Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] 70 years ago, something special started.

(car engine roaring)

Formula One.

Man and machine in perfect unison.

Pushing each other to their limits.

Supported by teams, aiming for that top step.

- Well, the name of the game is winning.

- [Narrator] Seeking perfection.

The road hasn't always been smooth.

We've marveled at great moments,

had smiles brought to our faces,

(man laughs)

cried with our heroes.

(car engines roaring)

Witnessed incredible bravery, (light explosion)

and terrible sense.

Moments never to be forgotten.

For 70 years, this has been their Everest.

(car engines roaring)

This is what makes them special.

This is the story of Formula One.

(air whooshing) (soft music)

- Well, now, James they've changed

the regulations concerning the air boxes and the wings,

and yet you're still extremely fast.

How do you do it?

- Big balls.

(both laugh)

- I get it.

(suspenseful music)

(car engines roaring)

- Being a Formula One driver means a lot.

It is so many different things.

You'll pass through many, many risks in your life,

but, is a dream.

(soft music)

(crowd cheering)

- I think that every child, at some point

in their adolescents, need to have a dream.

- [Announcer] Now, hold on to your hats.

(car engines roaring)

- [Man] Your body and the car are working perfect together.

- The songs, the cars, the personalities, the drivers,

all those things created an illusion or a dream in me,

that said, I want to do this.

- F1 was the dream from a very early age.

Did I think I'd get to F1 at the age of eight or nine?

No, definitely not.

I used to think these guys were superhuman.

(car engine roaring)

- Formula One was my absolute first dream.

- There's only one driver, any racing driver,

who's got any knowledge whatsoever

of the history of motor racing and Formula One.

And regrettably, the current generation of drivers

wouldn't know their aunt from their uncle,

because they're not interested in history,

as Juan Manuel Fangio.

- [Announcer] In 1956, Fangio drives for Ferrari,

faced by a rising generation of opponents.

Mus on Maserati, Hawthorn on BRM

and Brooks also on BRM cannot prevent

the now 45-year old Fangio from winning

the British Grand Prix at his fifth attempt.

- As a person, I never heard anybody complain about him.

Either his driving behavior or his behavior as a person

in the paddock or with other people.

He was a fantastic person.

- He was a complete god as far as I was concerned.

Fangio, I still think was the greatest driver of all time.

Because he carried the sport in such style, such dignity.

(clears throat) And he was well out of motor racing

when he came to Monaco, I won the Formula three race.

My first race out of Great Britain.

And it was a big deal.

And I was still in the cockpit,

and Juan Manuel Fangio came on, came across,

and he wanted to shake my hand and congratulate me.

And I thought, oh my God, this was god speaking to me.

I knew everything about Ascari and Ferrari.

(mumbles) Taruffi and Farina,

of course Stirling Morrison, everybody.

But Fangio was just that bit different.

He carried it in such style.

- [Announcer] The German Grand Prix of 1957.

Race day was warm and dry as the cars assembled on the grit.

Fangio on Maserati, Moss Vanwall,

Collins and Hawthorn on Ferrari,

amongst an impressive field.

(air whooshing) (car engines roaring)

Into the South turn,

the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins lead Fangio's Maserati.

(car engines roaring)

But after three laps, Fangio leads by five seconds.

And with 12 laps gone,

his lead is 28 seconds over the two Ferraris.

As he pulls into the pits to take on fuel

and change the rear wheels.

A 52 second pit stop puts him 3/4 of a minute

behind Hawthorn and Collins,

whose cars can go through the race nonstop.

10 laps to go and 45 seconds to pick up,

Fangio begins the race of his life.

(car engine roaring)

For three laps he makes no headway,

but on lap 16, the gap is done to 33 seconds.

On lap 19 to 13 and a half.

(car engines roaring)

On that 20, Hawthorn and Collins screen past the pits,

straining every nerve, with Fangio snapping at their heel.

(car engine roaring)

Into the South turn and he's closer still.

(car engines roaring)

Into the North turn

and the fantastic Fangio takes Collins on the inside

and with a lap and a half to go, he leads the race.

A race in which he broke the lap record 10 times in 22 laps,

reducing it from nine minutes 37.4 seconds,

to nine minutes, 17.4.

To prove beyond all doubt, his claim to immortality

as one of the greatest drivers the world has ever known.

(crowd cheering)

(soft music)

- Fangio was a fantastic man.

The only team lose with Mercedes,

was when a Mercedes, doesn't matter who's it was,

had 30 seconds lead believe it or not,

on the next car in the race.

Then they put out a sign, it said, 'REG, regulary'.

In other words, hold your position.

And of course at entry,

I didn't have as good a start I think as Fangio.

Anyway, I dropped back a little bit

and then I managed to catch him up

and I managed to pass him.

- [Announcer] Here we have, what looks like a come back,

Stirling Moss in the Mercedes.

(car engine roaring)

There's Fangio, about three cars length between them.

They've closed right up.

Now very, very close indeed together

as we go back to Raymond Baxter at the grandstand.

- [Raymond] Still Stirling Moss leads by two cars length

and there's less than 1/4 of a mile to go now

as they come into Tut's corner,

and they're going to let Marcel on the Maserati there,

they're not, and the crowds rise to greet Moss.

And Moss is waving Fangio up,

and they gain to go across the line in (indistinct)

giving the victory to win the

(indistinct) Grand Prix of 1955

to Stirling Moss a great victory

from Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine.

- I said to him quite often, did you let me win it?

Because he was this sort of guy who would say,

look, it's Stirling's home Grand Prix,

what the hell, I've got so many others.

And he said, "No, no."

He said, "It was your day."

Well, it was my day winning.

So, whether it was my day 'cause he backed off a bit,

I don't know.

I truly don't know.

Because he's such a gentleman,

he would never have said anything that wasn't right.

- Somehow from the New Zealand Grand Prix Association,

I managed to get Stirling's mailing address in London.

It was King William the fourth street

or vaguely from memory.

So, of course my best school boy joined up writing,

I wrote a letter and in return, I got by email,

a signed photograph of Stirling, sitting in the W196

with no bear, there.

And that's just absolutely magic, isn't it?

And the same time when I became infatuated with racing,

at age 14, I told all the relatives

that all I want for Christmas and birthdays

are motor racing books.

So, I was given Stirling Moss's first book of Motorsport.

Which I must have read a hundred times over,

I knew every word of the thing.

And so, now I'm a total Stirling Moss fan.

And you have to admit it's a good name, isn't it?

And then of course I wrote again,

and I guess I got a second photograph

and I don't know what's happened to that.

And then the third time,

Judy Newt was his secretary at that time, pre Val Perry.

And she wrote back and said, "You've had a fair run,

"you need to knock it off, sincerely."

So I did.

But the magic for me was then in later life

becoming friends with Stirling.

When you become friends with your hero,

it's kind of just completes the picture, doesn't it?

- Stirling was a very professional racing driver,

he was extremely good and very, very close to Fangio

and in sports cars, there's probably not a lot

to choose between them.

But I think in Grand Prix cars,

you have to recognize Fangio as number one in that period.

- I think that Monaco offers something

that nowhere else does.

Even when we used to race on Rose Monaco,

it was still the number one.

And I remember Pete Collins and I went into the hotel

The Parrot, to have a cup of coffee.

And there was this lady who'd obviously got down there

to see her years out,

and she said,

"Are you one of those young men making all that noise?"

(upbeat music)

And she said, "What were you doing?"

We said, "We were practicing."

She said, "Can't you practice somewhere else?"

I thought this poor old lady.

(dramatic music)

(air whooshing)

- [Announcer] And it's Fangio who leads Moss

from the hand, Collins third.

At the station on the first lap it's Moss,

Fangio, Collins, Schell, Brooks,

Trintignant, Hawthorn, Trix.

(car engines roaring)

(dramatic music)

- I mean, in our time,

your first competitor was in fact, the circuit.

If you span the car,

you are immediately in the lap of the gods.

- [Announcer] Moss into the SUK, he over shocks.

Fangio has slipped through, but Peter Collins is hit

by a falling pole and crashes too.

Immediately, Hawthorn joins him.

Ferrari hopes are dashed.

But most importantly, the three English men are unhurt.

Look closely at the faces of these young men.

Motor racing is dangerous.

Still it's Fangio and Brooks.

- The second thing, is of course you then had competitors.

(chuckles)

So, you had to try and drive faster than they could do.

(car engine roaring)

- [Announcer] There are those who say

that's Fangio is the greatest driver in history.

Fangio says that Tony Brooks is the man to watch.

But once Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss,

find themselves together,

and able to watch from the road side,

the pair of them in action.

(dramatic music) (car engines roaring)

To his mechanics, Fangio is a near dead.

And once again their efforts are rewarded by his victory.

And what a drive it was, that brought Tony Brook's Vanwall

second to the play, but 25 seconds behind Fangio

after 105 laps round the heights.

- There was no doubt that he was the best driver,

of the '50s.

- [Announcer] And what a gallant gentleman,

is this man, Fangio.

(indistinct chatters)

- Last night I saw a film on Sky,

of the years of music, (sighs) was my time, the '60s.

(upbeat music)

(car engine roaring)

Getting to be in Monte Carlo

and suddenly having the Beatles come up to talk to you.

I mean, they were gods.

The swinging '60's was an incredible period.

And, because you were a top line racing driver,

they wanted to be with you,

when in fact, we desperately wanted to be with them.

(car engine roaring)

- My father became known as Mr. Monaco.

So, something must have clicked with him as a driver,

I think he might've liked the setting, (chuckles softly)

maybe it was the glamor, and the track itself.

(car engine roaring)

So, Monaco was his track and he made it his track

in actual fact in 1960s,

winning five of the 10 races in that decade.

- We had enormous pleasure, we had enormous upsets.

We had bad times and good times,

but it was a wonderful life being a racing driver.

If Louis wins the race,

he's got to go to and speak to his sponsors

and chat them up and all.

If I won a race, I could go try and chase the girls.

So, I ask which is the better way to go.

(car engines roaring)

- Well, winning Monza, at any year is special.

Particularly in a way, I suppose it was for me,

because I'd had the success of the Elm Two-Wheels.

And so, I was pretty well accepted by the Italian

as someone who was one of them.

And so, when we won that race, of course it was incredible

and had to virtually stay locked in the garage

to say safety for quite a period in the evening.

The last race of the year in Mexico,

I started off, the championship

and things was not in my mind.

It may sound strange to you, but I was just worried,

analyzing, driving the car around, analyzing,

trying to listen to make certain,

it was still staying okay.

Because we'd had a lot of mechanical trouble,

so, it was a main thing, I gotta get this home.

And so, I was doing my utmost just concentrated there

and it didn't really hit me

until I came around and I saw Julio Passare,

a couple mechanical, head mechanic, and other lads.

So excited they were, others thought,

"Oh, it's a championship."

(soft music)

- Lotus really were the favorites going

into the championship in 1968.

The DFV and the Lotus 49 started its life in 1967,

showing a lot of promise, but being also quite fragile.

(soft music)

(car engine roaring)

(guys chatting indistinctly)

So going into the season, everyone was very optimistic

and in fact, Jim won the first race

in January in South Africa,

but then sadly tragedy struck.

- [Announcer] He's been acclaimed

as one of the greatest drivers of all time.

Now, at 32, he has died in an accident

during a Formula Two race in West German.

- Certainly, in the case of Lotus,

they were so closely linked to Jim Clark.

Jim Clark had been their driver

from the very earliest days

and they'd enjoyed all their early success with this driver.

So, the loss of Jimmy was massive.

And I think that they knew that winning the championship

would have been a fabulous tribute to Jimmy

as well as a way of restoring some

of their enthusiasm for Formula One.

In 1968 Mexico also hosted the Olympics.

And so, the Grand Prix had to be delayed.

It was going to be a couple of weeks before,

but somehow or other, they managed to miss the fact

that there was an Olympics going on.

I don't know how they did their candidates in those days.

(speaking in foreign language)

We went to Mexico with everything hanging on the line,

with three potential winners with Jackie Stewart

and Denny Hulme in contention for the world championships.

So, it was a very tense period.

But I think my dad must've felt pretty confident.

He knew he had the right equipment.

But mechanical failures were rife in those days.

So, reliability was a huge problem.

Nothing was taken for granted.

None of them would have felt overly confident

about going into that last race.

(car engines roaring) (upbeat music)

(speaking in foreign language)

I was only eight years old

when my dad won the championship in 1968.

But I remember going to Heathrow Airport

where there's a big kerfuffle with the press

and photographers and my dad turned up

and he brought this massive Mexican sombrero,

which we would have a lot of fun plunking on our heads.

And we've got some great photographs

from welcoming him home at Heathrow Airport

wearing these Mexican sombreros.

(indistinct chatters from a distant mic)

- Good morning. (upbeat music)

- You know when I left Brazil, I landed in Gatwick.

And I was looking on the clouds,

and I see a hole on the clouds, I see a green.

I said this country of Jim Clark, Jack Stewart, Graham Hill.

- Take one.

(upbeat music)

- I'm coming to England.

And for me it was like a realization of a big dream

since I was five, six years old.

- I drove my car up from South Brook to London,

to start to live there.

And Max Mosley, funny enough had an apartment

near Victoria station.

I rented it for him, and then I was lost.

Then I went to the Pit Stop bar,

I think was the name, in Kings road,

and there I met James.

He was drinking and he said, "Niki, you can do enough,

"you want to be a real racing driver,

"let's have a drink."

There it all started.

- Are we now on the air?

What do you wanna learn, comments on the course?

- [Reporter] Yeah.

- Well, it's a typical road course.

You know, some of the guys complaining it's a bit bumpy

but I think, you know,

road racing is what we are in for.

So if you drive your street car around here,

you wouldn't complain if it's too bumpy,

so I reckon that's all right.

It's very narrow, but we've got a couple of places to pass

but which, you know, it's better than Monte Carlo.

Otherwise it's just bloody hard work.

- It was very emotional for me to be in England.

I left, was kind of out time in Brazil, February.

I arrived in England was very cold wind, (laughs)

but it was the commitment to try

to make it happen and do it.

And that I loved the sport and it was my life.

- How do you feel? - So, don't drive too fast.

- Okay.

- Don't set a record now, (car whooshing)

because you know that, - I know, I know.

- You'll feel differently relaxed.

- Yes, okay, okay, no, no, no.

- So, take it easy. - Okay.

1973, the first Brazilian Grand Prix

for the world championship.

The atmosphere of the Grand Prix was incredible.

It's too hot.

I think it was end of January, or beginning of February.

And it was right in the middle of the Brazilian summer.

And the five truck comes with water into the public.

When you race home, it's a tremendous pressure.

And that was the track that I started racing,

motorcycle, carting, formula V, everything.

It was my life in Interlagos,

and then comes to the, day of the Grand Prix

was, I was a tremendous pressure

but I took the pressure on the positive way.

And that makes to drive 110%.

(car engines revving)

It was fantastic to win in Brazil the first Grand Prix ever.

It was a tremendous day.

I remember again, calling, jumping, and throwing his hat

on the track and there was a single from team Lotus.

(indistinct chatters)

It was already, the beginning

of the Brazilian Grand Prix drivers history.

(crowd cheering)

(car whooshing)

- I always remember, you know, when I was

in the Grand Stand, watching the race,

supporting Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna,

Reautemann Lole Carlos, I was there, you know,

standing up every lap that they were passing.

I remember so well.

So the dream by being there racing already,

something that is amazing.

And then, being there, winning the race,

is like the most incredible feeling you can have

you know, in your, in your life.

- I got an outrageous demand.

- Oh yeah, what's that?

- The last side, of which was cough up now.

(laughing)

- Yeah well done, thanks very much.

But you've put the checks in the post, is it? (laughs)

- I started off originally providing beds, and (indistinct)

and then it sort of built for there because of that.

I became a friend of Bubbles.

- At the time I was a used car dealer,

and I tried to sell Alexander a Bentley,

and I ended up buying his Mercedes,

and that's how we met.

But it turned out that his Mercedes

was his mother's Mercedes, and not his to sell.

So I thought, well, he did that rather well.

And we became great friends.

- It's expensive introduction of my life.

- Bubbles voted me up there,

and Harvey said, "Beaky I'm designing a new car,

"came be chief mechanic, and Bubbles."

And I was going, "Okay, Lord Hesketh?"

So I met, you know, this is different.

This is unbelievably different.

- We found James, and he'd just been fired by March,

and sort of knew of him, but didn't know a lot about him.

And basically we needed a driver,

and 'cause I was retiring from driving,

cause I wasn't very good.

- Lord Alexander Hesketh, put me in a car,

put everything right, and he put me on the road.

It was as simple as that.

And I haven't really changed myself,

he's just giving me the right opportunities.

And I've got a very good team behind me now,

which I never had before.

- Great drivers have something about them.

Great sportsmen, have something about them.

(car engine roaring)

The thing about James is that,

he had attitude, very important.

In a way, he was a bit of an enigma really.

(car engines roaring)

We had a driver who I believed had huge talent.

Bubbles believed he had huge talent.

And we had persuaded Herd Pasavuet,

to come with the car from March.

Cause he was number two on the design side of March.

And in a way it's a bit like when you launch a rocket,

once you press the button you got ignition,

you got to be go.

- An airplane landed on the race track,

'cause of the runway is the race track, right?

So got some local hero in his Cherokee

going chuk, chuk, chuk.

(man laughing)

All clear, friendly air field in sight, uuh!

- Hesketh racing was, in a way was quite schizophrenic.

There was the working side of the team,

and we were very serious.

We were absolute attention to detail, pushing ourselves.

And I'd like to think every bit was professional

as any other team in the paddock.

(indistinct)

Don't mind, build nine new cars,

but let's have one of them finish.

- We spent our time going into state of terminal depression,

if we were on the fourth row of the grid.

I mean, it really was.

I mean, there was, I mean basically,

I mean is it worth getting the gun out

and shooting myself, you know, this is terrible.

- And then there was the party side,

which was the yachts and the enjoyment.

And that in a way was just as professionally run

if you're into the party business.

So it was a sort of team of two parts,

and the two did go together.

- There wasn't a great deal of magic to F1.

It did require a certain amount of money

but nothing likes as much as you think.

Because one of the problems in all sports,

is you can throw indescribable sums of money on them.

- Monaco, we had a yatch for the mechanics.

We had our own yacht on the harbor, fabulous.

- This is almost embarrassing.

We had a rather big yacht in the harbor,

and we got permission to land the Bell helicopter jet ranger

alongside it on the key.

The idea being that if anyone had an accident

it could be used to fly them to nice hospital.

We had a very interesting pilot who was ex Vietnam

who flew here is rescuing troops,

picking up troops from battlefields in Vietnam.

And he could put a helicopter into any space at all.

And, and there was a Porshe, and a big Suzuki motorbike.

So yeah, we had all the toys.

- Alexander, had an ice cream cone back to front

on his nose with elastic band walking up the pit lane.

Bernie says, "David, can you come here a minute?"

Ricky, "Can you tell him to take that bloody thing off,

"this is, this is serious."

This is, we are in pit lane.

So I went to Alexander said,

"Bernie said, take it off."

He says, "Go back and tell the little man,

"that I'm not a member of Folker.

"I am totally private, so I can do what I jolly well like."

- All sports, all activities,

there is a level of pomposity, politics everywhere.

Where people say, this is for professionals,

all closed shops like to pretend

that they have a uniqueness,

which is some something which is sort of handed down

in a way, which is impossible to describe

and suddenly impossible for anyone trying

to get in to understand.

And it's basically by law (beep)

- You could be competitive.

I mean, we very nearly in our first year won

the American Grand Prix.

We were sort of two tenths of a second

behind Ronnie Peterson, the flag.

It was done on a shoe string.

So that is extraordinary.

And you obviously, you can't do it now.

I mean, the whole system is set up.

So that is impossible.

- Bubbles, managed to deliver

something creative, unbelievable.

If you actually could produce a cost per point,

I believe that you would look at Hesketh racing

and see that I paid less money per world championship point

than anyone in the 70 years of championships being going.

- I think our arrival in F1, the time,

and everybody was sort of going on,

"Oh, look at these Cowboys."

You know?

And then suddenly we started doing well,

the underdog taking on the big guys.

Was just, The Daily Express, and television,

and the press loved it.

And got, I think more people interested in Formula One.

(car engine revving)

- Principal emotion, when the flag came down

and James went across and he was still in front.

We had beaten two red cars, that meant more

than anything in the world because I respected the comment

on Tori more than anyone else, he was,

and his legend today is still the biggest name.

And that is the picture.

The only picture you will find in any house of mine is,

one red white and blue car with two red bonds behind him.

(crowd cheering)

(driver chats indistinctly)

- My mother always watched the race from the car packing.

I say, "Mommy, you have to watch the race.

"Don't stay on the..."

She was afraid because myself and my brother race,

and then I put my mother on the top of the suites

woodcut, to watch first Grand Prix,(laughing)

(car engines roaring)

And top cars crush.

(car engine roaring)

(cars crushing)

It was the first time she watched a Grand Prix.

(laughing)

- I always say my biggest achievement

in Formula One was coming out alive.

Surtees wanted to kill me 'cause

they wrote off three of his cars.

I went to the 60th anniversary

of Ferrari and Deada Mitch was there

and he was still upset with me.

'Cause he broke a ankle so.

(laughing)

(car engine roaring)

- With innovation and problem, Bernie loved it.

He loved the unfair advantage.

If ever were on pole,

he used to get guys to just cover,

he wouldn't let drivers out again.

He just covered the cars up, as a sort

of a statement to the other teams. (laughs)

And the fan car was so fast in qualifying.

And we told the drivers

'cause the other teams were very upset

led by Chapman of course.

Very, very upset.

There were all sorts of stupid rumors going around

that the car threw stones out the back.

And it was all Chapman trying to wind the other drivers up.

- I don't know whether people really believed

that car was gonna work, including me,

at the beginning, or Gordon perhaps.

But after the first round we realized, it was gonna work.

- We had the flat 12 alpha,

and it wasn't a neat little package like the Ferrari.

It was quite a monster.

I think it was a cooling fan from a centurion tank.

If I remember correctly.

Standing still, you could stick it on the ceiling.

It had maximum engine revs and it would stay there.

Which meant it was making more

than its own weight and down force.

Which meant you could get a 2G, think about it start.

So you had no wheelsman, when the driver slipped his foot

off the clutch, it went from zero

to 30 in nothing, basically.

(car engines roaring)

The fan car was quite unique

from a driving style point of view.

Because, the drivers had

to virtually forget everything they knew.

We had John Watson, and Niki Lauda in those days.

Niki got it fairly early on,

but it was terrifying because,

normally approaching a corner,

you brake at the correct time,

you aim at the apex, and you normally in those days

for the amount of downfalls these cars had,

you would start accelerating just on or just after the apex.

(car engine roaring)

You went into the corner, at 12,000 revs,

which was our maximum on the flat 12.

And you backed off, and held 12,000 revs

all the way through the corner.

And when you got out of the corner,

you change gear to the next thing.

And that way you got the maximum suction,

and a corner like paddock, we could go

through 30 miles an hour quicker than a conventional car.

(indistinct)

But, if the driver wasn't ready, the engine,

he fly off the road.

(car engine roaring)

And then of course, the other problem I had is,

if a skirt broke or lit,

and they arrived at the corner with 12,000 revs,

thinking they were gonna have the down force,

and they didn't, they would also fly off the road.

There was so many things that could've gone wrong

but we just kept fixing the things

and then arrived in Sweden.

And of course won the race.

So I went back to Bernie and said

that's the championship done and dusted.

Every race we finish,

we actually don't even have to race very hard.

We can take it easy.

Every race we finish, we'll win.

But Chapman of course had drummed up,

the other, (laughs) a lot of support,

and he could see his championship disappearing.

Bernie came to me and said, "You know,

"I think they're telling us if we don't withdraw the car,

"that's the end of the constructive association."

- The thing that Bernie did, Bernie recognized

that this had the potential to destroy this union

of teams that were being built to ultimately

become what Formula One your today is.

He saw the danger.

- Colin Chapman said to me, "Teddy, man

"we're all gonna build this.

"It'll take another three months for us to get this done

"and the car so quick, it would be dangerous anyway.

"And it'll cost us a lot of money."

So withdrew the cars, never disqualified, we just withdrew.

- We had a third fan car,

which we hadn't had time to assemble.

It was in the back of the truck.

And I got the guys to soar it up and put it in the bin.

Sorry, I did that now.

(soft music)

- If your hopes are going to Formula One,

and when you get into Formula One,

your hopes that you're going to win a Grand Prix.

So, Cabida was driving the Shadow,

was a bit of a soft sprung old girl

and it just happened to suit the conditions,

and we won the race.

But, certainly unexpected to the extent where

they didn't have the national Australian Anthem ready.

And so a drunk played happy birthday on a trumpet,

(chuckles)

still sounded good to me.

Well, I had a phone call not long after that

for Montezemolo saying, would I like to drive a Ferrari?

You know, which is a bit of a stupid thing really,

it's like saying, "Hey, would you like $1 billion?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And so he arranged for me to fly over to Milan,

to meet Mr. Ferrari Enzo.

And he said, but we must keep this a secret

because we want to make an announcement.

I said, "Okay."

So I flew into Milan, and when I got off the plane,

here's an Italian dressed in power blue overalls,

emblazoned with Ferrari.

With a big Alan Jones sign over him.

So that's their idea of keeping it secret.

And I went to the factory and I went in

and Mr. Ferrari was sitting at his desk and he was white.

He was white as a sheet.

And I thought this bloke's dead.

You know, they're playing a 'Weekend's at Bernie's'

or something here, signed a contract basically.

But he did tell me that he wanted a North American driver

and that I'm looking for Mr. Andretti.

And then as soon as I found out

that Andretti had resigned with Lotus.

I didn't hear from them,

I thought, this is very strange.

When I finally spoke to them, they said,

"Well you know how we wanted a North American driver?"

I said, "Yes."

"Well we have signed Mr. Villeneuve."

"Oh, okay, great."

But in the meantime, like all drivers,

you're talking to all the different team owners

behind tents and caravans and what have you.

So I immediately got on the phone to Frank said,

"Frank I've been giving us a lot of thought

"and I'd love to drive for you."

- We had one conversation, and he and I got on quite well.

Frank went off and did a deal with him financially,

which, you know, in the scale of things taps fairly low.

We probably thought that we would have Alan for a year,

and then step up to one of the sort of race winners.

I didn't think it took too long before we realized

that Alan would be perfectly capable of winning races.

If we could give him a good enough car.

- Frank Williamson and Patrick Head

were the two best people I've ever driven for.

Patrick had a fantastic understanding obviously of the car

but we all just jelled.

And I think we came together at the right time.

We're all approximately about the same age.

We all had ambitions of becoming world champions.

Frank was very competitive.

- You guys had never met Alan Jones, you'd have loved him.

He was a man's man.

(indistinct) somebody.

(car engine roaring)

- I wanna go full tanks.

(indistinct chatter)

(beep)

- Well if we didn't do it now,

we'll never get another car. - I think we ought to do it.

- We're gonna do full tanks Aaron.

- A very strong and much too big in a way

to be a racing driver.

'Cause he's very, seven, six feet tall,

very strong, well-built man.

- If we didn't get qualifying right,

and Alan was on the third or fourth row.

Everybody in the team thought he was gonna win the race.

The next day, he had such confidence.

And if I say contempt, it wasn't a pleasant contempt

but such contempt for all the other drivers.

- Well, I mean my fellow drivers with all due respect

and I hate to sound whatever I'm gonna sound like,

but I didn't have any respect for any of them to be honest.

I mean, I didn't even socialize with many of them.

As far as I was concerned,

they were just things to be passed and beaten.

(car engine roaring)

Nice guys don't win in Formula One.

- Frank, was, how can I say, not out of control,

he was sort of, he was kind of going flat out everywhere.

- He was very competitive.

Frank was a guy that went to win.

- Frank was totally consumed.

Everything was about Formula One.

And I think I remember we, we sort of struggled a bit

and it was all, we were always looking for money.

And I think I thought that Frank would have

to get a proper job at some point.

- Nowadays it's fashionable to walk around a track.

Frank used to run around.

- Frank was very, very energetic.

He was very fit.

So he projected bounding energy.

A lot of his earlier sponsorship came from Italy.

So he spoke Italian.

(Frank laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- 1980, it was actually typical Jones

'cause nothing ever happens easily for me.

I had this thing going on

with Nelson Piquet for most of the year.

And, I think he won the Italian Grand Prix.

And we went into Montreal,

I think with him maybe being a point in front.

I was quicker than him in, in the initial qualifying.

And then after that,

I think the second and final qualifying,

he found like half a second,

and I thought, "Bloody hell, where has he found that?"

So we were both on the front row of the grid.

Going into the first hand, and we rubbed wheels,

and he lost it, went into the fence.

Thus, rendering his race car inoperable,

where they had, then go back to his qualifying car

that had the same engine in it,

as it did in qualifying, I'll say no more.

They check your fuel after every Grand Prix.

So in that, they had to put racing fuel,

the proper racing fuel in that car.

It detonated and blew up.

(car engine roaring)

When you're a young boy, you want to get into Formula One,

once you get into Formula One, you wanna win a Grand Prix,

once you win a Grand Prix, you wanna win a championship.

So when all this happens, it's just an unbelievable feeling

because it's the combination of a lot

of hard work and the realization of the dream.

I remember sort of almost going into tears on the last lap.

And I thought, come on, pull yourself together,

you can't (chuckling) hop out of the car crying.

So, I pulled up, and Jackie Stewart was on the podium

and presented me with the Laurel and so forth and so on.

And you know, all the Williams boys gathered around

and it was realization that I'd just become world champion.

And it was just surreal.

- When I first joined the Formula One paddock,

in the mid eighties, the names were extraordinary.

P.K, Cross, Senna, Lauda, Roseburg,

Tom Bay, Laffite, Arnoux, it went on and on.

And so to join such a group of eminent drivers,

but they were household names.

- You know, that sort of eighties, mid eighties,

I was 10 years old.

So that was like, you know what a glorious time

to follow the sport.

That ticked all the boxes for me, mate.

(car engine revving)

- The battle between Ayrton Senna

and Alan Prost, was one of the most intense,

personal battles I've ever seen in Formula One.

Two men cut from completely different cloths

and, Ayrton used to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Very emotionally driven man.

Alan Prost, the professor was somewhat more mentally driven.

- We didn't, never had any group discussion

about the drivers.

And they wanted to have Nelson as a driver.

And I said, and this one was a good friend.

He was always close to me.

I said, "Well, why Nelson?"

If you want to make a strong team, take the best.

Take the youngest, take the one for the future,

take Ayrton.

When he came first test was

This was Imola 88, with new car.

And I remember very well, done a series of,

I mean two series of four or five laps.

And I said, that's a winning car. (chuckles)

Then Ayrton came and tested the car.

And I've seen, I've seen a few things, (chuckles)

a few details.

And I realized that mmh it's going to be difficult.

And, remember Portugal race, you know a few things,

let's say it was on the limit.

(car engines revving)

(dramatic music)

- Yeah, I was very surprised because normally,

especially the first lap when you do that,

with your teammates, you don't have a big problem like this.

But, I don't understand they should have some reason

to do it, but that's a problem between him and me.

And I don't want to tell anything bad,

because I think we should solve the problem very quickly.

It's no problem at all.

- And '89 was absolutely a disaster.

- Prost, was not the flavor of the month,

as far as Honda was concerned.

Although that's, that's how they positioned it.

- I've seen the engines coming, you know,

and it was written, and, on the engine 'Special for Ayrton.'

Seeing like this, what does that mean?

Is the engine better or maybe it's exactly the same?

I don't know.

- Honda wanted Senna at all costs,

to win everything, to do everything.

- Psychology of a racing driver, is,

a big big part of his performance.

I always said 70, 80%.

It's very subjective, but it's a big, big part.

If I put my word one table,

I will never do anything strange or uncorrect.

- Yeah, they've seen what happened in Imola,

was really down to, I had some problems,

because the plan was that nobody's going

to pass each other at the start.

And the most important thing is to keep the Ferrari's

and the Williams behind.

And after the TOSA, Africa was the first corner,

then you can race.

(car engines revving)

Prost was began, Ayrton was in front problem he

had to look at the mirror, yep, no problem.

Then the second lap has the accident,

which got hurt badly.

(car engine revving)

They stopped the race.

So for the next start, 'cause is, it was a complete new race

and they all bought same agreement, yes same agreement.

Okay, no problem.

This time a line was upfront.

- I saw him on the left, and with plenty of space,

and say, "Okay, take, take the normal line just to be,

"exit, better."

And then he overtook me.

(indistinct) discussion with Elton.

When we had the argument, Juan was there,

John again from Marble was there.

So yes, we had an argument for the first start,

not for the second start.

- Now you go first, I'll go first,

nah, nah, nah, you go first.

My sort of take on that was neither of them

had made a clear decision on what should have been done.

- He had his own holes for sure.

His own perception of, I think obviously he wanted

to beat me in, that is why, that was the first target,

that was his goal.

- The race is history because from then on

they never have debriefings together,

they never talked to each other.

(crowd singing cheerfully)

- [Reporter] A 20 point lead in the championship,

What can stop you winning the world championship?

- I know what can stop me,

but on a normal condition I would say,

"Okay, should be worth world champion,

"20 points is a lot for races to go."

But, at the moment I have so many problems

that sometimes I can have one second,

another even more difference (indistinct)

(car engine roaring)

- I sat them down and that conversation

was incredibly difficult, incredibly emotional.

I came away feeling very bad

about myself for being so tough.

As it happens,

I focused their anger at each other on me.

So then I was the bad guy and they coupled up

and said, "Well, we can't let one better."

And perfect solution,

'cause they completely forgot the fight they were having,

they took the fight to me.

- On the day of the accident in Imola,

and I remember Alan said to me,

"Oh, is it I spoke with Aytorn?"

At the driver's meeting and said, "Yeah.

"I think it's a different manner of how it was then,

"and we may become good friends."

(car engines roaring)

I was very happy to hear that,

but, (smacks lips)

(car engine roaring)

(somber music)

- It was an enormous shock for all of us

and the worldwide grief of this tragedy.

I had absolutely no precedent.

- I've called a few persons,

I would like to go, but I don't know if it's good or not.

I was not very confident.

And then when I came in,

I think that's the best thing I've done

because I really wanted to do it.

Well, it was a very big emotion, but yeah,

I'm very happy to have met with him.

- The most awesome thing I've ever seen in Formula One

I have to say and still, still remember it now

was the time when Nigel came in for his pit stop

in Monaco '92.

So the contest here is this, Nigel had never

won the, the Monaco Grand Prix.

This was his season.

He had the dominant Williams, 14 B.

He was winning every race.

This was his chance to win Monaco finally.

And he was winning it by a country mile,

until he had a puncture, very near the end of the race

and had to come in for a completely unplanned pit stop.

And Arnet, was coming second and coming through.

And I just remember as Nigel left the pit lane,

left the box with his new tires,

Nigel going out through this blind bit of tarmac,

absolutely on the limit.

So the backend waving the whole way down to try

and get out, and be onto the track,

which he failed to do unfortunately.

- It wasn't a puncture at all,

it was just a loose wheel nut.

And if they tightened it up, he would have been able to get

out of the pits before Senna arrived,

but he didn't, Senna took the lead

with the knowledge as a multiple winner at Monaco.

There was no way that Nigel was gonna pass him

if he didn't help him.

And he wasn't about to do that.

(car engine roaring)

Nigel Mansell was trying to go

over the top, underneath, around the side, anything,

but Senna in a car which hosing is good,

won on a race by sheer ability and craftsmanship.

It was a brilliant exposition.

(car engines roaring loudly)

(soft music)

- Go karting and motor racing in generally,

Finland is very big sport.

So I got involved Go-karts when I was around,

five, six years old.

And I got a spark.

I got the spark.

I said, this is it.

I, I like this!

I had to look, what team would be the best me to go.

And if you look the history of McLaren, it's unbelievable.

So I said, that's it.

And Ron was happy to take me.

It was not long before the first race in Kyalami,

when, Ron said to me, Mika, sorry, no racing.

There will be a test driver.

But he said Mika, I promise you will be racing with us.

Before the Portuguese Grand Prix

I did quite a few tests with Ayrton same time.

And every time Ayrton was quicker than me in a testing.

But I knew, that performance of the cars were not same.

We were testing completely different items in a car.

So I knew that it was obvious Ayrton was able to go faster.

And I knew also, why they let him

be a little bit faster too.

(man laughs)

So when I went to Portugal

I was very confident that we are gonna go flat out.

And I have a chance to do the great result.

It's difficult with Ayrton, everybody can imagine,

he's tough and he is very good driver.

But, I enjoy working with him.

And we working together very closely.

Every corner, together.

Because we both of us are on no limit.

Ayrton is a no limit, I'm no limit.

We can easily to improve the car.

Well not easily, but it helps you know.

(car engines roaring)

It got really difficult to relate at the moment,

when I was quicker than him in a qualification,

he understood time to race.

I went to the garage, and, Ayrton came to talk to me.

"What did you do?

"How you quicker than, you know, what did you do?"

And I just, I don't know if you'll have

to show this in television,

but I showed to him like this. (laughing)

He got so upset.

He got so upset about it.

Of course, I meant it as a joke,

but to do that for three times world champion,

who've been having amazing career,

and then young Finnish guy come in

and beat him in a qualifying.

It was (indistinct) for him.

Really, really bad.

So, he really looked at me as of,

" Mika, do you understand I'm three times world champion.

"You have never even won a crown

"so what you're telling me like that?"

It's a joke, try to understand,

but he did not understand.

I learned a lot from Ayrton, you know,

I think I changed after that discussion.

Why you so serious?

But I understood really,

you cannot go from Lavonne and just,

you have to be a tough guy to be there.

You just gonna go there and smiling, and having fun, no!

You have to really focus.

- I think he's the fastest driver I ever had

as a teammate or raced against, pure speed.

He was just, it was just a pure racing driver.

- '95 was really hard year,

Mercedes had a high expectations for the results.

Car didn't work really well in '95.

Also what happened with Nigel Mansell,

he arrived to the team but didn't last too long.

Very difficult year.

And then, the other accidents, (car engine roaring)

There was a tire explosion.

So I hit the barrier, crack my skull.

And of course it was in a most horrible corner where

the speed is really high, but there was a good thing.

There was just a medical team was just in that corner.

- They performed a tracheotomy at the,

on the side, by the side of the car,

as he had a significant amount

of blood go down into his lungs.

And, it is without doubt, it's their behavior

and their performance, which was assisted

by Professor Watkins, about one minute

or so after the accident, that saved his life.

- These guys are professionals,

things happen in racing and they get on with their racing.

I mean, we hope there's nothing,

I mean, for sure, Mika won't be here tomorrow racing

but let's hope he's all okay.

- That's really, I think helped me

to appreciate life.

It felt like before my accident,

I was always running flat out without,

really didn't know how to walk.

So it teach me to learn to walk first and run after.

- Could have hit a specific point that I've seen drivers hit

and they say, I'm gonna stop.

And that's the point at which they experience fear.

- I just wanted to live.

I just wanted to get rid of the pain.

That was the main purpose of my feeling that time.

There was no any interest

of the motor racing, and it took a long time.

- So this injury and recovery, and everything

we go to Paul Ricard.

I said, let's just see how this goes.

Michael had been testing there for three days.

So obviously putting in that time in his second lap

because faster than Michael been in three days

and it don't just go,

never been in a racing car for months, you know?

I mean, it was just awesome.

- John Dennis sent the message, "Mika,

"you will win with us, you will be world champion."

I believe that, I believe him a hundred percent

because the history talks, I have a mission here.

I've been doing this sport all my life.

I'm here to win.

And finally when we get to Mereseres,

we started getting stronger.

- Mika Hakkinen, a double world champion in Formula One

was racing and fighting for his world championships

against Michael Schumacher.

I think that makes his championships even more special.

I really do.

- Racing against Michael,

the race was never over until they check your flag.

So you never could have take it easy.

You never could have slowed down.

Never underestimate him, Michael was so tough.

But when we met to final (indistinct)

I was some reason so confident,

I was confident because Tim gave me the confidence.

Tim gave me the trust, said, "Mika, you can do it,

"Mika we will do everything for you,

"that way you can do it." And I felt like, "That's it!"

I'm gonna do the same,

so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna make a perfect weekend.

So I tried to figure it out, how I can do this,

how I can win it.

And suddenly it clicked in my mind,

I said, "Now I know what I have to do."

So I put all of my concentration,

all my energy, only in the start.

Nothing else.

I didn't think about the first lap,

or second lap or whatever.

It worked out fantastic.

Even when Michael was out,

I saw it on the track, I saw it in the screen.

I knew that's it, enough.

Walter said, "Mika, focus, concentrate it's not over yet."

(car engine revving)

And I'll never forget because,

it was important to finish the race, and win the race.

After the race, the lap around the track,

it was an amazing moment, the feeling inside, the relief.

Coming to the pits, coming out of the car,

I didn't know.

Is it real or not?

This is because it took so many years.

It's horrible.

And I took since '91 and finally, seven years later.

I don't think it's a mistake to show your emotions.

I think it's very important to show your emotions.

It was incredible.

(crowd cheering)

Michael was a very, very difficult competitor.

You know, it was fun.

It was really good fun too, because I knew I'm so

much quicker than him.

So the overtaking should be quite easy,

but it was not easy.

Every time when I tried to overtaking him,

he closed the door.

And sometimes not so nicely, to be honest.

And I thought, if I'm gonna overtake him

I have to do it flat. So I said, "That's it.

"I'm gonna make a risk."

I thought the car gonna explode,

ran out of pressure, was so hard because the car was heavy.

And I nearly flew coming out of the rules.

And I saw that, (indistinct) so easy now.

And then I see there's a black market.

I said, "Okay, let's go for it."

Because Ricardo is there.

So all I have to do, pass Ricardo inside.

But I knew that Victor Ricardo don't see us in a mirror

and if he suddenly moves inside or outside

we are history basically.

- Miki has obviously decided he's going

whichever side Michael doesn't go.

And it, it showed great speed,

great bravery, scale, precision.

And then you got to collect it all up

when you arrive at the braking zone.

It was unbelievable feeling, you know?

And I think when I overtook Michael,

he gave up, he said, that's it.

This was already too much for him too.

You know.

It was a good battle.

(crowd cheering)

- Michael in Monaco in 2006 was not

his finest moment in qualifying.

- Michael had occasional aberrations.

I mean, things that you could never

really give a logical explanation for.

- We have a meeting with the team,

we were talking about the qualifying

and then you have two sets of tires

for the qualifying.

And, and then Michael said something.

Yeah, but I mean, if we are quicker, straight away

and then we went for the second set and Ross Brown said

that maybe we can create a yellow flag.

And he said, I said, for fun, not a serious thing, for fun.

- Michael, would come out of the swimming pool,

seeing his sector times on his dashboard is Delta,

realized he wasn't going to get on pole and fate,

a clumsy little shut into Russ cars.

One of the greatest drivers

of all time having a 30 mile an hour crash

it just didn't compute.

Did it?

(car engines roaring)

(guys chatting indistinctly)

- Exactly that.

So Michael used that funny thing for him, (indistinct)

(speaking in foreign language)

- No way.

You had this incredible competitiveness that drove him.

And sometimes in short circuit.

- Afraid to say it's all got a bit nasty

after that great poll from Michael Renno,

I've come out and said that that's

the way Ferrari manage their team.

And that Michael did it deliberately.

What's your reaction to that?

- I think they should cool down a bit

and let the facts come out.

And then they can make, they can have their opinion

but there's a lot of emotions running around at the moment.

So I think they should wait.

- A lot of the other teams think he did it on purpose,

what do you think?

- I don't think so.

Honestly I mean, I think he just break late.

He was only on his try on new tires.

- Would Michael do something like that deliberately?

- Not the Michael I know.

- I remember so well that media, I said,

"Oh, I can't believe he did it."

You know, he did it.

And then the only thing is

that he was not able to say that he did it.

(crowd cheering)

- Unfortunately, no, I mean, I have to apologize

for not being able to tell you much more

than what you know, I know nothing either.

(reporter chats indistinctly)

Nope.

I mean, other than if he call pushing

too hard something wrong.

- He stopped hitting qualifying

and it's just something that you just don't do.

And then he got pulled up on it.

You know, he got disqualified from qualifying

he had to start the race in the back of the grid.

And I think that was just Michael, you know, he's

he would do anything to win.

- Monaco poll is normally a given, you know, you want it,

but on that occasion with the strategies that we had

and the tires we had, and the car we had,

was actually the need for it.

There was just a stupid move.

I won those little glitches, short circuits

that Michael had two or three times in his career.

- He did get away with it many times.

But he didn't get away with it that time.

But he's not the only one that's done that in Monaco.

- So he took one year for him to tell me

that he did by purpose, one year.

I mean, you know, I said, how can you do that?

You know?

So, you know, he shows

that everybody makes mistakes in life.

And this was definitely

- [Announcer] What was going inside line,

remember, if he can stay ahead.

But where does Fentel go now?

Dancing round the outside, Weber, just about keeping ahead,

covers the line beautifully.

Going through turn one, forces Sebastian to back off...

- He's gonna have to go right,

he's gonna stay right to defend against his teammate.

- Who's got a great run.

- He needs to force his teammate left, he's done that.

He's got the high ground as it were.

He needs to make sure we can keep it inside

and then not get a fully alongside as you can,

claim it turn five, and that's exactly what he's done.

- Careful Sebastian, careful.

(car engine roaring)

- Should they be telling Sebastian Vettel to be careful.

It's looks a pretty fair fight.

- Yeah, the multi 21 race was very difficult just

because Seth thought there was a bit of hangover

from Brazil the previous year where I might not

have helped him on the starts.

So I think he was premeditated on again,

another tit for tat on that one.

And I was controlling the race early on and frankly sort

of really supporting Sebastian in that early part

of the race, because he was always trying

to get the undercut, to stay away from Louis,

'cause Louis was trying to tear off against him

around the stops.

And we gave Sebastian every stop lap

that he needed, effectively.

And on the last stop I went, I was well out of ties and

and ultimately went longer than I needed to just

to keep him away from, from Louis.

And then when it come to shutting the race down

then he didn't want to borrow that.

So I was constantly ringing the team saying, well

as he got the call, because it doesn't look like he has

because this is not the pace we're doing now.

We're just going to do the last eight

or nine laps of the flag and bring it home.

(car engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Oh look, it's wheel to wheel again,

for the two Redbulls, Sebastian (indistinct)

the Colombian sign, has he now stolen

the lead from his teammate?

However scrap back, fantastic stuff!

Mark Webber regains the lead,

but the battle is not over yet.

And there is barely a meter between the two cars

and down the hill they blobbed,

and side by side almost toward

the braking zone in zone four.

Webber on the inside, has he got the pena traction?

No.

Vettel goes dancing round the outside.

And it's a dance that takes him into the lead of this race.

Wow!

How good was that?

- This is silly Seb, come on.

- I mean one of my only regret is

I should have turned the engine back up

and got back into it, I defended it best I could,

but I was like, you know,

just still my old school, I suppose my moral compass

I just wanted to keep looking after the equipment.

But said, he had other ideas.

I was in my head thinking, this is such a shame.

And I was questioning at the time increased,

what are we doing here?

- As the checkered flag comes out

and is waived for Sebastian Vettel,

who wins the Malaysia Grand Prix.

His teammate Mayweather, who led the race

for such a long time, beaten into second place.

- I was doing the podium interviews that day

but to get from the commentary box to the podium

you have to go through a long tunnel underneath the track.

You lose communications.

I had no idea what was going on about multi 21.

Adrian knew he's standing there,

and Mark is glaring at Sebastian,

and he's going, "Multi 21 sip."

- Multi 21 sip.

Yeah, multi 21.

- To quote Murray Walker,

"You could cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump."

- [Announcer] Well, I hope you all enjoy

that race as much as we did.

What an incredible fight, all the way through the field.

- I think if there's something to say

we need to talk internally, but for sure

I think we both enjoyed that.

Of course, I'm standing in the middle now.

So I just enjoyed it probably a little bit more, but yeah

I think we have plenty of time to talk about.

- Probably a good time for me to walk across

and speak to Mark and see how he felt about it.

- The team told me that the race was over

and we turned the engines down and now we go to the end.

So I won a race as well.

But in the end, the team here made a decision now

which we always say before the start

of the race is probably how it's going to be.

We look out for the tires to get the car to the end.

And in the end set, made his own decisions today

and we'll have protection as usual.

And that's the way it goes.

- Formula One is a team sport

and our biggest interest is the team.

And then of course you got, the drivers

got his own interests

and trying to control drivers is the hardest thing

in the world.

- So you told Seb to stay in position,

then he attacked and passed the mark.

- It was Christian who said

we'll have to look after the tires and stay in position

but then I don't know how he was immediately behind him.

And then there was a race,

and the C stage you can't talk to race driver.

So I mean.

- He had a helmet in his corner, big style.

So I had a little bit of that as well to, to deal with.

- It's three weeks to the next race.

So we're fortunate.

We have three weeks,

we'll catch some waves in Australia on my board.

And, and I think this would be good medicine for me

but there was a lot of things in my mind

in the last 15 laps of the Grand Prix, to be honest.

So whether the medicine is enough, we'll see.

- You know, after the press conference, I said, well

I've got my phone, I'm going to Australia,

let's have a chat.

He didn't chat that week.

And then we got to China

and we had a very bad discussion there

about how that, well, he said, he'd do the same thing again.

- I think I said enough.

Bottom line is that I was racing.

I was fast.

I passed him.

I won.

- So, if that's where you're at, then,

then we're not gonna be on the same page at all,

going forward.

We get on well now, Sebastian and I get on well now.

We went through definitely a lot

but in the end, look, I'm not

there's no sour grapes at red bull.

I had it.

You know, that's what it's, it's.

It is the, the sort of the, sort of the yin yang

and this whole thing of the, you know, I had a great car.

I really enjoyed working the mechanics

that guide, which is, it was brilliant.

But at times it was challenging at the time.

(crowd cheering)

- You cannot have a conversation

about greatest Formula One driver of all time

without including Lewis Hamilton in the reckoning.

(crowd cheering)

- And he was quite exceptional in GP, too.

I remember a few races where, you know, for whatever reason

there'd be in the middle of the field and there's overtaking

and GP two was quite exceptional.

So I think we all knew we had something

very special starting in formal lawn

and McLaren thought they had something very special,

but no one realized how special.

- And then his first ever Grand Prix

in Melbourne, he went around the outside

at the first corner, when most rookies would be

a little bit tentative.

I think Lewis laid down his cards right then.

In the first corner of his Grand Prix career.

- They took everyone's breath away.

He shook the establishment, (chuckles)

in more ways than one.

And it was clearly, you're one of those drivers who come

along almost once a decade.

- His natural ability is extreme.

Naturally, I would say he's probably the best driver

that no one's ever seen.

- I get this kind of weird experience where

it's really hard to really explain it, but I feel like my,

as I'm accelerating I'm getting to high speed

I feel the car continues,

and it's almost like, like I slowed down for a second

and it'll suddenly it speeds back up to towards me.

And it's, it's a real rush.

There's nothing else I experienced

that gives me that feeling.

- [Announcer] It's Lewis Hamilton, champion of the world.

Lewis Hamilton, now only has Michael Schumacher ahead of him

in terms of world championships won.

- Lewis Hamilton, six time world champion.

When we were teammates we had both won one,

and now he's gone on and won six.

Whether he beats Michael's seven world championships or not,

he's gonna be remembered as one of the best in the business.

And the one that probably changed the sport the most.

- If you're having a top five of all time,

he's gotta be in it top three, probably.

Greater stuff, I think that's a personal opinion.

- Formula One has such a big following in the UK

and to have a British world champion that might achieve more

than any other driver in the world, fair play to him.

You know, I know how hard he's worked.

You know, I don't, I think he's a character

that some probably don't understand so well

but being his teammate for three years

I got to know Louis very well.

And you know, he is a very down to earth kid.

His love for motor sport is the most important

thing we should really applaud him for

the time and effort that he puts

into this sport and wanting to be the best.

And I hope he does challenge Michael's,

seven world championships.

(crowd cheering)

- I live and breathe for Formula One.

It is such a brilliant, global, exciting, edgy

slightly scary sport.

That is bigger than pretty much everything on a global scale

apart from the Olympics and the world cup.

And they happen every four years.

- My dad used to switch on the TV, black and white.

I think back then, we used to watch F1.

You know, drivers from around the world, fighting it out

and a dangerous sport, putting their life on the line.

- Formula One is my life,

and my whole family revolved around it.

My dad was the reason I got

into motor racing and he's still alive.

And he still watches the races,

watching them in front of the TV,

screaming and shouting, and whether it's doing well or not.

I hadn't realized how passionate they were.

- We give so much pleasure to so many fans

and that's all that matters.

How many eyeballs are watching our sport around the world?

And are they enjoying it?

Are we giving them some entertainment at 200 miles an hour?

- I used to think these guys,

they weren't born, they must have descended

in a pillar of light.

- The gladiators that drives the cars,

the fearless, brave, talented people

we put behind the wheel.

- Formula One was a dream, and I was able to achieve.

It was my life.

- It's to be the ultimate in motor sports

for many, many reasons, because it's got the elements.

The elements of the technology, is still supreme.

- This thing that people don't see so much in Formula One.

They see the guy cross the finish line

and think it's all about that one individual.

- Then you see a sub two second pit stop.

(car engine revving)

- It's such a team sport, you strive for just excellence.

And it finds people at first.

- It's that competitive spirit I think we all love.

And it's from people from all around the world,

all different walks of life that have been able to come

into this sport and fight for world championships.

- And I think that says everything

about what we've achieved in 70 years.

- As a purist, like I feel I am,

I love this to go on forever.

(car engine roaring)

(upbeat music)

(car engine revving)