Original subtitles

(tense music)

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

(car engine roars)

Formula One

Man and machine in perfect unison.

(car engine roaring)

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.

(car engines roaring)

The road hasn't always been smooth.

(tires screeching)

We've marveled at great moments.

(car engine squeals)

Had smiles brought to our faces.

(James chuckles)

Cry with our heroes.

(car engines squealing)

Witnessed incredible bravery.

(suspenseful music)

And terrible settings.

(car engines roaring)

Moments never too be forgotten.

For 70 years this has been their Everest.

(car engines roaring)

(suspenseful music continues)

This is what makes them special.

This is the story of Formula One.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] The new racetrack at Mount Fuji,

scene of the last Formula One Grand Prix

of 1976, and the one which was to decide

the world championship.

The promoters had billed it as a battle of the giants

between Austria's Niki Lauda

and 29 year old James Hunt of Britain.

- I was the master of the drivers,

fighting for safety all the time.

And we discussed the Nurburgring race,

in that season, in Long Beach before.

And I said to my colleagues,

"Guys, the cars are so quick that I don't think we

can afford to go to Nurburgring anymore,

with the safety aspects, because every year

we kill one or two guys, we have to make sure

that this doesn't happen anymore."

And then the majority of the five drivers

said, "Yes, we should go.", because they invested

so much money, what we have asked them to do.

And then I agreed, yeah, 100%, if the majority goes,

I go with them, no other discussions.

(car engine roaring)

(tense music)

(tense continues)

- If you tried to condense the championship,

you'd think, Niki, good in the first half,

then virtually dying at the German Grand Prix,

heroic, miraculous recovery.

And, James Hunt, then having lost the British Grand Prix,

winning these races leading up to Japan,

and having the momentum going into that race.

- And in Fuji it was a similar thing,

we were sitting there for hours,

because the circuit was flooded,

nobody thought that this race will happen, or can happen.

- James and Niki were both on the safety committee

of the The Grand Prix Drivers' Association.

These two were in the tower all morning,

arguing there should be no race, vehemently,

James and Niki.

- Well I don't think the drivers should run the thing,

and I don't think they should make the ultimate decision,

but I also think that if the drivers say

that the conditions are dangerous

and that they don't wanna drive,

then that should be respected,

and they definitely shouldn't be made to drive,

and they shouldn't open the track to have a race.

- I said, "James, this is madness,

we can't have the race you can't win the champion."

"Oh no, I told John, no, no, no, no,

can't possibly race, it's far too wet."

- James didn't wanna drive in the race in Japan.

And it was Alastair Caldwell who said to him,

"You sit down, in the car,

you be quiet and you drive, that's it."

(suspenseful music)

- Bernie was there trying to get the race run for the TV,

and I was trying to get the race to run

for the obvious reason, we couldn't win the championship

unless we had the race.

(suspenseful music continues)

- And then suddenly, at four in the afternoon,

the race director came and said we're gonna start the race,

but nothing has changed.

Television.

(suspenseful music continues)

- Nothing to do with the race,

we had a television contract.

Simple, we said the race is gonna start at this time,

and that's what time it started.

It happened two or three times, I think,

before and since then.

When people had said we shouldn't race

and we shouldn't do this and we shouldn't do that.

And I said, "Well, this is what we've agreed to do,

we're gonna do it."

So we started the race.

- It's hard to imagine now, but in 1976

the promoters paid the broadcasters

to actually come along and shoot the race.

And it was becoming evidently more and more exciting,

and particularly getting to the end of the year

when there was one point in it.

All of a sudden the broadcasters looked around and said,

"Oh, we actually haven't got a race."

And a certain man jumped up and said,

"You're right, you haven't got it." (laughs)

"But I'll let you have it,

providing you broadcast every race next year."

And that was the deal.

And that's what got Formula One on the TV.

- In today's world it would not have been countenance

to start that race, it would never have even been considered

the conditions were so bad.

So Lauda, in his way, I think, was being very brave.

- The first time worldwide television,

Bernie for sure told him to make sure

the race has to start because it was a big event

on television, and the pressure came on.

And then they said, "We start at four."

Then I said, "Are you're nuts,

the circuit is still flooded."

Because of my responsibility for safety,

it was unacceptable to start the under these conditions.

- [Narrator] The Grand Prix was on.

(car engines roar)

(suspenseful music)

As well as the thousands of Japanese fans,

other spectators with a personal interest watch the start.

James Hunt's parents and girlfriend, Jane Birbeck,

watched the race transmitted via satellite

in a London TV studio.

(car engines roar)

- At the end of that long-pitch straight,

and I think James was first into turn one

and I was behind him,

then coming down at the end of the first flying lap,

going into the second lap, I hit this Lake.

I mean, I could have taken a fishing rod

and caught a trout in it, it was that big.

And the car just spun, it went aquaplane,

or spun or whatever.

So we gathered it all up and continued on.

But the conditions, the visibility in the early phase

of the race, I doubt a race would be started

in those type of conditions today.

(car engine roars)

(suspenseful music)

- I think, with me, two or three other stopped,

Fittipaldi stopped, Boucher stopped,

so it was not only me.

But in the condition of the decision,

it was a disaster to start to race,

therefore I pulled out.

- So Forghieri went to him, "Listen, Niki,

we can say that you have a problem with the car,

you have done so much for us, we can say, unfortunately."

"No, no, no," he say, Niki, "No, no, no,

don't tell lies, tell that I decided to stop

because in this condition is absurd

to race in Formula One."

So he was very honest, very straight as Niki.

- When in fact, what he said after the race was,

"I'm sorry, my life's worth more

than the world championship.

- I gain so much more respect for Niki for doing that,

because it showed that his life was more important

than the championship.

Looking at facial burns that he had,

he said that he was tearing so bad because of that,

that visibility, at best, was maybe down to 20%.

And with what he was dealing with,

was probably down to 5%.

- If someone would spin in straight line

you just hit the guy, so much water,

no visibility, proper planning, they should delay the start.

But unfortunate things like that never happened.

And now they have the pace car, they take care.

Things could now things happen properly.

For the drivers it was unreal to start that race.

(suspenseful music)

- We had a permanent sign that said, "Cool tires."

And James steadfastly refused to go in the puddles.

He didn't react.

So now we have all the rest of the field,

Andretti, Mass, driving the puddles up the straight,

and James steadfastly driving on the dry racetrack.

He was never far ahead of Andretti or Mass or others.

There was no way, just had to bring him in,

change the tires and win the world championship.

So we had to hope the tires would last the race.

Eventually, he drove the left-hand side of the car

through to the air on both front and rear.

So he came in with two punchers.

He flew along, way quicker now,

because he had fresh tires on,

and classically, he comes up to Regazzoni,

who should've blocked the road and doesn't.

Rega pulls out of the road and goes,

"Go boy, go!", 'cause he'd been sacked by Ferrari.

And so he flew past Rega and finished third.

(suspenseful music)

(car engine roars)

When he first went out, he was 8th,

so we put on the board P8.

Next time, he was 5th, we put P5.

And the next lap he was 3rd, we put P3.

And when he finished on the last lap, we put P1,

'cause he was world champion.

He paid not the slightest bit of attention

to any of this information.

- The one thing that springs to mind

that's most in my memory, is James not knowing

whether he'd won the world championship or not

after the race, until he came in the pits

and they told him he was the champion.

- Gimme a drink, gimme a drink, gimme a drink.

- [Man] Congratulations, James, fantastic.

- [James] Thank you, did we really win?

- It was Frank Williams that told James,

in the pit lane, calm down, James, calm down,

you've just become world champion.

And James is drinking Coke at the time,

(laughs) it had all came back out again.

(crowd cheering)

- He fought his way through, he had a very difficult race

because he nearly did not win,

finishing at the right position,

but he made it and that's it, so for me it was okay.

Because, I have to honestly say,

if you are objective, I didn't lose the race

like everybody thinks in Japan,

I lost the race because I had a huge accident

and didn't race for three or four races,

this is the main reason.

But nevertheless, I was happy that he won it.

- I was sad for Lauda, but actually I don't

think Lauda himself is terribly sad about it,

I think Lauda was perfectly happy with his own decision,

and because he and James was so fond of each other,

he said immediately, "If anybody else

was gonna win it I would have wanted it to be James."

- We partied hard, yeah, there was plenty of alcohol

and lots of misbehaving going on.

We had some other race teams in the hotel

who we got on well with, Tyrrells and Lotus and Brabhams

and so on, we all got on well, so we had a big party.

And James, I think, it took James a long time to recover.

- [Narrator] It was an elated James Hunt

who flew into London airport,

where he showed one of his prizes to reporters.

(cymbals clanging)

- [Reporter] And that's your prize?

- Yeah, that's what you get for winning

the world championship. (chuckles)

(gentle music)

- I needed to choose someone who could bring more

than just being a driver to Formula One.

To be a leader, to have an iconic role,

not just being a good racing driver.

I considered Niki, and I phoned him out of the blue

and said, "You know, Niki,

why don't you come back?"

And there was a sort of 15 minute,

half an hour banter phone call.

I said, "Well, why don't you think about it?"

And then, of course, I pestered, I pestered, I pestered.

- Ron called me all the time,

"What are you doing, how is life, is it the right moment?"

And then he called me once again,

and then I said, "Yeah, maybe, lets do a test."

(car engine roaring)

Then I went to TAG and then did another test,

after I cleared my negative feelings towards Formula One.

Then when I got in, back into the car,

it started again.

And then I came back in '82.

I felt that my heart, after I've given more time

to other things, it's still working very hard,

or beating very hard for motor racing.

And as I have not driven for two years,

my personal challenge is to see where

I would end up coming back into motor racing,

and that's what I'm going to do.

(car engine roars)

- Niki was an incredible driver,

and I was a little bit worried when he came to us,

thinking that he's really gonna give us a rough time,

turn us every which way but loose, so to speak.

But actually he never placed any outlandish demands

on the team.

I attribute that to the fact that it was a great team.

We had fantastic resources, down to Ron Dennis really,

and we never wanted for anything,

and so Niki always had the best of everything,

there was nothing really to complain about.

- Then Ron took the opportunity to get Prost,

because Prost was the best guy at the time.

And then suddenly I had Prost in my car

which I developed.

The year before, I developed

this fantastic turbocharged TAG McLaren.

- He was just worried that Prost was the new boy,

he was the future, and Ron's blue-eyed boy,

and he was gonna get all the attention

and blah, blah, blah.

Nikki, I was a big fan because I saw him driving,

and then he was one of my idol when I was younger,

so it started well.

- And then I thought, in the beginning, finally,

if Prost comes, little Frenchman,

well, I'll blow him off, that's the normal attitude.

- So I used to say to Niki, "Look, look,

you've got me and I'm gonna look out for you

and I'm never gonna let you have anything less

than the very best that McLaren can provide.

You've got me, you've got your three mechanics,

and you don't need anything else.

Don't worry about anything else,

we're gonna make sure your car is perfect,

and we're gonna make sure you have absolutely

the best that McLaren can provide,

and you're gonna have exactly the same as Prost.

So just don't even worry about that,

just concentrate on the driving, leave the rest to us."

(concerned music)

- When I went to McLaren in '84,

I signed a number two contract,

I was number two with Niki.

And my salary was also quite low compared to him,

but I had bonuses for the wins and points.

- Prost was always out qualifying me.

The beginning, 5/10, then 2/10,

but he was always quicker.

Then I changed my strategy and said,

"Fine, I will not get him on qualifying,

let's work on the race set up."

- He was one of the driver,

maybe the driver, where we could have run,

more or less, exactly the same car.

Even with Ayrton it was close but we had some differences.

And the only thing I had to do is

going to be quicker than him.

- He used to say, "This little Frenchman, he is so quick.

He can benefit from my experience, setting up the car

and all of that, but there's no way I can benefit

from his quickness."

(concerned music)

So we were going through that year,

and I remember we arrived at Dijon,

and by now you know you're almost halfway

through the season.

French Grand Prix, Prost was leading

by something like 17 points.

And Niki said to me, "Come on,

ride out to the circuit with me."

So on the way out he said, "You know,

I'm trying as hard as I can, I'm doing everything possible

to beat this little Frenchman, but he is just so good

and he's just so quick."

And he said, "But I am not going to give up,

I'm gonna try even harder."

He said, "I'm going to win this race,

and I'm gonna win the world championship."

And I thought, Christ, that's a tall order,

you're gonna win this race and the world championship.

Well, he did win that race,

fortuitously, because Prost had a little mechanical problem.

(car engine roars)

Just the iron will determination was absolutely incredible.

(crowd cheering)

- I was trying very hard because I wanted to win

that race because I was short of points,

so it seems that our car, especially at the beginning

of the race, going very well,

and I could charge along and then finally win.

(suspenseful music)

- Portuguese Grand Prix, 1984,

was memorable to say the least.

We went to the Grand Prix knowing that we'd won

both the Drivers and Constructors' Championship,

but what hadn't been decided, of which

of our their drivers was gonna win

the Drivers Championship.

- That race, it was just so intense,

and everybody was so on edge

trying to do everything perfectly.

- It's bad for most of the days,

good for me, not so good for Niki,

because he start very far away from me

and it's very difficult to try to pass,

so it would be very hard work for him,

but I need to be a bit more lucky.

- Are you gonna go for the points or the victory?

- I'm going to go for the championship,

and I will see what's going to happen,

but if I can win the race I will try to do it,

it would be fantastic.

(tense music)

I think Niki was never ahead of me

in race condition when we were fighting

in the normal condition,

but I stop, I had mechanical failure a little bit more,

I was fighting much more against Nelson and these guys

than anyone in the race.

- Prost out qualified Lauda, and Lauda didn't

have a brilliant start, dropped down the field quite a bit.

I was feeling a bit desperate.

(suspenseful music)

- The left two, which either got broken with a stone,

so I saw the boost, but no power,

I could not pass anybody on the straight,

which normally would have been easy to go by,

and there I was frustrated like you did not believe

that I cannot get by.

And there were cars holding me up forever,

because I didn't have the power I needed.

(car engines roaring)

- I was in that race,

Niki, he wasn't the fastest driver,

he was a percentage player, it was extraordinary.

I'll never forget a race one day in Monza,

and I drilled him into the first chicane in my Tyrrell,

and I was so pleased with myself.

We were probably fighting over 10th place,

he had a difficult qualifying session.

And then he came past me, out of the Parabolica,

and he looked over to me,

we're doing about 200 miles an hour,

and he just did this with his hand,

like, "What are you doing?", you know, brackets.

We've got a long way to go, we gotta look after the tires,

look after the brakes, look after the car.

And I, "Nah, whatever",

I'll try and pass you again in a minute.

And my car broke down halfway through,

got back to the pits, looked at the screen,

who was leading the race?

Niki Lauda.

Because he was playing the long game,

and you had to with the cars back then.

(car engines roaring)

- [Steve] Niki stayed out of trouble,

picked off people one at a time,

gradually worked his way back up towards the front.

- [Martin] He had so much guile and so much experience

and maturity to go with it.

- But I think he got up to third place,

which wasn't gonna be good enough.

And then, I think it was Nigel Mansell,

dropped out in the last lap,

which elevated him to second.

(car engine roaring)

- [Niki] And then in the end I was third,

and then Mansell stopped with his brake problem,

and thank God I finished second.

- Niki just sneaked in for his 3rd world championship

by half a point in Estoril that day.

- He need a good season, more persistent.

He was able to win, but also because we had

such good relation and was good ambience inside the team,

and never had any little problem in 1984.

(regal music)

- [Reporter] What do you have to say to say to Alain Prost

at this moment, your teammate and compatriot all year long?

- He was the toughest guy to beat

as far as I know, the toughest guy.

So therefore this championship

is the most important one for me.

- [Reporter] What are you gonna do

to celebrate tonight, Niki?

- [Niki] First I need a rest.

- [Reporter] Congratulations.

(gentle music)

- I lost the championship for half a point,

but after all the interviews and everything

we are going to drink together with Niki,

and we are going to think about next year,

that the best thing.

I lost championship this year,

but I did have a fantastic season, I won seven races.

Not very lucky, but I am more happy than

most of the drivers in Formula One at the moment,

except Niki today.

(crowd cheering)

- Prost was unbelievably positive in defeat.

We had one unbelievable party that evening.

And, of course, both drivers were definitely jolly.

- I always felt a little bit disappointed

for Alan Jenkins, who was Prost's race engineer.

Everybody was just elated,

but, inevitably, Alan Jenkins and Alain Prost

and his three mechanics were the only people

in the team that were a little bit disappointed.

- I remember when I came back and notice,

am I going to win one championship one day? (chuckles)

Because it was three consecutively miss

for different reason, very, very close.

- Oh, Alain was brilliant,

he was no animosity whatsoever,

"This is how it goes, I did what I had to do

in the last race, I have to win the race."

- We went to Estoril, went in the nightclub,

we had a huge (chuckles) party, I was completely drunk.

That that is good, because that is part

of the human side of history.

We had fun as you cannot believe, a lot of fun.

(tense music)

(suspenseful music)

- By the time he got to Adelaide, in '86,

I think we were all ready for a five-year holiday,

because it had been so political,

so difficult, such a tough year,

Obviously Frank's accident, in March,

a very, very serious accident from which he emerged,

but there was a time when we thought

we might lose him as well.

Nigel, reasonably comfortable on points,

lead with Nelson a few points away,

and then Prost right behind Nelson.

And when you think of the standard that Nelson was,

that shows how good Nigel was too.

- In any one race there was six or seven drivers

that could still win, but I knew I was one

of the six or seven, that's all we can ask

for when you competing, if you can be one

of the six or seven in a competitive package,

that you have a chance assigned to you on the day.

And I think that's what was so exciting

about that era in Formula One.

(suspenseful music continues)

- '96 was my best season,

that is the one I always take as a reference.

- It all started badly when Nelson did an interview

with Playboy Brazil, in which he was asked

about the differences between him and Nigel.

And he said, "Well the difference

is I've got beautiful girlfriends, he's got an ugly wife.

And of course that was quickly translated back to Nigel,

and you can imagine what happened after that.

- [Reporter] Have you thought about your tactics

on the start?

- Make sure I get first gear. (chuckles)

(reporter laughs)

You couldn't have someone better next to you

than your teammate, and he's got to win the race,

so the last thing he'll be doing is sort of dicing

at the first corner.

- Nigel is a very tough, solid racing driver,

that was very difficult for Nelson Piquet to beat.

- They'll try to push Mansell out and try to win the race.

- [Reporter] What do you do about Prost then,

how are you gonna push him out as well?

- No, I don't need to push it out, he will finish behind me.

(reporter laughs)

(suspenseful music)

(car engine roaring)

(car engines revving)

- [Commentator] Nelson, Piquet and Mansell together.

And it's go, and a superb start from Nigel Mansell.

Senna goes through to second place, overtake Piquet.

- The Williams Honda was dominating,

was clearly much quicker than us.

I don't know why I always trust that I could be champion,

I could make it.

Also because they were fighting,

and we were very, very good.

- The early phase of that race was all

about Nigel driving within himself.

He'd got the pole, so we knew how quick he was,

he knew how quick he could be, but it was all

about, I'm gonna finish 3rd.

Think about this, Nigel's not very good at finishing 3rd,

he hadn't driven many races like that in his life,

every race he'd ever driven was to win.

So it's not an easy thing actually,

but he did it really well.

And whenever there was pressure behind him,

he just let the guy go.

Whether it be Nelson, and Keke Rosberg

was really quick at the start and he didn't finish.

- [Commentator] Rosburg, out.

Keke Rosberg is out.

- We knew that we are going to have some tires problem,

and I was a little bit lucky for one reason,

we have done a fantastic practice

on Friday and Saturday.

We knew that we couldn't do the whole race with the tires,

and we plan a stop.

Nobody knew except the team and

the Goodyear people at the time.

- There was a question mark as to whether we

should bring them in for tires or not.

And I remember the Goodyear engineer coming up

to Patrick, and I was standing right next to Patrick,

and said, "We've just seen the tires of the Arrows,

they're perfect, don't bring Nigel in, he can do the race."

'Cause a pit stop was always a risk.

- I had the cushion to make a stop,

did radio in I'm coming for tires,

and they said, "No, stay out."

I was really comfortable with the pace,

they assured me the tires were okay.

I didn't have any vibration on the tires either,

because if I had any vibration

I would have come straight in.

I think it was about 17 or 18 laps to go.

I remember going down the main straight

and knowing I'm not too far behind.

I went past them, just pulled out,

and I think we were at 220 miles an hour

and then the explosion happened at the back

of the car with the tire letting go.

- [Commentator] And look at that!

And colossally that's Mansell.

That is Nigel Mansell.

- [Nigel] It gave no warning, it just end, just let go.

- [Commentator] Mansell is out of the race,

now this could change and will change

the world championship.

- It ripped the suspension and it ripped

the brake line off, and obviously we then took

all the might to actually keep the car facing

the right direction so I didn't go straight into the wall.

And obviously that was that.

It was that championship done,

lost the championship by one point,

so yeah, that's pretty tough day.

(tense music)

- What can you say?

I think Nigel drove exactly as he should have driven.

He couldn't have driven any slower,

couldn't have given the car more space.

And we followed all the advice

that we were given in terms of the tire.

- It wasn't bad luck, it was a bad decision.

They didn't stop for tires,

and the tire failure was not the result

of a puncture, it was worn out

and they just took the wrong decision.

- We had tire burst on Nigel's car, Nelson was leading.

His tires, by the end of the race,

would have been older than Nigel's tires when they failed.

And we'd had a couple of tire failures beforehand,

and I'd spoken to Goodyear and they said,

"No, it must be your car."

And I said, "Well, we've probably got more power

than anybody else, so we're trading off

and using a bit more downforce.

I think all you're seeing is where

we're giving the tires the hardest time."

And they didn't really respond.

So I had to call Nelson in and change the tires

'cause it was a fatigue failure on the tires.

And he was closing on Alain Prost

and was, I think, within couple of seconds of him

when the flag dropped.

And to be fair to Nelson, he knew exactly

that I'd called him in out of a position

where he was gonna be world champion.

He never gave me a hard time about it

because he knew that there was the potential danger

of also a tire failure,

so he was very fair about it.

- Lost the race, lost the championship, lost everything.

(car engine roaring)

- [Commentator] Alain Prost takes the checkered flag,

he wins the Australian Grand Prix,

he wins the world championship.

- Sometimes you know that something is going to happen.

I knew that this race is not going to be

like another race, but I didn't know it at the time.

So tough for brake, fuel consumption,

gearbox, tires, it was very bad

and you had to be very careful.

And everybody thought I stopped, obviously,

because of a puncture, which was true,

but it was planned to stop.

Very tough, very tough race.

That is my best season ever, yeah.

- That was a very close run thing of course,

and Nigel, he had that tire problem

and that was very unlucky.

And Prost, of course, an unexpected win

due to Williams disappointment.

- Afterwards, yeah, you feel horrendous packing up,

going home, looking down at the McLaren garage,

all the cheering and the drinking of champagne.

And at that moment, that's when you think,

do you really wanna do Formula One?

- It was early days, wasn't it, for technology

and all sorts of things then.

And obviously, hindsight being 2020,

we should have made that pit stop regardless of the risk.

And should've had a new pair of boots on

and then we probably would have gone on

and won the world championship.

But it was a very bitter pill,

obviously the closest I've ever come

to becoming a world champion.

Mentally it was really, really tough.

That winter was probably the hardest winters,

or one of them I'll have.

(gentle music)

(crowd cheering) (suspenseful music)

- We finally arrived, and into Lagos.

And either Lewis or Felipe could win.

What then happened, as we all know,

it was passed into motorsport folklore,

where it will remain forever.

It was one of the most extraordinary stories.

(crowd chanting)

(suspenseful music continues)

- I was on pole, 2006, 2007, 2008,

so it was my track.

I have my people, I have my car, my place,

so when you play home, you play better, this is clear.

(crowd cheering)

- We were in Brazil, where I was fighting

a Brazilian driver, so I was not the

most popular person there.

And so to block all that out and stay focused

and do a good job was definitely not easy,

I think, on my young shoulders at the time.

(crowd cheering)

This is what racing's all about,

and I come here with the approach to win,

but I know in my mind that I don't have to,

which I guess it's just a positive in the back of your mind.

- Whilst that race was a deciding race

for the world championship,

the world championship is won over the whole season.

And we had difficult races and good races

through the season, and that was just a race

where we started.

Uncharacteristically of McLaren,

we started on the basis of let's win the world championship

and don't worry about winning the race.

Whereas everybody else was, let's win the race.

So it's a very different thing,

it's a very cat and mouse experience.

- My approach is like always, I have nothing to lose,

I'm second, I'm seven points behind,

in the worst case we're gonna finish second,

but we need to try, we need to do our best.

And have a small possibility, but if it happens,

for sure, I have no idea how it's gonna be my feelings.

- There's so much that happened in the first year,

and then to get to the end of the year

and lose the championship by one point,

it was so hard for me to forgive myself for China.

- China has this really strange last corner,

it's a difficult last corner, that 90 degree left.

It's actually much quicker than it looks,

if you're just driving around the circuit.

(gentle music)

And then beyond that, you've got that pit lane entry,

it's very easy just to go flat out into

that first part of that, and then you break hard

for the left in the pit lane.

And nobody had ever thought about,

that actually is a racing corner

and we need to be a little bit careful of what we do there.

And of course with Lewis, tires well-worn,

not a lotta grip, and nothing you can do

if you run slightly wide.

And that's what happened with Lewis there.

(car engines roaring)

- We knew the tires were devastated,

we had such a commanding lead.

We failed to really advise Lewis,

and you could argue we didn't have enough experience,

but we really failed to advise him

how destroyed the tires were

and how little grip he would have

in the event of hitting any wet surface.

And, of course, then he came into the pit lane,

clearly a bit too quick.

We took the pain, we learned from it,

and we went on to fight another day.

But disappointing is how I would put it.

(tense music)

- You could say it's a rookie mistake,

obviously first time at Shanghai,

but it cost him the championship, in effect, that race.

And so then, it all went down to Brazil.

(man shouting in foreign language)

(suspenseful music)

(whistle whistling)

- Lewis was ahead, but it was pretty close.

There was Fernando who had had a

very good second half of the year.

And when he won at Monza, it kind of taken Fernando back

to where he thought, in his mind, he should be.

He was keenly just doing a consistently good job

for Ferrari, driving well, getting the best from the car.

And then there was Lewis, this amazing rookie

coming in and upstaging Fernando

and getting to Brazil with a lead,

which, in theory, was gonna give him

the world championship.

- The feeling in your gut of dropping to rock bottom.

Your heart sink to rock bottom,

it was horrible that year.

I felt horrible, I didn't sleep through the weekend.

Brazil is just always tricky

because the weather is up and down,

sometimes it's roasting, and the Ferrari's

are always the quickest in the hot conditions.

And if it's raining, it's mixed.

Sometimes it's intermediate, sometimes it's extremes.

So it's very hard to judge.

(upbeat music)

(car engine roaring)

- We had, what we subsequently determined,

was a hydraulic problem with the gearshift.

It was actually a small piece of metallic debris

that had got into one of the control valves

where they have very, very fine ports,

and had disrupted the behavior of this valve

so the car would no longer change gear.

After 25 seconds, this bit of debris

presumably washed its way through the valve

and the valve cleared and started working normally.

Lewis only missed the championship in 2007

because it was 25 seconds,

if it had been 20 he would have been okay,

he would have made up the places.

(upbeat music)

(car engines roaring)

- [Race engineer] Okay, it's all over.

It's all over, Hamilton 7th.

We win the championship by one point.

(car engine roaring)

(crowd cheering)

- [Lewis] When you really feel that the current

is going against you, it's really important

just to stand tall, keep your chest up, keep pushing,

try and utilize the people around,

try to stay positive if you can.

And I was really lucky I had my dad,

I had my family around me who helped me do that.

(crowd cheering)

- Lewis had that disappointment in 'O7,

and that Monday morning waking up having lost

the championship in his rookie year,

which would have been amazing had he won it, of course.

And then coming back in '08,

and it was kind of deja vu.

- All I had to do is finish 5th,

and I really believe from the experience

from before I could recover from that

and do a better weekend.

But then all these different things happened,

and I was racing against a Brazilian,

so there was a lot of animosity,

a lot of hype around Felipe,

and I was obviously the dark horse coming in.

(crowd cheering)

- Lewis was leading the championship,

but Felipe Massa of course had nothing to lose

in front of his home crowd.

- Massa, you ready to make history today for your country?

- I'm ready to do my best and trying to do a good race.

- Good luck. - Thank you.

- There was a feeling of potential redemption

for us against the old enemy, Ferrari.

(tense music)

(man chanting)

(alarm wailing)

(suspenseful music)

- All through the race we were pacing ourselves

and trying to ensure that we would finish ahead in points.

And of course that was different mathematics,

according to who was where on the circuit etc.

- So you are in front, you are winning the race,

you are leading by a good margin,

but you don't know what's happened behind.

And at the end you always expect that maybe

something's gonna happen.

Already the chance that Lewis is not arrive

in the top five, it was quite tricky

because he had a great car on that year.

- If you look at the history of Brazil,

when it rains it normally rains really hard

towards the end of the race.

More likely than not, if there's a rain around

it's gonna get more intense.

- Then the rain came down, three or four laps from the end,

and it was one of those terrible decisions

where there is a right answer but it's close

and there's a gamble to be taken.

- I think, with a championship decider,

about the worst thing that can happen,

if it hasn't been decided,

is if the weather conditions change and it rains.

- And the right answer was to put the wet tires on,

which we did, and which leading players did,

but the gamble was to stay on the slicks,

which is what the two Toyota cars did.

(suspenseful music)

(car engines roaring)

- They said, "Whatever you did, you're doing a great job,

you're doing it fantastic, you keep like that

maybe you have a chance.

Lewis is 5th, or maybe something can happen with him

so concentrate and don't think about back,

think to the front, forward, and not back."

- Lewis was 6th, he was just behind Vettel and Toro Rosso.

- And only had to finish 5th to win this championship,

and I was in 6th for so long.

I could see my championship fading and fading and fading.

- I was actually down, opposite Ferrari

at this moment when it all started to unravel,

and I was glued to the TV, glued to Lewis

trying to recover the necessary positions,

and it was desperate because it wasn't happening.

- [Nigel Roebuck] And it became clear to us

that probably Lewis wasn't going to be able to pass Vettel,

and therefore that he wasn't going to be able to be 5th.

And that therefore, Ferrari and Felipe Massa

were going to be champions.

(car engine roaring)

- At that moment I wanted to stop Formula One,

I was gonna give up Formula One

because this was gonna be a second year in a row

missing a championship by a fraction.

The sheer effort of a season,

and what you have to put on to compete is indescribable.

But imagine that mountain of effort,

when you lose a championship,

you just know you have to go and do that all over again.

It's very, very difficult moment, I would say.

And here we were facing another one.

So I was gonna give up, that was it,

I can't do this anymore.

(suspenseful music)

(crowd cheering)

(car engine roaring)

(crowd cheering)

- I'll never forget it as long as I live.

Then, suddenly, almost at exactly the same time

we all realized, looking at the timing screens

and the TV monitors, that there was a tow tow,

not only going slowly,

but going extremely slowly ahead, Timo Glock.

Timo Glock, who's inherited track position

because he hasn't stopped and he's on slicks

and he's bit scurry and he's all over the place.

And there's a reasonable chance

that by the last lap, or maybe the second last lap,

or maybe the lap after the checkered flag,

Lewis is gonna be on Timo Glock.

- And suddenly we realized that not only Vettel,

but Vettel and Lewis were both going to pass.

I find it impossible to talk about

without getting emotional.

(crowd cheering)

(suspenseful music)

- I had decided, before the Glock moment,

that I would get back to our pit,

I didn't wanna be hanging out with Ferrari people.

And it was all a big throng behind

their pit wall at that moment.

And I had to actually dive through this crowd

of people to get back to the McLaren area.

And as I popped out, out of this crowd of press,

I saw the big screen and saw the Glock moment,

thought we did it.

- Pandemonium, we just rushed past each other,

rushed into the pit lane and onto the pit wall

in time to see it finish in that way.

(exalted music)

(car engines roaring)

That is the moment that defines the world championship,

that defines racing drivers.

(guys laughing)

- [Man] We did do it.

- Felipe Massa had already passed the finish line

and was celebrating the world championship.

As was his father, as was his entire team,

not realizing what was happening

a few hundred yards behind him.

And when he did realize, the disappointment

in the Ferrari camp I can't almost conceive of.

(exalted music)

- You know the famous picture on the TV,

you couldn't catch it in any other better example

in that sort of going from elation to despair.

- It was a...

I don't know if I ever be able to fully explain it,

but it was terrifying and then exciting and emotional.

(exalted music)

(crowd cheering)

It was chaos after I got out the car.

And again, I was so drained mentally and physically

from the year and from the thought of losing it

and then having it, losing it,

and then, oh geez, it was horrible.

But to go back and see my team and experience

all these people happy to share this championship with.

And everything happened so quick I never really

got time to sit and really enjoy it.

(crowd cheering)

- So I'm pulling up into pit lane,

the team telling me Lewis Hamilton

has won the world championship.

Came in, stopped just behind him,

got out my car, and as I went to walk away

from my car to congratulate Lewis

I turned around and the old girl was on fire.

(chuckles) She had caught fire,

which was a great send-off for that car, it really was.

Walked up to Lewis and just said, "Congratulations, mate."

(exalted music)

- The tears of both feelings,

the feeling that I won the race at home

and I did a amazing job on that weekend.

So, it was my race.

And then, the feeling that I lost the championship

in the last corner, how can this happen?

So you have both, but definitely the feeling

of the victory helped me a lot to behave myself

in the most professional way at the end.

Because I did my job, and for me

that was the most important thing.

I won the race, and this was the best thing that it happens,

because I won the race and I couldn't do better than that.

(crowd cheering)

(gentle music)

- Of course we all wept for Felipe Massa.

The swing of emotions and everything Felipe did that day,

he did it to perfection.

Won the race from the pole, perfect win.

Perfect day at the races, except for one thing,

Lewis also drove perfectly, under pressure,

under amazing pressure to win that championship.

(crowd cheering)

- On that situation, on the last corner of the race,

of the last race of the championship,

it was something really insane.

I'm really proud to leave here with the victory at home,

almost with the championship.

But you know, that's racing.

- People, if they believe there was any luck

in that race, they were completely mistaken.

It was a calculated risk.

We knew that we had to be in a good position on tires.

At the end of the race it nearly went wrong,

but it didn't go wrong.

- But then when I arrive in the garage,

and suddenly Rob Smedley entering in the room

and he starts to hug me and he starts to cry

and then I started to cry massively, I couldn't stop crying.

It took really a long time to stop these emotion,

but it was also good because it was something

that time he hope, throwing away.

Like something that he was feeling which was not so great,

but it was a good moment that I will never forget.

- Anthony, it's the moment you've been dreaming of

for so many years.

Anthony, just put into words your emotions right now.

(Anthony huffing)

- What can I say, I can't say anything.

(Anthony laughs)

- Just tell us about the tension

of those final key laps, Anthony.

- I really can't find any words. (chuckles)

(somber music)

- [Lewis] Winning that Grand Prix,

it was emotional to be around my family,

to know what we had been through.

We had nothing to start with, and to come all that way

and be ahead of people who had a lot more

than us, particularly to start off with, but potentials,

and maybe didn't go through as much as we went through,

was a great feeling.

When someone put so much faith and trust and effort

and time into you for years and it finally pays off,

that's a beautiful feeling.

- I think if we look back at the end

of a race like Brazil, 2008, and the championship

that was defined by the end of that race,

I think these are the moments that make us feel

this is why we love the sport called Formula One,

this is why we love this race to perfection.

Do we ever achieve perfection?

Perhaps not.

I don't think any racing driver has ever driven

the perfect lap, but he certainly achieved perfect moments.

And one of those was Brazil, 2008, for Lewis Hamilton.

♪ 'Cause we are the champions of the world ♪

(guys laughing)

(gentle music)

(car engine roaring)

(flag flaps)