José Froilán González, Ferrari, Silverstone, 1951

On 14 July 1951, José Froilán González drove his 375 F1 to take the first victory for Ferrari in the Formula 1 World Championship.

It was the first chapter of a long story that would include more than 200 wins 16 constructors’ championship titles so far.

González had become known as El Cabezón, ‘the Wild One’, in his home country of Argentina. In Europe he was dubbed the Pampas Bull.

Speaking about the race in The British Grand Prix by Maurice Hamilton, he said: “I have forgotten many races. But always fresh in my mind is 14 July 1951; the British Grand Prix.”

The 1951 season

At the beginning of the 1951 season, there was only one kind of success that interested Enzo Ferrari. Victories at Le Mans, in the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio had helped raise the team’s profile and the momentum had been gathering force since Monza the previous September. He was ready to take on his team’s great rival and the company that had employed him for 20 years.

The supercharged Alfa Romeos were now developing around 410bhp from 1.5-litre engines, while Ferrari had been working on a twin-plug version of the 4.5-litre V12. It wasn’t as powerful as the Alfa but it was more efficient.

As usual Alfa ignored the springtime non-championship races, allowing Ferrari to profit with morale-boosting wins for Luigi Villoresi at Syracuse and Pau and for Alberto Ascari at San Remo.

The first race of the season was at Berne for the Swiss Grand Prix. Ascari was suffering with a nasty burn to the arm received during a Formula 2 race and Villoresi slid off the road in wet conditions. But Taruffi did gain a small victory, by splitting the Alfas of Juan Manuel Fangio and Giuseppe Farina to finish second.

Then at Spa, a jammed wheel at a pit stop cost Fangio his second win in succession, and Farina took the honours for Alfa Romeo.

The French Grand Prix turned out to be a furious battle which, after a change of cars for both Ascari and Fangio, was settled in favour of the Alfa Romeo. Ascari’s car had broken down and González, who had led the race briefly and had pitted to refuel, was asked to hand his car over. This he did without question.

This was González’s first race for Ferrari. Just before the French Grand Prix, Enzo Ferrari had approached him. He was told that Piero Taruffi, who himself was standing in for the injured Serafini, was unwell – would he step in?

Soon after, Ferrari asked him if he would like to sign a contract with the team and by the British Grand Prix he was a Ferrari driver.

The 100mph lap

The programme for the British Grand Prix didn’t contain a portrait of Jose Froilan González. It didn’t even mention his name on the entry list.

Alfa Romeo had brought four cars, for Fangio, Farina, Sanesi and Bonetto. Ferrari brought along three of the type 375s for Ascari, Villoresi and González, while Peter Whitehead was in the Thinwall Ferrari.

Talbot returned with three of their 4.5-litre cars. Maserati were relying on the ageing 4CLTs for David Murray and John James, while Philip Fotheringham-Parker was battling in an even older 4CL. ERA had Bob Gerard and Brian Shawe-Taylor and Joe Kelly was in his Alta. BRM turned up on the morning of the race having missed practice, meaning Reg Parnell and Peter Walker would start from the back of the grid.

During Thursday practice, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo came out fighting. John Bolster of Autosport said at the time: “Thursday found me walking round the circuit, trying to work out how on earth these boys get round the corners the way they do.

“My stopwatch was busy in my hand, and I had a conversion table, so it was with immense excitement that I observed that Froilan González had lapped at 99mph. His next tour looked even faster and, yes, the magic 100mph had been topped at last!

“The interesting thing is that he brakes later than anybody else, actually enters the corner faster, and gets through in an immensely long drift. He has none of the ease in the cockpit that Farina exhibits, and certainly does not follow the same path every time.

“Unlike all the other drivers, he changes down without gunning his motor, and yet there is no clash of gears and the box stands up to the treatment. John Wyer and I listened to this for lap after lap at Woodcote, and were fair amazed. A phenomenon, this Froilan!”

González had lapped Silverstone in 1 minute 43.4 seconds – a full second quicker than Fangio. On Friday the track was damp and those times remained. For good measure, Ascari knew that González didn’t even have the benefit of the latest twin-plug engine.

Silverstone was the first time an Alfa Romeo had not been on pole position since the world championship had begun (the Indianapolis 500 notwithstanding).

In the meantime, Stirling Moss had a runaway victory in the 500cc support race, with Bernie Ecclestone snatching tenth place in a Cooper-Norton.

1951 British Grand Prix grid

The cars lined up in four-three-four-three formation, headed by González:

Race day

Around 50,000 spectators arrived on the Saturday. González summed up the mood in his book, My Greatest Race: “I was very tense, very anxious. I had to rush to the toilet about five minutes before the start and I remember I was talking to myself all the time!

“There were some people there from Argentina trying to calm me, but I couldn’t talk to them. I was thinking about nothing but this race and I didn’t even hear what they were saying. Of course, I didn’t speak English, so I didn’t understand anything else that was going on all round me. I seem to have been in a trance.”

As the race began the front row were all so anxious to reach Woodcote first that all four drivers spun their wheels excessively and were engulfed. González pushed through and took the lead on the next lap. He said: “I knew it was important not to do anything stupid. I also knew, of course, that the Alfa Romeo would need to take on extra fuel. So I let Fangio overtake me.”

Within 15 laps, Fangio was five seconds ahead of González. In turn, they were 44 seconds ahead of third-place Farina who was tussling with Ascari, with Bonetto and Villoresi behind. It was Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari. The fuel stops would settle the issue.

González was living up to the image of ‘the Pampas Bull’, and seemed to be trying to tear the steering wheel from its roots. A straw-bale bashing moment at Becketts caused a slight delay but he gradually closed on Fangio to retake the lead on lap 39.

At the end of lap 48, Fangio pitted and González came in 13 laps later. Ascari had retired with gearbox trouble, and González climbed from his car and offered it to his team-mate – Ascari refused and urged González to continue. The stop took 23 seconds, to Fangio’s 49 – the latter had his rear wheels changed and a full load of fuel added. The gap between the leaders was now 1 minute 19.2 seconds.

The report published in Motorsport in August 1951 describes the events as follows: “Try as Fangio could and did, it was over. González came round, crash hat and visor in his left hand, waving them to the crowd.

“Ferrari with the unblown 4.5-litre had at last broken the might of the two-stage 159 Alfa Romeo, as they have been threatening to do since Monza last year. Froilan González had driven impeccably and is now in the front rank.

“Fangio drove like the master he is, but couldn’t catch the Ferrari, nor could his longer pit-stop explain the 51 second gap and he was the meat in the Ferrari sandwich. And how these Argentinians drive!”

Villoresi took third place after Farina had retired at Abbey Curve, with smoke billowing from the engine. Bonetto was a further lap behind the Ferrari in fourth. There was a rousing cheer for Reg Parnell as he brought the BRM home in fifth ahead of Sanesi, with Walker finishing seventh.

The BRM drivers completed the race burned by their exhausts and dazed by fuel vapours. In the hurry to complete the cars for the race, the exhaust pipes hadn’t been properly insulated and the drivers had been roasted.

During their pit stops their legs were wrapped in cotton wool soaked in burn dressings, but despite this they were still badly burned.

1951 British Grand Prix result

The peak of a 13-year battle

“It was very confusing,” said González aftewards, “but very exciting.

“Everyone was shouting and talking; the mechanics saying over and over again that the Alfa Romeos had been beaten. Then I was taken to meet the Queen and I was given a laurel wreath. Of course, I understood little of what was said but it was a very nice feeling to have all those people congratulating me.

“On the winner’s podium I was embraced warmly by Fangio. That meant a lot to me. Then they played the Argentine National Anthem. I had never experienced anything like this before. When I saw my country’s flag being hoisted, it was just too much for me and I cried. That moment will live with me for ever.”

This had been the peak of a 13-year battle with Alfa Romeo, with Enzo Ferrari’s persistence paying off against his former employer. It was the first time the Alfas had been beaten since the inaugural post-war French Grand Prix in 1946.

At the end of the season, Alfa Romeo applied for a five-fold increase in their government grant. It was refused, and the team withdrew from Grand Prix racing.

In his biography by Richard Williams, Enzo Ferrari is quoted as saying of his team’s first victory: “I cried for joy. But my tears of enthusiasm were mixed with those of sorrow because I thought, today I have killed my mother.”

Were you at this race? Do you remember it? Tell us about it in the comments.

Grand Prix flashback

• 50 years ago today: F1's worst tragedy at Monza
• "He was on it from the word go" - Schumacher's debut remembered
• 60 years ago today: Ferrari's first F1 win
• 30 years ago: Villeneuve's last and best F1 win
• On this day in 1981: F1's fiasco at Zolder
• 25 years ago today: Senna beats Mansell by 0.01s
• 40 years today: Mario Andretti’s first F1 win
• 20 years since Senna took out Prost at Suzuka
• 1993 South African Grand Prix flashback
• 25 years since Ayrton Senna's first F1 win: 1985 Portuguese GP flashback

Image © Ferrari spao

Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Jerez, 1986

On this day in 1986, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna crossed the finishing line in Jerez just 0.014 seconds apart.

The 1986 Spanish Grand Prix witnessed one of the closest finishes in F1 history.

Mansell came desperately close to scoring Williams’ first win since team founder Frank Williams had been dreadfully injured in a road accident.

And the three points he missed out on would have made him champion at the end of the closely-fought 1986 season. Here’s the story of that celebrated race and its epic finish.

The accident

One month earlier, Frank Williams had suffered a dreadful accident which cast a shadow over his team.

On March 8th, Williams were at Paul Ricard for the final test session before the season opened in Brazil. The new Williams-Honda FW11 was already proving competitive. Mansell and Nelson Piquet had put the car through its final paces, with Frank Williams keeping an eye on proceedings.

Satisfied with progress, Frank Williams set off on the 90 minute journey towards Cannes and Nice, with the team’s PR co-ordinator Peter Windsow in the passenger seat.

About 15 minutes into the journey in the hills near the village of Meounes-les-Montrieux, Williams lost control of the car. It ploughed nose-first into a field several feet below the road and landed upside-down. The left-front corner of the roof collapsed, trapping Williams underneath.

Williams survived but suffered paralysis and was kept away from his team for months while he made a slow recovery.

In his absence the team pulled together. Mansell said: “We will close ranks. We have already put Plan B into operation, with Frank’s approval. The best thing we can do, and myself and Nelson Piquet, is get the success the team and especially Frank deserves.”

Rio de Janiero

At the season-opener at the Jacarepagua circuit in Brazil the teams had their first taste of racing under new fuel regulations, with the maximum permitted fuel load cut from 220 to 195 litres. This created an efficiency challenge which the Honda-powered Williams excelled at.

Piquet beat Senna’s Lotus-Renault, with 12 litres of fuel still left in the tank and still managed to shave a second off Alain Prost’s two-year-old lap record.

Mansell’s race was much shorter and less successful – he collided with Senna on the first lap and was out.

In his autobiography he said: “On the first lap of the race in Rio I got a good start and thought I had done enough going down the straight to pass him down the inside into the fast left hander. I got alongside, my right front wheel level with his shoulder and began braking, but he suddenly came across and hit me. I braked hard to avoid an accident, but his left rear wheel hit my right front and sent me off the road into the Armco, tearing off my left front wheel.”

“We did not talk about it afterwards, but I learned an important lesson about racing against him that day. If I hadn’t backed off we would both have hit the Armco and it could have been a serious accident. As it was I came off worse and it would not happen again. His tactic was to intimidate and I refused to be intimidated.”

Three weeks later, the teams were in Jerez for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Jerez de la Frontera

After a four-year hiatus, the Spanish Grand Prix had returned to the world championship calendar with a race at the brand new Jerez de la Frontera circuit near Seville.

It was a brand new circuit, 4.218km in length, 16 corners in all, and regarded as more than adequately wide everywhere. It has been modified since, as the map above shows.

But the spectators’ enclosure was almost empty. There was no Fernando Alonso or any Spanish driver or team to draw in the crowds. Others were put off by the cost of entry – £25 to get in then and at least another £50 for a grandstand seat.

Senna was typically dominant in qualifying. The official Lotus press handout said it all: “Ayrton senna was the quickest driver round the new Jerez circuit [...] setting a time of 1’21.605. Second fastest driver, Nigel Mansell, set a time of 1’23.024 in his Williams.”

1986 Spanish Grand Prix grid

On Sunday morning, Senna got away from the line and it was the scene was laregely uneventful at the first corner. At the end of the opening lap it was Senna, followed by the two Williams cars, then Rosberg, Prost and Arnoux.

Mansell said in his autobiography: “I was getting rather worrying information from my fuel consumption readout so I decided to drop back a bit and see how things worked out. It worked; by lap 19 the readout said that I was on target again and I put in some hard laps to try to make up some of the ground I had lost.”

He passed Piquet from second place on lap 34 and forced Senna to get boxed in behind a benchmarker for long enough to pass him. He opened up a lead of around four seconds and held it until his tyres began to disintegrate with 10 laps to go.

A nail-biting finish

Today the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix is remembered as a classic. But some commentators at the time saw it very differently (how little has changed), not least of which Motor Sport’s venerated Denis Jenkinson.

His race report said: “As always, testing and qualifying was the most interesting time, the race itself being a different matter altogether and the 72 laps round the new Jerez circuit was no exception.

“With fuel limited to 195 litres and tyre wear being critical it was a race of tactics rather than gutsy racing. For the first half the leading bunch, of Senna, Piquet, Rosberg, Mansell and Prost, circulated in [single] file letting Senna set the pace, which he did on his fuel consumption gauge rather than his rev-counter.”

But what most people remember is the nail-biting finish.

By lap 66 Prost had closed in to make the leaders a trio. Senna saw a gap and dived through on lap 68 and Mansell retreated into the pits. His rear diffuser panel was coming loose and one of the rear tyres had picked up a slow puncture.

He came straight back out to record a lap time in the 1’29s from a standing start – just 1.3s slower than his fastest flying lap.

With eight laps to go, Mansell was third behind Prost, almost 20 seconds behind Senna. It took Mansell just half a lap to overtake Prost. With two laps to go, Mansell was 5.3 seconds adrift. One lap later, he closed that down to just 1.5 seconds.

Mansell said: “[Senna] was on the limit and so was I. Under braking from the final hairpin I was too far behind to try to pass, but coming out of it I was right on his gearbox. He weaved, but I wasn’t going to be deterred and I kept my foot in.

“We raced for the finish like 100m sprinters ducking for the tape and although I passed him halfway down the straight, he had crossed the line first by 0.014 seconds, or 93 centimetres. If the finish line had been five yards further down the road I would have won. And those [three] extra points would have made a big difference at the end of the year.”

The McLarens of Prost and Keke Rosberg finished third and fourth, believing they had severe fuel consumption problems when in fact they were seeing faulty cockpit readouts. The reliable Benetton B186s of Teo Fabi and Gerhard Berger took the last of the six points-paying places. Only two other cars were classified.

In the words of Nigel Mansell: “Afterwards Prost came up to me and apologised. He said: ‘I thought that Ayrton was too far ahead for either of us to catch him. If I had known you could do it I would have let you past!’”

1986 Spanish Grand Prix result

Were you at this race? Do you remember it? Tell us about it in the comments.

Grand Prix flashback

• 50 years ago today: F1's worst tragedy at Monza
• "He was on it from the word go" - Schumacher's debut remembered
• 60 years ago today: Ferrari's first F1 win
• 30 years ago: Villeneuve's last and best F1 win
• On this day in 1981: F1's fiasco at Zolder
• 25 years ago today: Senna beats Mansell by 0.01s
• 40 years today: Mario Andretti’s first F1 win
• 20 years since Senna took out Prost at Suzuka
• 1993 South African Grand Prix flashback
• 25 years since Ayrton Senna's first F1 win: 1985 Portuguese GP flashback

Image © Williams/LAT

Mario Andretti (pictured in 1967)

On this day in 1971, Grand Prix legend Mario Andretti scored his first win in an F1 race.

The Italian-born American, who in his youth had watched Alberto Ascari driving for Ferrari, won on his first appearance for the Scuderia in South Africa.

Andretti was already dominating the US single-seater racing scene when he made his Ferrari at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami on March 6, 1971. It was his tenth Formula One appearance.

In his biography “A Driving Passion” by Gordon Kirby, Andretti says: “South Africa was the type of race where I was not outstanding, but I was up front. I was ahead of all the other Ferraris.

“I was challenging [Denny] Hulme, but pretty much couldn’t catch him. I don’t think I would have beaten him, but it was a good victory nonetheless.

“It was big to score my first Formula 1 win, and to do it for Ferrari made it very special.”

From Italy to America

Andretti was born in 1940 in Montona, near Trieste, an area of Italy which became Yugoslavian soon after the Second World War. He spent his childhood years in a displaced persons’ camp near Lucca in Tuscany.

Andretti has said that life was good in the forties, but that things soon changed. In his biography, he recalls: “Then Communism arrives. Everyone’s supposed to be equal, right? Well, that much was true. Everyone was equal – we all had nothing!

“That’s how we wound up in the camp, and that’s why we moved to the States. You don’t forget those things, that your mother was always crying and you didn’t know why.”

His first experience of a motor race was seeing the Mille Miglia pass near the family home in 1954. The following year they moved to America and before long Mario and his twin brother Aldo began racing on the dirt oval at Nazareth in Pennsylvania.

He’s said: “You know, you leave your home, lose everything, and go into a refugee camp with a totally uncertain future. Then, all of a sudden, you pursue an opportunity to come to America with so many unknowns, and things start shaping up. In every sense we really experienced the American Dream”.

The break into F1

By the time Mario Andretti made his F1 debut at Watkins Glen, New York, for the 1968 United States Grand Prix, he was already a name to be reckoned with.

He’d demonstrated his versatility as a driver in USAC Championship cars, stock cars, and long-distance sports cars. He won the United States Auto Club championship twice (1965-66), and in 1967 won the Daytona 500 (NASCAR).

In 1966 he drove 14 different cars in 51 races, winning 14 of those races driving four different cars. Few drivers in their entire careers have raced such a wide range of cars – and with so much success.

He had previously taken pole position for the first F1 race he started, driving for Lotus at Watkins Glen in 1968.

Andretti had qualified 0.7 seconds faster than Jackie Stewart, who described the reaction among the F1 fraternity to Auto Week: “I don’t quite know what word to use to describe the feeling of our group. I guess you can say it was a surprise.

“Not that I, personally, was surprised, because I knew bloody well he can drive any kind of race car and do it quite splendidly. It was surprising that he goes onto one of our regular road courses for the first time and wins pole at record speed.”

The Ferrari 312B

In the summer of 1970, Andretti delivered Ferrari’s only sports-car victory of the year at Sebring and was approached by Enzo Ferrari to drive for the team full-time in 1971. He was unable to accept the offer because of his Firestone commitments, but agreed to a handful of F1 and sports car races that didn’t conflict with his USAC races.

Reigning world champion Jochen Rindt had been killed during practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, and the sport had also lost Bruce McLaren and Piers Courage that year.

Denny Hulme and Emerson Fittipaldi were now leading McLaren and Lotus respectively; Stewart had been approached by Ferrari but decided to stay at Tyrrell in a new car designed around him; Chris Amon moved to Matra and was replaced at the factory March team by Ronnie Peterson; and Jo Siffert moved to BRM.

Many pundits were predicting a walkover for Ferrari in 1971. The team’s 12-cylinder engine had taken 12 months to be refined into a reliable and competitive unit, and with thanks to Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni, won four of the last five races in 1970. It was difficult to see how the Cosworth DFV engine could compete.

For the new season, improvements were made to the engine and a new chassis design, heavily influenced by the “wedge” profile of the Lotus 72, was introduced.

Andretti had driven more than a thousand miles testing the new car in Italy at the end of 1970 and was excited by its potential: “That was a perfect car. The 12-cylinder boxer engine had a low centre of gravity that helped its handling. It was well balanced. Even then it was an old-looking car, but it worked.”

He qualified fourth for the season opener in South Africa, immediately behind team mate Regazzoni and ahead of Ickx in the third Ferrari.

1971 South African Grand Prix grid

The race

On the morning of the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami Hulme was very confident, even though he was back on the third row with Surtees and Ickx. Stewart and Amon both made poor starts from the front row and Hulme was able to make ground early, to be in the lead after 16 laps. The race seemed to be in his pocket.

Andretti struggled at the start, almost running into Stewart and Amon who were directly ahead of him on the grid. He braked hard, and was seventh by the end of the opening lap.

He steadily worked his way toward the front and by the race’s final stages was up to second place, closing in on leader Hulme. He was a little more than two seconds behind with four laps to go when a bolt fell out of Hulme’s McLaren M19.

Hulme described what happened next in Maurice Hamilton’s biography of Ken Tyrrell: “The Ferrari’s fuel load had dropped and Mario was going quicker – he took fastest lap of the race just a few laps from the finish – but with the new suspension my car had been the same throughout the race, never altering from full tanks to empty tanks.

“I knew I was going to have trouble with Mario before the end of the race, but I was determined to make the McLaren as wide as possible to keep the red car behind me.

“Then going round Barbecue Corner, the McLaren started to wander a wee bit. [As] I went down into Sunset Corner and braked, the car swerved across the road. I knew I was in big trouble. Mario had caught me, and as I was gathering up the McLaren he went whistling by into the lead.

“When Mario came by to lap me just before the finish, he slowed alongside, looked across and gave me a little wave. He’s like that. A brave, tough little guy with a big heart.

“When you’re Italian-born, it’s a big deal to be winning your first Grand Prix in a factory Ferrari, 20 seconds ahead of Jackie Stewart. It must have all seemed pretty good to Mario just then.”

1971 South African Grand Prix result

Were you at this race? Do you remember it? Tell us about it in the comments.

Grand Prix flashback

• 50 years ago today: F1's worst tragedy at Monza
• "He was on it from the word go" - Schumacher's debut remembered
• 60 years ago today: Ferrari's first F1 win
• 30 years ago: Villeneuve's last and best F1 win
• On this day in 1981: F1's fiasco at Zolder
• 25 years ago today: Senna beats Mansell by 0.01s
• 40 years today: Mario Andretti’s first F1 win
• 20 years since Senna took out Prost at Suzuka
• 1993 South African Grand Prix flashback
• 25 years since Ayrton Senna's first F1 win: 1985 Portuguese GP flashback

Image © Ford.com

Once almost eight kilometres long with a two-and-a-half-minute lap, Interlagos has been halved in length since holding its first world championship race in 1973.

But the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix retains its distinctive character and, of course, the passionate Brazilian fans.

Interlagos, 1973

Length: 7.96km (4.946 miles)
Lap record: 2’34.160 (Jean-Pierre Jarier, Shadow)

Its proper title is the “Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace” (pronounced par-chay), named for the Brazilian driver who scored the only win of his F1 career at the track in 1975, and lost his life in a light aircraft accident in 1977.

But the Sao Paulo circuit is usually referred to simply as “Interlagos” meaning “between the lakes”. It refers to the nearby Guarapiranga and Billings reservoirs that supply water to the sprawling suburbs that surround the track.

Brazil’s most populous city has produced several F1 drivers including arguably its greatest star of all – Ayrton Senna.

The circuit held a non-championship race in 1972 and although only a dozen cars appeared, it won a place on the calendar the following year.

Pace was one of four Paulistas on the grid for F1′s first race at Interlagos in 1973, along with Luiz Bueno, Wilson Fittipaldi and his reigning champion brother Emerson. A dominant win by the latter gave the home crowd exactly what they came to see.

The track was first used in 1940 and held lower formulae races. Its addition to the world championship was thanks in part to the efforts of television station TV Globo who promoted races at the track for junior formulae as Fittipaldi moved up through the ranks.

In its original form Interlagos was almost twice the length it is today. From the start/finish line the drivers tackled a series of extremely fast and banked left-hand corners. They then swung into a long, serpentine infield section. The final sequence of corners was much the same as it is now.

The track was only used in this longer form for seven F1 races. The last of which, in 1980, was won by Rene Arnoux for Renault.

Here’s footage from the track as it was in 1973:

Interlagos, 2010

Length: 4.309km (2.677 miles)
Lap record: 1’11.473 (Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams)

After spending the best part of a decade at the Jacarepagua circuit in Rio de Janeiro, F1 returned to Interlagos in 1990. The track underwent some substantial modifications, so that for the first race at the revised circuit it looked a little unfinished in places, rather like Korea did more recently.

The track was substantially sanitised, with the fast outer portion almost entirely removed. Instead the first corner became an S-bend complex that cut through onto the infield section – albeit with the cars now travelling in the opposite direction.

They continue along Reta Oposta and into Subida do Lago – now re-shaped into a double-apex corner. From here they cut back onto a later section of the old track and into a familiar series of corners that double back on themselves – Laranja, Pinheirinho, Bico de Pato and Mergulho.

The last real corner on the track, Juncao, was re-profiled. The long climb back to the start/finish line begins here.

It curves left, and the lack of run-off on the right-hand side has been a problem in recent years, Fernando Alonso suffering a huge crash there which ended the race early in 2003.

Brazilian stock car driver Rafael Sperafico was killed in an accident there in 2007. Changes to the run-off have been made ahead of this year’s Grand Prix.

Senna failed to win the first race on the new Interlagos in 1990 after tangling with the lapped Saturo Nakajima. But he made amends with delirious victories in front of his home crowd in 1991 and 1993.

More recently another Paulista, Felipe Massa, won in 2006 and 2008 – though his second win was bittersweet as it couldn’t prevent him losing the world championship to Lewis Hamilton.

Fellow Sao Paulo native Rubens Barrichello has never managed to win his home race despite starting from pole position here in 2003, 2004 and 2009. Two more Paulistas, Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna, join them on the grid this year.

Interlagos has attracted criticism for its poor facilities in the past. Qualifying for the 2000 race had to be red-flagged after overhead advertising hoardings fell on the track.

But despite lacking the polish of Yas Marina, even in its reduced form Interlagos is widely regarded as one of the best tracks on the modern F1 calendar. It’s the second-shortest circuit currently in use and has the lowest lap time, meaning drivers are kept busy in traffic

After a few minor alterations to the track, including the re-positioning of the pit lane exit, the circuit hasn’t changed significantly since 2000. In 2004 it was moved from the beginning of the calendar to the end and has been the scene of every championship-deciding race since 2005.

Interlagos has a deserved reputation for providing excellent races. Though its place at the end of the season and the unpredictable weather play their part, the superb track deserves much of the credit too.

Here’s an introduction to the 1990 race on F1′s return to the track and the start of the first Grand Prix on the revised Interlagos:

Interlagos, 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

How F1 tracks have changed

• F1 circuits history part 1: 1950
• F1 circuits history part 2: 1951-53
• F1 circuits history part 3: 1954-57
• F1 circuits history part 4: 1958-60
• F1 circuits history part 5: 1961-66
• F1 circuits history part 6: 1967-70
• F1 circuits history part 7: 1971-74
• F1 circuits history part 8: 1975-78
• F1 circuits history part 9: 1979-84
• F1 circuits history part 10: 1985-89
• F1 circuits history part 11: 1990-93
• F1 circuits history part 12: 1994
• F1 circuits history part 13: 1995-98
• F1 circuits history part 14: 1999-2002
• F1 circuits history part 15: 2003-07
• F1 circuits history part 16: 2008 and beyond

Image © Brawn GP

Mercedes have denied reports Michael Schumacher was held up by Felipe Massa during the Korean Grand Prix.

Claims were made following the race that Ferrari ordered Massa to delay other cars following Fernando Alonso’s pit stop.

The next car behind Massa was Schumacher, but a spokesperson for the team told F1 Fanatic it was “not true” that Massa had held Schumacher up.

Alonso lost almost three seconds during his pit stop compared to Sebastian Vettel who came in with him on lap 33.

Because of the delay Alonso lost one place to Lewis Hamilton and came out of the pits in front of Massa.

Hamilton, Massa and Schumacher had all pitted before Alonso on lap 32. Prior to that they had been 4.8, 10.5 and 13.8 seconds behind Alonso respectively (see here for the full data).

Alonso had been at further risk of losing places because the safety car was deployed after he had passed the pits but early enough for Hamilton and his pursuers to pit right away.

Mercedes’ denial refutes speculation that Ferrari used team orders to benefit Alonso again as they did during the German Grand Prix.

2010 Korean Grand Prix

• Mercedes deny Massa held up Schumacher for Alonso
• Korea say 168,000 attended first F1 race
• Alonso not considering Brazil title win
• Hamilton: Alonso would have passed me
• Button: "I will fight until it's impossible"
• Horner hits back over Webber criticism
• Korean International Circuit: your verdict
• Montezemolo: "We haven't won yet"
• 2010 Korean Grand Prix: the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
• Who was the best driver of the Korean Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)

Image © Ferrari spa

Here in Britain we won’t get to see “Senna” – the film documentary on the life of Ayrton Senna – until June next year.

Update: Manish Pandey, the writer of “Senna”, responds to Robert in the comments.

First, I think anyone who who enjoys motor racing would enjoy the movie.

The film, as I think you are aware is a collection of interviews with Senna and other footage, most of which we haven’t seen before and interspersed with some great film of some of the bigger races in Senna’s career. Seeing 1980s or 1990s in-car footage on a big screen is fantastic.

Compared to today’s in-car shots the quality is obviously poorer but, whether it is the screen size or the much greater amount of movement of the car it is raw, dramatic and much more special.

The story of Senna’s career is basically told by Ayrton himself. The film gives a pretty straight narrative from F1 debut, to the rivalry between him and Alain Prost at McLaren to Imola 1994 with little diversion, which is a shame.

There is a big jump from karting straight to F1, which disappointingly for a English fan of motor racing, misses out the British F3 championship of 1983 and the battle with
Martin Brundle.

Also the apparent rivalry with Nelson Piquet, the early spats with Nigel Mansell along with his friendship with Gerhard Berger for instance are all pruned from the plot. However, to make the film a reasonable length, not everything can be included – even if a F1 fan would like it to.

There are voiceover interviews and stories from other various important people in Ayrton’s career – including Prost – and family members too which add some further insight into his character and what made him special.

The largest part of the film is about the 1988 -1990 McLaren Senna/Prost rivalry. While Prost is not portrayed in as fair a way as he deserves, he is not made out to be the total villain. That is reserved for FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre.

After 1990 the film makes another frustrating leap, skipping fairly quickly through to 1994 and the crash. Watching the Imola weekend unfold is very disturbing, with much unseen footage of practice and Japanese TV footage (for me, Imola 1994 was the first F1 race I watched on Japanese TV).

It was a worthwhile film and gave insight and lighter moments to laugh and reminisce with fondness along with tears and being sent back to May 1st, 1994.

The film is about 90 minutes long and definitely worth the trip to the nearest cinema you can watch it at when it opens.

Something that struck me at the end was after the credits and the lights went up there was no chatter from the full house, everyone was absolutely silent, not a sound, until they were back into the noise and bustle of Tokyo streets.
Robert York

There’s more information about the film on publisher Working Title’s website and you can follow writer Manish Pandey on Twitter.

If you’ve been to see “Senna” already, share your opinion on it in the comments.

Senna movie

• The Making of Senna part 9: The response in Brazil
• The Making of Senna part 8: The Death of Ayrton Senna
• The Making of Senna part 7: Imola 1994
• The Making of Senna part 6: The perfect bad guy?
• The Making of Senna part 5: The lost scenes
• The Making of Senna part 4: 'You've never heard F1 sound like this'
• The Making of Senna part 3: Inside the F1 archive
• The Making of Senna part 2: Meeting the Sennas
• The Making of Senna part 1: Life and death
• "Senna" - the Ayrton Senna movie reviewed

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 Nürburgring 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 Nürburgring 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 Nürburgring 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 Nürburgring 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 Nürburgring 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 Nürburgring.

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)

The F1 teams have agreed the test dates for the 2011 F1 season.

Contrary to earlier reports the teams will not be testing at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimao, Portugal. They will test at Bahrain in the week before the first race of the season.

The young drivers’ test will be the last time F1 cars run on Bridgestone tyres before new tyre supplier Pirelli take over.

Use the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar to keep track of upcoming race dates and test sessions.

Read more: F1 2011 Season

Image © Force India F1 Team

The inaugural Korean Grand Prix attracted 168,000 spectators over the three-day event, the race organisers claimed on Friday.

However local media reported significant numbers of tickets were given away for free to boost attendance at the first race at the Korean International Circuit.

The Korea Auto Valley Operation (KAVO) claimed attendance figures of 25,000 for Friday, 63,000 for Saturday and 80,000 for Sunday but did not say how many of those were paying spectators.

A report in the Korea Jonngang Daily claimed:

The local government gave thousands of free passes to university students to make sure the stands were filled. The local government also required its officials to sell tickets to their family and friends.

It’s not unusual for new race venues to give away tickets to stimulate interest but it makes assessing how popular the race actually was rather difficult.

Another newspaper claimed the late-running construction work meant the budget for the track was exceeded by ₩60bn (£33.4m). A KAVO spokesperson said:

The construction costs have increased over original estimates, but KAVO is currently evaluating by how much. The figures quoted in media reports however are incorrect.

Did you go to the Korean Grand Prix? Tell us about it here: Korean International Circuit – spectators’ experiences

2010 Korean Grand Prix

• Mercedes deny Massa held up Schumacher for Alonso
• Korea say 168,000 attended first F1 race
• Alonso not considering Brazil title win
• Hamilton: Alonso would have passed me
• Button: "I will fight until it's impossible"
• Horner hits back over Webber criticism
• Korean International Circuit: your verdict
• Montezemolo: "We haven't won yet"
• 2010 Korean Grand Prix: the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
• Who was the best driver of the Korean Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)

Image © KAVO

Sir Jackie Stewart’s racing career is the subject of a new book, “Collage”, which brings together newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs and all kinds of other documents from his life.

The three-times world champion talked to F1 Fanatic about winning the 1968 German Grand Prix in foul conditions at the Nürburgring, racing in multiple disciplines while competing in Formula 1, and more.

F1 Fanatic: There’s an eye-catching anecdote in the book about Ken Tyrrell telling you to go out and drive around the Nürburgring in the rain and fog in practice before the race in 1968.

Obviously that put me in mind of the race we just had this weekend. What was it like to drive in those conditions?

Jackie Stewart: I won a lot of races in the rain, but that doesn’t mean to say I liked it! I perhaps was more competitive in the rain, sometimes, but it wasn’t an enjoyable experience.

The reason I was so against it – and it’s very seldom that I Ken and I had major disagreements, and this was one of them – was I didn’t want to risk the car. And I don’t mean having a big accident, I mean just me damaging the car spinning off on a river of water.

The rain was so torrential that all the drains were getting blocked. At the Nürburgring there were just grass banks and mud would wash down and close apertures that would normally be there.

He, of course, was correct. Because as it turned out on that one lap I did I was able to bank where the major rivers of water were that were to play havoc with everybody.

Because it’s not just a question of flying off the road, it’s what happens when you hit a river of water. You’ve got to lift off immediately, you’ve got to try to collect the car, and in some cases it takes maybe 200 yards to get the car back under control.

F1F: Today, a race wouldn’t be started those conditions.

JS: Oh no, the race would never have been started.

F1F: After Korea some people have said the sport has become too risk-averse. Do you agree?

JS: Well, I don’t go along with that. But having said that, the design of a race track – and this is not being critical of a brand new race track, though I suppose I am being – ideally should be that no standing water would ever be there, because you would use the cambers in such a way that the water would always flow to a properly-designed drainage system.

Can you imagine the Nürburgring having that in 1968? Not possible. So it was part and parcel or driving at the ‘ring. As because the race was started for the entire period the rain was so severe that it was almost a new experience every lap.

I was lucky that, even though I am dyslexic, the one thing God gave me for whatever peculiar reason was a privilege in that I can remember every corner, every gearshift, every braking distance at the Nürburgring, 187 kilometres later and all these years later, too. During that race that intimacy with the track was what allowed me to win it by over four minutes.

And winning it by over four minutes was with me backing off. You’re only getting information twice a lap. Once as you past the pits, going from left to right, and once behind the pits, and again from left to right behind the pit wall. There was two sides to the pits at the Nürburgring, so you were on the south turn and you got more information.

But I couldn’t get much of that information because the lead was so big that by the time I had got round the south turn nobody had appeared behind me. So I knew once that I was more than 30 seconds in the lead on the first lap, and more than a minute in the lead on the second lap. So when you get up to two or three minutes in the lead you’re obviously not driving at ten tenths.

The argument about me going out in practice, to give a long answer to your question, was that Ken was right, and I was wrong. But I didn’t much like the idea because I was frightened I would do damage to the car when we might have had a good race out of it. If I had crashed in the morning you didn’t get the car back, usually, for at least an hour.

Collage - Jackie Stewart's new book

F1F: What did you make of Lewis Hamilton agitating for the race to be started in Korea?

JS: I think one of the good things about the drivers is that they’ve now got the GPDA [Grand Prix Drivers' Association] back to being meaningful amongst themselves. Because it was kind of pooh-poohed by some people for a while – not just the drivers, but even the governing body.

When it comes to a decision of that nature you cannot go on one driver’s opinion in any case. I wasn’t there, so I can’t make a really good judgement on that.

But I think that’s a good element of the GPDA – being able to have some authority. Because no matter how knowledgeable [race director] Charlie Whiting may be he certainly doesn’t have anything close to the same knowledge as a Grand Prix driver. And it should be a Grand Prix driver of experience that makes these decisions.

F1F: How valuable were the races you did outside of Grand Prix racing – things like the Indianapolis 500 and the sports car races – to you during your career?

JS: They were terrific. They allowed the driver to be considerably more versatile. Because one day you’re driving a high-powered, 750hp Can-Am car, the next day you might be driving a Ford Escort.

You might be driving an Indianapolis car and then driving, as I was, a two-litre Formula 1 engine at Monaco in 1966. I came back from Indy, it was the three-litre Formula 1 but ours wasn’t ready so I drove a two-litre, an underpowered car by comparison.

All these cars had different characteristics, whether they were Can-Am cars, touring cars, sports cars or Formula 1 cars. You were also working with a variety of cultures, with different mechanics, team owners and so on.

And other levels of drivers, too. For example, if you went to a Can-Am race some of the Can-Am drivers were not so experienced. You go to a Formula 1 race and they really are experienced.

F1F: It seems there was a lot of rivalry too – in the book there’s an article where AJ Foyt is having a go at some of the Grand Prix drivers.

JS: Absolutely. But they were top line racing drivers – AJ was one of them, and Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, any of them.

The Formula 1 brigade might say ‘well, all they’re doing is turning left’, but these guys were highly skilled at what they did. I was very fortunate in that my career allowed me so experience so many different types of cars. Driving Richard Petty’s NASCAR car was an experience on its own and that’s not even mentioned in the book!

But you do things like that because you’re a top Formula 1 driver so you get opportunities to do things that other drivers might never get.

F1F: But today’s F1 drivers don’t seem to. Has the sport become too F1-centric?

JS: I think it has become too narrow. But I think that could change because there’s no testing now. And the drivers are free to do many more things that they would have done in past Formula 1 years.

But, then again, some of them might not want to do it because they’re so well-paid in Formula 1 that their contracts might restrict them if they twisted an ankle or slipped on a banana.

I think it would cause a huge crowd increase to a World Touring Car Championship race or the German Touring Car Championship if suddenly one of the top racing drivers from Formula 1 were to drive in it. Or a sports car event, even Le Mans if it didn’t clash with a Formula 1 race, because we all did that.

I drove the TT, for goodness sake, in an Escort with Chris Craft in 1970 when I was reigning world champion. We did all sorts of things then that don’t happen today and I think it would invigorate the sport enormously.

But then someone at McLaren or Ferrari or Red Bull or Renault or any of the top teams would turn around and say “look, we’re paying this guy an awful lot of money, what if something happens to him in one of these races? We can’t afford that to happen to him.”

F1F: It seems almost ironic that reasoning is used now when drivers are at far less risk of injury than they were in your time.

JS: Exactly. But times have changed and attitudes have altered. The money’s got bigger, the investments have got larger. So you’ve got to see the other person’s point of view.

When I look back I think I was very fortunate living in an era when we did so many different things and got the opportunities far and beyond what the other drivers get. That versatility made you, I think, a more complete driver. The different types of car – not just the power but the weight, the handling, everything.

We used to compete regularly against each other in Formula Two, for example. I didn’t do very well in 1967 because the BRM H16 wasn’t a great success but I won about four major Formula Two races where I was racing against Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, Chris Amon and Jacky Ickx… I mean, it was like a Formula 1 grid whether it was Pau or Albi or Rouen or Reims or Goodwood.

F1F: You seen a lot of change during and since your time in the sport and the man responsible for much of that change, Bernie Ecclestone, is 80 today. Is there a message you’d like to give him?

JS: Well I wish him a happy birthday! I think Bernie’s the perfect example of why nobody should retire. It keeps your mind alert, it keeps your body better, he eats well, he doesn’t drink, he’s a very dedicated man to what he does, with a huge amount of energy. And that energy has not diminished in any way over those years.

Many times we have disagreed on things and I have been quite vocal on that, but never against the fact that he has accomplished so much in the sport. It wouldn’t be what it is today had Bernie Ecclestone not been here. So I take my hat off to how he has created Formula 1 to be the global entity that it is today.

I don’t think anybody else could have done it. Eighty years of age and still hitting on all cylinders is quite an achievement.

Part two of this interview will be published tomorrow. In it, Stewart talks about the work to improve safety in Formula 1, how the drivers got the Nürburgring taken off the calendar in 1970 and his thoughts on the race for the 2010 world championship.

“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.

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