Original subtitles

1950 Silverstone, I mean, so magic that race.

It's where Formula 1 started.

The traffic was unbelievable.

120,000 turned up for that race, including the King and Queen.

It was an airfield that was used during the war.

The Wellington bombers used to fly out of there.

Unfortunately, a lot of the guys never come back.

I went with my father.

We couldn't sleep in a hotel because they didn't exist.

So we slept in the car.

And now things are an awful lot different.

The big thing today is finding the best 5-star hotel.

Nobody worries about how much.

All the teams used to race in their traditional colours,

England was green, France was blue.

The most important of all were the Italians that were red.

Now they're all on the grid.

The mechanics have started the engines as you can hear.

And they're off! They're away! Listen to it!

And the Alfas give everyone a demonstration of acceleration.

Here comes Farina.

He was flagged in,

and Farina has won the Grand Prix d'Europe.

Alfa Romeo won the race.

In fact they were 1st, 2nd and 3rd with no Ferraris entered.

I don't know how my mother ever found out

when I was, really a baby, that I had eye problems.

And she used to take me to Norwich on a bicycle...

..to a specialist there, 10 miles away from where we lived.

And they discovered I had practically no vision

out of my right eye.

It's like having a photograph out of focus.

I was born in Suffolk,

we decided to move to Dartford, in London.

And then the war started.

I don't really remember when I sort of started to think about business.

But probably because I didn't even know what business was.

But I used to carry out a couple of paper rounds

before I went to school.

When I got off the train, just by the side of the station,

was a little bakery.

They used to sell bread obviously and buns and things like that.

This was when these things were very difficult to find.

And I'd buy all the buns and cakes and whatever they had there.

Put 'em in the suitcase which I had with me all the time to carry these.

Take them to school, and during the break

and the morning lessons,

I used to sell these, or do deals of whatever.

Probably used to do deals to get results of exams

or something like that.

But anyway, the idea was to sell them.

I was lucky enough to leave school at 15

and eventually I became a used car dealer.

A lot of the sharp operators,

we used to buy and sell at the side of the road.

You dealt with what I call, 'proper people.'

We dealt with cash.

You learned to keep on your toes, keep your eyes open

and make sure that you honoured a handshake.

If you said, "Yes it was a deal," it was a deal.

I used to race bicycles

and then motorcycles and then had an upgrade.

I won a few races and got a couple of records for things.

And I was racing at Goodwood,

and somebody gone round the outside of me,

which was impossible actually.

It was Stirling Moss.

It's like if you're watching an artist, if you like, painting.

You can't see how, when the painting's finished,

that it could ever come out like that.

The only car apart from the Maserati driven by Fangio,

that's won any of the World Championship races is the Vanwall.

I would like to win the World Championship with a British car.

But this year, Fangio's unassailable.

Fangio was a racer.

People like that, I think when you're young,

you don't believe they're alive.

They're something so special, that they don't exist.

When I was 20, he was nearly double my age,

when he started racing.

He wasn't sort of one of these 18-year-old super kids.

He was a guy that I got much closer to later on.

He was always recognised to be the number one.

Ferrari and Maserati had well and truly overtaken

Alfa Romeo and were the most prominent teams.

And it was 1957 he won his 5th World Championship.

Fangio retired when he was still ahead.

00:19:02.120 -- 00:19:06.520 I met Stuart Lewis-Evans in his early days.

His dad used to have a garage not far from where I was,

and we become good friends.

And I used to try and look after things that he was doing,

not manager but a little bit of, hopefully, good advice.

Lewis-Evans slides right through the barrier

on his Cooper 500 but comes to no harm.

So, that was really how I really got involved so much in Formula 1

and knew all the people that became very very famous at the same time.

The 50s, that's when drivers were drivers.

Pity social media wasn't about those days.

They were all characters.

Good looking guys as well.

They wasn't too interested in anything else but racing.

It wasn't so important to win a World Championship.

It was good to win, but so what if you didn't win,

you won a few races so that was all that mattered.

'58 was a really competitive year.

We had three Vanwalls with Stirling, Tony Brooks and Stuart.

And we had Ferrari with Mike Hawthorn,

which was their lead driver.

Mike and Ferrari, as far as I was concerned,

were the opposition.

Mike was very special.

You'd have to call him one of the genuine gentleman racers.

We were at Spa and Stirling had said to Stuart

how he'd taken the corner more or less flat,

to put off Stuart who was a little bit of a challenge.

And I said, "Tell Stirling, I did actually take it flat."

And Stirling said, "No, you couldn't do that."

But Stuart actually had done it.

Another Vanwall win as Brookes goes by.

Hawthorn comes down in a storming spectacular finish.

Lewis-Evans coasts over the line to finish third

but to join the swiftly growing breakers yard

with broken front suspension.

Cause we won the last race, people are saying,

well, Ferrari will win this one,

but it's a completely different type of circuit.

I think it's a very open race quite honestly.

I think that Mike's driving and going very fast now.

In the war, people actually died,

and I think they sort of took racing

as one of those things that you could get killed.

People always thought, "Can't be me. could be somebody else,

"but it won't be me for sure."

Going to Casablanca,

we knew for sure after that race,

England was going to have a World Champion.

Whether it was going to be Stirling or Mike Hawthorn.

Stirling had to win and get the fastest lap

to win the championship.

Stuart was quick enough to win that race,

but he was there to back up Stirling.

00:23:48.280 -- 00:23:52.520 Colin was a genius. Probably the best we've seen.

He understood, early days, about power and weight.

This is the first time we've been able to coordinate

the build of an engine and a chassis together

and design each one to suit the other

and with a sort of weight and simplicity and power,

The car sort of rolled over and caught fire

I think we're gonna have a fabulous motor car.

Yeah, that's fitting well. Beautiful. Yep.

and Stuart got out of the car

That's the job. Lovely.

and started to run away from, obviously, the accident.

We've built the engine onto the car as you can see,

And if he hadn't had run away and had rolled over

and now, we've built the rest of the suspension

on the back of the engine because the engine itself

or somebody'd have been there and grabbed hold of him,

is forming part of the structure of the car

he would have probably been alright but, didn't happen.

and of course it holds it all together.

He would look at all the rules and regulations

and see how he could make the car the lightest car.

He was so, so badly burned. He was in really bad shape.

By the time they'd got him back to East Grinstead

where there was a hospital that looked after all the pilots

The lighter you can make the car,

the more power it's got,

the more chances you've got of being successful.

during the war...

..it was all a bit too late.

This is a difficult question, Mike, but what does it mean,

what can it mean, to have won the World Championship?

We stretch everything to the limit on our race cars,

Well, obviously... It's the ambition I think

we find out just what a part will do

and how much it will stand and then we then know

of every racing driver to win it.

what sort of safety limit we can incorporate

I've achieved my ambition now in that field

in our production cars.

and of course there is quite a lot of financial advantage

which does come in useful.

It was a bad day for me

cause I was very close with Stuart,

and he died the day after my 28th birthday.

Colin probably was the one that really got the real value

of what it was to brand a Formula 1 car,

I went back to running my business,

very early on before anybody else.

not thinking I was ever going to get involved any longer.

People at that time were still putting stickers

on their car with names.

And Colin went one massive step farther.

So it was really a movable cigarette package.

The 60's in London, it was a swinging city for sure.

Which managed to upset, obviously, the government people at the time.

I didn't swing at all.

I was trying to do any deals I could to make a few dollars.

I think Colin also was lucky to have Jim Clark as the driver.

I had other business which was a proper car showroom.

I mean, they acted like father and son.

Complete plate glass windows and doors in front

so people could see in.

But it was always completely immaculate,

So the two of them,

and I kept it that way.

it just was one of those magic moments, in life.

Whether it...

Terribly terribly fussy, probably a bit from my old mum,

I used to make sure the cars were lined up nicely and looked nice.

Colin thought the world of Jim for sure and vice versa.

They trusted in each other.

My dad would greet and meet people that come in

and he was very patient, which is a lot more patient

than I used to be. So he was a valuable asset.

Colin was obsessed with making sure his cars were lighter.

But all of his cars were a little bit fragile.

I mixed with a lot of show-business people.

Twiggy, Adam Faith, and Sandie Shaw.

They were all good customers in the end.

I'd, um, bought a car from someone

and then found out it was financed,

Graham, isn't the depressing thing about Jim Clark's death

so the guy didn't own the car.

not only that he was one of the greatest drivers

So I stopped the cheque

but also one of the safest?

Yes, it's ironic.

and the guy duly appeared to explain to me

Of course, we're not sure quite what happened

but it looks... The indications are that

how he'd like the cheque cleared,

it might not have... not have been his fault.

and produced a gun from under his sweater to show me.

Which is, you know, is a tragedy whichever way you look at it.

And I explained to him

Everyone realises there is danger in motor-racing.

I didn't know what he was going to do with it, you know,

it certainly wasn't a pain to come to some agreement

There is this element of chance.

It is something we all have to live with and face up to.

about something and, "if you shoot me,

"the cheque won't be cleared. Let's have a chat."

It is... a sport which the drivers do voluntary at their own volition.

So we went to the office and discussed things

and obviously we sorted it out.

I paid him...cleared off the finance

They realise the risk they take.

or said I was going to and paid him the difference.

Really, it's not up to us to... try to change that.

And then he become a very good customer from then on in.

John Cooper used to run the Cooper car company.

People want to climb mountains;

We become good friends.

people want to sail around the world single-handed and so on.

This is where we build our racing cars

This is just part of human endeavour.

and there are literally hundreds of component parts

that go to building a racing car.

Some people wish to do these things.

John was just a long way ahead of a lot of other people.

They want to push things to the limit.

Nobody would ever believe this sort of thing would happen to Jimmy.

He was the first guy, in Formula 1, to put an engine in the back end

of the car rather than the front, and it worked.

We gather here in Mexico City

The people with big engines

at the end of a very eventful season.

and engines in the front of the car suddenly realised

Jim Clark who, before he died, established himself

if you want to win, you'd better put the engine in the back.

as the greatest Grand Prix driver of all time

with a record of 25 victories.

It's been an eventful season in other ways too,

there's been the great controversy

Ferrari didn't think it was the right thing to do

about advertising on the cars.

but eventually actually did that their-self.

John Cooper, Grand Prix racing

is getting more expensive all the time,

what's the future for the small constructor like yourself?

Well, I think we're in a very very serious position at the moment

and I think we've got to look to people outside

the motor industry for support, such as cigarette companies

John asked me to go to Mexico with him for the race.

or liquor companies or something like that.

That was a super place in those days.

The money's got to come from somewhere

and I think it will have to come outside,

come from out, outside the motor industry.

And then Jochen had arrived.

And I told him, "I've just had a massage."

"Why don't you do the same?"

Isn't there a case for making the minimum weight heavier

"Yes," he said, "OK."

And I took him down, introduced him to the lady

so that the cars are more solid?

None whatsoever because the suspension,

that ran this and left him there.

however heavy a car is,

And I said to Jochen, "So, it was all good?

the suspension has always got to be the lightest part of it

because this is what gives the car its road holding.

"Everything good?"

He said, "Yeah," he said, "yeah, yeah, yeah, it was...

"The girl said I was a naughty boy, that's all."

I never went into any details.

Colin needed a top driver in 1969.

And he wanted Jochen.

When Jochen was driving in Formula 2,

And Jochen wanted to drive there

he always managed to win against anyone.

cause Jochen wanted to win the World Championship.

Jochen was really really quick.

I explained to Jochen, "You've got a much better chance

"of winning the championship in a Lotus,

It's very very easy to run really fast without trying too hard.

"but you've also got a good chance of getting hurt, so think about it."

Looking at racing cars, they seem to me that they look

If you keep on the perfect line and you don't slide too much,

less and less like cars to me

you can go very very fast without looking fast

and more and more like planes with these sort of aerofoil arrangements

and without having a great physical effort.

at the back here and again at the front.

Now, presumably this is to keep the thing on the ground, is it?

The wings that we have on the car, front and rear,

He used to be racing the cars

and I used to try and do some business for us.

do work like an inverted aeroplane wing

And I used to say to him, "Don't forget you've got to collect

whereas the wing on an aeroplane lifts it up,

and ours keep it on the ground.

"the start money before the race."

Which means of course we get more grip and can corner quicker.

The whole thing strikes me as, if I may interrupt...

After the race, having had a key to our house,

Yes you may!

..terribly dangerous.

he would come and wake me up

Who would you say is your main, your main rivals next year?

and we'd actually go into the kitchen,

My new teammate I think is going to be a bit of a threat.

and he'd say, "I collected the money. Here it is."

But that's Colin Chapman's worry as well as mine.

And then we played Gin Rummy.

We were like brothers.

Jackie managed to keep up with the fashion.

He was a little bit different to most of the guys.

He could have been one of the Beatles.

When Jochen found Nina, she was a gorgeous,

Jackie got in the car without having driven a single seater

gorgeous, gorgeous girl...

of any sort before, and in five laps,

he'd gone quicker than Bruce McLaren had been.

..and they decided they ought to get married.

And I think from then on, we knew that Jackie had arrived.

I was invited along with Tuana, the girl I was with at the time,

Jackie had a super relationship with Ken Tyrrell.

on the honeymoon.

Which I suppose is a bit unusual.

They trusted each other completely and they should.

I think basically it's because Jochen and I could play Gin Rummy.

Cause Ken produced a good car for Jackie

and Jackie did the job in the car.

Right, can we do... If we can do these two first,

the two quarters, half an inch.

And we can adjust the throttle one half.

So I can get right down here, out the way.

Jim Clark was quick in whatever he drove.

And could turn it on whenever he had to.

Well, I really got into motor-racing accidentally almost.

I had always had an interest in cars and in speed

and in motor-racing but never did I ever in my wildest dreams

expect ever to become a professional racing driver.

As a driver I think Jim Clark, I think he's good.

But he's a very good sheep farmer too.

One of the reasons I think he's good is that umm...

..he keeps winning, which I find a bit irritating.

It really wasn't a case of Colin not knowing what to do.

It was sometimes he would sort of go to the limit

and then maybe a little bit over.

00:33:12.480 -- 00:33:14.880 If you have a wish free...

That you would stop racing.

Colin and Jochen were staying in the same hotel

with rooms next door to each other.

And they had a discussion about the car

and Jochen was a bit upset,

and so Colin called me and said, "Tell him, this."

And I'd say this to... I'd call Jochen and tell him.

And he'd say, "Well you can... you can tell him this as well."

So I'd have to go back to Colin again

and this went on for quite a time.

They wouldn't talk to each other.

October reminds me very much of when we used to race at Watkins Glen.

All the leaves change a different colour,

and it looks if you're in a completely different world.

The first of everything is special and you remember it.

I was not only pleased that was his first win,

but I was pleased that he'd beat Jackie

because it was always between the two of them who was the best.

Into the hairpin, there they go,

and Brabham's gone straight on and Rindt.

Jochen Rindt, for Lotus, wins the Monaco GP.

I was following him into the last left,

and it just overcooked the last braking for the last corner,

and he went straight, and I went around the corner and I won it.

I can't believe it myself.

1970 was one of those magic years really, for everyone.

Things just didn't go wrong.

It was just a good year.

Unbelievable.

Rindt wins the race from Brabham on the last corner,

exactly as he did in Monte-Carlo.

One minute to go.

One minute, engines starting,

ready to move forward onto the final grid.

Jochen Rindt at the top.

Is it simply a matter of making a lot of money

and then getting out of the business?

Well, it surely helps to make a lot of money,

and in my case, I was quite well off anyway, before I started.

I mean, I'm better off now through racing

but it wasn't money why I started racing.

Could I ask what you might earn now

as one of the top drivers in the world?

Enough.

I'd actually been staying with Jochen and Nina

in their house in Switzerland.

We'd met an Austrian sponsor, which was all a little bit hectic

trying to extract the right amount of money from him.

In the end he agreed and we drove together to Monza.

Those wives were completely different to the wives today.

They used to look after the timekeeping.

So they were all part of a Formula 1 team.

They wasn't there for a holiday or enjoyment.

They were there working.

An essential part of it.

During that practice session, we were waiting for Jochen

to come round and then somebody said to me

that he'd had an accident.

So I rushed down to exactly where the accident happened.

And I collected his helmet and walked back to the pits

to find out what was going to happen to Jochen

and where they were... where they were going to take him

and how bad he was or whatever.

And I found out that he'd been put in

Volkswagen Kombi sort of thing.

What people I suppose want to describe as an ambulance.

There's nothing anyone could do.

When they got him to the hospital, it was too late.

And he was dead then.

People blamed the fact that it was a Lotus.

You always think it's not going to happen to me.

People want to win and want to get in the best machinery.

In the name of the father,

and of the son, and of the holy ghost.

Dear friends, dear family,

once the sad news of Monza had arrived at our consciousness,

we realised how the family Rindt,

Mrs. Rindt and her little daughter,

were thrown into a most terrible fate.

Apparently, I was at Jochen's funeral,

though I don't quite remember it.

To die doing something that you love to do,

is to die happy.

Regardless what happens

in the remaining Grand Prixs this year,

to all of us, Jochen is the world champion.

Jochen was the world champion in the end of the season.

Better he wasn't world champion, he would have been still with us.

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Although Jochen's death was a big big loss to me,

it wasn't going to finish me in Formula 1.

Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv