Original subtitles

- [Announcer] 70 years ago something special started,

Formula One.

Man and machine in perfect unison

pushing each other to their limits, supported by teams,

aiming for that top.

- The name of the game is winning.

- [Announcer] Seeking perfection.

The road hasn't always been smooth.

We've marveled at great moments.

Had smiles brought to our faces, cried with our heroes,

witnessed incredible, bravery and terrible sadness

moments never to be forgotten.

For 70 years this has been their Everest.

This is what makes them special.

This is the story of Formula One.

(air whooshing)

(lighthearted piano music)

- Good fun.

- Maybe we fight outside the car.

- I think it's gonna get more and more excited

the championship.

- Is it possible to be equal the championship?

- No can only be one winner.

Anyway

(lighthearted piano music)

- The psychology of a racing driver

is a big, big part of his performance.

I would say, I always said 70, 80%.

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

and as soon as you feel that you have a sort of advantage

of sort of preference or, you know,

I remember very well once I've seen the engines coming,

and was written

and on the engine special for, you know, seeing like this

what does that mean?

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

or I don't know, but you don't want to see that

you, you want to have an equal treatment

and the inside the team, it started to be, to be a part.

It was only psychology,

but for me I did not feel they well know,

and I felt a big difference between 89 and 88

and I don't still do not understand why.

- It was a very emotional time

because when you've got the process in the center

next to one another in the same team,

in a really, really good car

you're always gonna have all these emotions and thoughts

and everything's gonna be at a peak all the time.

So there's gonna be very little measured

thought about anything.

- If you find yourself in the fortunate position

of having two highly competitive drivers,

they're gonna be a handful.

There's no question

and especially if they're coming from

very different cultures,

they would say lots of things in the national press

that would inevitably feed back

because the French would get all the Brazilian newspapers

or vice versa to come to a Grand Prix

and then they would say, process this in France

or send us it died in Brazil

and then the whole thing would erupt again, no speaking

and no cooperation, et cetera, et cetera

but what a wonderful problem to have.

- Is Japan Prost was comfortably ahead on points

but I think we have to remember

that Senna had actually won more races that year.

So knowing answer that would always rankled him

that he hadn't had the finishes that Prost

and had in the points

and the midst of all that

I think Prost has to be given credit

for being the more measured of the two at that time.

- The people went to see a race

knew in that McLaren was going to win

and they were gonna be able to watch

the best two drivers of the worst

battle in Detroit on equally identical cars.

- It was certainly a rivalry like I haven't seen

and that was that age.

You know, it came to the hand.

(vehicle engine roaring)

- Brown was the first to insist that we let them drive

but please don't do anything stupid,

don't run into each other.

Think of all the workforce

that we have helping you to be there and so on.

- Ego and ambition are very, very close bad fellows

and very often people will miss understand

the intenseness that you bring to your ambition

and it will look very often that you have a ginormous ego

and people will never give you the benefit for them

and anyone that achieves in life in my opinion

has that finally, it's a finally

there's instances where there's a sort of it's on the edge

of over except stability

and then you've got to take difficult decisions.

(vehicle engine roaring)

- It was Prost who took the lead at the start

against all expectations for the first 10,

15 months kind of disappeared into the listings

and I'm sure I've last days, Senna must have been in shock.

- I really had a, I was doing what I wanted to

it was clearly putting me in a little bit away,

and I was much quicker.

There's no question about that.

- Prost had taken the early flag off pretty much last thing

but he reckoned that for him, his car will be quicker

than a straight line, and that was gonna work for him

and it, and it did.

- Ayrton was so upset.

He said, whatever happened, if we're gonna get together

I'm not going to slow down,

so he was just adamant that something was going to happen.

- I said to them, that's the last place

I'm not going to open the door anymore.

No, I mean, don't prefer to loose the championship, you know

by that I'm not going to, to open the door anymore.

- [Announcer] Well, it's gonna be constant attack,

attack, attack

because Senna has got everything to gain

and nothing to loose for the current owner

of set up big his barrows.

- Senna real demand, reel them in, reel them in

and it was obviously gonna come down to a showdown

and the showdown was obviously gonna be in Japan

because, you know as the only passing places of Suzuka.

(vehicle engine roaring)

- [Announcer] Oh my goodness this is fantastic.

They meet, this is what we were fearing

by type of during the race and that means

Society Prost has won the world championship.

(lighthearted piano music)

- There was no question Alan turned into Senna no question.

What he didn't do was do it well enough

to take Senna out the race.

- Prost did absolutely the right thing to shut the gate

in my view, because A, the championship position he was in,

'cause the worst that was gonna happen

is that both he'd taken out

and B it wasn't a place where it was gonna get him anywhere,

unless he was you know, in this Prost,

making it easy for him.

- He was such a bad race for us because we got there.

We were quick as him practice.

When he's in qualified, we did our job.

We put the cars first and second integrate.

We were leading the race and then end up with nothing

and you can't, it's just, it was,

it was very disappointed to say the least.

- And then I actually walk back down to the pits with Prost.

So I was the first person to speak to him

after the incident.

- I remember all Alan could say was,

I couldn't believe he did it on that lap.

I just, 'cause I have been lapsed when he'd actually

been closer than that

and he hadn't tried it,

and he said, and I looked in my mirrors,

coming up to the chicane,

saw where he was and kind of thought well

you know, ain't gonna try it this time

but he did he came rushing down there in the side,

and of course they touched.

- The problem with the drivers is

that when you sit in that car, you put the device down

you'll think of nothing but winning the race

or do the best to kind of work

and does those kinds of movements align

the two, I like Schumacher.

I've done many times in his career.

They came instantly.

They do it because that's what they do it,

you don't do that.

You're not a racing driver

so it's something that no matter

how much you tell the drivers it happened

and it will happen again.

- I, I couldn't blame Prost too much.

I thought, well, you know, if I was a team manager

and I saw Prost not close the door

I'd be a bit disappointed in him.

I thought it was an understandable defensive move

and probably effectively Senna should have seen it coming

and not put himself in that position.

- You know, we'd seen various times during that year

when Prost had given at an a bit of room to avoid a shun

and maybe at and done the same thing

but on this occasion, a championship decider

there's no way Prost was gonna do that

and I don't think Adam took that into account.

- But I remember Casey Roseburg saying

did you think Prost deliberately said?

I think so yeah, because he did it so badly.

He said, you know Allen Prost never turned in on anybody

in his life

and when he'd, when he did do it, he said, you know

everybody thought it was, it was, it wasn't

it wasn't subtle it was obvious.

Be that as it may, Mario Andretti his point

was the right one that if Prost hadn't been there

Senna would never have made that corner on that line

at that speed he would just have gotten straight

on with the escape road.

- Everybody would think what they want, they want to,

you know, even wrong.

I, it was, it was going so, so fast beyond that.

I mean, I did not seem I was looking at the mirror

was quite far

and then when I, when I turned on it, I look at him

he was, I couldn't believe that it was there.

I didn't change it.

I didn't do another turn or I didn't change.

I've done exactly what I told them I was going to do

but honestly, I'm very disappointed about this race

you know, why?

'Cause I did not win it.

- He went out the escape road

back onto the track

rather than the what the geometry by Lester and the FAA

so at the time was he should have turned

around and rejoined where he'd left the track.

- [Announcer] Senna has got going again

he's back on the track.

- [Announcer] And Senna is still leading.

Senna with this twisted nose cone.

- The bit that just made me explode

was the fact that the whole thing was manipulated

by Jean Marie Balestre.

so Senna came back onto the circuit

and basically brackets did not enter the circuit

at the point of exit.

They deemed that he should have turned around

driven against the traffic

and entered at the point of where he exited.

- I was in that race

but as always, when you've got your crash

when you're driving your own car,

you don't notice a whole lot

about what's going on around you,

unless you've gained some positions.

Ayrton had his brain engaged fully in Suzuka 1989.

Instead of thinking I'm out of the race, he's like

how do I get back in this race?

You get the marshals to push me,

get me getting back in there somehow.

- He did a lap with the nose hanging off,

came into the peers.

We changed the nose on the car

and he went out caught up everybody and won the race.

- [Announcer] There goes Senna, pleased to Japan

is that gonna be a Steelers inquiry Allan Prost has...

- Irrespective of all the evidence

that we presented at the Suzuka and after the appeal

Balestre was just saying, there is no way, Alan

no way that I'm gonna let Senna win that race.

That was the bit that I was upset about the accident

that the competitive sense of injustice just drove into me

and, you know, it was just so unjust and it's not unusual

and for once things like that happen.

- You know, the problem is it

and he can't accept that,

can't accept not to win an account except that

somebody resists by overtaking maneuver

and a lot of times, if you remember last year

and this year out on the door,

and if I did not open the door enough crushed like this,

and I said before the race if that happened,

I don't open the door anymore.

The way I drive is very, it's very good.

I must say it's absolutely unbelievable quick,

but for me I mean, it's driving too hard.

I mean, you know, it's and if you have two drivers,

like this in Formula One,

then you have accidentally reverse.

(crosstalk)

- Alan was very, very strong in his head,

very, very strong unbelievable

but then we started something that we could not control

and until the point where we, then if you go to 1991 year

after he can see that he did not forget

that he had his strong ID

and that was absolutely not objective, not completely.

(lighthearted piano music)

- Japan is a place where I have the biggest number

of fans after Brazil

and it's a special atmosphere here

and championships have been decided here

over the past few years

and hopefully another one will be decided here

in our business, the pressure, the stress is high.

The demand is high

and your mental conditions are fundamental for you

to make maintain equilibrium,

particularly at critical moments.

- 12 months later, I now Prost was at Ferrari

and I often just have him in his side.

- It's kind of ironic

that a year after what happened at Suzuka in 89,

it came to Suzuka again with Senna

and Prost championship contenders.

- You may not be necessarily to win the race myself

to win the championship

So if I cannot win, I hope Gehard

can win the race for the team

and hopefully I can have just the result that

it takes for the championship.

- If you carry on to the next year,

Senna was aggrieved

because of the car starting on which side of the track

he'd qualified hidden pole position

but felt like he was disadvantaged

with the way the grid was arranged

and he wanted that to be changed.

- Before we even started practice, I went to the stewards.

I told them pole position

was on the wrong side of the circuit

and pole position as much less traction

and no matter whoever is on pole

will not reach the first corner first

and please change it over before practice.

- Edson was BIM and in his belief that the pole

should be on the clean side of the grid

and obviously that meant the French driver

being on the dirty side of the grid.

- Senna felt like they were targeting targeted

or whether you are Blessed French, Prost French.

- Sir, I think the stewards agreed

that they should swap it around

Balestre actually overrule that

and Edison took that as a personal thing

and it kind of ignited them

the whole process center dynamic in his mind.

- And that meant that, you know, our agent

wasn't gonna get to the first corner first.

He realized that and he said,

well if I don't come out of the first corner first

I won't be coming out the first corner.

That's what he told me.

(lighthearted piano music)

- [Announcer] Go Senna sprints away

but Alan Prost takes the lead it's happened.

Alan Prost takes the advantage

Senna is trying to go through in the inside

and it happened immediately this is amazing

Senna goes home with the first corner.

Look what has happened to Prost

he has gone home too.

Well that is amazing but I fear absolutely predictable.

- When you remember in Suzuka

they had the monitors very high up in the screen

and we're all looking at the monitors

and I have my fingers crossed.

Let's stop this race.

Get this spare car and started again

and he come that I asked to come and he said, he said to me

they're not gonna stop the race.

Are they?

And I said, no I don't think so

but inside me, I wanted to stop the race.

- Well, as I said, bitterly, disappointed in Ayrton

because we shared values and principles

right through our relationship

and our period of working together

and that wasn't, that wasn't acceptable to me,

and in the end, he wasn't happy with his, with the outcome,

but it, for me predetermined.

- Unfortunately it went wrong on the first corner,

there was a big risk.

I had nothing to loose on the first corner.

I want to win

and I went for the gap in insight on the first corner

Alan didn't, didn't see it and just close the door

and we end up touching that's too bad for the championship

because I'm sure the race

would have been full of excitement

but last year I lost in a similar manner

towards to the end of the race instead of the beginning

and this year went wrong for him.

- I saw him on the left

and with plenty of space and say, okay, I take

take the normal line just to be exit that

and then, you know he overtook me.

- Thinking now it's amazing if it,

if a driver did that today, he'd lose his license probably.

- Absolutely on the first goal,

I just simply took him out

and then subsequently admitted quite a wildlife as a yes

he had done this deliberately

and he was what he considered to be retribution.

- No, no, not the best.

- To do what happened

you have to stay flat and to stay flat

it is something that you cannot imagine.

You know, the brand of the racing driver

I went to see his race engineer.

The Honda race engineer to look at the, at the perimeter.

Everybody knew that everybody knew that they also, what

what happened.

- In fact, some of the people in McLaren told me

that he never lifted on the throttle

until they were stationary in the clever gravel trap so.

- After when this scene calmed down

I said to Ayrton that was wrong

you know, you could have beat him without having to do that.

- One of the low points of Formula One rarely

and Atkins career, it was putting drivers, Marshalls,

fans at risk with this maneuver

and it was completely out of control.

It's a great paradox

with Ayrton said he was the most caring driver.

If another driver had a crash or an incident

he'd be the first one at the medical center

or getting out of his car

and running back to how Eric Bernard and Alicia

but at the same time he was ready to run you off the road.

I saw it in Formula Three when we were better rivals

and I saw it in Formula One too.

- He's, he's a fantastic person, fantastic race car driver.

He's, he's a friend

and sometimes friends do things that disappoint you

but they're still your friend.

So just draw a line under that.

(lighthearted piano music)

- It'd been a really tough emotional year.

We'd lost Ayrton, we'd lost Roland Ratzenberger

and we all wanted that season to end.

Adelaide Gain was the deciding race in the championship.

We had Williams on the recovery.

We had a Damon Hill fans, the Michael Schumacher fans

and polarization in formula one

was something relatively new.

I think it kind of began with Senna Prost

but now we had it again

and I think the British knew on what camp

they were following,

and certainly there were the Michael supporters as well.

Obviously a lot of them wound up with Michael, you know

just this new star, this total mega star.

- Championship was on the line right in Adelaide

and we felt a lot of grievance

because of the things that have been going on that year.

I mean, and we felt there have been occasions

when results have been taken away from us unfairly.

Michael was the outmost professional of his era.

He was a pretty misunderstood character

and I don't know if in his own mind

he quite enjoyed the sort of impression that he created

because he was quite an intimidating character in many ways

but if you knew him personally, it was quite the opposite.

Very engaging very personal,

so many times I introduced him to people who,

before they met him, thought he was a,

despicable horrible character and you introduced them

and once I got scenario, they completely changed.

I had that happen so many times.

- [Announcer] A lot of pressure on you do you feel?

- I think not as much as on the team

and I'm looking forward to fight for the championship

and if I can win the race, I'm gonna try to win the race.

If he's going to be a second place

and I still be champion, I don't mind about this,

and I mean, the important bit is to get the championship.

- I just hope tomorrow's kind for everybody.

It's kind for the sport for Formula One

for these two great drivers to get themselves

in a position to challenge for the world championship

when it come down to the last round

I just hope that the best driver, the best car

and the best race on the day, the person wins.

- The fact remains that Mike and I pretty close on the grid

and he has the advantage

and of course I have to get ahead of Michael tomorrow

that's a, that's certainly my only concern,

and there's no pride in playing

dirty traits in in Formula One

and it's not necessary to do that

and I think that's, it will be a shame

and not satisfying for everyone, if that was to occur,

I don't expect that to occur.

- I think in regards to me with a slight,

slight degree of disdain,

I think he would prefer to be racing Senna.

Oh, Nick Hakkinen or someone else.

- If Michael Schumacher was the greatest racing driver

that ever lived, then I didn't do too bad Vegas too

but we didn't know at the time

we didn't know at the beginning of his career,

in fact, Ayrton didn't know

nobody knew quite where this guy was gonna end up.

(vehicle engine roaring)

(vehicle engine roaring)

- [Announcer] In the race track there goes Michael took off,

but Damon was just great.

He hunted him down

and he proved that he was the guy on the day

who was gonna win that championship.

He looked to be all over.

I could, the only way then that it was gonna wrong

would be if he ended in tears and they clashed

and that was exactly what happened.

(vehicle engine roaring)

(background noise drowns the speaker)

- I think it was classic Michael had gone off the road

out of you from Damon and his computer kicked in

and he immediately realized he was out of the race.

Damon hadn't spotted the contact with the wall

and I think Michael just gave Damon the opportunity

to drive into a wedge that was gonna disappear

championship done.

- If you look at the incident on a left-hand bend

which was soon followed by a right-hand bend

Michael had hit the wall and was actually driving

off to the left up the escape road

and he wasn't on the escape road,

but he was heading up the escape road

when he saw Damon coming by

and Damon had every reason to think

that there was a gap who was more than a gap

Michael was literally driving off the track

and he turned around to the right

and literally drove straight

it was the most blatant driving into another car

that you could possibly imagine

so, and sadly, one of the legs of the front wishbone failed,

so there's no way Damon could carry on.

- I mean, Michael had gone off and come back on the track.

We can't be sure how damaged his car maybe

but he blocked Damon.

Yeah from Damon's perspective, if it hang on a second

they would've got past quite easily

but he went for a gap that Michael could defend

and that's what happened.

- I think that the way that Carters approach their

championships

and appropriate approach racing was surprise to me

which is why I went for the move

and wasn't expecting what was gonna happen.

If I'd done more karting

I probably would have looked at this situation differently.

- Damon blamed himself because he said

I know what a ruthless (beep) he is.

I shouldn't have given him the opportunity

and Michael, well, ruthless squared, isn't he

he would never admit it

and Michael knows that if you're guilty, you'd never say so.

So he would never admit that he done that on purpose

I wouldn't think.

Michael's won a lot of times

and not always because it was the fastest driver.

- There was Michael the racing driver.

I have it on the track

and there was Michael the human being away from the track

and I think one of the things that you'll find this

I don't know of anyone who worked with Michael

who had a five word to say against him, who worked with him

lots of people who raced against him had a different

opinion, but nobody, I know whoever worked with Michael

ever a bad opinion about him because of his integrity,

his commitment, his human side,

and the, he was always a very strong team member

of any, any team he was part of.

(team members cheering)

- I don't, I have to watch the pictures too

to see what really went on

because it's difficult to a went really all

in about a second.

Suddenly I was up in the air

and I saw him when I was just up in the air.

We touched in this moment, I saw him on my side

and then we touched already.

- Michael foot have a pretty robust defense of his position.

Let's put it that way

and I wouldn't

I didn't want to win the championship that way

but having experienced everything that went on that

that year, I thought it was poetic justice.

- I have to say that I did make some comments this year

that about, about Damon,

that I didn't have that kind of respect

that I'm maybe had about somebody else

but I have to admit that I was wrong

because what he has done in the last two races

in particular,

and he must have done it even before has been a proper

and fantastic job

and it has been a great rival.

For me it was always clear

that I not gonna win the championship

and it's Ayrton who is gonna win the championship

but he hasn't been there for the last races

and I'd like to take this championship and give it to him

because he is the driver who should've earned it.

He had the best car.

He was the best driver

and that's my feelings about with him.

It was difficult at the time to, to show my feelings

because I'm not somebody who likes to show the feelings

to out to the outside, but I always thought about it

and it's, it's the right time now

to give something which I, which I achieved

which he should have achieved to give it to him.

- I don't care what anyone says.

He, he raised the bar, he was a naturally athletic person

but he took, he took that side of things.

So new level and the devotion

to being part of the team was at a different level

and the other thing I'd ever seen before

he would be the last one out of the paddock at night.

He would always want to be the one testing the car.

You know, I can remember Marinella days I'd ring him up

and say, Michael, you know, we go somewhere

we really wanna check out tomorrow.

So what time do you want me there?

He was never a doubt he was totally devoted to it

and there's a tragedy was happening

but he's a lovely human being.

I mean, the work he did away from my racing

which he always kept quiet about, and there's a lovely guy.

- 97 horrific.

It was a very, very nice venue is a nice time of year.

It was just a huge event, a huge event.

There were lots of media people around media controllers

if you like, interviews here, interviews there

or everything was becoming very stage managed

in terms of when you could talk to people.

So everything was tense.

I remember that feeling of agitation.

- I came with a very different approach

than what they were used to set ups were with everything

and there's been one test

where my engineer did the opposite of what I asked for

just to double-check if

if what I was saying was true or not

and, and then, and then took it,

and within two laps, I came back in the pit

and say what did you do on the cards?

It's not, it's not what...

And from then on, then it was, it went to flawlessly.

There were some harder moments with Patrick Ed

because he's, hardheaded and he knows what he wants

but there was always so much respect

that we could actually work together

and it was great.

The car was super fast.

They really was a great car to drive.

We didn't improve the car as much until halfway through

and Ferrari really made some leaps, gigantic leaps

and at that point we made Leaps as well,

and then we just kept working both them and us.

So it made it, it made it fun,

but we never had a battle on the racetrack

until that last race, until the Harris

which was really weird,

or we were never on the podium at the same time,

for example, that was really strange

and that year it was extreme from both sides

and that made it so much fun.

- It was just amazing

what happened in qualifying with France and Jack

and Michael to have three drivers

recording the same lap time

and it wasn't like the 1950's

where it was done down to a 10th of a second or a second.

This was real stuff

and around her breath as well,

there were enough corners to differentiate between cars

and drivers at that level of a degree

but it happened.

- When I came then in and I looked in on the computer

I couldn't believe myself

and it was exactly the same time.

It proves that competition is on a very high level

and come be closer than that obviously.

- It was just gonna be one of those Sundays.

He didn't know what was gonna happen.

He couldn't have had a better palette

on which to paint this final round of the championship.

(air whooshing)

- You know if Schumacher finishes in front of Wilnorf

he will be champion

and if Wilnorf is fronted Schumacher

he will be championed.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Everybody wanted to see you in the front row.

- Yeah there we are.

- You happy?

- Sure.

- How high would you rate the percentage of an accident?

- Good question.

- I think even the rest wants to see a straight fight

between Jack and myself and that's what I want to see.

I mean, I want to win the race

and I want to win that way in the championship

and not by any kind of accident or whatever,

that's not my target.

- What do you think will be the key to victory here?

- Well, first of all not being taken off

that's all be very important

and then just being fast, being quicker

quicker than Michael that's all.

- I'd say he's in pretty punchy shape.

He's confident.

- And Michael was one point ahead of Jack.

Michael was, you know fantastic driver,

had a fantastic career

but there was that side to him

which wasn't quite the sportsman.

(upbeat music)

- We are racing.

You cannot predict what he's gonna happen

but we want to, we want to fight on the circuit

as good as possible, fair as possible.

That's the tension.

- When you're, when you want to win a championship

it takes more than just driving.

(vehicle engine roaring)

(upbeat music)

(lighthearted piano music)

- There'd been some gamesmanship going on during the race

between ourselves or Williams

and I seem to remember the Williams

second driver was blocking us.

I mean, I'm not complaining cause we were masters at that

so don't get me wrong.

(upbeat music)

- Michael lost, grumpy and headaches

and they had a massive fight.

You know, Michael has to win.

- The last thing Michael wanted to see was a closing gap.

The gap behind getting smaller and smaller

with Jack catching him.

Jack's in the position to catch him on the brakes.

- I think we had a better car within the end,

Michael moved over on Jack and tried to knock him off.

- He's putting the car where it should be

and Michael just shuts the door on him.

- And Jack went through and it was a mistake by Michael.

He shouldn't have done it.

- Michael went off, Jack was able to continue

but I think Jack understood that way.

It's no point to push anymore

and I think he was not sure anymore

if the car was okay because they touched.

- That was, you know, a bit cynical looking at it

as had been the end of the championship at 94,

with Damon and Adelaide

and quite clearly, Michael when Jack challenged him,

carers Michael decided to take him out.

- Interestingly, when he came back in the pits

he had a completely different mental view

of what had happened

and it wasn't until he saw the TV,

he realized, well, it really happened

and I think, again, you're in, you're in the cockpit

you've got a helmet on, things are happening around you,

you act instinctively

and Michael's final failure mode was to act instinctively

to defend the position.

He was so competitive.

That's what he did

and he came back to the pits and he was telling us

we have to get disqualified or arrested.

I said, Michael, you really need to look at the the TV

because it doesn't look that way in the phrase

and he looked and he went quiet

and realized that things

hadn't been quite how he thought they were from the cockpit.

- Jack was in truths.

Very lucky because that impact

on the car broke the battery mounting

on which the car depended very small battery

and when the car finished, we found that it was hanging

by its electrical wires the bracket,

the mounted it was completely broken.

- Very close behind Jack was Harkin

and then Coltart.

- I come in flooded with David.

It was a blast lap third last corner.

Overtook Jack

and it was a terrible feeling because I knew that way.

If something goes wrong and I crashed with him one way

or the reason, you know, it wouldn't be a catastrophe

but I think Jack led me to go,

basically he didn't wanna fight at all

and I got the first victory.

It was brilliant.

- I was filled with anger after that race

because Ron Dennis had come along to Frank

and said to him,

look, if Jack's in a position to to win the championship,

will you let us win the race?

- [Announcer] We'll make it happen

and for McLaren, that was a fantastic day.

- So that's quite good really,

as I think a clean race.

- Why Ron felt that he needed to ask a favor of Frank

or why Frank felt that he needed to give McLaren a favor?

- Because after that accident, Jack was in the lead

and Frank called me over.

He was in his wheelchair in the garage

and said we were to slow Jack down

and let the two McLaren's overtake us,

and I was, I said, Frank there's no way

we should give up a raceway

'cause I could see that McLaren was sort of on the up,

and Frank said, no, I promised Ron we'll do that,

and he instructed me

to let the tell Jack to let the McLaren's by

which I'm sure he probably had a word

with Jack before the race

so I was absolutely livid.

I was seething with anger.

(fans cheering)

- I wasn't really surprised

when he finally decided to turn in on me.

The way he hit me was really, really hard.

I'm surprised that I could actually finish, finish a race.

Pretty unbelievable.

- I think the whole race was interesting

from start to finish.

- From a team point of view we've had a one, two,

I think we had a little bit of help from Jack in the end,

Jack, let him through it.

- I break down the maximum

and then he brakes even later,

which as I said with this braking point,

I wouldn't have made the corner

and he wouldn't have made the corner.

- You know, I couldn't go more on the inside

I was actually on the grass.

So, you know, either Michael led his old as eyes closed

or somebody who was hand slid

on the steering hurt something.

- I quite honest, I probably would've done the same.

That's about racing.

- Interesting that Michael spent a lot of time with Jack

in the, in the motor home

and they were together hanging out

and Michael was very relaxed and very on top of his life

and, and what would happen that day,

and I think in that sense,

it became a racing sporting incident

as distinct from something bigger than that

that was gonna affect Formula One

or be bigger than the the individuals of Formula One.

I think I say that in the context of Edson Alan,

where it, where it did get to that point.

I don't, I think It was contained

because Michael kind of did a pretty good job

after the race.

(lighthearted piano music)

- [Announcer] We fly into Spa

and we're greeted with the usual Spa weather.

- It was atrocious conditions.

I mean, it really was shocking.

- Spa is often a pretty challenging track

because of the weather.

You know, it can be riding on one half a track

and dry in the other.

I love it actually.

I love Spa and Michael used to love Spa

and that was where he started his Formula One career.

(electric guitar music)

(background noise drowns the speaker)

(vehicle engine roaring)

- [Announcer] But I have ever seen in the whole of life.

- It's like, you're driving with your eyes closed in a fog.

We just couldn't see anything.

I couldn't, I couldn't see to me two meters ahead of my car.

When I saw it, got Carlos crashing all over the place

I tried to stop.

I couldn't stop because it's too wet

and just hit all of them.

- Some tire came off the white part of Jack

and there's just like a metal railing there

and there's no grip

and he just lost it, went into the wall

and then I slowed down to avoid hitting him

and people just kept hitting me.

- I was right behind David Coltart

and he hit a drain or a change, a bump in the road

and it flipped around into the wall

and I had to decide

whether I was gonna go for the rebound

try and get past him on the rebound

or try and get go through the gap where he's going to leave

when he, I can't remember what I did, but it was carnage.

I mean, he was absolutely carnage.

(upbeat music)

- I was so careful,

I was so concentrated to to escape from the other cars

and I was just lucky.

- I didn't make I haven't made a good start

so it was good thing we had to restart

but it was an hour after I was in the car.

So basically I was dying for a pee

but I didn't wanna get out

I just sat in the car for a whole hour I was freezing.

- When you start the race in the lead in the wet

you look in the mirrors and all you can see is phrase

so the people behind can't see

but you can't see who's behind you either

so all I knew was I was going off like a cat out of hell

and trying to get as much of a gap as I could

on the opening laps

and I had no idea what was happening behind me

but of course, driving in those paradise conditions,

it is, it's a strange mixture of being terrified

and at the same time exhilarating

and I think those two things combined to make you focus

and concentrate in a way that you,

you wouldn't ordinarily do

is what racing drivers really loved doing.

I like driving the way I like the car moving.

I liked to be able to feel it sliding around

and looking for the traction.

- Michael was just super relative in the work.

He was on a different planet to everyone else.

He was dominating the race completely.

(fans cheering)

(background noise drowns the speaker)

- [Announcer] But he is out.

- It ended unfortunately with a clash where the cool side

and I think the frustration

was not so much the accident happening then,

but in our view they've been opportunities

for the McLaren strike calls to let Michael pass

and other parts, the track

which would have been logical safe, and easy to do

and instead they just thought they did rotators a bit.

I'm sure they just brought us a little bit

and Michael was laughing cause it was a non-event

and then David had instructions

and he finally backed off in the middle of the corner,

which was disastrous

and that, and that's why Michael was so upset

because there was a maneuver in a corner

he didn't expect there'd been opportunities before

for Michael to go past him.

He was laughing a car.

We can also, you should have backed off

and sort of done it another swap

but you don't expect the driver to back off

in the middle of the corner.

- It was unfortunate.

I could see why Michael was unhappy.

I know David's rationale, which was right.

I'm in trouble.

I think I'm safer.

Staying here on the racing line

where people would expect to find me.

- It's easy to assume that Michael was just angry

at David Coltart for doing something deliberately,

but I don't think David was doing anything deliberately

at all I think he perhaps could have been a little bit

off the line.

- I have this image of him running down the pit lane

when Stephanie had deputy Collie chasing him,

he got so irate

and wanting to flatten David.

Emotions are running high that day.

(beep)

(beep)

(beep)

- I went to him and ask him whether he wanted to kill me

because that is a very, very dangerous maneuver.

It has been done

and as experienced as David is

he should know that running in this condition

you should never lift on the straight

without giving any kind of a chance for the driver behind

to see that instead of being three points in front

with seven points behind, that's very disappointing.

- He's running in the back of me

and I think he's accusations of me trying to, you know

very much circuit wherever

or just ridiculous.

- His words there were you (beep) trying to kill me?

And I think that is disgusting behavior

for someone who's got a, such a good record

in terms of his Formula One career

to drop into such an animalistic tape.

Aggression is his main boggling you know,

if Michael wants to discuss with me man to man incident,

then I'm more than happy to discuss it

and I sympathize with the fact that he's lost

his 10 points and that was not his intention, of course

and it wasn't my intention

but to have this sort of outburst

is very worrying for everyone on the circuit

and he's made a mistake, not me.

- I was David's manager.

So when I was commentating

I saw Michael trying to punch him.

I was probably thinking damage my client.

I don't know who would have won that fight

if they'd have got going.

It would've been quite a good fight to watch actually.

(lighthearted piano music)

- During the race I had a, I had a big crash

because Nakano was going into the pit.

There was no visibility at all

and the braking point for the pit was much earlier

a few years ago.

So he braked quite a lot

and I was still on full throttle position

and I crushed it into, into his car.

It was a bad accident.

(background noise drowns the speaker)

- Not having been able to come on the team

before in my life.

I thought now's the time to just try

and ask any Jordan if he didn't mind,

please just having a word with the guy behind me

you have to be my teammates

to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid

and that would lead to neither of us finishing,

and when we could both have a one, two.

- [Announcer] I'm going to put something to you here

and I think you better listen to this.

If we race, if we two race we could end up with nothing

but it's up to Eddie

if we don't race each other

we've got opportunity to get first and second extra points.

- [Announcer] Ralf you cannot overtake Damon okay.

That is a team order, you cannot overtake Damon.

You heard me before didn't you Ralf about overtaking Damon,

you heard that didn't you?

Ralf acknowledge.

- [Announcer] Confirm.

(vehicle engine roaring)

- And that was okay, he's gonna stay second place and stuff.

I just slept.

He's not gonna obey team orders forget it.

I liked it

and he could catch me

and Ralf have to stay ahead of John Lacey anyway

so I think we were all going flat out.

- [Announcer] And Damon wins it.

Fantastic.

- You got one team.

Eddie was static, the teamwork static.

All the people that come from the factory went away

having watched their team win the race.

Nobody expected a Jordan to win a Grand Prix.

It was one of my most satisfying victories,

if not the most satisfying victory,

actually in some ways 'cause it was so difficult.

(lighthearted piano music)

- It's a fantastic day.

It was a great team effort

and to think that we've finished first

and second in the race here at Spa, it's a very big day.

Damon has won before,

and this was a race of possibly

Ralph felt that he had a chance to win

but he had to understand

that it was better to defend a position

with the lesser gaining on us or whatever.

So from that point of view, both drivers did a stunning job.

Damon knows how to win

and he was just so happy for the team

because he will always be in history

as winning 22 Grand Prix

but he'd be in history from being Jordan's first winner.

(fans cheering)

- If you add in the hour delay

and the time before the first start

I think I was in the car for about four hours.

So when I got out and I sit on the podium

I was trying to do my victory leap.

Part of me was thinking, oh my God

I don't think I could do that again.

Really seriously that sucked a lot quite out of me.

(upbeat music)

(vehicle engine roaring)

(air whooshing)