Original subtitles

The two organising bodies of the sport,

FOCA, representing the British,

and the French dominated, FISA,

have been at loggerheads

for two years.

Never has motor racing been in graver danger of collapse.

As soon as you don't compete and don't care

whether you win or not,

you're gonna lose.

That's for sure.

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser

'cause some people are proud of losing.

(THEME MUSIC)

We made a point which is what I wanted to do...

make a point to the FISA.

They can say what they wanted to say and do what they wanted to do,

in the meantime, they couldn't run

a Formula One event without us.

I called a meeting at the Hotel Crillon

to tell the world we would be racing in South Africa

with skirts knowing full well that no matter the result,

the points wouldn't count for the world championship.

We looked very, very powerful and very strong

but it was a bit of a brave thing to do

'cause half the teams had a big enough problem

actually arriving to Paris, financially.

And there was one or two that I was personally financing.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

Jean-Marie was quite sure

that this would never happen and we'd never all stick together.

No-one could have stopped us

having a race anywhere.

So, we made the announcement and we raced in South Africa.

The Grand Prix racing world has gathered uneasily

here at Kyalami in the Transvaal,

and as a result of that there are no Ferraris,

no Alfa Romeos and no Renaults.

Are the FISA cars coming?

They would dearly like to come

I know that,

but I think until such time

as FISA take an official stand on the subject,

I think they can't go out on a limb.

It's a Grand Prix for sure

with 19 cars from the Formula One

Constructor's Association.

(INAUDIBLE) Piquet leading

and just look at that spray.

It must be absolute murder for anybody who is behind the lead.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

Just look at that gap.

Look at the battle for third.

It's what is turning out to be a very exciting

South African Grand Prix.

Piquet's into the pits.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

Terrific scrap for second position nearly losing it.

And off goes Geoff Lees, the English driver!

Alan Jones is into the pits.

The world champion of 1980

starts 1981 very poorly indeed.

And now, into the lead goes Carlos Reutemann,

the Argentinian driver

in the (INAUDIBLE) Williams car.

And it's significant that Reutemann has been on slick tyres

since the beginning of the race.

Until now, he looks set to hold that lead

on the right tyres.

Over the line goes Carlos Reutemann.

It's been a very, very good South African Grand Prix,

especially for Carlos Reutemann.

In the end, the race didn't count for points.

Not only was Formula One the business of the English teams,

it was also the business of Ferrari.

They'd built their brand in Formula One racing

and been successful obviously.

The last thing they wanted was for that to disappear.

In fact, everyone acknowledges the fact

without Ferrari there wouldn't be Formula One,

and Mr Ferrari knew that.

I always used to say about him

he would have been a very good

used car dealer.

Renault and Ferrari and Alfa decided

whether the race was gonna happen under the Federation or not,

they were gonna be there racing,

which was not at all good for Jean-Marie

because he relied on the manufacturers.

Alexandro Buzzi from Philip Morris

was fed up with all the bickering and the arguing and whatever

and said we ought to get something sorted out.

So, I think it was Max, myself and him,

met in a hotel,

actually in the basement of a hotel,

I think it was in the winter

and it was miserable, snowing outside

and I was concerned at also how we were gonna get out of there

because of the weather.

But we just dragged on

until we got something put together we thought would work.

And it was our job then is to convince the people

that we need to sign it.

It was the right thing to do.

From the very early days,

in fact Mr Ferrari had insisted was included in our agreements

that they had a veto over any regulations

that would damage their company.

And they've never used it.

(LAUGHS)

Jean-Marie had to sign the agreement.

That's how the Concorde Agreement was born.

In the end that's the strength that Philip Morris was.

We accepted the skirt ban and went to Long Beach.

The rules were quite clear.

The cars had to be 6cm off the ground

to avoid the ground effect.

Colin, the first and leading question has to be,

is it legal?

Well, yes, I wouldn't go

to the trouble of designing

and developing a car

for 21 months and make it,

if I wasn't absolutely sure

that it is legal, yes.

And is there a fixed gap between the bottom of the car

or is that going to be a movable feast?

No.

The...the gap as required

by the regulations is 6cm

and we fully comply with that requirement.

So, you feel that you are within

the 1981 FISA regulations?

100%, yes.

The innovative and controversial new Lotus 88

has been excluded by the stewards

for allegedly infringing the design rules.

It was basically, in effect,

two different chassis

as usual with Colin very, very clever.

And I think from memory,

Ken Tyrrell was the one that led the sort of protest.

In fact, I think he was actually the only one

who actually made a protest.

There's an air of mystery surrounding the whole thing.

When we first got here the car was pronounced eligible

by the scrutineer

who was technically qualified to do so.

We went out, then started to actually prepare the car to run,

and immediately there were some protests

from our fellow competitors.

The protests were considered by the stewards at the meeting

who were non-technical people,

so, they've just said the car can't run,

but they haven't said why, they haven't been specific at all.

The bottom line is very simple.

If we allow this to happen,

we'll all have to do the same

which would have been a disaster

because it was an expensive operation.

00:11:10.200 -- 00:11:11.840 With the winter long, bitter feuding

between motor racing's governing body

and the car constructors over,

it's a race that's wide open

because of the new no skirts ruling

plus new cars from no less than eight teams

including the new turbo Ferraris.

Fastest in practice is Brazilian,

Nelson Piquet.

Four seconds inside the lap record

in spite of the new no skirts rule

which is supposed to slow the cars.

Gordon come up with an idea

how we could run the car,

so, when it come into the pits

it would comply with the regulation.

Just look at the way Piquet is going.

He's got a very special suspension on that Brabham of his.

And now, Hector Rebaque from Mexico in the second team Brabham

is challenging the man who is tying in the lead

in the world championship Carlos Reutemann

on Reutemann's home ground.

Well, as I said (INAUDIBLE) with the greatest respect,

Rebaque is not a world class driver

and he's in an infinitely superior car to Carlos Reutemann

which just makes a mockery of Grand Prix racing.

Well, either way,

Hector Rebaque makes Carlos Reutemann

look as though he's almost standing still.

Nelson Piquet is coming through to win

the fourth Grand Prix in his short

world championship career

to the delight of his pit crew.

So, there is no doubt at all

about the fact that the technicians

have already mastered the rules,

overcome the ground effects problem

and the cars are now going

even quicker than they did

last year.

Everybody who is around the track...

Yeah.

..can see that your car is very low...

Yeah.

..down on the track, OK?

So, it's moving in fact. Yes, but they...

All the cars move on the springs,

all of them.

There's no difference.

The regs are saying that the car

should be 6cm high in any circumstance.

No, they don't. No, they don't.

The regulations say

all measurements shall be taken with the car stationary

on a flat metal surface

with a driver on board and the engine running.

Clever designers conceived a system that,

when a car leaves the pits

it's dropped down by means of a hydraulic system,

performs as near a ground effect situation as possible,

and seconds before it comes in the lever is pulled,

up goes the car and she's legal

when she comes into this ride height pan.

Frank protested the whole system.

Although he didn't know how it worked,

because they tried to do exactly the same thing

in rather a cruder way.

But, by then it had been approved

that the regulation hadn't been broken.

Ground effect is now back and completely legal.

The whole season was a bit of a scrap

between Brabham and Williams and Carlos and Nelson,

and the season finished at the last race.

I was trying to get Formula One in Vegas.

The conclusion was very simple,

the only place it could ever be

was in the car park at Caesar's Palace.

So, I met with Billy Weinberger

who used to run the hotel.

Billy said to me, "We don't know

"about Formula One

"and probably the people don't even know

"what Formula One is.

"Tell you what we're gonna do?

"We're gonna have a board meeting."

He took me down into the basement,

opened a door which normally

three or four people would have to sort of open.

We went inside.

Billy had said to me, "Don't worry, it's all...

"it's completely soundproof."

So, Billy said, "OK, we'll vote on this.

"Good. Unanimous.

"We'll have the race."

It's a big risk for Caesar's Palace to take.

The man who persuaded them to take it,

the man who can persuade anyone to do anything,

the Mr Fix of the Grand Prix circus is Bernie Ecclestone.

It looks like a colossal investment.

How much money is involved?

Umm, close on $10 million

at the moment.

And whose money is that? All Caesar's Palace money?

Sure as hell isn't mine.

There was a lot of G force

with the way the corners were put together.

And after the first day's practice,

it was obvious that the drivers were in trouble

with all the pain in their neck.

And Carlos got a hold of the masseur that used to look after the boxers.

I went to see this person.

After a financial discussion,

they decided to favour Nelson.

I don't know whether I ever told Carlos.

Good evening.

A special addition of the programme

to give you the last Grand Prix

of the season live from Las Vegas.

Now, this is the race

that will decide the 1981

World Drivers' Championship

and it's the closest title race for years.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(CHEERFUL MUSIC)

Nelson was quite confident.

Nelson Piquet who's struggled a little bit in practice,

went to get a massage at the Caesar's Palace hotel,

and the guy did him such a mischief

that Piquet's neck was alright,

but he had bruises all the way down his back

and was in quite considerable discomfort yesterday.

In fact, he had to go to his doctor for treatment

to recover from his massage.

Carlos was on pole position in his usual sort of mood,

thinking of all the good reasons why he shouldn't win the race

or couldn't win it.

And away they go.

It's Alan Jones taking the lead,

Villeneuve in second position

taking all that he can

out of the turbocharged Ferrari power.

Well, the question now is where are the world championship contenders?

Carlos Reutemann adopting the maxim of Marshal Petain,

the imaginary line they shall not pass.

And they, in his case is Nelson Piquet.

And Piquet, I think he's done it, Piquet's got it.

Piquet's made it to Rosewood,

and that now puts Piquet in a winning position

for the world championship.

So, is Reutemann in trouble with his car?

Or is he just a bit shell shocked?

Carlos did a Carlos.

Reutemann has this tendency

when things aren't absolutely right for him

to go into a decline and give up.

There is the world champion,

actually becoming world champion

of 1981.

The end of an exciting and well worth it

Caesar's Palace Grand Prix

and everything that Bernie Ecclestone

has put into motor racing.

And there is Bernie Ecclestone with Max Mosley

who has worked so hard with Ecclestone

on Formula One racing.

Let's go to the pits now and Mark Thatcher.

Here we are, Nelson Piquet

is suffering from total heat exhaustion.

He's still in the car,

he's been sick on his...

in his overalls and everything.

He hasn't got enough strength yet

to get out of the car.

He's now been given water.

Almost spoon-fed

but he's gonna be in the car for some time.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

I declare officially Nelson Piquet

world champion of 1981.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

We'd won the world championship.

That was really the end for Carlos.

He stopped racing after that.

00:20:42.240 -- 00:20:46.680 Ron used to be very meticulous, very methodical.

Knew where he wanted to go

and knew more or less the way to get there.

(SOFT MUSIC)

In Teddy's case,

I think he was looking to find

a way to win.

And I think he looked at Ron

and thought,

"This is the guy I'm sure that can help us."

So, that relationship started I think in that way.

If I was to have a race team now,

the only person I'd want on board with me

would be Ron.

(ENGINE REVS)

I retired two years ago to start my own airline,

the airline works, everything is alright,

so, I felt that my heart

is still beating very hard for motor racing.

When Niki decided

to come back into Formula One

it was John Hogan that actually sorted it out.

John was a bit concerned, "Would it ever work?"

So, he spoke to James Hunt.

He said, "James, Niki wants to come back.

Do you think he can make it?"

And James told him, "Well, it's just like riding a bike."

(ENGINE REVS)

(SOFT MUSIC)

Just the top one, yes?

Each page, no?

Every page.

Marlboro more or less offered a million dollars.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

James we've been reading the stories in the newspapers

that you've been offered

2.5 million pounds by Brabham

to come back to the sport?

Now, is that a genuine offer?

Has that offer actually been made?

Yes, that was a genuine offer

to come back and drive for them for next year.

So, what are you gonna do about it?

Well, reluctantly I've decided to turn it down

for the same reasons really that... that I retired in the first place.

It was one of self-preservation.

Teddy's departure from McLaren

was under a bit of a cloud.

People like Philip Morris

were very involved there at the time,

so, it became easier for Ron to take the team over.

Here at Kyalami

it is a hotbed of rumour and controversy,

because as of now we do not know whether there is going to be a race.

31 Grand Prix drivers assembled in South Africa

for the start of the 1982 racing season

have refused to take their cars onto the Kyalami circuit.

All the top drivers due to take part have said

they won't compete if they are forced

to sign a new super licence.

They say it's unfair.

They were contracted to be with teams

and paid to do a job.

And they thought

if they didn't like the team too much

they'd leave.

During the two last month we announced to the driver

the new rule of the whole championship

and they receive in December

all the information for the new licence you see.

And they don't protest, absolutely not.

And they sign all the licence formula

for the championship and they say nothing.

The vast majority of the drivers signed

but then that was in December

when they were all sitting at home by themselves,

miles from any other driver, whereas FISA and FOCA

get together all the time.

Drivers really believed and thought

they should be completely in control,

and now they had to comply with certain conditions,

which they were terribly unhappy about.

Nelson was our driver.

He was one of the leaders of the strike.

And he sort of got up and had a speech.

And he stood on the piano, pulled down his trousers

and said, "Bernie can come and kiss my arse

if he wants me to drive."

And it got back to me what he'd said.

Which is alright, I mean, it was what he...

he was trying to give a message.

(LAUGHS)

What did you tell your two drivers,

world champion Nelson Piquet and Ricardo Patrese?

Well, they've got a contract

to say that they'll drive in this event,

and if they don't they'll be in breach of contract

and that'll be the end of their contract

as far as I'm concerned.

This means that you would in fact fire them?

If they're not here within a reasonable time

to practice these two cars for this Grand Prix

they won't be driving for Brabham anymore.

The idea sort of made people understand

that perhaps they wasn't quite as strong

as they thought they were.

When people start threatening, you got to do something about it.

They have done things

that the drivers haven't had a chance to fight about.

The drivers are feeling browbeaten again,

and I have to say that I think they are being browbeaten.

Alain Prost approaches the finishing line

on his last lap at some 200mph

and completes it to win the South African Grand Prix.

Rene Arnoux will be third,

so, it will be first and third for the two Renaults

and a famous victory for the French team.

We've seen some superb racing.

Let us fervently hope

that this is the end of the politics.

Alain Prost was, and I still to this day believe,

probably the best driver.

He drove the car on his own without any help,

people called him the 'Professor'.

He made sure he looked after

his tyres and gearbox and all the things

that people have engineers doing for them today,

Alain did on his own.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(ENGINE REVS)

People think that Alain Prost was gonna win quite easy

after what had happened in South Africa.

And there is Piquet

coming up to challenge Prost, and is he going through?

He is!

The Brabhams are up into third and fourth place.

Yeah, Prost slowed there.

Both Brabhams seem to be going extremely well.

Piquet is having a real go to get past Arnoux,

his car is obviously handling a lot better.

And there he goes through into second position

there he goes Nelson Piquet.

Piquet challenging Villeneuve.

And Piquet now, he's going to try and go around the outside,

and Villeneuve's off.

Villeneuve's off, he's lost it.

He put his wheels on the grass. He's off.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

Patrese slumped over the wheel.

I've never seen a driver slump over the wheel

quite like that before.

There's Nelson Piquet, you see how tired he is.

He has his head on the side of the cockpit there

and just fallen over, can no longer hold it up.

Piquet is on the last lap now.

He's got a ten second lead if he can just stay conscious.

And Nelson Piquet wins the Brazilian Grand Prix!

Nelson had suffered with the G Forces,

and he was in pretty bad shape.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

Because they didn't win,

Brazil put a big question mark on the turbo cars.

So, they decided what they would protest about

was our water-cooled brakes.

The British teams designed a brake cooling system

which involved filling this tank here with water.

It was sort of that much.

And when the cars started a race, the tank was obviously full.

But the turbo teams say once the race got underway,

the water was quickly used up

as we can see by pushing this switch.

And suddenly the cars were some 45 to 100 pounds lighter

and under the minimum weight limit.

Max Mosley, let me put the point to you first

that this quite simply is a fair cop.

You've been breaking the rules and you've been caught out for it.

No, absolutely not.

You see, the rules are very, very clear

that the car must be weighed

with its normal quantity of lubricants and coolants.

And the water in the tank is a coolant.

We complied completely with the regulations.

And the name of the game is winning.

Second place isn't of much interest.

People will exploit every advantage they can,

unfair or otherwise,

as long as it does not directly contravene the rules,

break the rules.

It probably was a bit naughty to do,

which it was.

Jean-Marie understood exactly what was going on,

but the federation was very, very, very powerful.

And somebody at the top of Renault

didn't want Jean-Marie supporting us.

So, Brabham and Williams got disqualified

and we lost the points for that race.

A much depleted field

will contest this weekend's

San Marino Grand Prix

after the latest row

has split this troubled sport.

Most of the British teams have pulled out

after the decision to disqualify the Brabham and Williams teams

from the recent Brazilian Grand Prix

which they finished first and second.

Now, we've got Bernie Ecclestone with us,

who of course is the Brabham chief and also President of the FOCA

and the man who's leading

this walkout of the FOCA teams.

If you continue this boycott,

you could in fact wreck the entire Formula One season.

It looks like it unfortunately.

I mean, it's not my intention.

I mean, we haven't started anything.

Instead of a full grid of 26 cars,

there are only 14

because the bitter political wrangling

which has dominated Grand Prix racing this year,

has continued here.

The mainly British Formula One constructor's teams

have almost all withdrawn from the race.

Very often with these simple disputes

reality steps in,

and the stark reality

was the teams needed to be at the race

because they needed the money.

Our business was racing...

so, we thought the best thing we can do

is to make sure our cars

complied with the regulation for the weight of the cars,

so, we added the weight and raced.

Mr Ferrari wouldn't fall passionately in love with drivers

knowing full well that they could lose them,

but with Gilles he treated him a little bit more like a son.

Gilles was quick for sure.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

After we lost Gilles, it hurt Mr Ferrari a lot.

There was even talk about, at that time,

that maybe they would stop racing,

which was quite an unusual thing

to even think about that Ferrari could stop racing.

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

(LOUD THUD)

Didier Pironi went off in his Ferrari

at over 160mph leaving him with badly broken legs.

Something needed to be done.

The cars were getting too fast.

(KNOCK ON TABLE)

Jean-Marie decided to get rid of the whole thing

with ground effects.

So, he decided the cars should have a completely flat bottom

so it would have no effect.

The future was turbocharged.

00:36:50.440 -- 00:36:53.400 Colin Chapman, the man who made Lotus cars famous

around the world, has died.

He was 54.

The police were called to his home in Norfolk

early this morning,

but they say there were no suspicious

circumstances surrounding his death.

A spokesman for Lotus says he died of a heart attack.

We'd been at a meeting in Paris,

and he was fighting fit.

People who saw Chapman as recently as last week

say he didn't seem worried,

but he must have been under pressure.

Lotus had been searching for new bankers,

Profits have been hit hard by recession

and questions were being asked

about a connection with DeLorean cars

in Northern Ireland

and payments made by them to Lotus.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

Everything a bit of a mystery.

That was the...the strange thing.

He was a big loss for Formula One...

and also the loss of a very good friend as well.

We didn't see the famous Chapman cap

go up in the air today, I think.

Well, you weren't looking, I...I... It went up.

He was one of the founder FOCA people,

right at the very beginning.

And now he was gone.

(CHEERFUL MUSIC)

Prost and Piquet absolutely side by side,

but Prost has the line for the (INAUDIBLE)

if he can get onto the brakes last.

And he does.

Alain Prost, quiet, determined,

very ambitious, is almost home.

Today, Alain Prost looked to me

a little bit like a world champion.

Alain Prost coming through to win his fourth Grand Prix

and very likely becoming the first ever

French world champion in Formula One Grand Prix racing.

(SOFT MUSIC)

We were accused of cheating and using illegal fuel.

And this was a lot of trouble caused by Renault.

Jean-Marie Balestre supported us against Renault

which was strange.

He never sided with them and said we'd done the wrong thing.

And we didn't cheat and our fuel wasn't illegal.

In the lead is Nelson Piquet.

Nelson Piquet has just lapped Prost,

which is going to blow the world championship

absolutely wide open.

And there is Nelson Piquet crossing the line

to win his second Grand Prix of the year.

(CHEERFUL MUSIC)

Now, this is the most important pit stop of 1983,

it's a slow pit stop.

And out gets Prost!

Sensation!

Alain Prost, the world champion designate

when this race began gets out of his Renault

and retires from the South African Grand Prix.

And here comes Piquet over the line goes the world champion of 1983,

Nelson Piquet pounding the steering wheel

of his Brabham BMW.

I was behind the wall.

I said if...if he has problem with his car

I am world champion,

but in my mind I would not like to...

he has problem, because I think he was...

he was the best this year with his car.

I really want to win this championship for me.

And last year or in 1981, maybe I said, I wanna win for the...

for the team, for the mechanics, for everything,

but now I really wanna win for myself.

The other man is the team manager at Brabham.

Is you gotta work directly

under someone like Bernie Ecclestone,

is that very difficult?

Reply what you want into the TV camera.

Good morning Mr (INAUDIBLE)

You got to work for one of the hardest

bosses in the whole business, haven't you?

Yeah, he's very public-minded.

He tries to do a lot for TV,

sponsorship maybe forgets a bit about the cars

and mechanical side of it,

but he...he seems to worry more about the showmanship of it all.

He's a dealer, wheeler-dealer.

He's like a...

like a Howard Hughes of motor racing.

You know, where everything's gotta be immaculate

and he's like, just...just goes over the top sometimes.

Brabham were the first team

to win the world championship with a turbo car.

I think sometimes in life

things happen that everything goes well.

We'd won a couple of world championships

within three years.

Without any doubt

I think Nelson was considered to be the best driver.

We never had any big, big problems with anything else,

so, it was a happy time.

After all this success,

no-one would have ever believed that we're never gonna do it again,

in fact after four years.

Brabham was no longer mine.

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