“Drivers of today are best since my day”

Jackie Stewart interview part 2

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In the second part of F1 Fanatic’s interview with Sir Jackie Stewart he told us why he’s backing Mark Webber to win the world championship and whether Felipe Massa can bounce back from his difficult season.

The three-times world champion also talked about how he and his fellow drivers got the Nurburgring removed from the calendar 40 years ago on safety grounds – and why today’s drivers are the best since his day.

F1 Fanatic: In your new book “Collage” there are letters from people vehemently criticising your campaign to improve safety in the 1970s. Why did they object so strongly to it at a time when so many drivers were being killed?

Jackie Stewart: It was just part of the cultural change. When I was doing it I was totally against the establishment.

I was part of a new generation at that time. I had long hair, it was the swinging sixties and seventies, a different era. They had a different attitude towards safety which was something simply that had never been aired by a driver – never mind a top driver or one that was world champion.

So it was a cultural change. I have absolutely no regrets having done it. At the time it was certainly unpopular in many areas.

The more vocal ones were the ones who were objecting to the movement. And I was the perfect target for them because – as you will read in the book – they would say “why doesn’t he take all his money and go back to Switzerland”, you know, “get out of the kitchen if it’s too hot”. That sort of defeatist attitude, from my point of view.

Some of these people are still alive. But they have no conception or idea how it was for us seeing people die. In 1968 we had four consecutive months where someone died, in the same weekend of each month. Jim Clark in April, Mike Spence in May, Ludovico Scarfiotti in June and Jo Schlesser in July.

The Nurburgring race that year was on the same weekend in August. And the first question I asked Ken [Tyrrell] when I got out of the car was “Is everybody alright?”

But those people who were making all those criticisms weren’t at the funerals or the memorial services. I don’t think any sport in history has ever had that kind of mortality rate on a regular basis among such a close selection of people.

It was a very small group – sometimes there was only as many as 16 Formula 1 drivers on a grid and it was one of us each time, whether it was Piers [Courage] or Bruce [McLaren] or Jochen [Rindt] who all died in 1970. Does anybody understand what the grief was for the wives, the children, the sister, the brothers, the girlfriends and the parents going to these memorial services and funerals?

They just don’t understand it. They would not know what to do today if that were to happen again and I pray to God it never does. But for people to objecting to trying to correct that…

The race tracks themselves were desperately dangerous. Even Michael Schumacher today goes off the track almost every weekend. Small errors of judgement. Because there’s run-off areas, there’s gravel traps and deformable structures, the cars survive them.

In those days you couldn’t have those privileges of trying a little too hard when you know you might go off the road. You couldn’t do that.

And there was no medical facilities like there are today. There was no equipment to get people out of cars like there is today. And I just happened to be the person who was willing to talk about it and willing, if you like, to be unpopular.

But I just thought it was a major oversight that was categorically not being fixed.

I mean, we closed the Nurburgring in 1970. The decision was taken after th e memorial service for Bruce McLaren in St. Paul’s Cathedral. We sat in Louis Stanley’s suite at the Dorchester hotel and I thought I was going to lose the vote, until Jack Brabham stood up and said “We’ve got to go with Jackie, he’s right.”

We had sent Jochen Rindt to the Nurburgring because he spoke German. And they wouldn’t do [any] one of the things that he asked to be changed. Because it was sacrilege – ‘the Nurburgring is what it is, take it or leave it’.

And we said “leave it’. Nobody thought we would have the balls to do it.

Collage - Jackie Stewart's new book

F1F: So you went to Hockenheim instead.

JS: We went to Hockenheim, but we didn’t choose Hockenheim. They had to choose Hockenheim. We didn’t want to take away the German Grand Prix, we had to take away the Nurburgring.

It was ludicrous. There has been no circuit in the world – whether it’s racing or the public paying to go around it – which has taken the lives of so many people. There was no barriers. There’s a fantastic picture of me in the air – I think it’s from 1969 in the Matra – and on the side of the road a crashed touring car that hadn’t been removed from the previous support race.

Can you see that happened today? What’s so illogical about wanting that to be changed?

F1F: Turning to this year’s championship, we’ve got five drivers still able to win with two races to go. How do you see it turning out?

JS: It’s fantastic. Never since the mid-to-late sixties has there been such a group of racing drivers capable of winning the championship, who would all be good world champions.

If you think of Mark Webber and Vettel, you think of Alonso and Massa, you think of Hamilton and Button, you think of Kubica, and you think of Schumacher and Rosberg and a few more in there.

It’s the best line-up of drivers since Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Jacky Ickx, Francois Cevert, Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson. This is fantastic.

And there’s going to be a great crescendo, almost certainly coming down to Abu Dhabi.

F1F: Have you got a tip for champion?

JS: I don’t know, it’s too early to say. I would like Mark Webber to win it because I think he would be a good world champion. He’s Australian, he’s never won it before, he presents himself well, he speaks well, he will be a very good ambassador.

I think Vettel is going to win the world championship in the future but I think he’s a tiny bit young for it at 23, to carry it in the best way on a global basis.

Because if you are Red Bull or a Ferrari guy, with Shell and Santander for example, you’re going to be taken around the world to represent the sport. And if you’re a McLaren driver with Vodafone and with Mobil 1 and so forth you’re going to do the same. And I know that Jenson [Button] would be able to do that well and I’m sure he would do it better this year than he would have last year, because he’s got more experience of doing it.

I lost the world championship in 1968 at Mexico at the last round with a fuel pump failure while I was in the lead.

But, you know what, Graham Hill was a better world champion that year than I could have been. Because I understudied Graham that year as world champion and when I became world champion in 1969 I was more capable of representing the sport more profoundly than I would have been a year before. So that’s why I’d like Webber to win it.

And Alonso could, of course, win it, because he’s done it twice before and he could carry it. But I think, actually, Webber would bring more attention to the sport than Alonso – because he’s never won it, and he’s Australian, and there’s hasn’t been an Australian [champion] since Alan Jones and Jack Brabham.

He’s 34 years of age, and I know what I was like when I was 23 and when I was 34. I was a more complete man at 34 and I think that’s one of the things the sport needs projecting: it needs the goodwill, it needs the ambassadorial role, it needs all of those things to represent it in the most positive fashion.

Not just for one team’s sponsors, I mean for the whole sport. Because it is a global sport unlike domestic American sports like Indycar and NASCAR. Formula 1 is global so I hope that whoever wins the world championship will be shipped around the world to get people’s attention for the sport and for all of the people who are investing in the sport. The world champion, in my opinion, should carry that responsibility and Mark Webber could do it better than anybody else.

That’s only my personal view. I think Vettel would be a very world champion, so would Alonso, so would Lewis as well as Mark Webber.

F1F: I’d like to ask you about Felipe Massa. He’s had a difficult season coming back from injury which is also something you had to do in your career. But it’s not gone so well.

JS: He’s got a huge amount of natural talent. But two years ago he was – and I said it – he was too ‘peak-and-valley’. One year ago, before the accident in Hungary, that ‘peak-and-valley’ has disappeared. But it has come back.

Now I think if he got rid of it, he’s as good a racing driver as we have – I certainly would have put him into that group I put him in earlier. His drive at the Brazilian Grand Prix two years ago was a masterful exhibition of driving. So we know he can do it but it doesn’t always happen.

F1F: How does he come back from being so badly beaten this year, to the point that he’s even had to give up a race win?

JS: I think that was a big hit for him psychologically. You could see that on the podium, you could see it in his body language and his words.

He’s very diplomatic: the manner in which he dealt with losing the world championship to Lewis was magnificent. I thought how he behaved that day was an example to any sportsman. To do it in such a dignified and stylish fashion, I really took my hat off to him.

I’ve thought he was really nice person since he was at Sauber – I did a thing with him on the stage at Indianapolis for the Grand Prix with him, and I thought at that time here’s a really nice young man.

That cast is set now. I’m sure Alonso went there with a number one status. I’m not against that, by the way – team orders have been going on since the twenties and thirties and they still have a place.

If you had invested three, four or five hundred million dollars in a team and you thought one driver was capable of winning it more than another driver then I think you’re allowed that prerogative.

F1F: Would you say there’s a feeling that while Button and Hamilton have been battling each other all year, and Vettel and Webber have been battling each other all year, if Alonso were to take the title by the few extra points he won in Germany he would be a diminished world champion?

JS: I think ever so slightly. But I think Lewis still has the upper hand at the McLaren team because of the time he’s been there.

But McLaren also are a team that know Button is capable – and when Jenson drives well, there’s hardly anybody that can beat Jenson.

F1F: Presumably they are now going to throw everything behind Lewis?

JS: I expect so. I wasn’t in Korea so I haven’t spoken to anyone but I will be in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Thanks to Jackie Stewart for taking the time to talk to us and his office for arranging the interview.

“Collage: Jackie Stewart’s Grand Prix Album” the signed, leather-bound limited edition book of 1,500 copies worldwide is available from Genesis Publications. Price £295.

Read more: Jackie Stewart interview: "I was fortunate to race in my era" (Part 1)

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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53 comments on ““Drivers of today are best since my day””

  1. Great interview Keith, it is a testiment to this great website that you have built over the years, here is to some more great and insightful interviews in the future!

    1. Totally agree. I cant remember last time i read such good interview

    2. I agree, great website and once again a great article Keith! Thanks, keep up the great work!

      I wish he would have elaborated on that question of Alonso winning by less than 7 and the championship being diminished….I kind of hope Alonso wins by more than 7 or doesn’t win at all just so those conversations don’t get a chance to happen.

      1. i think this has been voiced before but i’ll do so again: if Alonso wins by 7 or fewer points then it entirely vindicates Ferrari’s decision to impose team orders. what it totally indicts is the FIA’s decision not to punish Ferrari in kind ie. docking them the 7 points or something like that – maybe putting Alonso and Massa on 18 points both for that race.

      2. mfDB, I agree with you completely. I either want Alonso to win, by a large margin, or completely blow it, crash out, have an engine failure, because a victory by less than 7 points to me would be hollow.

        That said, I agree with everything else Jackie said, to me his the greatest there has ever been. Not because he won the most races, or the most championships, but because he has had the most positive and lasting effect on Formula One of any driver before or since. A legendary talent, and a big heart who has made all modern racing possible.

        1. …but because he has had the most positive and lasting effect on Formula One of any driver before or since.

          Exactly. If not for his courage to stand up to the establishment we may not have had F1 in the modern era. The drivers would have either all died off, or the countries that host the Grands Prix would have eventually followed the example of Switzerland and outlawed the sport.

  2. Great insight. Really great.
    We really cannot imagine what it meant to see a friend die every month doing exactly what Jackie was doing…that part is really emotional.
    Thanks Keith.

  3. As always, it’s just such a pleasure to read whatever Sir Jackie says.

    Thanks, Keith!

  4. Mega interview, Keith. Well done. :)

  5. Beatiful article. It explains a lot of things about how was F1 in the ’60s/’70s

  6. Living legend, Keith your a lucky guy!

  7. Great interview, thanks for doing this!

  8. Great job Keith, Thanks for the great article.

  9. Great interview, I’m pretty jealous!

    This part was definitely the better, the way he talked about safety. It’s sad to think it didn’t all end with him: Villeneuve and Senna being just two names we lost after Sir Jackie’s day. Particularly true what he says about run-offs; drivers have been saved for other reasons than them and sometimes they’ve done sod-all in a crash but we’ve seen some horrible rolls in gravel traps, I wouldn’t like to chance those.

    1. I was reading that part and it suddenly struck me that, if in those days you made the smallest error (like Massa’s scary moment at the Parabolica in practice) you would quite probably be headed towards a fatal impact with a tree, rock, bank, ditch, building or falling down a steep hill. For me, that is the most striking thing about those days. You might have been driving along in the lead, thought about your kids for a split second and before you can regain control, you are dead. Horrific. I am so glad safety is as it is, but enormous tarmac run-off are no safer than gravel traps; in fact they only serve to reward mistakes in most cases. I don’t want to see people having big accidents, but I think tarmac run-offs are a bit of a buzzkill, because there is a decreased element of fear that someone will make a race ending mistake and end up beached in the gravel. Instead, they might gain a few seconds advantage.

  10. A bit of Googling has found the picture Sire Jakie referred to (though according to the website it is a BRM, not a Matra):

    http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/42-16050292.jpg

    Also my favourite picture of Sir Jackie is this one, also from the Nurburgring, but of him driving an example fo a car I own, the Ford Capri:

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Ford_Capri_-_J._Stewart_1973.jpg

    1. Nice to have you fill those in Zindon. I really liked this interview Keith, great job and thanks to Sir Steward for cooperating.

    2. I remember seeing that one at the exhibition Keith had that competition for. I know someone who bought it, pricey but a bargain at the same time!

      1. Is it just me, or did he not even have a roll bar on that car that he is flying through the air in?

  11. wonderful interview Keith, thanks for doing it and a very big thanks to Sir Jackie Stewart!

  12. Well it’s been said before, but I’ll say it again – great interview, great write up. I hope that the people who seem to argue for ‘a dangerous, real man’s sport’ when we have debates on safety will have read this. Nicely done.

  13. Well done for getting the interview together and onto the website, we all appreciate it :)

  14. great interview. loved it.

  15. Excellent interview with my first F1 hero. It was his drive in Spain in 1970 where he won by over 1 lap that got me into this sport. For me the sport became all about Ferrari but Jackie was unique.

  16. Keith both parts have been absolutely temendous. Great job with the questions and the response you got out of Jackie. I’m glad you had this chance too becausen you really deserve it for the site. Obviously my favourite part was about Massa :P

    It was fascinating reading about trying to change safety standards and especially about leaving the Nurburgring. I always love to read/listen to Jackie about that as he was such a vital component for the safety changes. Thank you Keith for the intrview!

    It’s also splendid to read Jackie point out just how much talent we have on the grid right now. We’re in a pretty great year and even perhaps era of driving talent right now and long may it continue :)

  17. With the risk of repeating everything that’s already been said – really good read, excellent interview. Another reason why this is the best site for anyone interested in Formula1.

  18. Great interview. Jackie is a model sportsman in every way. His team celebrating at the Nurubrgring in 1999 is one of my all-time favorite F1 moments, because he deserved the success – he had a start-up team with no tobacco sponsorship whatsoever, which was extraordinary at the time.

  19. Thank you, Keith! Job well done. Fabulous one-on-one with a living legend.

  20. Great interview

  21. Best lineup of drivers since the 60s? Did Jackie forget the late 80s / early 90s of Prost, Senna, Mansell, Piquet, Berger, Brundle and a young Schumacher?

  22. Wow, Brilliant interview!! Sir JS is a good man and a legend.. Thanks for that interview Keith.

  23. Nice interview.

  24. excellent stuff , as ever

  25. US Williams Fan
    29th October 2010, 23:40

    Excellent work Keith!

    It was great to read Jackie’s views on the current season as well as other forms of racing, like IndyCar.

    Sir Jackie Stewart is a man of principle – even if it made him unpopular amongst some.

    Certainly an F1 Legend.

  26. Enforcing a deserved compliment is never enough…

    When a very talented communicator, who knows everything about the subject, interviews an outspoken living legend like Jackie Stewart, all readers can surely expect a classic…

    Once again, congratulations!

  27. Sorry, but I just can’t find a link to send this article via e-mail to a friend. Is this service available on the site?

  28. Awesome Keith. Being afforded the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with the great Jackie Stewart is certainly a testament to all the hard and excellent work you do here. Super interview.

    I had the good fortune to watch Sir Jackie drive a few times here in the US. F1 and CanAm. He was then, and still is now, my all time favorite driver. His amazing achievements, during those desperately dangerous days of motorsport, stand alone.

  29. I do agree with him that whoever becomes the WC have to be the best ambassador for the sport to increase the people’s interest in it.

  30. Jackie Stewart is an international living treasure. Brilliant interview.

  31. Thanks Keith, that was a great interview.

    It’s a very interesting take he has on the WDC… I’ve never really considered it from the point of the the WDC being an Ambassador of F1. I can see his point on that subject, but he seems to favor Webber as the WDC for the sake of the sport. I’m not sure I can agree with that.

    I did like the very human side of his comments for the families of lost drivers.
    I sometimes think the current philosophy on motor sports safety is a bit over top, but
    the truth is I get nervous from the tress at Monza, on the other hand I thought it was silly to delay the Korean GP.

    I’d agree with Robbie with his list of Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet and Schumacher as great drivers or drop Shumacher… and back date it a few years and add Lauda and Rosberg. It get pretty subjective.

    Still, I remembering watching him race at INDY(on TV) as a kid. Yes he was cool and radical compared to the rest of of the drivers at that time, but I think the tartan Team Stewart trousers were sort of the nail in his coffin of coolness ;)

    Again, a great interview with a legend.

  32. I love Jackie so this was a fantastic read.

    Obviously you can’t ask everything, but one question thats been floating around my mind for a while is how he feels about the current incarnation of his team doing so well. If he feels any sort of connection or pride in seeing something he and his son set up evolve into something so powerful. Or alternatively if it having gone through a couple of changes since he doesn’t feel any connection to it anymore.

  33. Keith, Jackie is not ** “tipping” ** Webber to be champion, he says he would “like” it if he became champion. So he is expressing a preference, rather than a prediction. Can you please not twist JS’s comments. He is clearly avoiding to make a prediction on this year’s WDC.

    Webber will not win it, because he can’t, I don’t care how many new engines he has left, or if Alonso will have to use the same used engine for the last 2 races, or if Vettel is too young. Webber cannot win this, he is mistake-ridden, incomplete skills-use and too much much of a hothead.

    1. mate, it says Jackie is backing Webber, not tipping Webber. And he clearly is backing Webber, as you said yourself its who he would prefer to win.

      How about you try not to twist Keith’s words? Especially seeing you put so much emphasis on the word tipping, which isn’t actually written anywhere in the article except as a question.

  34. Great interview Keith, terrific questions and MARVELOUS insightful extended answers from Sir Jackie.

    Well done!

  35. Excellent article and I totally concur with the plaudits above. I think Jackie saved F1 for me with his brave approach to safety. People today can’t imagine the pain of all the deaths and injuries at that time. Denny Hulme said something to the effect that modern race circuits may seem bland and uninspiring but it sure beats going to a funeral every other Tuesday.

  36. …Sir Jackie is right of course, with many drivers, and even unknowing fans, surviving those dreadfully dangerous Grand Prix weekends from the 50’s through the 80’s, thanks in no small part to his efforts.

    And thankfully the sport has continued to evolve after Jackie retired.

    Driver safety has reached a point today, thanks to not only the changes in required track configuration, but also the engineering advances, especially in fuel-cell containment, carbon fiber chassis construction and personal driver gear, from helmets to the HANS device, that a racing fatality has become the exceptional occurrence..not the unfortunate inevitability.

    Thank you Jackie, your Knighthood is well deserved.

  37. In my opinion, this is the

    fourth

    title that deserves Alonso. 2005-2006-2007-2010. Remember 2007: We are fighting against Fernando.

  38. Unique is this site! I thank you.

  39. I have been a Formula 1 fan since the late 60s and always admired and applauded with Sir Jackie’s stand on driver safety. I got sick to my stomach every time one of my heroes was killed.

    I have a slight issue with the comment “best drivers since my day”. That kind of belittles the Senna/Prost/Mansell/G.Villeneuve/Piquet/Patrese era.

    1. lauda, pironi, andretti etc

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  41. Jeffrey Powell
    1st November 2010, 14:14

    A great interview for younger F1 Fans to hear JYS’s opinions, I’d just like to thank him and his great friend Jochen Rindt for the greatest F1 race of all time at Silverstone in 1969. I think that the loss of the fantasticlly fast Austrian was the greatest spur to JYS’s efforts to improve safety in the sport we all love.

  42. Nice work Keith. Some really interesting things in this interview!

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