've seen my world championship
and I've seen it going away,
but I know
there's nothing I can do about it.
I do want it again, but I know
I can't do it in 1970 because
you know,
the Lotus is just too good.
Jochen is
a very, very talented driver
who I enjoy racing with very much.
We are next door neighbours,
we are 300 yards apart.
Helen and Nina
are very good friends,
spend a lot of time together.
Our children play together.
Nina's my best friend in racing.
We love doing things together.
And she lives just up the road...
She's a lovely lady. Very beautiful.
All the men run after her.
Jochen's a tough guy... a hard man,
but a very deep and good friend.
Switzerland is a safe haven
for the Stewart family.
But how does Mrs Stewart feel about
her husband's material success?
Material things don't mean
as much to me as at the beginning.
I thought it would be marvellous
to have everything.
But now when you can have all,
it just makes you appreciate
the little things in life,
like being with the children,
and Jackie and I being together.
I think it's made us appreciate
just what we do have.
The best days of my life
have been with my children.
And still are.
I get this tremendous feeling of
pleasure with the children
and Helen.
This is, I think,
why to Helen and I,
we're in a honeymoon.
We really are.
We're
terribly in love with each other.
Do the two of you know
where you're going?
I don't know where we're going.
It's not a real life. I mean...
You know, it's a storybook life.
It's not a life
that will last forever.
Were you on the racetrack
when he had his accident at Spa?
- Were you there at the time?
- In '66? Yes.
After that race, I dreamt of people
putting their heads into fire...
- Their hands?
- Heads.
Just lying in fire,
ah, it was horrible.
- And have those left you now?
- Oh yes.
But at that time
I lost over a stone in weight.
And I'm not, sort of,
overweight as it is,
so you can imagine
what I looked like.
Paul? What are you gonna be
when you grow up? Do you know?
- Fireman.
- A what?
- Fireman.
- A fireman?
- That's what you wanna be?
- Yes.
- You're sure? Good.
- Yes.
If you recently arrived,
welcome to Monza
and the 1970 Grand Prix of Italy.
This afternoon's practice session...
The Italians are incredible.
They follow you all everywhere...
An incredible crowd scene, always.
Obviously,
you've gotta sign autographs,
certainly some of them,
you can't sign them all.
You seem to go through as if you're
the bull going into the arena,
you're not the bullfighter,
you're the bull
and they're
really pleased to see you.
You're a bigger favourite
than the matador.
Jochen Rindt is
our current championship leader,
and his wife Nina
is also with us this weekend,
so a proper family affair
here at Monza.
As a wife, you're in the pits
and you don't see very much of
what's happening on the circuit.
Practice is now in full swing.
And we have 27 cars competing
for 20 places on tomorrow's grid.
Ken came over to me, and he says,
"Jochen's had an accident."
Then Jackie came to me,
who was supporting me...
And I still not realising at all
what was happening.
Nina was gonna go to the ambulance.
And somebody came over to us,
and said to her,
"You mustn't go there."
And one of the men told me
that Jochen had died.
First of all,
I think Jochen was perhaps
my greatest friend in motor racing.
He was a truly great driver and...
This is an important announcement:
The track has now re-opened.
Practice will go on for some time,
finishing at 6:30pm -
that's half-past six local time.
Ken said, "Right, get in the car.
Hurry up. You better go quick,
Before this session stops,
you've only got ten minutes or so."
My mechanics belted me in.
And then I just started to cry.
And I did four laps.
And on my last lap,
I did the fastest time
that I had done ever around Monza.
- What's your state at this point?
- I just can't understand it.
It's absolutely beyond me.
I mean, I can't understand
how he could do his fastest lap
feeling like that.
I think it must have been
the worst day of my life.
You see,
motor racing is stupid when I see
the hurt and the sadness and the
pain that it causes
to people that I know.
So many memories
and thinking of Jochen.
What Jochen wanted to be
and what he wanted to do.
What he most wanted to be
was world champion.
Which he never knew or he never
could live long enough to know
that he would be world champion.
Jackie and Helen has been fantastic,
both of them.
I'm very, very grateful,
and I love them both for it.
It's not easy
for a racing driver's wife.
It's not what it seems.
There's a lot behind the scenes.
Whether it's one's feelings
or what you're thinking.
It sounds, seems
and looks glamorous,
but, in fact,
it's just another business.
It's a serious business.
Drivers and Formula 1 management
are assembling on the grid
for a special gathering.
The tartan is out for F1 legend,
Sir Jackie Stewart,
celebrating his 80th birthday.
Nobody or nothing is irreplaceable.
Unfortunately, that's the truth.
When we saw Jim Clark's death,
we thought
it would never be the same.
When we saw
the death of Ayrton Senna,
we thought
it will never be the same.
It is the same.
Life goes on.
When Franois Cevert came along,
he was different.
I actually saw this young driver
who had clear talent
but had an enormous
appetite to learn.
And an enormous amount of energy
to want to deliver.
But he was almost too good-looking
to be a racing driver. Oof!
You know, why would you want
somebody like that?
"Can he be a serious
racing driver looking like this?"
You say first round the hairpin,
first on the left of the hairpin?
I told Franois everything.
He knew more than any other teammate
would ever know.
Everybody's listening. Helmut!
All my secrets, Helmut!
And Jackie's so good
in analysing the car.
He reads the car so well.
But, when the flag drops,
He always has
a very easy car to drive.
He doesn't have to
fight with his car
because the car doesn't
go around the corner well.
He always manages to fix his car
so it will be very easy to drive.
Last year you were even less nervous
- before the race...
- Yeah, that's right.
You were quite relaxed last year.
As I say again,
Jackie is the one that affects me.
He is nervous this morning.
I can feel it.
I saw a report
in one of the newspapers last week.
It was sort of
Jackie's life with me.
And at the bottom of it
were five of our closest friends
who had been killed.
And I suddenly realised
that these five people
are the closest people
we've ever come to in racing.
And there's nobody left in racing
as far as we're concerned.
A beautiful start by Stewart...
Are you worried by her ability
- to contain all of this?
- No, not at all.
No, what I mean is, you know,
I suppose it's possible
she is storing all of this stuff up
- and it may some time come out.
- It might do,
but she's got
a tremendous strength of character.
I think she's stronger than I am.
- She's much stronger than I am.
- How is she stronger than you are?
She sees
the important things in life
and sometimes...
I respect her for it,
she doesn't let her feelings
automatically rumble out.
So you respect her
the same way you respect yourself?
I think Jackie was happy
I was like that
because if I was, you know, crying
every five minutes like some girls,
which I understand...
But you must be strong for Jackie.
Here he comes, the flag is ready.
Jackie Stewart wins
the Monaco Grand Prix for Tyrrell.
I believe in good luck.
You need good luck.
Everybody does,
but I don't believe in bad luck.
If you have continuous bad luck,
you're not just an unlucky person.
You've got it wrong.
You're doing it wrongly,
and you've must recognise that.
Would you gamble at all?
In Monte Carlo, I go to the casino.
Maybe the night after the race.
And you know,
all I gamble is 25 dollars.
- 25 dollars?
- That's all.
- You cheap son of a bitch.
- Yes!
- You really are cheap?
- When it comes to betting,
I wouldn't put money
on what I didn't understand.
- You tight-arsed son of a bitch!
- You're absolutely right, I am.
Why would I want to put my money
on something I don't understand?
The problem is, Roger,
when I'm all...
I've got in my mind a certain
attitude towards the car.
It's jumping out of gear
and it's hard to get in,
and then the whole thing goes...
It's a mechanical happening,
you know,
it builds up and builds up,
and it's not in the bump rubbers.
Jackie has trouble in communicating
with writing and written words.
But, he has absolutely
no trouble at all
in communicating
with the spoken word.
I learnt how to communicate.
I learnt how to explain
why the car
was doing this instead of this.
It took me longer to explain,
perhaps, than most people,
but it was probably more vivid
because I tried harder.
It felt like, to begin with,
there was no brake in the front.
I could press the brake
until there was a hole in my foot.
I was a pain in the arse.
People will say, "Oh God, Jackie
goes on and on about this".
It's because I don't think
they've grasped it.
And many times,
of course, they have.
Engage fifth, then finally it
starts to, but not second.
I can say that I think I could
tune into mechanics and engineers,
and I respected them
for what they did
and understood
the quality of their work.
My mechanics
were better at doing what they did
than I ever was at what I did.
And that's why I'm alive today.
We understand
that some of the drivers
are concerned about
the safety of the track's surface.
So, there will be further updates
on the situation...
Safety, the word hits a raw nerve
as far as I was concerned,
because safety was a sick joke.
There wasn't any safety.
The circuits were dangerous,
and the medical facilities were
basic, to put it mildly.
With one hour until the track opens,
there is an inspection in progress
led by Jackie Stewart,
a driver with strong opinions
on motor racing safety.
The problem is they've known for
nine months this race will happen,
and they've chosen the last week
to resurface a racetrack.
I just want to make sure that
if we practise
and the surface is breaking up,
the race will be cancelled.
We don't want any more bullshit
that they will repair the road.
We have to recognise that
racing never will be totally safe.
The objective within motor sport,
or certainly my objective,
is to perhaps remove
its unnecessary hazards.
There are many today who feel that
motor sport should be dangerous.
Almost gladiatorial.
They strongly resist
Stewart's safety campaign.
Stirling Moss! He believed
it wasn't our job to be doing that.
He believed
that we had to take risks.
He always was a good friend,
but we differed on safety.
This is something where Jackie and I
don't see eye to eye.
I think we have to blame him
for the emasculation
of every decent circuit.
I believe, you see, that racing
needs an element of danger because,
to me, it's rather like cooking
and not having any salt.
I mean, the real flavour comes out
with the danger.
Driver safety is one thing,
but Jackie Stewart has his eye
on a bigger picture.
If we are anything less
than totally responsible,
we could lose this sport.
And if we do not
keep our own house in order
by containing accidents within
limitations of the track, without,
God forbid, without it
reaching the spectators.
Our biggest risk is that happening.
As far as I'm concerned,
I need now... I mean,
you can go out in a car if you like.
There are 25 cars here. You can't
sweep them on a course car.
You'd have to do 40 laps.
Stewart's efforts
are starting to bear fruit.
Not least with the state-of-the-art
mobile medical centre.
Jackie is a gigantically determined,
sincere chap, and he - admittedly
in association with other people
has made Formula 1
infinitely safer than it ever was.
It will never be safe,
but that it is as safe as it is now,
is entirely due to him.
At that time,
Jackie was seldom home.
I had Paul and Mark at home,
so, therefore, it was quite tiring.
Jackie was a dedicated family man,
although, he hasn't spent the time
that he would like to.
Always when he left home, he
wondered if he would be coming back.
Some of them didn't get back home,
and they had children.
Paul came back one day and said,
"When's Daddy gonna die?"
All the boys say at school
that Daddy's going to die,
"because all racing drivers die."
You know, I see this,
and I really
feel them. You know,
I feel them very close to me.
- One...
- Two...
But, you know, you collect yourself,
and you go on.
And, God dammit,
I am absolutely certain
that this costs you in terms of
relationship with your wife.
I think half of the trouble is,
with people like yourself
and the other so-called
intellectuals in America,
that they spend half their lives
analysing themselves
instead of enjoying it.
I see,
life is basically a happy affair...
No, it's got
fucking sad moments in it.
I've probably seen
a lot more than you.
- No doubt you have.
- But I've seen a lot of it, boy,
and I've seen a lot of life.
And in seeing that lot of life,
I can understand it.
Probably, a lot further
than some people.
You put it to me, three years ago,
in these terms,
"When driving a racing car,
you're more aware of your mortality.
You love your kids
and your wife more
because you know
you could be dead in a week."
When I'm really on form,
I completely remove emotion.
I consciously remove it.
And when I see a corner
coming towards me,
I see that corner in slow motion.
Things don't rush past you
at an enormous flurry.
They're crystal clear.
Your whole system,
your whole physical body,
is so intense.
It's a sort of intoxication.
I think it must be
like somebody being high on a drug.
I was jetting back and forward
across the Atlantic
on the World Championship
in Europe and beyond.
The Can-Am Championship was
from June until the end of October.
When Jackie Stewart gets it on,
there are few people in the world
who can match
his driving style and ability.
And right now,
Jackie Stewart is on it.
Jackie Stewart is now Formula 1
World Champion for the second time.
There he is celebrating
with teammate Franois Cevert
and team boss Ken Tyrrell.
Jackie, I know, is going to go on
and set all sorts of new records.
This is only
his second World Championship.
He set a new standard
in motor racing, a new high, and
something for everyone to go for.
But, for Christ's sake, lay off.
I'm Jackie Stewart.
The race cars I drive costs...
Getty Premium sells for less
than most other premiums...
Goodyear G800 Supersteels -
performance that lasts
Capri - the sexy European...
Let's talk about money.
Do you make more money than
most drivers, I mean
- I think so, yes.
- Why?
- Because people think I'm worth it.
- Why?
I mean,
it's more than just driving a car.
It amounts to the promo activities
that I do and
the way that I can talk and the way
I can put together a deal
that might be better
than somebody else.
I'm not quite sure
if he enjoys the racing,
or if he enjoys the fact
that he makes a lot of money.
I can never quite understand.
I've never really asked him.
By December, I was so exhausted,
through doing too many things,
I couldn't pick up
my World Championship.
It was my second World Championship,
and I sent Helen instead.
I was just so drained.
I was still feeling insecure
because I knew I wasn't as clever
as people thought I was.
But I still couldn't read,
and I still couldn't spell.
You know, Helen didn't know.
She did not know. I faked it.
Nobody, nobody knew.
It was a very well-kept secret.
The thrill of victory,
the agony of defeat.
Jackie Stewart
is once again with us today,
World Champion racing driver
and our expert on the sport
I was starting
to become a regular face
on ABC's Wide World of Sports,
a very successful American program me
with a big audience.
Full of excitement.
It's the epitome of glamour,
It's colourful, it's exciting.
It's everything we want...
The trouble was that I found it
impossible to read the teleprompter.
So, I had to fake it.
Three of them here and four
I learnt my lines in advance,
trying to make it work.
To observe and comment,
World Champion, Jackie Stewart.
Keith, the Alfa Romeo is
what's called a sports prototype.
It's a very special
kind of motor car...
It was a lot of preparation,
but in the end, it seemed to work.
I did 25 programmes one year
for ABC's Wide World of Sports,
and that was one of the years
I did 43 trips across the Atlantic.
But, in fact, the Atlantic travel
proved to be a bit too much for him.
This is not the confident Stewart
that we're used to seeing.
He has already missed one race
due to health problems,
and Ken Tyrrell must be concerned
about his star driver, especially
I got a duodenal ulcer
that haemorrhaged.
I was bleeding internally,
and I was in a mess.
There goes Colin Chapman,
and it's Emerson Fittipaldi.
A superb drive...
The Lotus team is making
a big impact in the 1972 season
with their brilliant
young Brazilian.
I was in a very strong position,
and we had many races
that we diced against each other.
Or he won, I was second,
or I won, he was second.
Really, you know,
I knew I wasn't driving well,
and I was cursing myself
for being too busy.
Fittipaldi is now Formula 1
World Champion of 1972.
The youngest ever champion.
That's my first World Championship.
It seemed Jackie didn't like
that Emerson idea.
Emerson Fittipaldi,
World Champion, 61 points.
Runner-up, Jackie Stewart on 45.
When you go into sport,
you win, or you lose.
The important thing is to win.
I don't know how many times
I finished second.
I couldn't tell you,
because it really doesn't matter.
You know, whatever I'm doing,
I try harder.
That's still going on in my life.
To this very day.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good to see you, come back.
Hey! Look at you!
Jackie is one of the best
drivers in the world.
But I still want to
do things in my life.
A very close friend of mine.
And I do it,
sometimes far too ardently.
It's the only way I know how to.
It's the only way
I've achieved anything.
It's the only way I've got success.
That takes you away from home.
I mean, Helen's fed up,
but she knows that I'm doing my job.
There's sometimes, she says,
"Why do you bother?
Why are you doing this anymore?"
- The Ford Cosworth engine.
- Yes.
I'm doing it
because I'm fulfilled by it.
I don't want to remove
what is Jackie Stewart.
Jackie Stewart, one of the main
personalities in motor sport...
This is the second Formula 1 race
of 1973,
and Interlagos is hosting
the first-ever Brazilian Grand Prix.
Reigning world champion,
Emerson Fittipaldi,
- and Jackie Stewart.
- Emerson! Emerson!
Emerson was a star from Brazil,
and a tough competitor.
It was very fashionable
to have the sideburns at the time.
I said, "Why not, Jackie has them,
and he's going fast.
I have to have a bigger one
to go even faster than him!"
- Emerson!
- Emerson!
Once again,
that familiar celebration.
Fittipaldi takes the flag.
The local boy has done it,
and Interlagos is loving it.
What do you think of Emerson
as a pilot?
- Who?
- Emerson Fittipaldi.
The guy
who won the World Championship.
Ah, yes!
- The Lotus is unstoppable.
- He drove an excellent race.
I'm just sorry
I couldn't be more opposition.
Five races won so far,
three wins for Fittipaldi,
and two for Stewart.
Practice is in progress at Zandvoort
on this important weekend...
Fittipaldi in the Lotus,
Stewart in the Tyrrell.
They are on three wins apiece,
but Stewart leads by one point.
Both teams are, of course...
It feels to me the throttle spring
isn't strong enough, huh?
Blooming hell, Ronnie's engine is as
rough as a bag of nails, isn't it?
- Where's Emerson?
- He crashed very badly.
Oh no! Oh no!
Where? What happened?
He's crashed very heavily
into the guard rail.
Fittipaldi's brother.
His wife.
Sighs of relief all round.
We don't yet know
the extent of Emerson's injuries
or how this might affect
the battle for the championship...
But the race will start shortly.
A car has gone off
in the Panoramabocht.
At this point, we don't know
if there's still a man inside.
I just visited the crash site.
The man's dead.
I saw it, it was horrible.
I know for sure, it was
Robert Williamson's STP March.
Williamson's dead. No lap
of honour, quiet presentation...
Take it.
Jackie Stewart now,
ten points ahead of Fittipaldi,
and a great congratulations
for James Hunt and the Hesketh Team.
This is only James Hunt's fourth
Grand Prix, a great achievement.
I think he thought he was...
it was beginning to get a bit silly.
And I think
he took stock of his life then.
Here I was at the very
height of my skills, my abilities.
At the height
of my earning capacity.
All the adulation that went with it.
And I was not
getting much out of it.
I was getting negatives
rather than positives,
and that confused me. It was then
that I decided I was gonna retire.
He didn't want this to be public
because he didn't want Helen
to be having a countdown on,
you know, only five more,
only four more, only three more.
She'd be waiting for that last race
with climbing anxiety,
to see it finished, if you like.
And
there were times I felt like
saying to Jackie,
"Give it up." But I didn't.
In fact, I vowed I never would.
And I never have done.
Do you ever feel guilty about,
in effect, the kind of life
you put Helen through?
Oh, hell, yes. Oh absolutely.
I think it's a very selfish business
and I do feel guilty.
At the height of my career,
I know I was a wickedly selfish,
self-centred person,
and the world
had to circulate around my life.
If you gear it for third gear...
My family, my wife,
my business associates,
my team, my mechanics,
my designers, my Ken Tyrrells
they had to be all fitting around
what Jackie Stewart wanted.
- Do you fancy a game?
- Yes!
- I've got my bat!
- It's a good one.
Now, we've talked a lot
about your husband, Helen, but
what about his teammate?
How do you get on with him?
- Franois?
- Franois, yeah.
He's great fun, nice to be with.
And he loves my family
and Jackie.
We get on all so well together.
He's quite a fit young man,
isn't he?
He'd always have these girls coming,
to try get to know me,
so they could to get to know him.
This one here was Franois...
not kissing me at all, just
kidding on. I think it's so funny
'cause Jackie...
He couldn't have cared less anyway.
Because he knew he was safe.
It wasn't serious.
Well, we are delighted to see
Emerson Fittipaldi back on the grid.
He's in 14th position, a long way
back from Stewart and Peterson,
with Ickx and Franois Cevert
in the second Tyrrell, behind...
Five, four, three.
I held nothing back from Franois.
Nothing!
Tell me about your education
as a driver.
Well, I think it's very simple:
Jackie did all my education.
I was what you could call
a mad driver.
I was driving like hell. I was not
thinking enough to what I was doing.
And Jackie stopped all that
and teach me
how you must analyse a car, how
you must think when you are driving,
what kind of vision you must have.
Stewart wins in Germany,
his 27th Formula 1 victory
the most races ever won by a driver,
surpassing the late Jim Clark
who had 25
Franois had
an immense appetite to learn...
And for me it was nice,
because I was with somebody
who I could pass something on to.
And he was quick.
I said to Ken afterwards,
"You know
Franois, I really think
he could've beaten me today."
Jackie is still the maestro for me.
He is the only man,
maybe in the world, to be able to do
a whole Grand Prix of 90 laps,
two hours racing,
without making one mistake.
But I think I am on one lap,
I'm now as fast as Jackie.
What does that mean,
what do you have to do to beat him?
Not to make any mistakes.
And a big one, Franois!
Jackie Stewart now looks unbeatable
in the race for the championship.
He has 60 points,
followed by Cevert on 45,
Fittipaldi on 42.
Franois didn't know I was retiring.
He was the obvious team leader
for the following year.
Franois! Franois! Franois!
Every race I went to that year,
I thought,
"Wow, I'll never race here again."
Bloody cork!
All of these events
became very focused in my mind
as the last time I'll be doing that.
So, that was the sweet time.
The last corner, coming into sight -
and Stewart has done it!
Jackie, hi!
He is now World Champion of 1973!
Two Grand Prix still to come
in Canada and the United States...
During the two weeks
before the Grand Prix in America,
we went down to Bermuda.
And Jackie had gone off
to play golf,
we were just lying there,
discussing will Jackie retire,
or will he not retire.
And I said, "Well, if he retires,
you'll be number one anyway."
So he said, "I 'ope so."
"I do not know."
He used to
play the piano a great deal
and he used to play
this wonderful tune from Beethoven,
"Pathtique".
He would always
tease me with that music
because it always upset me
'cause I loved to hear him play.
And when we left there, it was
very - I don't know,
I had a funny feeling when I left.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish,
you may now smoke -
cigarettes only, please. Thank you.
Funnily enough,
that day Franois said to me,
"If anything
ever happens to me..."
He didn't believe
in life after death, if you
die, that's it.
I said, "I think you're wrong.
I'm sure there's something.
There can't just be nothing."
So, he said,
"I'll tell you what:
Whoever goes first,
comes back and gives a sign."
See that trophy?
It takes a lot to win it.
That's right, roll it over!
Testing 123, testing 123,
Watkins Glen...
Mr and Mrs Edsel Ford, please head
to the Ford Motor Company bureau,
located to the left of the...
My wife Cynthia and I
were gonna meet Jackie and Helen.
We arrived
in time for practice, and
you know, everybody
was in good spirits.
It was a very festive weekend.
As I got closer
and closer to what would've been
my last race,
at my hundredth Grand Prix,
I wasn't getting hyped up,
nervous or excited about it.
It was the end of a long season.
I had secured
the World Championship.
And I had a great feeling
about my career
having come to an end, really.
After the morning practice sessions,
Ronnie Peterson has the fastest time
with 1 minute 39.6 seconds...
Before the last practice,
Ken said to me,
the biggest gesture you could make
in your last Grand Prix,
even if you're leading it,
would be to move over
and wave Franois through,
and let him win.
And I said, "Ken, that's a big ask.
My last Grand Prix?"
I said, "You have to
let me think about that one."
Stewart's teammate, 29-year-old
Frenchman Franois Cevert,
has had a tremendous season so far.
He collided with Jody Scheckter
two weeks ago at Mosport,
but he's back in the car
this weekend
I cannot be more happy.
Everything I do
about motor racing, I enjoy it.
Anything. Because it is my passion.
I'd got to the pits by that time.
I'd got my books out and everything.
He just looked up, and he goes...
before he put his visor down.
Our final practice session
is just beginning
and will go on
for the next 30 minutes...
There was debris all over the track.
I mean, large parts of it,
but clearly blue.
And I went to the car,
still smoking, steaming.
And Franois is in the car.
And... it was just a horrible sight.
It was just
the violence of it was so horrid.
Christ, it still
still bothers me today.
I often think about him.
We had long conversations,
Franois and I, about death and
what happened
if there was life after death.
I said, "If it happens to you,
you come back and tell me."
And he did.
So, I know there's life after death.
That's really all I have
on that particular subject.
I'm not one who looks back
with rose-coloured glasses.
I'm not one who thinks like that.
There's been some difficult times.
But there's also been
unexpected positives.
I was 43 years of age
well after I had retired
from racing
when I was diagnosed
as a severe dyslexic.
And I suddenly thought, "God,
I've been saved from drowning!"
I'm not stupid and I'm not thick.
I'm not dumb.
Nowadays people are saying
that dyslexia can be an advantage.
I'm not sure if that's true.
- But if my story can help people...
- Good.
Who can't read or write,
then I'll see that as a success.
My life's been
a kind of rocket ship
where the vivid, bright colours
go with the deepest of dark colours.
And I think that
that's where you get the real taste
of what is reality.
In the deepest sense.
And although it had its sour times -
and they were deeply sour
that also highlighted what
the reality of the good life was,
and what life had given to me
just by driving a racing car.
plint.com
My school days
were the worst part of my life.
"You stupid boy, you're stupid,
dumb and thick. Sit down."
So, school, for me...
I was a complete disaster.
So, therefore... you're a...
you're a desperate person to win,
because you've failed
so much in normal life.
That when you find something
you've got to do,
you do it with much more focus,
much more commitment, much more
just ambition.
You know, your early life, I think,
has a lot to do
with how you develop.
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
- Jackie, come over!
I mean, my early life
was such an aggravation
because of my school problems.
The only benefit I think was
that I couldn't do the things
that other people did...
So there's no alternative
but to try and do it another way.
There is a Chinese curse which says,
"May he live in interesting times."
Like it or not,
we live in interesting times.
They are times
of danger and uncertainty,
but they are also the most creative
of any in the history of mankind.
This year's Formula 1
World Championship
will be contested in 11 races
on three continents.
And there is Jackie Stewart,
the young Scotsman,
a rising star in the sport
and a 1969 championship contender.
The swinging 1960s
were a fantastic time.
I had just started marriage,
I had just started motor racing,
and my career
was going like a rocket ship.
But the sport
was incredibly dangerous.
And here the most disastrous sight
that you can see on any
Clark had been killed instantly
as his car careered off the track
at over 150 mph
Jackie Stewart has broken
his collarbone and several ribs,
And Helen Stewart is by his side.
Stewart is pulling ahead
in the 1969 season so far.
Does he have what it takes?
Can he become World Champion?
I was brought up on the River Clyde,
just about 12 miles from Glasgow.
Mother and father did well,
both of them worked in the garage.
Jackie was a very, very nervous boy.
He was very thin, and I think
he suffered in his early youth,
a wee bit
from an inferiority complex.
Why? I don't know.
And due to his lack of stature,
he didn't like school.
He just hated it.
We all enjoy the works
of Robert Louis Stevenson...
At that time,
there was 54 of us in that class.
But your reading skills
are poor to middling...
And when that teacher would have
each and every one of us to stand up
and read something out of a book.
I couldn't do it.
Just a mass of letters and words
that you can't understand...
Particularly MacDonald,
Stewart and Lindsay...
It's a feeling of panic,
it's just a jungle...
And I just thought I was stupid.
And I was told I was stupid,
dumb or thick, or all three.
And that hurt. Badly.
I left school at 15
with no education.
You know,
at least my family had a garage.
And that was where I went to work.
I was preparing cars for customers,
and one of them
was a quite well-off customer.
And as a little reward,
he gave me the chance to drive
in a very small event in Scotland,
which I finished second.
He said, "Oh, well,
you should do the next one."
And I won the next one.
Four different cars
and four wins this weekend
for the young Scotsman
Jackie Stewart,
and team owner Ken Tyrrell
is already taking an interest.
In the early 1960s we were always
looking for new young talent.
And so I invited Jackie down
for a test drive at Good wood.
And Jackie got in the car,
not having driven
a single-seater of any sort before,
and in five laps he had gone quicker
than Bruce McLaren had been.
And I think from then on,
we knew that Jackie had arrived.
And Jackie Stewart wins
the 1966 Grand Prix of Monaco,
driving for BRM.
And a superb victory
for the young Scotsman,
seen here with his wife Helen.
Helen, when you first met Jackie,
were you interested in cars at all?
No! Not at all!
I just wasn't the slightest bit
interested, even watching.
What, so did you...
did you rebel at all?
Yeah, I did rebel a bit
and it didn't work.
It didn't work at all!
Now Jackie Stewart's office
is the cockpit
of his French-built
Matra racing car.
1969 is only Matra's second season.
How can they compete with teams like
BRM, Ferrari and Lotus?
Here's team leader Ken Tyrrell.
I think we have
an advantage over them,
because being a small outfit,
we're not involved with the politics
large companies get involved in.
Our aim is to win motor races
and we can concentrate on that.
Welcome to Silver stone
for the British Grand Prix of 1969,
and a full house today
in the grandstands...
Today's grid includes
world champions Denny Hulme,
Jack Brabham, John Surtees,
Graham Hill,
and top team drivers Jochen Rindt,
Bruce McLaren,
Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon,
Piers Courage and Jackie Stewart.
I always wanted to
be good at something.
It might be that I want to be better
than other people. I don't know.
I remember that from early age
that I wanted to succeed
and do things well.
And this hasn't changed at all.
I really desperately want success.
It's been a hard-fought season,
and Stewart now has four wins,
but Lotus-driver Jochen Rindt
was faster in practice
and is on pole position...
You're leading the championship.
Are you feeling pressure?
I try to remove pressure
and not to get overexcited.
I had to consciously
remove all of my emotions.
- No panic.
- Three minutes!
I was completely neutral.
And by the time of the race,
I'm completely and utterly calm.
I am absolutely ice-cold neutral.
This is where your advantage lies:
In your calmness.
Rindt putting on a tremendous show,
not being rattled by
the masterful Stewart behind him...
Some people believe they've got to
think of themselves as the best
in order to succeed.
And that they're gonna win.
I never, ever thought that.
The people I raced against,
I was always surprised that I went
as fast or faster than them.
He's got to catch up
to make contact again with Rindt.
So there's nothing for it
but to belt after him,
just as hard as the Matra will go.
I was always thinking
everybody else is better than me.
And he's right up with him there,
he's gonna try and take him!
Stewart's back in the lead...
And I've always thought that.
Stewart's back in the lead again.
And Stewart now...
Rindt's coming in,
he's in trouble.
Jochen Rindt's in trouble.
He's coming into the pits.
Jackie, five wins out of six
and five more to go...
- How many more do you want to win?
- As many as possible, obviously.
It's very nice to have won so many
and I'm very thankful for this.
And I'd just like to win some more.
They had a tremendous show,
one of the best Grand Prix's
we've seen for a long time.
And a worthy winner,
and man's who's got 45 points
in the World Championship...
Sir Jackie Stewart,
it's wonderful to be here,
sitting next to your 1969 Matra.
I have to ask you:
Does it feel like 50 years ago?
Yes, in a way. I mean this car here
is so special to me.
I think as history goes by,
people have a desire to look back...
And lots of people do, because
the great old days were wonderful.
Hey, it's good to hug.
It's good to hug.
It's lights out and away we go,
Hamilton covers off his teammate,
Leclerc in third from Verstappen
I'm not one who thinks like that.
I think today
is better than yesterday,
and tomorrow
is going to be better than today.
And when I think back,
it's difficult for me to identify
the halcyon years of my life so far.
- Sir Jackie Stewart, OBE...
- I'm thinking they're still to come.
It is possible
that the World Championship of 1969
may be decided here today,
at the Monza Autodrome.
If Jackie Stewart
finishes fifth or better,
he will become World Champion.
Things were a little fraught.
People were getting a bit on edge.
But at the same time,
you've got to try and keep calm.
And to try and do that
is, really, very difficult.
Jochen Rindt, still desperately
chasing his first Grand Prix win,
in the very fast,
but temperamental, Lotus 49B,
designed of course
by team leader, Colin Chapman.
Tremendously experienced
Jackie Stewart,
who is almost literally
able to tune himself down
at the beginning of a race so that
he's drained himself of all emotion.
You know, the manners in the group
were really perfect.
And they're in our sight now,
in your sight now,
Rindt...
Rindt up into second place...
You had to be very sure what
everyone was doing
because you were
in very close company
literally inches apart
at some times.
Down to the Vialone, 185 mph,
four cars, virtually together.
Down to the Parabolica they come.
Can Stewart hold the line on this?
The last lap, someone's challenging,
it's Rindt going through,
Jochen Rindt takes the lead
in the Parabolica on the last
corner of the last lap...
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.
Jackie Stewart
won the Italian Grand Prix
from Jochen Rindt
by about half a car's length.
Nobody has ever seen the finish
of a motor race like this!
And this makes Jackie Stewart
unmistakably the world champion
of 1969.
He had to finish in fifth place
to be the world champion
and he has, in fact, won the race.
Just five years ago Stewart
was working at his parents' garage,
and he's now
Formula 1 champion of the world.
That was a dream.
I could never have dreamt
that it could have turned out
the way it did.
Oh, Jesus!
This was the start of realising
that I had become World Champion
and things
were gonna be different...
"Hail to King Jackie",
as just said in Sports Illustrated.
Will you welcome please,
Mr Jackie Stewart!
Although he isn't
in the Cassius Clay league yet,
Jackie Stewart is racing with
characteristic dash to a new title,
one of the world's
richest sportsmen...
To have won the World Championship
was for us both...
We've come a long way.
I mean, but I think
I was terribly proud of him, but.
I think, to be part of it
was worth the drama
of going through all the races.
But he did it.
I worked hard
at being world champion.
I did all the functions.
It's very easy for you
to be adversely affected
by being in the public eye.
We do The Today Show,
The New York Time, AP...
You get money, you get
all sorts of things thrown at you.
World Champion Jackie Stewart:
This is your life!
And if there is any
inherent weakness in your character,
it will find you out.
From the opening to the airport,
where I flew to New York and Mexico.
He needs to keep himself busy,
he's a workaholic.
I think it's a...
it's the pressure of life,
of what I've got to do.
It's not selfishness.
People that you were meeting,
there was such a kaleidoscope.
The Beatles,
The Stones, Frank Sinatra
Elizabeth Taylor came with us
to the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo...
There's been no time to absorb the
blur... We have no time to reflect.
I fly to Scotland to see my parents,
literally for 45 minutes,
and I get back
on the plane to London.
Don't you morally respond
to what's happening in the world?
I mean, I couldn't
point Vietnam out on the map,
never mind anything else.
I was being paid quite a lot.
And I had to deliver.
I've never prostituted myself,
and, really, I feel that...
Yeah but in that film there's a
scene with your hair being cut by.
They're trying to project the image
of a modern racing driver
for their purposes,
not for Jackie Stewart.
That is to allow them to do
with your existence as they please!
Yes, to a certain extent,
and they're paying me to do that.
- Oh, so you're willing to sell it?
- Yes.
You mean morality
and principles?
- No, no, no, look.
- I mean you're selling yourself.
- No!
- A film on the life of Stewart.
One of the most important aspects
of your life is your fucking hair?
When we're walking down...
I told you about him,
the German commentator.
Every time
he comes in a more stupid outfit.
Okay?
Some people say the same about me!
All the way through my career
as a racing driver,
and the success I achieved in that,
I kept a secret.
I could neither read or write.
I could do my signature,
only because I practised,
time and time again.
I still can't
read or write correctly.
I can't do the alphabet,
I don't know the alphabet.
I faked it.
You find ways of avoiding
being faced with
having to write something
or having to read something...
You find different ways of
getting people to provide for you.
"What did you say again?
Just read that out to me."
No, I tell you, I was good at that.
- Jackie!
- Jackie!
With the 1970s fast approaching,
he's becoming an idol, a pop star.
Thanks very much!
And don't forget wife Helen.
She's in on the act, too!
We were very much
the "in couple" at that time.
And it was nice to be trendy
and a woman of the time.
I feel I should look more
like a girlfriend than
a very staid wife!
So, what do you make
of the great hair debate?
Should he keep his hair long?
It's a great
point of conversation at the moment!
- And what do you think?
- Well, I encourage him to do it.
It's my fault he did it.
He's always enjoyed dressing well,
but when I first met Jackie,
he used to dress terribly.
He thought it was in good taste,
I thought it was old-fashioned.
- Are we leaving this plain, or...
- That's up to you, really.
But there's a serious side
to Stewart's image.
The former garage mechanic,
who left school at 15,
is now representing
several big companies,
as well as pushing his own brand.
His commercial activities may
just be a glimpse of the future
the sports star as millionaire?
Appearances, promotions,
and getting paid.
A long way up from the garage floor.
Every year Stewart earns about
200,000 in low tax Swiss Francs,
making him the second highest paid
sportsman in Europe.
The highest? A bullfighter.
My tax rate in Britain was 93%,
so we moved to Switzerland.
I didn't want to leave Scotland,
but my tax people just said,
"Look, if anything were to
happen to you, you've got no capital
sufficient to support Helen
and two children
if you were either
critically injured or killed."
And the same night, on Saturday,
I've got to fly back to London.
- How old are they now?
- Erm, Mark is two and a half.
And Paul is five on 29 October.
- Does he understand the risks?
- Oh no.
- Not at all.
- Not at all? You're certain of that?
Er, no, I can't be certain of it,
because er
I remember when Jochen had a crash,
in Barcelona, and
Paul saw the crash
on television.
And he says, you know...
"Uncle Jochen had a crash."
I said, "I know." He said,
"Uncle Jochen's got a sore head."
I said, "Yeah." He said,
"He fell out his racing car."
He said,
"You be careful, won't you?
You won't
fall out your racing car?"
Welcome to the 1970
Formula 1 World Championship.
Motor racing was so unsafe then,
because whatever aspect of Formula 1
you looked at,
it was inherently dangerous.
I don't see my motor racing
as something very brave.
I mean, I'm not a brave man at all,
I'm sort of cowardly man.
Twice a year, when I left home
to go to Nrburgring
and I left to go to Spa,
I consciously questioned
whether I were coming back.
The cars were dangerous:
Virtually mobile petrol tanks
with an engine strapped on one side
and a driver on the other.
There were no fences or barriers,
no run-off areas. There was trees,
bushes, telegraph poles, the public
or barbed-wire fences
to keep the cattle
from going on the roads
or the track.
It was pathetic.
In recent years, there has been
a grim death toll: Jim Clark,
Bruce McLaren, Piers Courage...
And we were killing people
at that time, like ten-a-penny.
Ludovico Scarfiotti,
Lorenzo Bandini, Mike Spence...
So I took on with a venom
the issues of getting
better safety into motor sport,
in particular to Formula 1.
Jackie decided he was
going to do something about it
at a time when motor racing
was regarded as
a gigantically macho sport.
I mean, we closed Spa-Francorchamps
and the Nrburgring,
the two
great racetracks of the world.
The attitude then was,
"Who is this wimp Jackie Stewart
who's going round saying
motor racing ought to be safer?
If you don't like the heat,
get out of the kitchen."
I never used to think that anything
would ever happen to Jackie,
but now it's happened so many times.
I went straight on at the chicane
and jumped out of third gear.
- You know... you've got to...
- I realise now it could happen
I did it twice, I nearly went
straight on into the stadium.
I think he thought he was...
He reckoned that if you survived
five years, statistically,
if you did that, the chances are
you would be killed.
- There are reports of an accident...
- The attitude of the drivers was,
"Well, that's the way it is,
and we'll do it."
Confirmed that
Piers Courage, the 28-year old...
Because they wanted to race more
than they were worried about
being killed or maimed...
You know, I don't want to
be racing for ever, that's for sure.
I suppose one of these days
I'll have to think about stopping.
But I don't want to do it now.
I don't really want to stop.
Being in the public eye,
you're closely watched.
And some of those journalists
really want to dig deep.
Jackie Stewart,
New York City, April 12.
I'm always worried they'll find out
I can't read or write.
I don't read the papers
hardly at all.
I read the papers
of something that...
- Do you shy away from reading them?
- No, no.
You know,
the last book I read was, was erm.
I used to read a lot of books.
I used to read them on aeroplanes.
Because when you spend
this much time in an aeroplane,
you... you have to read books...
But I was bluffing,
because I was frightened
that people would find out.
Jochen was the only man
who I really had to compete against.
He is great friends with Stewart,
but Rindt's Lotus...
He was the only man I had
real respect for as a racing driver.
I mean,
a really high, high respect for.
The Lotus was
the fastest car on the track.
Colin Chapman was a genius
at making things go fast,
but not always reliable.
And, frankly, not always safe.
But to get any sense
into Chapman's skull is impossible.
I have never trusted Lotus.
Is it a business relationship?
Yes, purely business.
Jochen had won the French, you see,
and the Dutch and Monte Carlo.
I'm not all out of step,
quite frankly.
I've seen my world championship
and I've seen it going away,
but I know
there's nothing I can do about it.
I do want it again, but I know
I can't do it in 1970 because
you know,
the Lotus is just too good.
Jochen is
a very, very talented driver
who I enjoy racing with very much.
We are next door neighbours,
we are 300 yards apart.
Helen and Nina
are very good friends,
spend a lot of time together.
Our children play together.
Nina's my best friend in racing.
We love doing things together.
And she lives just up the road...
She's a lovely lady. Very beautiful.
All the men run after her.
Jochen's a tough guy... a hard man,
but a very deep and good friend.
Switzerland is a safe haven
for the Stewart family.
But how does Mrs Stewart feel about
her husband's material success?
Material things don't mean
as much to me as at the beginning.
I thought it would be marvellous
to have everything.
But now when you can have all,
it just makes you appreciate
the little things in life,
like being with the children,
and Jackie and I being together.
I think it's made us appreciate
just what we do have.
The best days of my life
have been with my children.
And still are.
I get this tremendous feeling of
pleasure with the children
and Helen.
This is, I think,
why to Helen and I,
we're in a honeymoon.
We really are.
We're
terribly in love with each other.
Do the two of you know
where you're going?
I don't know where we're going.
It's not a real life. I mean...
You know, it's a storybook life.
It's not a life
that will last forever.
Were you on the racetrack
when he had his accident at Spa?
- Were you there at the time?
- In '66? Yes.
After that race, I dreamt of people
putting their heads into fire...
- Their hands?
- Heads.
Just lying in fire,
ah, it was horrible.
- And have those left you now?
- Oh yes.
But at that time
I lost over a stone in weight.
And I'm not, sort of,
overweight as it is,
so you can imagine
what I looked like.
Paul? What are you gonna be
when you grow up? Do you know?
- Fireman.
- A what?
- Fireman.
- A fireman?
- That's what you wanna be?
- Yes.
- You're sure? Good.
- Yes.
If you recently arrived,
welcome to Monza
and the 1970 Grand Prix of Italy.
This afternoon's practice session...
The Italians are incredible.
They follow you all everywhere...
An incredible crowd scene, always.
Obviously,
you've gotta sign autographs,
certainly some of them,
you can't sign them all.
You seem to go through as if you're
the bull going into the arena,
you're not the bullfighter,
you're the bull
and they're
really pleased to see you.
You're a bigger favourite
than the matador.
Jochen Rindt is
our current championship leader,
and his wife Nina
is also with us this weekend,
so a proper family affair
here at Monza.
As a wife, you're in the pits
and you don't see very much of
what's happening on the circuit.
Practice is now in full swing.
And we have 27 cars competing
for 20 places on tomorrow's grid.
Ken came over to me, and he says,
"Jochen's had an accident."
Then Jackie came to me,
who was supporting me...
And I still not realising at all
what was happening.
Nina was gonna go to the ambulance.
And somebody came over to us,
and said to her,
"You mustn't go there."
And one of the men told me
that Jochen had died.
First of all,
I think Jochen was perhaps
my greatest friend in motor racing.
He was a truly great driver and...
This is an important announcement:
The track has now re-opened.
Practice will go on for some time,
finishing at 6:30pm -
that's half-past six local time.
Ken said, "Right, get in the car.
Hurry up. You better go quick,
Before this session stops,
you've only got ten minutes or so."
My mechanics belted me in.
And then I just started to cry.
And I did four laps.
And on my last lap,
I did the fastest time
that I had done ever around Monza.
- What's your state at this point?
- I just can't understand it.
It's absolutely beyond me.
I mean, I can't understand
how he could do his fastest lap
feeling like that.
I think it must have been
the worst day of my life.
You see,
motor racing is stupid when I see
the hurt and the sadness and the
pain that it causes
to people that I know.
So many memories
and thinking of Jochen.
What Jochen wanted to be
and what he wanted to do.
What he most wanted to be
was world champion.
Which he never knew or he never
could live long enough to know
that he would be world champion.
Jackie and Helen has been fantastic,
both of them.
I'm very, very grateful,
and I love them both for it.
It's not easy
for a racing driver's wife.
It's not what it seems.
There's a lot behind the scenes.
Whether it's one's feelings
or what you're thinking.
It sounds, seems
and looks glamorous,
but, in fact,
it's just another business.
It's a serious business.
Drivers and Formula 1 management
are assembling on the grid
for a special gathering.
The tartan is out for F1 legend,
Sir Jackie Stewart,
celebrating his 80th birthday.
Nobody or nothing is irreplaceable.
Unfortunately, that's the truth.
When we saw Jim Clark's death,
we thought
it would never be the same.
When we saw
the death of Ayrton Senna,
we thought
it will never be the same.
It is the same.
Life goes on.
When Franois Cevert came along,
he was different.
I actually saw this young driver
who had clear talent
but had an enormous
appetite to learn.
And an enormous amount of energy
to want to deliver.
But he was almost too good-looking
to be a racing driver. Oof!
You know, why would you want
somebody like that?
"Can he be a serious
racing driver looking like this?"
You say first round the hairpin,
first on the left of the hairpin?
I told Franois everything.
He knew more than any other teammate
would ever know.
Everybody's listening. Helmut!
All my secrets, Helmut!
And Jackie's so good
in analysing the car.
He reads the car so well.
But, when the flag drops,
He always has
a very easy car to drive.
He doesn't have to
fight with his car
because the car doesn't
go around the corner well.
He always manages to fix his car
so it will be very easy to drive.
Last year you were even less nervous
- before the race...
- Yeah, that's right.
You were quite relaxed last year.
As I say again,
Jackie is the one that affects me.
He is nervous this morning.
I can feel it.
I saw a report
in one of the newspapers last week.
It was sort of
Jackie's life with me.
And at the bottom of it
were five of our closest friends
who had been killed.
And I suddenly realised
that these five people
are the closest people
we've ever come to in racing.
And there's nobody left in racing
as far as we're concerned.
A beautiful start by Stewart...
Are you worried by her ability
- to contain all of this?
- No, not at all.
No, what I mean is, you know,
I suppose it's possible
she is storing all of this stuff up
- and it may some time come out.
- It might do,
but she's got
a tremendous strength of character.
I think she's stronger than I am.
- She's much stronger than I am.
- How is she stronger than you are?
She sees
the important things in life
and sometimes...
I respect her for it,
she doesn't let her feelings
automatically rumble out.
So you respect her
the same way you respect yourself?
I think Jackie was happy
I was like that
because if I was, you know, crying
every five minutes like some girls,
which I understand...
But you must be strong for Jackie.
Here he comes, the flag is ready.
Jackie Stewart wins
the Monaco Grand Prix for Tyrrell.
I believe in good luck.
You need good luck.
Everybody does,
but I don't believe in bad luck.
If you have continuous bad luck,
you're not just an unlucky person.
You've got it wrong.
You're doing it wrongly,
and you've must recognise that.
Would you gamble at all?
In Monte Carlo, I go to the casino.
Maybe the night after the race.
And you know,
all I gamble is 25 dollars.
- 25 dollars?
- That's all.
- You cheap son of a bitch.
- Yes!
- You really are cheap?
- When it comes to betting,
I wouldn't put money
on what I didn't understand.
- You tight-arsed son of a bitch!
- You're absolutely right, I am.
Why would I want to put my money
on something I don't understand?
The problem is, Roger,
when I'm all...
I've got in my mind a certain
attitude towards the car.
It's jumping out of gear
and it's hard to get in,
and then the whole thing goes...
It's a mechanical happening,
you know,
it builds up and builds up,
and it's not in the bump rubbers.
Jackie has trouble in communicating
with writing and written words.
But, he has absolutely
no trouble at all
in communicating
with the spoken word.
I learnt how to communicate.
I learnt how to explain
why the car
was doing this instead of this.
It took me longer to explain,
perhaps, than most people,
but it was probably more vivid
because I tried harder.
It felt like, to begin with,
there was no brake in the front.
I could press the brake
until there was a hole in my foot.
I was a pain in the arse.
People will say, "Oh God, Jackie
goes on and on about this".
It's because I don't think
they've grasped it.
And many times,
of course, they have.
Engage fifth, then finally it
starts to, but not second.
I can say that I think I could
tune into mechanics and engineers,
and I respected them
for what they did
and understood
the quality of their work.
My mechanics
were better at doing what they did
than I ever was at what I did.
And that's why I'm alive today.
We understand
that some of the drivers
are concerned about
the safety of the track's surface.
So, there will be further updates
on the situation...
Safety, the word hits a raw nerve
as far as I was concerned,
because safety was a sick joke.
There wasn't any safety.
The circuits were dangerous,
and the medical facilities were
basic, to put it mildly.
With one hour until the track opens,
there is an inspection in progress
led by Jackie Stewart,
a driver with strong opinions
on motor racing safety.
The problem is they've known for
nine months this race will happen,
and they've chosen the last week
to resurface a racetrack.
I just want to make sure that
if we practise
and the surface is breaking up,
the race will be cancelled.
We don't want any more bullshit
that they will repair the road.
We have to recognise that
racing never will be totally safe.
The objective within motor sport,
or certainly my objective,
is to perhaps remove
its unnecessary hazards.
There are many today who feel that
motor sport should be dangerous.
Almost gladiatorial.
They strongly resist
Stewart's safety campaign.
Stirling Moss! He believed
it wasn't our job to be doing that.
He believed
that we had to take risks.
He always was a good friend,
but we differed on safety.
This is something where Jackie and I
don't see eye to eye.
I think we have to blame him
for the emasculation
of every decent circuit.
I believe, you see, that racing
needs an element of danger because,
to me, it's rather like cooking
and not having any salt.
I mean, the real flavour comes out
with the danger.
Driver safety is one thing,
but Jackie Stewart has his eye
on a bigger picture.
If we are anything less
than totally responsible,
we could lose this sport.
And if we do not
keep our own house in order
by containing accidents within
limitations of the track, without,
God forbid, without it
reaching the spectators.
Our biggest risk is that happening.
As far as I'm concerned,
I need now... I mean,
you can go out in a car if you like.
There are 25 cars here. You can't
sweep them on a course car.
You'd have to do 40 laps.
Stewart's efforts
are starting to bear fruit.
Not least with the state-of-the-art
mobile medical centre.
Jackie is a gigantically determined,
sincere chap, and he - admittedly
in association with other people
has made Formula 1
infinitely safer than it ever was.
It will never be safe,
but that it is as safe as it is now,
is entirely due to him.
At that time,
Jackie was seldom home.
I had Paul and Mark at home,
so, therefore, it was quite tiring.
Jackie was a dedicated family man,
although, he hasn't spent the time
that he would like to.
Always when he left home, he
wondered if he would be coming back.
Some of them didn't get back home,
and they had children.
Paul came back one day and said,
"When's Daddy gonna die?"
All the boys say at school
that Daddy's going to die,
"because all racing drivers die."
You know, I see this,
and I really
feel them. You know,
I feel them very close to me.
- One...
- Two...
But, you know, you collect yourself,
and you go on.
And, God dammit,
I am absolutely certain
that this costs you in terms of
relationship with your wife.
I think half of the trouble is,
with people like yourself
and the other so-called
intellectuals in America,
that they spend half their lives
analysing themselves
instead of enjoying it.
I see,
life is basically a happy affair...
No, it's got
fucking sad moments in it.
I've probably seen
a lot more than you.
- No doubt you have.
- But I've seen a lot of it, boy,
and I've seen a lot of life.
And in seeing that lot of life,
I can understand it.
Probably, a lot further
than some people.
You put it to me, three years ago,
in these terms,
"When driving a racing car,
you're more aware of your mortality.
You love your kids
and your wife more
because you know
you could be dead in a week."
When I'm really on form,
I completely remove emotion.
I consciously remove it.
And when I see a corner
coming towards me,
I see that corner in slow motion.
Things don't rush past you
at an enormous flurry.
They're crystal clear.
Your whole system,
your whole physical body,
is so intense.
It's a sort of intoxication.
I think it must be
like somebody being high on a drug.
I was jetting back and forward
across the Atlantic
on the World Championship
in Europe and beyond.
The Can-Am Championship was
from June until the end of October.
When Jackie Stewart gets it on,
there are few people in the world
who can match
his driving style and ability.
And right now,
Jackie Stewart is on it.
Jackie Stewart is now Formula 1
World Champion for the second time.
There he is celebrating
with teammate Franois Cevert
and team boss Ken Tyrrell.
Jackie, I know, is going to go on
and set all sorts of new records.
This is only
his second World Championship.
He set a new standard
in motor racing, a new high, and
something for everyone to go for.
But, for Christ's sake, lay off.
I'm Jackie Stewart.
The race cars I drive costs...
Getty Premium sells for less
than most other premiums...
Goodyear G800 Supersteels -
performance that lasts
Capri - the sexy European...
Let's talk about money.
Do you make more money than
most drivers, I mean
- I think so, yes.
- Why?
- Because people think I'm worth it.
- Why?
I mean,
it's more than just driving a car.
It amounts to the promo activities
that I do and
the way that I can talk and the way
I can put together a deal
that might be better
than somebody else.
I'm not quite sure
if he enjoys the racing,
or if he enjoys the fact
that he makes a lot of money.
I can never quite understand.
I've never really asked him.
By December, I was so exhausted,
through doing too many things,
I couldn't pick up
my World Championship.
It was my second World Championship,
and I sent Helen instead.
I was just so drained.
I was still feeling insecure
because I knew I wasn't as clever
as people thought I was.
But I still couldn't read,
and I still couldn't spell.
You know, Helen didn't know.
She did not know. I faked it.
Nobody, nobody knew.
It was a very well-kept secret.
The thrill of victory,
the agony of defeat.
Jackie Stewart
is once again with us today,
World Champion racing driver
and our expert on the sport
I was starting
to become a regular face
on ABC's Wide World of Sports,
a very successful American program me
with a big audience.
Full of excitement.
It's the epitome of glamour,
It's colourful, it's exciting.
It's everything we want...
The trouble was that I found it
impossible to read the teleprompter.
So, I had to fake it.
Three of them here and four
I learnt my lines in advance,
trying to make it work.
To observe and comment,
World Champion, Jackie Stewart.
Keith, the Alfa Romeo is
what's called a sports prototype.
It's a very special
kind of motor car...
It was a lot of preparation,
but in the end, it seemed to work.
I did 25 programmes one year
for ABC's Wide World of Sports,
and that was one of the years
I did 43 trips across the Atlantic.
But, in fact, the Atlantic travel
proved to be a bit too much for him.
This is not the confident Stewart
that we're used to seeing.
He has already missed one race
due to health problems,
and Ken Tyrrell must be concerned
about his star driver, especially
I got a duodenal ulcer
that haemorrhaged.
I was bleeding internally,
and I was in a mess.
There goes Colin Chapman,
and it's Emerson Fittipaldi.
A superb drive...
The Lotus team is making
a big impact in the 1972 season
with their brilliant
young Brazilian.
I was in a very strong position,
and we had many races
that we diced against each other.
Or he won, I was second,
or I won, he was second.
Really, you know,
I knew I wasn't driving well,
and I was cursing myself
for being too busy.
Fittipaldi is now Formula 1
World Champion of 1972.
The youngest ever champion.
That's my first World Championship.
It seemed Jackie didn't like
that Emerson idea.
Emerson Fittipaldi,
World Champion, 61 points.
Runner-up, Jackie Stewart on 45.
When you go into sport,
you win, or you lose.
The important thing is to win.
I don't know how many times
I finished second.
I couldn't tell you,
because it really doesn't matter.
You know, whatever I'm doing,
I try harder.
That's still going on in my life.
To this very day.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good to see you, come back.
Hey! Look at you!
Jackie is one of the best
drivers in the world.
But I still want to
do things in my life.
A very close friend of mine.
And I do it,
sometimes far too ardently.
It's the only way I know how to.
It's the only way
I've achieved anything.
It's the only way I've got success.
That takes you away from home.
I mean, Helen's fed up,
but she knows that I'm doing my job.
There's sometimes, she says,
"Why do you bother?
Why are you doing this anymore?"
- The Ford Cosworth engine.
- Yes.
I'm doing it
because I'm fulfilled by it.
I don't want to remove
what is Jackie Stewart.
Jackie Stewart, one of the main
personalities in motor sport...
This is the second Formula 1 race
of 1973,
and Interlagos is hosting
the first-ever Brazilian Grand Prix.
Reigning world champion,
Emerson Fittipaldi,
- and Jackie Stewart.
- Emerson! Emerson!
Emerson was a star from Brazil,
and a tough competitor.
It was very fashionable
to have the sideburns at the time.
I said, "Why not, Jackie has them,
and he's going fast.
I have to have a bigger one
to go even faster than him!"
- Emerson!
- Emerson!
Once again,
that familiar celebration.
Fittipaldi takes the flag.
The local boy has done it,
and Interlagos is loving it.
What do you think of Emerson
as a pilot?
- Who?
- Emerson Fittipaldi.
The guy
who won the World Championship.
Ah, yes!
- The Lotus is unstoppable.
- He drove an excellent race.
I'm just sorry
I couldn't be more opposition.
Five races won so far,
three wins for Fittipaldi,
and two for Stewart.
Practice is in progress at Zandvoort
on this important weekend...
Fittipaldi in the Lotus,
Stewart in the Tyrrell.
They are on three wins apiece,
but Stewart leads by one point.
Both teams are, of course...
It feels to me the throttle spring
isn't strong enough, huh?
Blooming hell, Ronnie's engine is as
rough as a bag of nails, isn't it?
- Where's Emerson?
- He crashed very badly.
Oh no! Oh no!
Where? What happened?
He's crashed very heavily
into the guard rail.
Fittipaldi's brother.
His wife.
Sighs of relief all round.
We don't yet know
the extent of Emerson's injuries
or how this might affect
the battle for the championship...
But the race will start shortly.
A car has gone off
in the Panoramabocht.
At this point, we don't know
if there's still a man inside.
I just visited the crash site.
The man's dead.
I saw it, it was horrible.
I know for sure, it was
Robert Williamson's STP March.
Williamson's dead. No lap
of honour, quiet presentation...
Take it.
Jackie Stewart now,
ten points ahead of Fittipaldi,
and a great congratulations
for James Hunt and the Hesketh Team.
This is only James Hunt's fourth
Grand Prix, a great achievement.
I think he thought he was...
it was beginning to get a bit silly.
And I think
he took stock of his life then.
Here I was at the very
height of my skills, my abilities.
At the height
of my earning capacity.
All the adulation that went with it.
And I was not
getting much out of it.
I was getting negatives
rather than positives,
and that confused me. It was then
that I decided I was gonna retire.
He didn't want this to be public
because he didn't want Helen
to be having a countdown on,
you know, only five more,
only four more, only three more.
She'd be waiting for that last race
with climbing anxiety,
to see it finished, if you like.
And
there were times I felt like
saying to Jackie,
"Give it up." But I didn't.
In fact, I vowed I never would.
And I never have done.
Do you ever feel guilty about,
in effect, the kind of life
you put Helen through?
Oh, hell, yes. Oh absolutely.
I think it's a very selfish business
and I do feel guilty.
At the height of my career,
I know I was a wickedly selfish,
self-centred person,
and the world
had to circulate around my life.
If you gear it for third gear...
My family, my wife,
my business associates,
my team, my mechanics,
my designers, my Ken Tyrrells
they had to be all fitting around
what Jackie Stewart wanted.
- Do you fancy a game?
- Yes!
- I've got my bat!
- It's a good one.
Now, we've talked a lot
about your husband, Helen, but
what about his teammate?
How do you get on with him?
- Franois?
- Franois, yeah.
He's great fun, nice to be with.
And he loves my family
and Jackie.
We get on all so well together.
He's quite a fit young man,
isn't he?
He'd always have these girls coming,
to try get to know me,
so they could to get to know him.
This one here was Franois...
not kissing me at all, just
kidding on. I think it's so funny
'cause Jackie...
He couldn't have cared less anyway.
Because he knew he was safe.
It wasn't serious.
Well, we are delighted to see
Emerson Fittipaldi back on the grid.
He's in 14th position, a long way
back from Stewart and Peterson,
with Ickx and Franois Cevert
in the second Tyrrell, behind...
Five, four, three.
I held nothing back from Franois.
Nothing!
Tell me about your education
as a driver.
Well, I think it's very simple:
Jackie did all my education.
I was what you could call
a mad driver.
I was driving like hell. I was not
thinking enough to what I was doing.
And Jackie stopped all that
and teach me
how you must analyse a car, how
you must think when you are driving,
what kind of vision you must have.
Stewart wins in Germany,
his 27th Formula 1 victory
the most races ever won by a driver,
surpassing the late Jim Clark
who had 25
Franois had
an immense appetite to learn...
And for me it was nice,
because I was with somebody
who I could pass something on to.
And he was quick.
I said to Ken afterwards,
"You know
Franois, I really think
he could've beaten me today."
Jackie is still the maestro for me.
He is the only man,
maybe in the world, to be able to do
a whole Grand Prix of 90 laps,
two hours racing,
without making one mistake.
But I think I am on one lap,
I'm now as fast as Jackie.
What does that mean,
what do you have to do to beat him?
Not to make any mistakes.
And a big one, Franois!
Jackie Stewart now looks unbeatable
in the race for the championship.
He has 60 points,
followed by Cevert on 45,
Fittipaldi on 42.
Franois didn't know I was retiring.
He was the obvious team leader
for the following year.
Franois! Franois! Franois!
Every race I went to that year,
I thought,
"Wow, I'll never race here again."
Bloody cork!
All of these events
became very focused in my mind
as the last time I'll be doing that.
So, that was the sweet time.
The last corner, coming into sight -
and Stewart has done it!
Jackie, hi!
He is now World Champion of 1973!
Two Grand Prix still to come
in Canada and the United States...
During the two weeks
before the Grand Prix in America,
we went down to Bermuda.
And Jackie had gone off
to play golf,
we were just lying there,
discussing will Jackie retire,
or will he not retire.
And I said, "Well, if he retires,
you'll be number one anyway."
So he said, "I 'ope so."
"I do not know."
He used to
play the piano a great deal
and he used to play
this wonderful tune from Beethoven,
"Pathtique".
He would always
tease me with that music
because it always upset me
'cause I loved to hear him play.
And when we left there, it was
very - I don't know,
I had a funny feeling when I left.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish,
you may now smoke -
cigarettes only, please. Thank you.
Funnily enough,
that day Franois said to me,
"If anything
ever happens to me..."
He didn't believe
in life after death, if you
die, that's it.
I said, "I think you're wrong.
I'm sure there's something.
There can't just be nothing."
So, he said,
"I'll tell you what:
Whoever goes first,
comes back and gives a sign."
See that trophy?
It takes a lot to win it.
That's right, roll it over!
Testing 123, testing 123,
Watkins Glen...
Mr and Mrs Edsel Ford, please head
to the Ford Motor Company bureau,
located to the left of the...
My wife Cynthia and I
were gonna meet Jackie and Helen.
We arrived
in time for practice, and
you know, everybody
was in good spirits.
It was a very festive weekend.
As I got closer
and closer to what would've been
my last race,
at my hundredth Grand Prix,
I wasn't getting hyped up,
nervous or excited about it.
It was the end of a long season.
I had secured
the World Championship.
And I had a great feeling
about my career
having come to an end, really.
After the morning practice sessions,
Ronnie Peterson has the fastest time
with 1 minute 39.6 seconds...
Before the last practice,
Ken said to me,
the biggest gesture you could make
in your last Grand Prix,
even if you're leading it,
would be to move over
and wave Franois through,
and let him win.
And I said, "Ken, that's a big ask.
My last Grand Prix?"
I said, "You have to
let me think about that one."
Stewart's teammate, 29-year-old
Frenchman Franois Cevert,
has had a tremendous season so far.
He collided with Jody Scheckter
two weeks ago at Mosport,
but he's back in the car
this weekend
I cannot be more happy.
Everything I do
about motor racing, I enjoy it.
Anything. Because it is my passion.
I'd got to the pits by that time.
I'd got my books out and everything.
He just looked up, and he goes...
before he put his visor down.
Our final practice session
is just beginning
and will go on
for the next 30 minutes...
There was debris all over the track.
I mean, large parts of it,
but clearly blue.
And I went to the car,
still smoking, steaming.
And Franois is in the car.
And... it was just a horrible sight.
It was just
the violence of it was so horrid.
Christ, it still
still bothers me today.
I often think about him.
We had long conversations,
Franois and I, about death and
what happened
if there was life after death.
I said, "If it happens to you,
you come back and tell me."
And he did.
So, I know there's life after death.
That's really all I have
on that particular subject.
I'm not one who looks back
with rose-coloured glasses.
I'm not one who thinks like that.
There's been some difficult times.
But there's also been
unexpected positives.
I was 43 years of age
well after I had retired
from racing
when I was diagnosed
as a severe dyslexic.
And I suddenly thought, "God,
I've been saved from drowning!"
I'm not stupid and I'm not thick.
I'm not dumb.
Nowadays people are saying
that dyslexia can be an advantage.
I'm not sure if that's true.
- But if my story can help people...
- Good.
Who can't read or write,
then I'll see that as a success.
My life's been
a kind of rocket ship
where the vivid, bright colours
go with the deepest of dark colours.
And I think that
that's where you get the real taste
of what is reality.
In the deepest sense.
And although it had its sour times -
and they were deeply sour
that also highlighted what
the reality of the good life was,
and what life had given to me
just by driving a racing car.
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