Original subtitles

Immediately after Ayrton's death.

The viewing figures increased dramatically.

After the shock and trauma of Imola,

it was hoping for a happier time at

Monaco, but sadly it wasn't to be.

As Karl Wendlinger shot out of the tunnel at some 160

miles an hour in his Sauber Mercedes

on Thursday, he lost control, hit

the barrier and suffered head injuries.

Three days later, he's still in a coma

and his team have withdrawn from the race.

For the next Grand Prix, which is Barcelona,

we are going to reduce the size of the diffuser,

we are going to raise the front wing end plates and we

are going to restrict the size of the front wings.

We are going to firstly increase the lateral protection

for the driver's head in order to allow the

teams to do that without any difficulty from the

point of view of weight and strength.

Therefore, we're going to increase the

minimum weight limit by 25 kilos.

Max is the one that was crusading

that all the way through to safety.

Obviously I supported all these things because

it was the right thing to do.

You're looking at the race leader in the

sole Williams Renault, Damon Hill.

You're watching Schumacher leave the pits.

He certainly, as far as I could tell,

did not leave it in first gear.

We do have report from the pit that

he is still stuck in fifth gear.

I do find it very hard to believe and in

fact I would go to far as to say it's actually impossible.

He is now dropping down the final decent to the final

corner of the Spanish Grand Prix, which Damon Hill wins.

There is a surge of excitement and

joy in the grandstand around me.

I think generally the public were

looking for somebody else to love.

And Damon, Graham Hill's son was recruited by Williams.

Then it's you Michael, probably forgot what

it's like to be in second place, but

you obviously suffered considerable difficulties today.

What happened?

I don't know actually what really happened.

I just know that I finished and going in fifth gear.

Schumacher is going to be black flagged.

Well this is most extraordinary because it does look Schumacher goes by

Burger there but it may be all to no avail

because if he's been black flagged then this

could well be the end of his race.

Damon Hill exits the last corner and the crown falls.

And rightly so.

And he wins the British Grand Prix.

Magnificent.

Well, the headmasters going to give

somebody a winging over this afterwards.

German racing driver and world championship favorite

Michael Schumacher has tonight been disqualified after

winning the Belgian Grand Prix.

Schumacher's car failed a technical examination

and Britain's Damon Hill, who finished his runner up,

has been declared the winner.

60 kilo of bull is not the same at 1 mm.

Even the FIA doorman is perplexed by a technical

issue that boils down to the unseen wooden block

bolted down to the underside of all Formula One

cars in order to reduce aerodynamic downforces and oblige

drivers to corner more slowly, brought in after

the death of Ayrton Senna.

This regulation insists that the block must

be at least 10 mm thick.

But after Schumacher won the Belgian Grand Prix,

his was found to be only 7.4 millimeters

a difference estimated to be worth 1 second per lap.

Max is a bit upset with him.

When he gets upset with people, he punishes them.

There's no more I could have expected

from those two races, and I'm absolutely

delighted to have realized that opportunity.

And now we can really have a real

ding dong to the end of the year.

Australia is go.

Oh, out, out goes Schumacher.

The German is out of the Australian Grand Prix.

And Damon Hill only has to keep going

to be world champion of 1994.

But can he keep going?

Winning the championship, which

I nearly won earlier this year, and then got banned for

a couple of races and couldn't continue, lost a lot

of points, where I thought, now it's going to be

very, very tough and difficult to make this championship up

again just now sitting here.

And it's a dream.

Michael only knew about one thing that was winning.

He didn't hurt being the first

of the losers or anything there.

He was a winner, and sometimes wasn't too careful

in exactly how this actually happened,

but he still won.

We wanted to show Formula One worldwide and in

particular to people perhaps have never seen Formula One.

So in 1995 by then, we'd sorted

company on own company that would do everything.

So there was only Formula One

people that were carrying out the broadcast.

And the two world championship contenders are once again

hammer and tongs for victory in a Grand Prix.

Now, this is the chance for Damon Hill, but

Schumacher's going to try and cut him off.

Hill's alongside him and goes through.

No

Schumacher, still marginally ahead, pushes Damon Hill

sideways, retaining his line.

16th career victory for Michael Schumacher, who starts

16th on the grid and superbly win

the Belgian Grand Prix again further to extend

his world championship lead over Damon Hill.

Michael Schumacher enters the last corner of the last race of

the last lap to win the Pacific Grand Prix in Japan

and to become the world champion of 1995.

The Benetton team, of course, are ecstatic.

We didn't need another year at the one

that just finished with Michael destroying everybody.

I can't believe that Formula One would be

anywhere near as properly resist without Ferrari.

Even when Ferrari are losing, it's still an awful lot

better than any of the other teams winning.

I find it very hard to believe that

you're contemplating moving next year just for money.

It's a good point

which I'd like to speak in the end of

the season about, because now I want to concentrate

completely in 100% with what I'm doing here.

We have a fantastic relationship still in the team.

But there's no reason now

to talk what's going on next year.

Every Formula One driver want to drive for Ferrari.

It's such a magic name.

Max was very close to

Mr. Smith, who at the time headed the Labor Party.

And when he died, it was taken over by Tony Blair.

And Max suggests he's a new guy and young guy,

and I'm sure he's enthusiastic about what we do.

Why would we like him to Silverstone?

I said, a good idea.

I immediately liked him.

I thought, this is the guy

that we need to run the country.

There's nothing that I

could think bad about me.

He was a conservative like myself.

Max had said to me, you know, as always they look into

get some help wherever they can financially, in order that

they can carry on and campaign and do the things

they want to do to make things happen.

Wouldn't be a bad idea if somewhere

you could support them, I suppose.

Yes I suppose you're right, a nice guy.

He needs a bit of help.

If you say he needs help financially, I

don't know, we could help a little bit.

So it would only be like helping

a charity if we're helping the country.

We are here to celebrate the ending of

partnership, a partnership between Formula One and the BBC.

I said, what about the BBC?

They've been doing this for 18 years.

Bernie said, that the other side

of paying a lot more money.

And for a brief moment,

a very brief moment, I felt guilty.

The teams have always been a benefit of the two bureaus.

The Concord Agreement, which is a very lengthy, complex

document in which there are procedures for changing the

rules, which acknowledges that the governing body has the

television rights and various other rights which are then

ceded back to the teams. And it was really the blueprint

according to which Formula One operated. The teams currently

only enjoy less than 23% of the entire revenue.

And we have to have a fairer share,

a more equitable share of that income.

We have to take steps to get a greater

share of the revenue of Grand Prix Racing.

The teams all believed that they were

the business, they owned the business.

Without them, there wouldn't be a business anyway,

so they should have 90% of the revenue.

Probably a good idea.

If they could have achieved it would have been okay.

But it obviously wasn't fair because they put all the ideas that both

ran their business on the bank of

the Formula One company.

As Max always said about

these things when the teams used to complain.

Max put it quite clearly, if I go to

a restaurant two or three times a week to

eat, I can't say I own the restaurant.

We've had an official request from one of the three teams

to become a signatory, and I've been told by that team

that the other two also wish to become signatories.

But I haven't yet heard that officially and

in writing from the other two teams.

Supreme Commander, Mr. Ecclestone.

There is the past master to divide and rule, and

at the moment, what we have to focus on, as

always, is winning races and growing our company.

Damon, the world at large would expect you

to feel rather hurt, downcast, angry, disillusioned.

What are your feelings?

Well, I'm disappointed.

I wouldn't say that I could be anything

other than that.

The negotiations were conducted as they normally would be

over a period of the last couple of weeks,

maybe four weeks now with Frank Williams.

And if you're asking which my ace up

my sleeve was, then I think the fact

that I'm leading the world championship.

Frank told me himself that money was not the issue.

Would you agree that it would be at least

nice for him to win the world championship?

I will agree in front of all of

you that it would be nice for them to win the World Championship.

Do you have any emotional input?

No.

Never before in the history of Formula One

Grand Prix racing has the son of a

world champion become world champion himself.

This is something that many people

didn't think could possibly happen today.

They thought Damon would drive a

cautious race, but he forged.

And Damon Hill exits the chicane

and wins the Japanese Grand Prix.

And I got to stop because I got a lump in my throat.

I think a lot of people were surprised after

20 years, Ron lost Philip Morris, and tobacco

companies were in love with McLaren, and Ron got

a very good deal with the German tobacco company.

This is the first race they have won for 15 races.

The Europeans decided they were going to ban

tobacco advertising in all sports, effective immediately.

Banning tobacco advertising will be a very powerful

measure in reducing smoking among young people.

I said to Max.

This is a bit cranky, you know.

I don't think these people understand

what effect that would have.

It would be disaster.

So Max said, well, maybe we should go and see Mr. Blair.

It's a new government.

So we duly arrived, and I think we made

the case pretty well as to what would happen

if they suddenly blocked all tobacco advertising.

Probably put one or two teams out of business

and certainly make Formula One a little bit shaky

in general.

It's not just a case of turning the

lights off and being in the dark.

Maybe we should just dim the lights a little bit

over a period and then turn the lights off.

And I think they understood this and

realized the problems it would have caused.

After nearly 12 hours of hard bargaining, Europe

tonight agreed its first ever tobacco advertising ban.

But the talks were trench warfare all the way.

Tessa Jowell who won the special deal

allowing Formula One to take tobacco

sponsorship for nine more years.

Good afternoon. Downing Street is still

refusing to disclose how much money it

received from the head of motor racing.

The meeting was held with the Prime Minister, not the Health Secretary

and the Prime Minister was fully appraised of how much the donation was

from Bernie Ecclestone.

It gives a whiff

There was no impropriety whatever

in either Mr. Ecclestone giving the donation or in us receiving it.

Can you tell us how much you gave to the Labour Party?

I could but I'm not going to.

The press suggested that maybe I had given money to Mr. Blair

the week this happened which is completely stupid.

I mean I don't know how they could ever think like that because

it's not my way of going on.

I pay for things after I bought them got delivery not beforehand.

I'm a bit more sensible, cash on delivery.

One million pounds.

Did you give a donation expecting something in return?

Nope. Didn't want anything.

I still don't want anything to be honest.

It was very difficult for Mr. Blair and embarrassing for him as well

and for me but more for him than me because from my point of view

it didn't make a lot of difference what people were saying.

How much money did you give back to Mr. Ecclestone?

A little while after all this had died down,

they decided they wanted to give the money back,

which they did.

And as they'd agreed, they sent me a cheque,

but asked me if I wouldn't sort of bank it for a few months

which I was surprised and happy to get the cheque back

knowing eventually it would be cashed.

Most people who have dealt with me think I'm a pretty straight guy and I am.

Ken hadn't won a championship since '73

so it wasn't the best time for Ken and he'd been used to winning.

And in the end, he more or less gave up.

And I tried to help him sell the team

and I latched on not a manufacturer at all

but a very big tobacco company.

They wanted to get into Formula One.

The reason we have chosen to sell however is primary financial.

We have not been able to put the funds together to enable us to compete

at the highest level.

Suddenly, you've been working very hard and been very successful.

Suddenly, managed to acquire a large sum of money

You're thinking to going to spend the rest

of your life enjoying all this and poor

Ken didn't last long enough to do that.

So when he came into Formula One, he was

new to Formula One but he wasn't new

to open wheel racing.

Okay, let's go.

So I remember very well

my daughter thought he was wonderful

'cos the way he use to dress with his

baggy pants and everything else.

And she thought he was super.

I thought he was a scruffy guy.

Just remind you how things stand going

into the last Grand Prix,

winner takes all in that personal battle.

Right then, let's have a word with Martin Brundle and Murray Walker.

Now then Murray, all sorts of chat about what happen before the first corner.

A fair fight or bumping cars? What's it going to be?

Jim, the eyes of the world are on Jerez, Schumacher and Villeneuve.

I can't believe for one moment

that either of them are going

to try anything untowards.

They both want this race to finish on the track and not on the gravel trap.

Villeneuve is all over him.

That didn't work. That didn't work Michael.

You used the wrong part of him my friend.

I braked on the maximum and then he braked even later which with his braking point.

I wouldn't have made the corner. He wouldn't have made the corner.

I probably wouldn't have done anything different.

Surprised him a little bit but he

knew I was on the inside of him.

He decided to turn in on me

but luckily he's the only one that went off

so his plan didn't work.

Michael Schumacher had to clear his way

through the human traffic this morning

to get to the disciplinary hearing.

The critical issue was whether

his manoeuvre on lap 48

was instinctive or pre-planned.

Michael came to the World Council

and I defended him then because

he could have been in a lot of trouble.

I'm as much a human being as anyone.

Things can happen to us that can happen to

anyone else and it happened to me which I

didn't want to admit at the time.

But now I've no chance to admit a

lie and understand what I did.

Although the act was apparently

deliberate, it was instinctive

and it was not pre-meditated.

The World Council has therefore decided to

exclude Michael Schumacher from the results

of the 1997 Formula One World Championship.

That was it.

So he got off quite lightly.

It's my opinion with all these things

are that people, unless you can prove

conclusively that they deliberately do

something, it's a little bit unfair to

really harshly punish somebody.

Michael could have easily won 3 championships by 2000 with Ferrari.

Out goes Michael Schumacher!

And it's go, go, go!

Yellow flag. A driver stalled on the line. Aborted start.

Michael Schumacher has to start this race from the back of the grid.

Well, if that is the case, Michael Schumacher has almost certainly lost

the World Championship before this race even begins.

Schumacher!

Michael's struggling to get out of the car a little bit.

I'm wondering if he's hurt his legs. We could be seeing the end of his

World Championship chances for 1999.

Mika was completely different to Michael.

He was a more sort of a gentlemanly type of...

You'd expect him to turn up in a

nice suit and a hat and jump into

the Formula One car and drive it.

That's the sort of driver he was.

He's also bloody quick.

After he won his second Championship,

I sent him a silver telegram

congratulating him on winning.

If you want to know when you send a

telegram what you have to put in it,

it was very simple for me.

Nice guys do win.

It's a very happy surprise in 2001.

Suddenly, we had Ferrari come back to life.

They had been sleeping a little bit too long.

They did all the right things, built the

right cars, everything was right.

Right team. Everything worked perfectly.

Michael Schumacher wins again for Ferrari and Italy and three.

I was talking to Michael, I said who is running Ferrari now?

He said I am.

I was walking in the Kings Road and I felt some pain in my chest.

Started to run out of breath a little bit.

So I went home and went to bed which is

something I would not normally do

in the middle of the day

go the bed at least not alone anyway.

And Slavica called the doctor to come and see me which he did.

You're going to need to have a stress test.

Ahh, that's good. Tomorrow, we have a FOCA meeting.

It's exactly what will happen. There will be a stress test.

Sid found out about this and then took control.

I was told I need to have stents

which most people have no idea what they were.

This was because I had problem with my

heart and they said unless this is done,

we're probably going to lose you.

Might have made a lot of people happy.

Had I had died, the company

would have been broken up

to pay for the death duties.

So they said the best thing you can do is to give Slavica the company.

When this actually happened, I would have no control over anything at all.

And basically the trustees, not even Slavica but the trustees could do whatever

they thought was the right thing to do 'cos the money you put into a trust

normally, there's a reason for it, in this case it was to look after not only Slavica

but also the children.

I was advised that a good way to put some money into the company is to have a Bond.

The idea of the Bond was because I was told

that I couldn't do anymore stents,

I had to do a bypass.

Bernie Ecclestone launched a Bond issue.

It's been setup to benefit his wife

Slavica a former model who after the Queen

will become Britain's wealthiest woman.

When I came round after the operation

they put me into an intensive care unit

and said they had to sort of open me up again

probably left something inside maybe.

I thought maybe he left his wallet or something

he wants another look to make sure.

So they unzipped me again

and sorted out whatever was wrong.

And I disappointed so many people.

Stayed alive.

People never thought about anything to do with Formula One as a business.

And suddenly, people this is probably a good business to be involved in.

One of them was a guy called Thomas Haffa

from MTV who had just bought the Muppet show or something.

He was in the entertainment business

and thought he should be in Formula One

because he thought that was entertaining.

So I went to Osterreich to meet Thomas and eventually managed to get him involved.

Not to buy the company, but to take a substantial interest.

Thomas made it quite clear to me that whatever part he took

he didn't take any interest in running the company in any shape or form.

And actually he said if I do make this

investment I want you to guarantee

you're going to stay there.

Well you flogged off half of Formula One

but you're still sort of cruising around

like you own the place still.

My wife sold or the trust sold half not me.

I got nothing. I'm just a poor guy trying to work.

Haffa according to a bit of a difficult oil the company did

and sold the shares that he had bought

to Leo Kirch,

who'd borrowed the money from German Bank.

EM.TV has a 50% stake in Formula One Racing

It paid $1.65 billion for the stake in March.

Kirch is to pay half a billion dollars to EMTV for a 49% stake in that holding.

When Kirsch suddenly got 75% of the

company they would have then forgot about

free to air television and tried to sold

it to everything on a pay basis, which, in

any event, I would have stopped them doing

whatever happened.

I was in the office and somebody told me I should turn the TV on.

We had a race planned at Indianapolis.

And some of the teams pushed by one or two

drivers started thinking it would be

dangerous to go and we shouldn't go there.

Obviously it was terrible what happened

and I just pointed out that we had a

contract to race in Indianapolis.

The promoter was expecting us to fulfill the contract.

I said, this is what we're going to do.

Share prices have been tumbling. In London, the FTSE 100 has had a very bad day.

After 911, the stock market crashed, which put Kirch in trouble.

What Kirch did wrong was assumed future revenues from Pay TV would be huge.

Based on that, he got itself into deals on which it now owes some $6 billion.

Under pressure from creditors,

Leo Kirch may be forced to sell

one of sport's greatest prizes.

The Bayerische Landesbank,

the company's biggest lender has

told Kirch there's no more credit.

So suddenly we've got another boss, a German Bank.

I've had so many bosses during my reign in Formula One.

One of them was a guy called Gerhard Gribkowsky.

Gribkowsky was happy, happy, happy

because I used to walk around with

him and introduce him as my boss.

When people spoke to me about anything I'd say, well my boss is here.

He was very happy with that situation.

I think he'd forgotten about banking.

I think he even forgot he was actually working for the bank.

I think one or two people in the

bank were a little bit upset

with that and reminded him.

I think on a number of occasions

that they wanted to sell the

shares that they had inherited.

They didn't want to be encumbered with one.

So this was his task, selling the company.

This is a very, very magical moment.

I grew up hearing about Fangio and I thought no one will ever do that.

But Michael Schumacher has done it today

and he wins his 61st Grand Prix and he's

a five times World Formula One Champion.

Globally, the best estimates are that

Formula One earned around $375 million

from television rights last year

and about $425 million from advertising and sponsorship.

That's a total of $800 million

of which less than a quarter

went to the 10 Formula One teams.

Pretty much all the rest of the money went

to companies controlled but not as it turns

out really owned by Bernie Ecclestone.

I sat and explained very carefully

how the teams could own Formula One

without putting in one cent.

And the answer I got was very clearly

We are racers, we don't want to own the company.

But in the next year or two or three at

the most when the present Concorde

agreement, which binds us all together,

runs out there will be a much more

difficult negotiation for him,

Bernie he knows that we all know that.

Do you think he's getting worried about it?

He'll never, ever admit it. I don't think he ever will be.

He's very much a fighter. Not as a fight.

Michael, seven times world champion. Is it an emotional moment.

It's very special.

We're in Spa which it does mean a lot to me that circuit that place.

And to clinch the seventh title at the 700th Grand Prix for Ferrari

is something very special.

The domination of Ferrari meant a drop in

the TV figures wasn't the sort of thing

that the bank was excited about.

Their intention was always to sell to another TV company.

I think we'll leave it there.

Thank you very much. Well done gentlemen. Enjoy your evening.

Drop in the TV figures of making the bank very nervous.

Gerhard could never understand they own 75% of the company.

But when the board didn't have much control

and I used the word much because it meant didn't have any.

So they went to court to try and

get the court to say that they should

have more representation on the board.

He's one of Britain's richest men.

But tonight, Bernie Ecclestone has lost

some of his iron grip on the sport,

which made him his money.

The boardroom battle in the courts didn't go his way.

His domination of Formula One is facing its most serious threat so far.

And if they had wanted to, they could have fired me.