And If I Do It Will Be Illegally - Blog Posts

F1 already has a movie where lower formula cars are used as props and the races where filmed in track. That movie is called Grand Prix. I watch that movie with my dad every year not for the plot but because it’s like a time capsule for racing in the 1960s. There is one scene that I always remember.

In this frame is Jochen Rindt, Bruce McLaren, Jo Schlesser, and Jo Siffert, a few frames later you will see Lorenzo Bandini and Mike Spence. The movie was released in 1966, so the movie was filmed before Jackie Stewart’s famous safety crusade. In fact, on June 12, 1966 was the year that his crusade started, as it was the year he he crashed into a telephone pole and shed at Spa. He was stuck in his car as the steering column pinned his leg while damaged tanks soiled him in fuel. He was freed by Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant and tools from a spectator. He was taken to the tracks first aid center and left on a stretcher on the cigarette strewn floor. When the ambulance was taking him to the hospital it got lost on the way. There was no track crews or marshals to get him out of the car, their was no doctors on track, there was no medical facilities. From that day onward he keeper a spanner taped in his car so he would not be trapped again, because what if Hill and Bondurant wasn’t there, what if a spectator didn’t have tools, what if something ignited the fuel. From that day onward safety became Stewerts legacy.

The men I mention before died in race cars, not all where F1 cars but race cars nonetheless. My only hope is that their death was quick or else their last moment would have been excruciatingly painful. But sure,“Who said anything about being safe” is a totally responsible line for our protagonist to say. “Who said anything about being safe” is perfectly respectful to the drivers, marshals, mechanics, and spectators that died for this sport. “Who said anything about being safe” is a good message for the kids when me and how many others watched Jules Bianchi final moments of consciousness before turning 10, not to mention the thousands of other kids that saw their legends die on the track.